Individual Research on

National Education Association (NEA)

Submitted to:- Brian Bonnar

Email:- b.bonnar@slc-alpha.ca

Submitted By:- Gurwinder Kaur -4303799

Introduction

A union is an organisation made up of members (a membership-based organisation) and

its membership must be made up mainly of workers.

One of a union's main aims is to protect and advance the interests of its members in the

workplace.

Most unions are independent of any employer. However, unions try to develop close

working relationships with employers. This can sometimes take the form of a partnership

agreement between the employer and the union which identifies their common interests

and objectives.

National Education Association(NEA)

Overview

National Education Association (NEA), American voluntary association of teachers,

administrators, and other educators associated with elementary and secondary schools

and colleges and universities. It is the world’s largest professional organization. Its

headquarters are in Washington, D.C.

The association originated in 1857 as the National Teachers Association, which merged in

1870 with the National Association of School Superintendents and the American Normal

School Association to form the National Education Association. Its membership exceeded

2.5 million in the early 21st century.

Organizational structure

The NEA has a complex organizational structure. First, it is a general-purpose, individual-

membership organization that advances the cause of public education and the welfare of its

members. It has a large professional staff and establishes committees and commissions, which

provide numerous services, such as research, publications, liaison with federal-government

agencies, promotion of federal legislation, and defense of professional rights.

Second, the NEA comprises many national bodies that are based on specialized, professional,

and vocational interests. These are simultaneously departments in the NEA and autonomous

organizations with their own dues-paying members, officers, and staffs and in many cases with

state and local affiliates or branches. Examples are the successors to two of the founding

organizations, now the American Association of School Administrators and the American

Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. There are departments of elementary-school

principals, of secondary-school principals, and of classroom teachers; departments of teachers

of various subjects, such as art, music, mathematics, science, and social studies; and

departments of specialists in such fields as educational research, curriculum development,

audiovisual instruction, rural education, and elementary, kindergarten, and preschool education.

Third, the NEA may be viewed as a confederation of affiliated local and state education

associations. The representative assembly of the NEA, which establishes its policies and elects

its officers, is composed of delegates sent by these affiliated associations, which are

represented according to the number of their members who belong to the national body. The

rapid growth of membership in the NEA dates from the creation of the representative assembly

in 1921.
Strengths and weaknesses of the union’s organizational structure

 To meet the needs of global or regional customers who want a consistent international

agreement and point of contact.

 To improve their capability to run global or regional projects and systems

 To improve access to resources, skills and technologies across the organisation that

might otherwise be locked up in the vertical silos

 To improve cooperation and communication across the functional and geographic silos.

 To bring flexibility through faster decisions involving multiple stakeholders.

 To build broader people capabilities – as businesses become more integrated they need

to develop people who can think beyond their own functions or locations.

 Accountabilities and authority can be less clear and are often shared.

 Meetings and bureaucracy can rise as the amount of coordination and communication

increases.

 More people become involved in the decision process, which can slow things down.

 Ambiguity increases, with competing goals and higher levels of change and flexibility.

 We can see increases in central control as leaders try to re-establish control over a more

complex environment.

 There is the possibility of more resource conflict as people need to engage outside their

silos to get things done.

Why attracting and retaining new members

 Win better pay, benefits, and working conditions.

 Gain Professional Development and leadership training.

 Be insured with life, health, disability, and casualty insurance programs.

  Get credit, loan, savings, investment, and discount services.

 Receive on-the-job liability insurance of up to $1 million.

 Have tough and effective representation in job-related disputes through our UniServ

program.

 Speak out for our concerns in state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress.

 Be represented at NEA meetings.

 Get Association news through NEA publications and on its Web site.

Representing the interests of its members

Through unions, workers join together to win better wages, benefits and a voice on the job – and

good union jobs mean stronger communities. Unions give workers a voice at work, to bargain as

a group for benefits such as non-discrimination protections and domestic partner benefits. Union

members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members.

On average, union workers’ wages are 30 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts. While

only 14 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 68 percent of union workers

do. More than 97 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but

only 85 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive

workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs.

Conclusion

Because There is Strength in Numbers With nearly 3 million members, the National Education

Association is the largest employee organization in the country. And NEA's nearly half-

million ESP members make us the largest organization of school support employees in the world.

This numerical strength translates into advocacy and service -- for improved pay and working

conditions, rights on the job, improved education for the students we serve, and great deals on

products and services our members need.

works cited

https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Education-Association

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Education_Association

http://www.nea.org/home/19627.htm