Victory strengthens longtime union partnership 

More than 21,000 paraprofessionals and school-related personnel represented by the Oregon School Employees Association have affiliated with the AFT, the largest affiliation of an independent union in AFT history.

The margin of victory for mail-in ballots counted Feb. 4-5 by the League of Women Voters was 85 percent. "I have long believed that both the AFT and OSEA would be stronger together than apart," says AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "I am delighted that OSEA members agree. I want to welcome each and every member of OSEA into the AFT family."

The vote caps a decade-long process in which the AFT made a deep commitment to OSEA.
"The opportunities, the resources, the doors that are going to open for us" have multiplied, says OSEA president Merlene Martin. She points to AFT member benefits as one example: "We have some benefits but we can't touch what the AFT has."

AFT PSRP chair and AFT vice president Lorretta Johnson notes that the affiliation was a long time coming but "worth every minute of the wait." Johnson has traveled to Oregon many times from the East Coast, where she heads the Baltimore Teachers Union paraprofessional chapter.

OSEA, along with AFT-Oregon and the national AFT, already have worked together on many projects. The AFT in recent years has helped support OSEA chapters and AFT-Oregon locals during contract negotiations, conducted joint health and safety training, and even helped launch a statewide campaign that secured better health insurance for education workers. The affiliation will let the two unions do even better things together, says Tom Moran, deputy director for the AFT PSRP division.

The AFT campaign received substantial AFL-CIO help, too, Moran says, with the labor community in Oregon showing tremendous support. The affiliation brings 21,000 new members into the Oregon AFL-CIO, putting the state organization "in a better position to become a very powerful voice on behalf of all workers in Oregon," McElroy says.

A happy offshoot of the affiliation campaign is that it has helped build OSEA membership by hundreds of new members.

One question OSEA members had about AFT affiliation was whether they would be able to maintain their independence. Watching and listening convinced them they would.
Barbara Ritoch, a speech assistant in Hood River, Ore., has been an OSEA member for 27 years and attended an AFT convention to consider that question.

"We were watching to see if everybody counts, if there is autonomy, and there was," she says. "I'm excited. I just think it'll bring a lot of neat things for our members."
A deciding factor for many OSEA members was the powerful assist that the AFT can provide. Some examples:

More political influence. AFT-Oregon has developed a strong presence at the state capital and has worked closely with OSEA on common issues. When fighting for education funding from now on, Martin points out, Oregon activists will have the AFT name behind them.

Increased strength at the bargaining table. AFT researchers helped avert a strike in Oregon's North Clackamas school district by discovering $9 million in employees' healthcare insurance that the school board had hidden in an unsecured trust.

The district's negotiators-who had declared that there was "nothing to talk about" regarding the OSEA contract-quickly came to settlement when faced with the AFT's findings.

Expanded training and professional development. OSEA has tapped into the AFT's many programs for professionals to develop their skills, including the Educational Research and Dissemination program and many types of health and safety training. Recently, the two unions co-sponsored training on how to respond to chemical hazards in the workplace.

AFT activists, meanwhile, are developing a working relationship with the new affiliate.

Noting that OSEA members run the full gamut of school employees, from office managers, teachers and paraprofessionals to food service and maintenance workers, AFT vice president Kathy Chavez of New Mexico says, "They are us."