FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES – The top governing body of the California Teachers Association voted today to extend membership to education support professionals. The vote by the CTA State Council of Education, the union’s governing body of 800 democratically elected teacher delegates, means more than 5,000 members of the National Education Association are now also members of CTA.
“We welcome these colleagues into our family,” said CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. “These are dedicated and committed education support professionals who, as members of the National Education Association, have been active for years in many CTA chapters across the state.”
For more than 20 years, these school paraprofessionals, office workers, custodians and committed education support professionals have been members of NEA, but were not members of CTA.
In other action today, CTA showed its support for UNITE HERE Local 11 and its fight to organize Los Angeles hotel workers, including 600 employees at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton where the State Council is meeting this weekend. CTA delegates spontaneously donated $6,350 and CTA matched the donations after hearing moving accounts of anti-union actions taken by hotel management.