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NEA-AFT Higher Ed Conference

More than 650 members of the nation’s two largest higher education unions compare notes and make plans at a joint gathering.

More than 650 higher education union activists gathered in Orlando, Fla., March 3-5 for a joint AFT/NEA higher education conference. “Sharing our Successes, Challenges and Strategies” began with a day-long organizing drive with United Faculty of Florida/AFT/NEA at Central Florida University and ended with a panel presentation on efforts to protect free speech on campus.

The conference featured a number of workshops, training sessions and plenaries on topics ranging from bargaining rights to political action, with emphasis on the many challenges facing higher education as Congress reauthorizes the Higher Education Act and so-called Academic Bill of Rights measures that would limit speech by professors are being introduced in a number of state legislatures.

Conference participants also took part in a number of professional development programs.

A new labor solidarity partnership agreement between NEA and the 9 million-member AFL-CIO will provide NEA local affiliates with the opportunity to work more closely with local affiliates of other national unions, NEA President Reg Weaver announced in February.

Under the agreement, NEA will remain an independent organization and have no formal relationship with AFL-CIO, but NEA local affiliates will be allowed to become direct local affiliates of AFL-CIO, and, in turn, members of AFL-CIO local central labor councils. Interested NEA locals would apply to NEA, and the application would have to be approved by both NEA and the relevant NEA state affiliate.

AFL-CIO labor councils work on common goals, like protecting workers’ incomes, pensions, and health benefits.

The NEA 2006 Almanac of Higher Education, featuring detailed information on 2004-05 faculty salaries, an examination of trends in financing public higher education, an update on the status of the nation’s 1.5 million higher education support professionals, and articles on the internationalization of higher education and other topics is now available free to NEA higher education members. Contact the NEA Office of Higher Education at Highered@nea.org or visit www.nea.org/he/almanac.html.

Ten student, faculty, and civil-liberties groups, including NEA, have formed a coalition, Free Exchange on Campus (FEOC), to counter attempts to limit academic freedom and free speech on the nation's campuses. High on the group’s agenda is David Horowitz, the conservative activist, and his self-styled “academic bill of rights.”

FEOC’s Web site www.freeexchangeoncampus.org features a blog and a list of frequently-asked-questions about attempts to legislate more conservative thinking on the nation's campuses.