Another One Bites the Dust

The California Faculty Association has broken ties with the National Education Association (NEA) and the California Teachers Association as well, in what is turning out to be a more and more commonplace occurrence.  It’s no wonder the NEA moved to make adjustments to its disaffiliation process during their annual July convention.  It’s seems disaffiliation is turning into a habit now with NEA affiliates.

NEA began the practice of unified membership in 1971 in order to compete with other unions.  The unified membership structure appealed to school board members equally because it meant they would not have to “deal” with more than one union in their district.   Unified membership structure forced all teachers to join at all 3 levels – national, state and local, in order to join at all.  In 1975 CEAFU was created to take deadly aim at compulsory unionism where teachers who did not agree with teacher union officials’ radical agendas, could choose their own professional membership, or stand alone.   Since 1975, the complaint most heard from CEAFU contacts is that teachers are forced to join the state and national affiliates when all they want to do is join their local!

Colleen Flaherty has the story in insidehighered.com.