Collective Bargaining - Education - Ohio

Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Local 1560

dgolodner — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:01:38 -0500

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Collection contains information about this unique local of the American Federation of Teachers. The local reformed in 1964 as the Cincinnati Teachers Union and changed its name to the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) in 1971 and immediately began petitioning for a collective bargaining election. By 1976 the CFT won the election and remained the bargaining union for teachers of Cincinnati. In 1979 Tom Mooney became president and took the union on a new course of bargaining reform for all public employees in the city as well as taking the local into new areas of education reform and teacher professionalism.

AFT Ohio Federation of Teachers Records

dgolodner — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:59:11 -0500

The Ohio Federation of Teachers is a state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and represents primary and secondary school teachers, college and university professors, adjuncts, graduate and student workers, and support staff. The AFT established the Ohio State Federation of Teachers as their first experimental state federation in 1933, which was later officially chartered in 1938. Many locals did not affiliate with the state organization until 1968 when the AFT began to require them to do so. It was not until the 1970s that OFT locals gained collective bargaining rights. Throughout its history, OFT has used collective bargaining, strikes, lobbying and testimony on legislation, and other efforts meet its goals. The OFT and its local affiliates have developed ways to assist teachers and improve retention that have been models for other states, particularly the Toledo Plan, Career in Teaching, and Peer Assistance and Review programs. Other issues the OFT addresses are teacher health and retirement benefits, pay, tenure, curriculum, school budget problems, and charter schools

Part I of this collection contains general office files, correspondence, and minutes as well as conference materials. Subjects include the federation's activities with improving membership and public schools, professional and educational programs. There is information dealing with the Ohio politics and communication with Ohio locals.

Part II contains documents related to the union’s activities and initiatives for educator and student rights and improving education systems. In particular, information on programs for peer review and career development are included. Material types include correspondence, reports, minutes, convention and conference proceedings, constitutions, publications, legislation, newsletters, press releases, speech and testimony transcripts, pamphlets, and photographs. Additional subjects include organizing, bargaining, legislation and court cases, and conflicts and collaborations with the National Education Associations Ohio charter, the OEA.

Tom Mooney Papers

dgolodner — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 10:33:53 -0400

Tom Mooney was born September 12, 1954 in Albany, New York. Mooney attended Guardian Angel’s Catholic School and McNicholas High School in Cincinnati and then Antioch College from 1970-1973 focusing on political science and teaching. In high school, Mooney became involved in the United Farm Workers boycott committee in Cincinnati, becoming one of the lead volunteers. This exposed him to social justice and radical political ideas. At Antioch he set up a boycott office and surrounded himself in radical political thought, especially with Marxist-Leninist ideologies.
During the mid to late 1970s Mooney was involved in Marxist-Leninist organizations, especially with the New American Movement and the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center. After the OCIC folded in 1981, Mooney aligned himself with the Democratic Party.
Mooney was hired as a full time teacher at Bloom Junior High in late 1974 early 1975. He immediately joined the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Local 1520 (CFT) and was elected as building representative for the school. He was then transferred to Crest Hill Middle School. Mr. Mooney then was elected as the Area 6 coordinator in 1977-1978. Mooney was elected president of the CFT in 1979 at the age of 24.
As president of the CFT, he led the local into the national spotlight by bargaining education reform programs. Under his leadership the local negotiated the 2nd Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program in the country and the 1985 contract secured more control for teachers over grading and promotion standards. With the next round of bargaining in 1988 the CFT and board of education used a “win-win” style of negotiations in which they achieved unique career ladder system called Career in Teaching Program. In 1991 Mooney helped negotiate a new student discipline code that brought more order to the classroom, protecting teachers and students. Mooney became president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers in 2000.
Mooney began attending AFT conventions siding with the more radical fringes of the AFT political arena, which was the United Action Caucus but by 1981 joined the Progressive Caucus. In 1988, the AFT asked Tom to be apart of the a labor delegation to go to Chile to be an observer of the Plebiscite in which he reflected that it was “one of the most moving experiences of my life.” In 1990 he was elected to the AFT executive council and sat on the human and community relations committee. In 1998 he was asked to serve on the AFT executive committee and chair the AFT K-12 Program and Policy Council. He later resigned the position of chair over the stance that the AFT took on No Child Left Behind.
Tom Mooney died of a heart attack on December 3, 2006 at his apartment in Columbus, Ohio.

(27789) Youngstown School Board Members Picketing

jhelpap — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:42:10 -0500

School Board members picketing, Youngstown Federation of Teachers, Local 1517, AFT