Unions Agree on Blueprint for Merging

By Ann Bradley

In what could be one of the most significant developments in American education in decades, the presidents of the two national teachers' unions last week announced a conceptual agreement to merge the organizations. Members will be asked this summer to endorse the creation of a single national union.

The merged teachers' union would become the largest in the nation's history, with 3.2 million members. It would be an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, based on an initial number of 1.4 million members, making the new union the largest single group in the powerful labor coalition.

If delegates to the conventions of the 2.3 million-member National Education Association and the 950,000-member American Federation of Teachers vote in favor when they meet weeks apart in New Orleans in July, the unions will begin drafting a constitution for what is now being called...