The National Education Association lockout of its staff union. Union busting by a union? Disgusting.

As a local union activist and elected leader for over twenty years of my teaching career, I can testify that NEA/IEA staff does the union’s heavy lifting.

In Illinois the union’s staff are members of the Illinois Education Association Staff Organization.

Like any union, IEASO bargains on behalf of their members and is responsible for enforcing the contract.

As a full-time president and a full-time teacher, I relied heavily on my local Uniserv Director and other members of our union’s staff: Lobbyists, lawyers, researchers and media folks.

Uniserv Director was the title given to the regional staffer who was assigned to work with each local on all contractual and bargaining issues. They sat at the table during bargaining and were our life-line when the board brought in their high-priced La Salle Street lawyers to bargain for them. My UD had a work load of over a dozen locals.

When we went on strike in 2003 we had at least four staffers advising us, while the actual state union leadership was nearly invisible.

Our state president showed up for a photo op on the final days of the strike.

The NEA has roughly 350 union staffers working out of the D.C. office of the union.

Their contract expired on May 1st.

When the NEA bosses refused to bargain in good faith, NEASO called a three-day strike during the union’s national convention in July.

This was a huge embarrassment as the Representative Assembly couldn’t proceed without the staff. 7,000 delegates had to cancel hotel reservations after just one day. President Biden refused to cross the NEASO picket line.

In what seems like retribution for causing the leaders to be humiliated that way, the NEA locked their staff out of their DC headquarters and threatened to cancel their health insurance coverage.

Union educators will go back to work this month without NEA staff having access to their offices.

This is classic bad faith non-bargaining. And petty. And short-sighted. And stupid.

“I’m really worried because I think they’re creating a precedent that every bad school district and every bad corporation can look to and say, ‘If the largest union in the country can do this to their workers, why can’t we?’” said Justin Conley, a union member.