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Founded in 1919 to provide a labor union alternative to the California Teachers Association, which was then dominated by school administrators, the CFT spoke for classroom teachers during a long period when California's teachers worked in near-feudal conditions.
- CFT lawyers and courageous teachers tested the courts again and again, building a body of case law to protect activities of teachers taken for granted by other workers. One observer said, "The AFT in California is responsible for having won 90 percent of the cases dealing with teachers’ rights during the 1960s."
- The CFT introduced the first teachers’ collective bargaining bill into the California legislature in 1953, and reintroduced similar bills for the following two decades, until passage of the Educational Employment Relations Act in 1975 finally brought collective bargaining rights to school employees. Since then the CFT has represented teachers and school employees in professional and employment matters.
- The CFT has led the movement in California for school reform based on high standards for both teachers and students. The CFT is the unquestioned leader in the state on educational issues
A Short History of the CFT
Imagine that you were fired just because you wore a beard. Or because you were a woman over forty, and your principal had a problem with that. Maybe you participated in a peaceful political demonstration, or wrote a letter to the editor of a daily newspaper criticizing your school administration. Arbitrary firings-and worse-used to be commonplace in California's schools.
Things are different today. But getting from there to here wasn't easy. From its inception in 1919 the California Federation of Teachers fought for the rights of education employees when no one else would. The first tenure law, passed in 1921, was supported by the CFT and the labor movement when every other education organization opposed it. In an age when women teachers were fired for following their own taste in fashion, staying out past eight o'clock in the evenings, or getting married, the CFT was so radical as to call for the extension of the constitutional rights of US citizens to women teachers, too.
  From the 1950s through the 1970s scores of courageous teachers put their careers on the line for the sake of principle with CFT's legal support. In this way a body of case law was created involving academic freedom, tenure, wrongful discharge and discipline, loyalty oaths, and freedom of speech. As the former General Counsel of the California School Boards Association admitted, "Over ninety percent of the court decisions setting forth teachers' rights in the state of California have CFT's name on them."
The first fair labor practices law in California, establishing the Commission on Discrimination in Teacher Hiring in the late 50s, was written by the CFT to change blatantly racist hiring policies in school districts. In the 60s, the first law protecting probationary teachers was passed, on the basis of a case involving CFT members who stood up for what they believed in. When maternity leave for teachers became law in 1975, once again it was the CFT that led the way.
 That same year the centerpiece of the CFT program finally became reality. Two decades earlier the CFT had stood alone in its advocacy for collective bargaining in education. Over the years the CFT slowly but surely built a majority sentiment among educational employees and the broader community. Tireless grassroots organizing and militant activism in the 60s and 70s brought passage of the Educational Employment Relations Act, which in 1975 granted collective bargaining rights to employees in public education.
Educating California's children remains an enormous task. You still don't have enough money, supplies, or time. But you don't have to worry about getting fired without any recourse, on someone else's whim. There are laws and contract clauses governing administrative behavior, and the union makes sure these rules are followed. Your job may not be easy. But at least now, thanks to the CFT's consistency and perseverance, it's possible.
| Learn more about CFT's history... |
Order these items from CFT:
- A History of the California Federation of Teachers, 1919-1989, $5.00
128 pages, illustrated, paper bound
- Scenes From The Classroom Struggle, $10.00t;br />35 minute video chronicles CFT through 1992
- Two or Three Things We Know About the CFT
15 minute video, free to members
Please send your check payable to "CFT" to:
CFT Labor In The Schools Committee
One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440
Oakland CA 94612
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