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The AFT was founded in 1916 on the model of a labor union (as opposed to a professional association). It has grown rapidly since the 1960s , when it had only 55,000 members. In general, the AFT tends to be strong in large cities and on the east coast, while the NEA has been strong in rural and suburban areas and in the west. Another significant difference between the two organizations is that the AFT has made a serious effort to organize workers outside the field of K-12 public education. The union currently represents nurses and teaching assistants, for example. Edward McElroy , a social studies and English teacher from Warwick, R.I., was elected president of the AFT at the union's biennial convention in July of 2004. McElroy is the past president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO (1977-1992), the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, and the Warwick Teachers Union; he was second-in-command at the AFT as Secretary-Treasurer for 12 years. Sandra Feldman , AFT's president since the 1997 death of longtime president Albert Shanker , retired from her post in July 2004. Feldman had been the first woman to serve as AFT's president since 1930 , and was a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. Under her 7-year presidency, AFT's membership grew by more than 365,000--the most rapid expansion in the union's history. Previous to her election as President of AFT, Feldman had been president of the United Federation Of Teachers --the union representing the teachers of New York City . Sandra Feldman died September 18, 2005. Famous past members of the AFT include John Dewey , Albert Einstein , and Hubert Humphrey . The Teachers Federation Of Puerto Rico has recently disaffiliated with the AFT. The Puerto Rican teachers had been members of the AFT since the 70's but charged that they had not received adequate services. (Many Puerto Rican teachers, it was said, had not even heard about the American Federation of Teachers.) The AFT started a boycott against the leadership of the Puerto Rican Teachers; this effort ended with a majority of the members voting against placing the FMPR in an "administratorship" run by the AFT. Two opposing groups emerged within the FMPR: a pro-AFT faction and a "pro-independence" faction. In the 2005 referendum (with a participation rate of 82%), the AFT obtained less than 6 thousand votes while the FMPR obtained more than 19 thousand. EXTERNAL LINKS
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