The DREAM Caucus

06/04/2026

🏳️‍🌈Happy Pride! We love to celebrate all our members.🏳️‍⚧️

06/03/2026

🚨 It is our understanding that the district offered Duluth Federation of Teachers, a proposal/MOU that may have helped save the positions of 5 educators.

We also understand the superintendent was willing to forgo his salary raise as part of that proposal.

If true, members deserve to know:

❓Why was this not brought to the membership?

❓Why were educators not given a voice in a decision that could impact our colleagues’ livelihoods?

💔 Right now, many educators — especially early-career teachers — are facing layoffs, displacement, and uncertainty about their futures.

✊ Solidarity means protecting those most at risk.
📢 Transparency and member voice matter.
🤝 Our colleagues deserve advocacy, honesty, and a union willing to fight for them.
Education Minnesota Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today

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05/29/2026

🚨 DFT Members Deserve Representation — Not Silence

Right now, teachers across our district are facing displacement, layoffs, and uncertainty. For many educators — especially those early in their careers — this is not just a staffing issue. This is about livelihoods, families, classrooms, and futures.

And yet, during one of the most difficult moments our members are facing, we have not heard clear public communication from the Duluth Federation of Teacher leadership about how they are supporting displaced and laid-off teachers.
That silence matters.
Duluth Federation of Teachers, leadership cannot claim to represent members while appearing more focused on approving letters, defending internal decisions, or protecting district administration than standing firmly with the educators most impacted by these cuts.
The duty of fair representation requires a union to represent members fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination. Courts and labor authorities generally look at whether union conduct is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.

This is why the current moment raises serious concerns. When members are losing positions, being displaced, or questioning whether their rights were protected, leadership should be visible, responsive, and accountable — not silent.

This is about demanding that our union act like a union.
Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today

Members deserve answers:

❓ What is DFT doing to support displaced and laid-off teachers?

❓ Why has leadership not clearly addressed members during this crisis?

❓ Are early-career teachers receiving equal, fair, and meaningful representation?

❓ Is DFT protecting members — or protecting leadership and district administration from accountability?

If you are a DFT member impacted by displacement, layoffs, or lack of representation, please reach out. We are working to connect members with appropriate resources, including information related to the duty of fair representation.

A union should not be silent when members are scared.
A union should not disappear when jobs are on the line.
A union should stand with the members who need it most.

📩 DFT members: you are not alone.

05/28/2026

🚨 Duluth Federation of Teachers, MEMBERS: TRANSPARENCY AND DEMOCRACY MATTER 🚨

Our union should be fighting for safe working conditions, manageable class sizes, professional wages, and the support our students deserve.

But we also have to be honest about what is happening inside our own union.

For years, members have raised serious concerns about election practices, access to information, member participation, financial transparency, and whether decisions are being made by a small group instead of the full membership.

These concerns are not rumors. They are based on documents, communications, and records that raise serious questions about whether DFT leadership has respected members’ rights, election safeguards, and basic democratic principles.

While the district and school board are discussing millions of dollars in cuts that directly impact educators, many rank-and-file members are being left out of meaningful decision-making. That is not how a strong union should function.

A union is not supposed to treat members like dues revenue.

A union is supposed to be built on solidarity, accountability, transparency, and democracy.

Under Minnesota nonprofit law, members may be able to bring a formal action when enough voting members participate. We are seeking at least 50 members willing to be contacted and potentially included in a formal complaint process.

We understand concerns about retaliation. Information will be handled confidentially and shared only as required for the formal review process.

📌 Interested in participating or learning more?
https://bit.ly/4wZiXXu

This is about protecting our union — not weakening it.

Because members deserve better than exclusion, silence, and decisions made behind closed doors.

DFT belongs to the members. Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today

05/18/2026

It’s hard to complain about our superintendent's salary when our Duluth Federation of Teachers, 2024 990 list shows our President's salary as $202,000. That doesn't include the $20,000 salary our current treasurer receives to provide training that Education Minnesota provides for free.

04/28/2026

There is nothing more significant than delivering this letter from the Duluth Federation of Teachers, Local #692 leadership to our state, national, and other local leaders. While our DFT leadership and associates continue to reinforce their privilege, racism, fragility, and hypocrisy, we find allies in our educators, DFT members, the Duluth community, and those who recognize the importance of members' rights.

Never have we witnessed a union that claims solidarity is for everyone while deceiving its membership and specifically targeting a BIPOC member. It is only through racism that one can ignore and target a member of color while simultaneously boasting about their commitment to human rights and civil rights.
Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today

04/24/2026

04/23/2026

Suppose the Duluth Federation of Teachers, Local #692, would only stop lying to members. Again, the 990 is clear and a legal document. We are working with the MN Attorney General's Office and have already begun the process of filing with OLMS, as this will be the 9th year of DFT undermining elections.

If members are interested in getting involved in holding our local accountable, reach out. Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today Minnesota AFL-CIO

04/23/2026

04/21/2026

Duluth Federation of Teachers, Local #692’s pattern is getting harder and harder to ignore:

When members raise documented inconsistencies, the response is too often the same:
deny, redirect, and blame someone else.

Now look at DFT’s own May 2026 Budget FAQ. It says the President’s 2026–27 pay from union-related compensation is:

$58,660 DFT stipend
$72,186 release time stipend
$5,000 building/property manager
$4,500 estimated DFT contribution to TRA
= $140,346 total

Then it adds that a recent federal 990 shows another $44,975 in “benefits paid on your behalf.”

But the 2022 Form 990 itself lists Ethan Fisher at $43,777 in reportable compensation from the organization, with $0 in related organization compensation and $0 in other compensation on Part VII. And in Schedule O, DFT told the IRS that officer compensation is supposed to be reviewed annually based on comparable locals, their stipends and compensation, the teacher salary schedule, and state averages, then reviewed by the Executive Board and general membership for approval.

That is the issue.

Not Facebook posts.
Not “negativity.”
Not members asking too many questions.

The issue is that DFT keeps changing the explanation depending on the audience.

To members: “You’re misrepresenting things.”
To the IRS: compensation is based on teacher salary schedules and comparable unions our size.
In the FAQ: actually add release time, building manager pay, TRA contribution, and nearly $45,000 more in benefits.

If compensation is truly tied to teacher salary and comparable locals our size, then DFT should be able to show the actual research, the comparisons, the Budget Committee documentation, and the membership approval trail. That is exactly the kind of information members repeatedly requested. Instead, the record shows repeated delays, inconsistent claims about availability, and unresolved requests for budgets, stipends, minutes, and supporting documentation.

This is why trust keeps breaking down.

Because every time the numbers do not match, the defense is not clarity.
It is spin.
It is redirection.
It is blame.

Members are not the problem for asking questions.
The inconsistency is the problem.

If DFT’s own Schedule O says officer compensation should be grounded in teacher salary schedules and unions comparable to our size, then show the documents.

Until then, members have every reason to keep asking why the story changes every time the paper trail gets closer. Education Minnesota AFT NEA Today Minnesota AFL-CIO