We're mediocre at being mediocre. Although working conditions and pay are issues affecting both classified and professional employees, the issues specifically affecting teachers include student discipline, class size, workload, and low paid after hours work. The school system has asked the teachers for three Saturday's of unpaid training. Also, each year for the past three years, Texas has extended the school year by a day or two. But despite this trend the AFT-AEW has been successful in seeing that pay has been increased to cover the extra days.
Classified workers face different problems.
Understaffing is another problem. One solution, suggested by AEW and which AISD adopted, is the idea of a dedicated fund for clerical overtime which cannot be used for any other purpose. Nationally, AFT has been one of the biggest stories in labor news. The merger would have been the largest in the country. Becoming a 'real union' rather than a professional organization seemed to be the main issue with the NEA, as well as with giving up control over its organization.