The CEA Blog

Despite its contentious birth, the 1973-1975 Master Agreement between the Columbus Education Association and the Board of Education was a landmark achievement in the history of CEA. Since 1968, the Board and the Association had only been able to agree to a series of single-year contracts, prompting the negotiations process to begin anew, providing for little substantial change from one agreement to the next. The 1973-1975 Master Agreement marked the first multi-year contract in the Association’s history. 

The Master Agreement between CEA and the Columbus Board of Education is a living document– just like the Constitution of the  United States, it changes over time. Much of the exact language of the 1973 contract still resides in the current Master Agreement, but many additions have been negotiated in since then. The contract at that time only numbered 48 pages; the current Master Agreement is 156 pages in length.  

(more…)

Note: This is the third in a series of inaugural posts on the new CEA blog. In an effort to preserve the institutional history of the Columbus Education Association, this ongoing series of posts will chronicle the 1974-1975 school year that led to the first and only strike by the membership of CEA. To view all  published entries in the series, click here.

The man who would be President of the Columbus Education Association during its most trying period of existence admits to never wanting to seek the office. A series of events would conspire to influence Theodore Thomas to become the leader of thousands of Columbus teachers shortly before bargaining began in the fall of 1974.   

(more…)

In August, 1974 the United States’ economy had seen better days. The bills from the Vietnam War were coming due, and the OPEC oil embargo against America had caused the price of a barrel of oil to quadruple during the past year. Caused by these and other economic factors, the country was now experiencing inflation at an unprecedented peacetime rate. 

Simply put, inflation is an increase in the price of goods and services. Low levels of price increases over time are normal, but the United States was seeing inflation levels of upwards of 9% in 1974 alone. The higher the inflation rate, the less purchasing power each dollar has. To make matters worse, teachers in Columbus Public Schools weren’t earning much to begin with. 

(more…)

Note: This is the first in a series of inaugural posts on the new CEA blog. In an effort to preserve the institutional history of the Columbus Education Association, this ongoing series of posts will chronicle the 1974-1975 school year that led to the first and only strike by the membership of CEA. To view all  published entries in the series, click here.

Columbus of late August, 1974 bore a remarkable resemblance to the Columbus of present day. The city had seen double-digit percentage increases in population over the past three decades; now just over a half a million people called the capital city home.

The skyline was evolving. The American Union Insurance Citadel (later renamed the LeVeque Tower) had stood a lonely guard over the downtown landscape since its birth in 1927. Its supremacy would soon be challenged by skyscrapers under construction at the time, buildings that would end up with names like Rhodes, Nationwide and Borden. (more…)