The shutdown of the Representative Assembly was in response to a strike by the union representing NEA staffers, the National Education Association Staff Organization.
Locals submitted calls for digital communication tools to "Educate members on the Nakba" , for the union to defend educators' and students' speech "In defense of Palestine," and for the NEA to hold a "Secret ballot vote to rescind its endorsement of President Joe Biden until he stops funding the Israeli military, decries Israel's war crimes, and brings about an immediate cease-fire in Gaza." The termination of the RA underscores the fact that the nation's largest union, with nearly three million members, is in enormous crisis, alongside that of Biden and the Democratic Party.
The NEASO strike was met with vindictive hostility by the NEA decision-makers, even though most of the striking union members are union reps on the lower rung of the NEA apparatus.
The NEA bureaucracy immediately cancelled the return flights and accommodations of strikers and locked them out from pay and work indefinitely "Until an agreement is reached." The NEA also cancelled staff health benefits, effective July 31.
The anger of NEASO members was palpable on social media, with many shocked that the NEA preferred to shut down the convention rather than meet their demands.
Strikers decried the "Waste of millions of members' dues to the NEA." "How does a union get to the point where its employees go on strike? I have serious concerns," posted another.
Parenthetically, the NEA admits the real end game, noting that "The best way to prevent a strike is to prepare for one".
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