The biggest teachers’ union is dealing with its staff at a very bad time

In early July, amid contract negotiations, National Education Association (NEA) workers went on strike for three days. But instead of forcing the country’s largest labor union to negotiate a new contract with its workers, the strike started a six-week standoff.

The NEA works with its 3 million members to support their collective bargaining efforts—including strikes when necessary—and push for higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions for teachers.

But NEA’s response to its 300-plus staff union, the NEA Staff Organization (NEASO), has included anti-union tactics it generally opposes. I The Wall Street Journal said the NEA itself would call its actions “deplorable,” and NEASO members said it offers a model of hardball tactics other employers can use to thwart organizing efforts. Additionally, the dispute is delaying important get-out-the-vote efforts to support Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. of Minnesota Tim Walz—former teacher and NEA member.

NEASO members have timed their strike at NEA’s annual general meeting, which is scheduled for July 4-7. With NEA workers on strike, President Joe Biden was unable to cross the picket line and canceled his scheduled speech. In response, the NEA took the drastic step of shutting down its union on July 8. That prevented workers from working until they could agree on a contract and resulted in messy lines at its offices in Washington, DC.

Since then, workers say the agency has brought in scabs and briefly threatened to withdraw workers’ health insurance by the end of July if they don’t agree to contract terms that NEASO found unsatisfactory.

NEA and NEASO announced a tentative agreement on August 15, but it still needs to be confirmed. The staff they talked to Fast company because this story did so before a trial agreement was reached. In a statement to Fast companyAn NEA spokesperson said: “Due to confidentiality agreements, we cannot comment at this time beyond the joint report issued by NEA and NEASO.”

NEASO members say the boycott makes NEA miss a crucial time before the elections. According to NEASO, one in 28 voters comes from an NEA household, and voter participation from those households is about 25% higher than the general population. With Walz on the Democratic ticket, the union has the power to maintain enthusiasm and strengthen its regular get-out-the-vote efforts. (In addition to his support for public education, Walz was the top choice for VP among labor leaders, in part because of his record of supporting labor laws and being on the picket line.)

When Walz was announced as the VP nominee, the NEA sent out a press release about him that the workers said was done by the scab workers. As the election kicks into high gear, Erin Wagner, the NEA’s digital strategist of more than six years, says workers should be at the Democratic National Convention this week. NEASO also notes that there has never been a poll of NEA members to determine key campaign issues while workers are locked out.

“Most of the time I feel a lot of anger and sadness that we miss so many times,” said Wagner. Elections—especially when a new candidate comes in and chooses a former NEA member as a running mate—”is an all-out effort.” Wagner says the organization is missing an opportunity to educate voters about the presidential candidates, and those who support education reduce turnout.

That’s typically the job of the NEA’s Education Votes website, which includes a tool for comparing candidates’ educational and employment records. “I don’t think they’ve fixed that,” said Wagner, who works on the site. There was also a tool in the works to help people check their registration status and request absentee ballots, as well as create sample ballots covering candidates down to the level of school board races. As of Tuesday, the Education Votes site has a page with recommended NEA candidates by state, but no national candidates, and clicking on its “2024 Election” link returns an error message. The polling feature appears to be live.

That focus on down-ballot races is especially important amid the ongoing assault on public education. During his interview with X CEO Elon Musk on August 12, former President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to “shut down” the state Department of Education. The lockout prevented any action from the NEA, as another union, the United Auto Workers, filed civil suits against Trump and Musk for commenting on the debate it says threatens workers with protected work.

“We see Donald Trump, who is attracting the worst people in education policy, and we’re on the sidelines,” said Justin Conley, a seven-year NEA employee. At the time of the shutdown, inaction meant “not doing our jobs to share why it’s so important that we choose pro-community, pro-worker education, pro-worker lawmakers.”

Conley notes that the lockout sets a dangerous precedent. At the picnic line, a public relations worker told him that school districts and businesses are paying attention to the tactics NEA is using against NEASO. “So NEA can do this for us, [they’re] Basically I say anyone can do it in any job,” Conley said. Right now, he says, we’re in a “good time” where labor unions are more popular than ever, citing Starbucks workers, Amazon workers, and others fighting for fairer contracts. “I see someone saying, ‘Why can’t I do this to my employees, when the largest union in the country can do it to theirs?'” he said.

That’s among the reasons that NEASO’s commitment to fair contracting—requiring NEA to uphold its “organizational values”—is particularly influential. With the DNC underway and less than 80 days before the presidential election, the grounds for ensuring workers can return to their jobs are high.

Right now, workers continue to show up on the picket line, organize, and fight to do their jobs with a fair contract. They want to stay, Conley said, because they love what they do. “We love the members, we love to fight for public schools and the students they serve,” he explains, adding that it’s similar to what happens to teachers: People take advantage of how much they care about the work they do. “We love what we do. We wouldn’t have fought so hard if we didn’t fight.”