For Immediate Release
AFT leaders McElroy and LaCour announce plans to retire
Feb 12, 2008 10:46 PM
American Federation of Teachers President Edward J. McElroy and Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour on Feb. 12 announced their plans to retire from leading the 1.4 million-member national union. Both McElroy and LaCour will continue to serve in their current capacities until the July 2008 AFT national convention in Chicago, where more than 2,000 delegates will vote for AFT president, secretary-treasurer, executive vice president and 39 vice presidents. The winning candidates will assume their posts immediately.
McElroy has served as AFT president since 2004. He was secretary-treasurer for 12 years prior to that, during the presidencies of Albert Shanker and Sandra Feldman.
“From my time as a newly minted junior high school teacher, I knew that being a part of the AFT would help me make a difference,” said McElroy. “And it has—from improving conditions for teaching and learning, to lobbying for issues important to AFT members and those they serve, to giving professionals a voice on the job, the AFT makes a difference."
LaCour is the first to hold the post of AFT executive vice president, a position to which he was elected in 1998. Prior to coming to Washington, D.C., LaCour led the United Teachers of New Orleans for 28 years, a union that under his guidance in 1974 became the first teachers union in the Deep South to obtain a collective-bargaining agreement with a local school district — notably accomplished in a state without a collective-bargaining law.
“I have seen what can be achieved through the union under the most difficult of circumstances,” LaCour said. “I started my career trying to surmount the lack of collective bargaining for school employees, and I end it working to overcome the devastation of a natural disaster made worse by human indifference.”
The 80th American Federation of Teachers national convention is scheduled to be held at the Navy Pier in Chicago.
UFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response:
"Ed McElroy has been a tremendous leader of the AFT. He has provided a strong voice for educators, public employees and health care workers across the country. At a time when education policymakers have been ignoring what teachers know is needed to really help kids and improve our schools, his many strengths - particularly his talent for organizing and political action - will be sorely missed. He is a close friend and mentor and I wish him the very best as he writes the next chapter of his life.
My friend Nat LaCour led the United Teachers of New Orleans for 28 years prior to becoming a leader of the AFT in 1998 – his has been a remarkable career and he has worked tirelessly to improve education for kids across the country.
News of President McElroy's decision has spurred questions about my own plans. For the past 10 years I have had the best job imaginable, helping dedicated educators make our schools better places for real learning and achievement, and working to ensure that those same educators achieve the respect they deserve and improve the quality of their own lives. I am honored by the talk of my potential candidacy, and I will certainly give national union service serious and careful consideration. Before making any decisions, I want to reach out to other AFT leaders across the country and my own members in the UFT."
