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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 11.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 8000 items. items) |
| Abstract | 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 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. The collection includes 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). 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 documents related to AFT and NCFT conventions 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 such topics as the debate over merit pay for teachers, hiring and dismissal policies, retirement benefits, tenure, arbitration, 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. Financial materials include per capita reports and payment records detailing dues payments to the AFT, as well as affiliation fees paid to the AFL-CIO. Other organizations documented include the NEA, the 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. |
| Creator | North Carolina Federation of Teachers. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Processing Information
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Historical Information
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.
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Scope and Content
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.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Local Chapters, 1974-1988.
Arrangement: by chapter.
Correspondence, mailings, newsletters, forms, reports, clippings, membership lists, school system policies, and other documents related to local chapters of the NCFT. There is a great amount of material related to the Fort Bragg (N.C.) Federation of Teachers, much of which is about the union's case before the NLRB regarding the right of Fort Bragg's teachers to unionize and the right of the union to compete against the NCAE in an election to determine which organization would represent them. Documents related to other chapters include logs of phone conversations and other correspondence, flyers advertising NCFT membership and meetings, and reports from local school systems.
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Series 2. Presidential Files, 1978-1988.
Arrangement: by subject.
Reports, press releases, position papers, administrative documents, letters, and other materials maintained by the office of the president of the NCFT. Some of the documents relate directly to the administration of the AFT and the NCFT. These include delegate lists, texts from speeches, and resolutions from AFT and NCFT conventions, as well as budgets and audits, executive council minutes, and other organizational materials. Other materials relate to AFT and NCFT positions and actions on various educational issues, including educational reform, teacher salaries, vacation leave, paraprofessional issues, career development, and political lobbying.
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Series 3. General Files, 1970-1988.
Arrangement: by subject.
Letters, clippings, research reports, legislation, and other documents dealing with topics, among them 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. A considerable number of items outline differences in philosophy between the AFT and the NEA.
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Series 4. Higher Education, 1971-1983.
Arrangement: by subject.
Letters, reports, university publications, press releases, clippings, flyers, and other materials related to NCFT chapters in higher education institutions in North Carolina. Many of the materials are related to Livingstone College, a historically black college in Salisbury, N.C. In 1980, the Livingstone College Federation of Teachers waged a heated battle with the college's administration over the right to unionize the college's faculty, which culminated in an NLRB ruling in 1981 granting the union the right to organize. This ruling was overturned by the NLRB in 1987. Other colleges represented in these materials include East Carolina University, 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.
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Series 5. Chapter Activities, 1979-1987.
Arrangement: by chapter.
Contents of binders kept by the NCFT related to local NCFT chapters. The local chapters include both those based in public school districts and those based in higher education institutions. Materials include membership rosters, flyers and newsletters about chapter events and issues, correspondence, meeting notes, clippings, and other chapter-related material. Also included are teacher manuals, policy guides, and handbooks published by the school districts and higher education institutions where the chapters were based.
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Series 6. Financial Documents, 1975-1994.
Arrangement: by type.
Per capita reports, profit-loss statements, dues payment lists, and other financial materials related to the operation of the NCFT and its local chapters. Per capita reports and payments 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.
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Subseries 6.1. Per Capita Reports and Payments, 1975-1994.
Arrangement: by name of local chapter.
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Subseries 6.2. Other Financial Documents, 1975-1984.
Arrangement: by subject.
| Folder 258 |
AFT collection forms |
| Folder 259 |
Dues: AFT |
| Folder 260 |
NCFT financial statement: 1983-1984 |
| Folder 261 |
Profit-loss summary: 20 June 1975-14 August 1976 |
| Folder 262 |
Profit-loss summary: 15 August 1976-14 August 1977 |
| Folder 263 |
Profit-loss summary: 15 August 1979-30 April 1980 |
| Folder 264 |
Profit-loss summary: 1 May 1980-30 April 1981 |
| Folder 265 |
Miscellaneous financial documents |
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Series 7. Subject Files and Other Documents, 1978-1998.
Arrangement: by correspondent and by type.
Materials related to NCFT affairs, as well as various topics in education. These documents were maintained separately from those in Series 3 (General files). NCFT-related materials include correspondence from NCFT's elected officers; agendas, financial support, minutes, and resolutions from NCFT conventions; phone contact logs from local chapters; sample collective bargaining agreements; meeting minutes from the NCFT's Executive Council; and issues of North Carolina Teacher, the newsletter of the NCFT. Other materials deal with the state of public schools in North Carolina. These documents include reports and memoranda from North Carolina's Education Study Commission and SAT Task Force, as well as materials from and about North Carolina Governor James Martin and Superintendent of Public Instruction Bob Etheridge, including Etheridge's Twenty-Point Plan for Reshaping K-12 Education in North Carolina. Also included are publications and flyers from and about the NEA, NCAE, and PENC and materials related to broader issues in the educational field, including teacher certification, school drop-outs, drug testing, and reducing teachers' paperwork.
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Series 8. Restricted materials, 1975-1987.
Restriction: CLOSED until 2062.
Records related to grievances made by teachers against school administrators, as well as contract and other personnel records related to NCFT staff. These materials are RESTRICTED until 2062.
Folder 312-343
Folder 312Folder 313Folder 314Folder 315Folder 316Folder 317Folder 318Folder 319Folder 320Folder 321Folder 322Folder 323Folder 324Folder 325Folder 326Folder 327Folder 328Folder 329Folder 330Folder 331Folder 332Folder 333Folder 334Folder 335Folder 336Folder 337Folder 338Folder 339Folder 340Folder 341Folder 342Folder 343 |
Grievance and personnel records. |
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Series 9. Oversize papers
| Oversize Paper Folder OPF-5076/1 |
Oversize papers |
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Items Separated
Oversize papers (OPF-5076/1)
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