The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was founded in 1916 in Chicago, Ill. It was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, which merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO. The North Carolina Federation of Teachers (NCFT), also known as the American Federation of Teachers - North Carolina, was formed in the mid-1970s as the state affiliate of the AFT. It is distinguished from its main rival organization, the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE), which is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), in that it only represents teachers and other school-related personnel who do not serve in a supervisory capacity. The collection includes correspondence, mailings, flyers, newsletters, forms, reports, clippings, membership lists, school system policies and publications, and other materials documenting the North Carolina Federation of Teachers (NCFT). Documents related to local chapters of the NCFT include logs of phone conversations and other correspondence, flyers advertising NCFT membership and meetings, and reports from local school systems. Materials maintained by the office of the NCFT president include documents related to AFT and NCFT conventions and materials related to AFT and NCFT positions and actions on various educational issues, including educational reform, teacher salaries, vacation leave, paraprofessionals, career development, and political lobbying. General files include documents dealing with such topics as the debate over merit pay for teachers, hiring and dismissal policies, retirement benefits, tenure, arbitration, class size, early childhood education, textbook selection, school financing, special education, and school discipline. Higher education materials include university publications, press releases, flyers, and other documents related to NCFT chapters in higher education institutions in North Carolina, including East Carolina University, Livingstone College, Western Carolina University, Western Piedmont Community College, Winston-Salem State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Also included are papers from binders kept by the NCFT related to local NCFT chapters. Financial materials include per capita reports and payment records detailing dues payments to the AFT, as well as affiliation fees paid to the AFL-CIO. Other organizations documented include the NEA, the NCAE, and the Professional Educators of North Carolina (PENC), the latter two rival organizations of the NCFT. Also documented are cases the NCFT presented before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) related to unionizing teachers at Livingstone College and Fort Bragg, N.C.
