Education Minnesota celebrates its 10th anniversary

Education Minnesota marks its official 10th anniversary this week. The union comprises the former Minnesota Federation of Teachers and Minnesota Education Association members, plus current educators who never belonged to either the MEA or the MFT. That’s almost half of Education Minnesota’s membership now.

The experience of merged educator unions has produced several key learnings:

• Educators are stronger together than separated into competing units.
• The two national educator unions share goals and each brings its own cultural assets to advocacy for excellence in U.S. public schools.
• The change that makes unity occur comes from the bottom up, not the top down.

"Ten years ago, the vision to create a united, statewide voice for educators became a reality," says President Tom Dooher. "I'd like to thank all of our members who worked to achieve this vision over the past decade. We can all be proud of what we have accomplished together."

The struggles between the two former unions are part of the past, he notes. "We all now have the benefit of one union, one voice, on behalf of our profession, our students and our pursuit of excellence in education.

"Because of our members' hard work and dedication, we are poised to achieve even greater things in the future."

Strength in numbers
The merger that created Education Minnesota has amplified the voice and diminished unproductive discord. With more than 70,000 members, Education Minnesota is by far the largest union in the state and the strongest voice for continuous improvement in public education for Minnesota’s students and educators.

Gerard Friesz, Education Minnesota executive director, says Minnesota’s experience set a national example of giving a “gigantic benefit to advocacy and a gigantic benefit to members.”

He sees the relationships built with mutual sharing and learning as prime movers. “Education Minnesota’s ability to take the best of the NEA and the best of the AFT,” he says “show how much stronger we [all public educators] would be if we had one unified union.”

Education Minnesota came by its ability to take the best and leave the worst from local educators unions in the state that pioneered mergers.

Jim Smola is president of Dakota County United Educators, the first merged local. Merging, he says “allowed us to focus our energy on the issues before us and not waste resources.” The local was formed six years before Education Minnesota. Twelve other locals also merged before the state unions.

“In Minnesota, our size gives us a strong voice and real impact,” Smola says.

In addition to strength in numbers for Education Minnesota, Smola thinks the union’s voice is more respected than the separate unions were when it comes to political advocacy and gaining public support for educators and schools.

Shared goals
Education Minnesota was the first merged statewide educator union. Three other states followed: Florida, Montana and New York.

Smola hopes that going forward, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have a “frank discussion” of national merger.

Friesz shares that vision for the future. At the state levels, mergers have produced economies of scale and other efficiencies. “It would be my wish that national union leaders make merger part of their vision,” he says.

From the bottom up
Time has proved the dynamic for change. When Education Minnesota was formed, the impetus came from locals dealing with unproductive competition.

“Both [predecessor unions] had the same goals,” Smola says of what is now DCUE. But leaders faced bargaining elections every two years and leaders constantly considered their how their actions would have an impact on bargaining elections rather than just making the soundest decisions.

Regardless of size or geographic location, the early merged unions chose to come together instead of fight. Similarly, three other states have chosen to bring their educators together.

Ten years after Education Minnesota took up the wisdom from its grassroots, it’s time to celebrate the successes, work for the future and share what we’ve learned.