NEA reaches tentative settlement with striking staffers on 39th day of lockout

The National Education Association has agreed to a conditional contract with unionized staffers after locking them out without pay for over a month.

Kim Anderson, the union’s executive director, and Robin McLean, president of the staff union, announced the deal in a joint statement Thursday.

“The National Education Association and the National Education Association Staff Organization today reached a tentative agreement on a new contract,” they said. “Both parties have begun the process of seeking ratification and approval of the tentative agreement.”

The statement said details of the agreement and discussions would remain confidential until both sides have ratified the contract.

The two sides reached the agreement through federal mediation on the 39th day of a lockout that the nation’s largest teachers union imposed on more than 300 staff members.

If both sides approve the pact, it will end a monthslong labor standoff that has interfered with the left-leaning organization’s efforts to support the Democratic presidential ticket.

The NEA locked staffers out of their jobs without pay after they formed a picket line that shut down the group’s early July assembly in Philadelphia.

The July 5 protest sent 6,000 assembly delegates home early and forced President Biden, who was then running for reelection, to cancel a planned address.

It also tabled a planned vote on a measure that would have condemned Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip as “genocide.”

Jeralee Smith, a retired NEA member and former California special education teacher who attended the shortened assembly, said the lockout exposed political divisions in the union.

She said the NEA offers most of its in-kind political contributions to Democrats to support a “far-left agenda” even though a significant minority of members are Republicans and independents.

“If you can’t practice what you preach, then you need to be called out on it, so I’m proud of the staffers who decided it was time to do that,” Ms. Smith said Friday. “NEA has a way of talking out of both sides of its mouth on several issues.”

Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former teacher and an NEA member, as her running mate after replacing Mr. Biden at the top of the ticket.

The NEA, which endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket last year, quickly transferred its support to the Harris-Walz campaign in an Aug. 6 news release written by nonunion staff.

“The country’s educators and students have always been able to count on Vice President Kamala Harris,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in the release, which used the name and email address of a locked-out communications specialist. “She has delivered once again for students, educators and working families with the exceptional choice of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.”

Each side of the labor dispute accused the other of breaking faith in contract negotiations that began in April.

NEA leaders proposed raising the average annual salary of unionized staffers from $124,004 to $133,218. The NEA already covers 100% of medical costs for staff and 75% for dependents.

NEA staff members said that was not enough. They said the lockdown was retaliation for five unfair labor practice complaints they have filed with the National Labor Relations Board since June 17.

The staff union accused NEA leadership of cutting holiday overtime pay for the Fourth of July and a lack of transparency in outsourcing $50 million in employee work to contractors, including $8,500 for a three-day hairstyling session for Ms. Pringle.

It was unclear Friday whether the tentative agreement would resolve the NLRB complaints. 

Neither the Harris-Walz campaign nor the National Labor Relations Board responded to requests for comment.

A spokesman for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which oversaw discussions between the two sides starting July 22, confirmed the tentative agreement.

“We congratulate the parties on their hard work and we are glad we were able to assist them in finding a mutually agreeable resolution,” said Greg Raelson, the agency’s director of congressional and public affairs.