The National Education Association Employees Organization (NEASO) announced on Friday that it would stage a strike for several days ahead of a speech President Biden is scheduled to deliver at the NEA’s annual convention.
NEASO said it is conducting an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike against NEA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and has filed two ULP complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.
The group claims the nation’s largest teachers union did not negotiate the unilateral changes and accuses the NEA of embezzling wages and withholding information about $50 million in outsourcing to contractors.
“The National Education Association is threatening to hold a virtual convention to avoid physical picket lines. It is reprehensible for a union to trick its members into crossing the picket line. This also confirms what we have been saying: the National Education Association has abandoned its union values with its actions at the bargaining table,” said Robin McLean, National Education Association President.
“The NEA would rather cancel a multi-million dollar tournament than comply with labor laws. NEA members should be asking where their hard-earned dues money is being spent and wasted,” MacLean added.
The strike is scheduled to last two days at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
Biden, who is scheduled to be one of the speakers at the NEA convention but whose appearance is now in jeopardy due to the strike, has repeatedly cast himself as the most pro-labor president in history and in September became the first sitting president to join autoworkers on a picket line in Belleville, Michigan.
The Hill has reached out to the NEA and the White House for comment.
