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Season 4, Episode 186

OFT’s organizing successfully earned union victories across the state

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Guest Name:


Melissa Cropper

Guest Website:


https://www.oft-aft.org/ 

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Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and talked about the AFT Organizing Committee meeting. She also spoke about successful organizing campaigns in Ohio over the past two years and about grants received by several Locals in the state.

The American Federation of Teachers Organizing Committee meeting is taking place in Washington, D.C. The committee meets at least twice per year and shares organizing methods and successes in order to improve organizing abilities. One of OFT’s recent successful organizing campaigns was for adjunct professors at the Columbus College for Art and Design. He explained that Ohio does not give adjunct faculty bargaining rights in the public sector, but the College is a part of the private sector. This is the first time the OFT has organized adjunct faculty, Cropper added.

Since 2021, the OFT has organized staff at seven Ohio schools and libraries. Cropper discussed several reasons behind the drive to organize these faculty members and noted that one of the main reasons was the pandemic. Cropper said non-union members did not receive the same protections given as union staff, and this helped drive a push to organize. A lack of pay and poor legislation dictating the curriculum being taught in schools are the other main reasons that Cropper believes the OFT continues to win organizing elections across the state. 

She also said that the AFT has given grants to several Locals to improve their ability to add more members and help with back-to-school activities. A Toledo Local was selected to receive the grant, and they will use it to create a mental wellness program for members. A Local in Cincinnati also received grant money, and they will use it to further develop their technology programs throughout the area. Several other Locals in Ohio received funding, which Cropper believes will only help grow the Locals and strengthen the bargaining power of AFT as a whole.

To hear more from Cropper on OFT, please press play on the episode above.


America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

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