Ed Week blogger Vaishali Honawar had some comments on the differences between the NEA and AFT at her blog.
Compared with the NEA, the AFT's convention looks decidedly less education-focused...
A good number of the [AFT] delegates were from professions outside teaching...
Contrast that with the NEA, whose delegates, after protracted debate at this past convention, refused to admit private K-12 workers into their membership ranks, claiming it would cause the union to lose focus of its mission to improve public schools.
Here in NYC in the UFT, with the recent addition of home care workers and over 50,000 retirees, the percentage of working teachers is now in the minority.
The AFT/UFT is much more about things other than education. Which maybe explains the disaster that has hit NYC teachers.
That's only a partial explanation. I'd say that Unity/ New Action's utter indifference to our working conditions also goes a long way toward explaining how they can toss 30 years of gains into the recycle bin without breaking a sweat.
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