Inventory of the North Carolina Federation of Teachers Records, 1970-1998

Collection Number 5076

Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Descriptive Summary

Repository

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.

Creator

North Carolina Federation of Teachers.

Title

North Carolina Federation of Teachers Records, 1970-1998

Call Number

5076

Language of Materials

Materials in English

Extent

Items: About 8000 items.

Linear Feet: 11.5

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access

Series 8. Restricted materials are CLOSED until 2062.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Diane Jackson of Chapel Hill, N.C., on 18 September 2001 (Acc. 99074).

Processing Information

Processed by: Jesse Brown, January 2006

Encoded by: Jesse Brown, January 2006

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the North Carolina Federation of Teachers Records #5076, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

AFL-CIO.

American Federation of Teachers.

Class size--North Carolina.

Collective bargaining--Teachers--North Carolina.

Collective bargaining--Teachers--United States.

Early childhood education--North Carolina.

East Carolina University.

Education, Higher--North Carolibna.

Education--Finance.

Education--North Carolina.

Fort Bragg (N.C)--History.

Labor unions--North Carolina.

Labor unions--United States.

Livingstone College.

Merit pay--North Carolina.

National Education Association of the United States.

North Carolina Association of Educators.

North Carolina Federation of Teachers.

Professional associations--North Carolina.

Professional associations--United States.

Professional Educators of North Carolina.

Schools--North Carolina.

Special education--North Carolina.

Teachers' unions--North Carolina.

Teachers' unions--United States.

Teachers--North Carolina.

Teachers--United States.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Western Carolina University.

Western Piedmont Community College.

Winston-Salem State University.

Historical Note

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was founded in 1916 in Chicago, Ill. It was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, which merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO. The AFT originally represented school teachers and university professors, but in the late 1960s, it expanded its outreach efforts to include paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel, including clerical staff and custodians. The AFT expanded further in 1978 to include healthcare professionals, and in 1983 to include government employees.

The North Carolina Federation of Teachers (NCFT), also known as the American Federation of Teachers - North Carolina, was formed in the mid-1970s as the state affiliate of the AFT. It is distinguished from its main rival organization, the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), which is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), in that it only represents teachers and other school-related personnel who do not serve in a supervisory capacity.

Collection Overview

Correspondence, mailings, flyers, newsletters, forms, reports, clippings, membership lists, school system policies and publications, and other materials documenting the North Carolina Federation of Teachers (NCFT) teachers union. Documents related to local chapters of the NCFT include logs of phone conversations and other correspondence, flyers advertising NCFT membership and meetings, and reports from local school systems. Materials maintained by the office of the NCFT president include delegate lists, texts from speeches, and resolutions from NCFT and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conventions, as well as budgets, audits, executive council minutes, and materials related to AFT and NCFT positions and actions on various educational issues, including educational reform, teacher salaries, vacation leave, paraprofessionals, career development, and political lobbying. General files include documents dealing with various education-related subjects. Some of the subjects are associated with AFT and NCFT bargaining objectives, including the debate over basing teacher salaries on performance (merit pay) rather than seniority, hiring and dismissal policies, retirement benefits, tenure, and arbitration. Other subjects relate to more general issues within the educational field, including class size, early childhood education, textbook selection, school financing, special education, and school discipline.

Higher education materials include university publications, press releases, flyers, and other documents related to NCFT chapters in higher education institutions in North Carolina, including East Carolina University, Livingstone College, Western Carolina University, Western Piedmont Community College, Winston-Salem State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Also included are papers from binders kept by the NCFT related to local NCFT chapters. Materials include membership rosters, flyers and newsletters about chapter events and issues, teacher manuals, policy guides, and handbooks published by the school districts and higher education institutions where the chapters were based. Financial materials include per capita reports and payment records, which detail the amount of money paid each month in member dues by each local chapter to the AFT, as well as affiliation fees paid to the AFL-CIO. Also included are yearly profit-loss reports and ledgers completed by the NCFT.

Other organizations documented include the National Education Association (NEA), the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), and the Professional Educators of North Carolina (PENC), the latter two rival organizations of the NCFT. Also documented are cases the NCFT presented before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) related to unionizing teachers at Livingstone College and Fort Bragg, N.C.

Also included, but RESTRICTED until 2062, are records related to grievances made by teachers against school administrators, as well as contract and other personnel records related to NCFT staff

Note that the original organization of these materials as created by the NCFT and original file folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.

Arrangement of Collection

1. Local chapters
2. Presidential files
3. General files
4. Higher education
5. Chapter activities
6. Financial documents
6.1. Per capita reports and payments
6.2. Other financial documents
7. Subject files and other documents
8. Restricted materials

Items Separated

Oversize papers (OP-5076)

Detailed Description of the Collection