Indiana Union Crisis Forces Layoffs

NEA affiliate seeks to raise cash to cover troubled insurance trust.

Indiana’s largest teachers’ union is laying off dozens of employees in the wake of a financial crisis that spurred investigations of its troubled insurance trust.

Union officials representing two groups of workers at the Indiana State Teachers Association say at least 40 people will lose their jobs after 60 days’ notice. A third union representative would not comment on how many people in her division will be laid off, but the total number of layoffs is likely to be higher than 40 out of a staff of 150 employees.

The ISTA and the National Education Association, its national parent organization, are trying to scrape up enough cash to pay 650 people receiving long-term disability benefits from the ISTA’s insurance trust,...