Lockout! Update on NEA/NEASO Union Dispute: NEA Locks out NEA staff union

Story by Brooke Schultze, in Education Week. Full story here. Our MCPS teachers belong to the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) union. Our local county union is part of NEA. The NEASO president accused the NEA of 'union-busting.'

Staff who disrupted NEA's Assembly Will be Locked out of Work

Staff members for the nation’s largest teachers’ union will be locked out of work until a contract is reached, after their work stoppage ended the union’s largest event of the year in Philadelphia.

The National Education Association informed its staff union of the decision on July 7, a spokesperson said. Nearly 300 staff members working at the union’s headquarters in Washington will be affected by the lockout. They will not be paid, and won’t work, until they reach agreement on a contract. The staff organization’s contract ended May 31.

The decision comes after the National Education Association Staff Organization’s three day strike ended the NEA’s annual representative assembly one day after it got under way. The representative assembly, held for four days over the Fourth of July weekend, brings together thousands of educators from across the country to vote on the union’s priorities, budget, and strategic plan for the year ahead.

And:

“The NEA management’s punitive lockout of its own employees is a dangerous, reckless, and reactionary move that undermines the rights of every union worker in this country,” said NEASO President Robin McLean in a statement. “These are clear union-busting techniques that will not be tolerated. I cannot imagine it lands well that the nation’s largest union is locking out its staff union.”