Now recognized as one of the most progressive local teacher unions in the country, the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers became the prominent union for Cincinnati teachers in 1976.

        That year, the CFT won the right to be the bargaining agent for district teachers, taking it away from the Cincinnati Teachers Association (CTA).

        Each union was aligned with different national groups:

        • The CTA was part of the National Education Association. Originally an anti-union group of administrators, the NEA became a true teachers union in 1972. It is the largest teachers union in the country — with 2.6 million members, most of whom work in suburban schools.

        • The CFT is part of the American Federation of Teachers, formed in 1916 when the Chicago Federation of Teachers and a Gary, Ind., teachers group merged. The AFT is the second-largest teachers union — with 1.1 million members, most of whom teach in urban schools.

        The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers formed in the mid-1960s. Like the AFT, it was the smaller, and more aggressive of two unions.

        “As people began to want and demand collective bargaining, we forced the first bargaining election in 1968 by going on strike,” said Tom Mooney, former CFT president and now president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

        The CTA remained the lead union until 1976, when the CFT took control. In 1977 the CFT pushed hard for big raises and led teachers on a 19-day walkout that ended with large gains for teachers.

        “In my early days, the bread and butter issues were No. 1,” said Mr. Mooney, who became president in 1979 and led a one-day strike that October. “Salaries had fallen so far.”

        Teacher unions gained new life in 1983 with the publication of A Nation at Risk, the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education that criticized American public education and called for changes.

        AFT President Albert Shanker encouraged local unions like Cincinnati's to be about reform. That's when contracts started to focus on education and teacher issues.

        Ralph Jackson, a union first vice president since 1981, said the union “bargains prety well.”

        “We've been bold,” he said. “We haven't been afraid.”

        In the last round of contract negotiations, the CFT came to the table with very few salary issues. Most concerns centered on teacher quality, peer review and the district's innovative pay-for-performance evaluation system.

        Outgoing CFT President Rick Beck said he sees that project as “the greatest single leverage point to improve student achievement.”

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