The Kenosha Teachers Union was organized and chartered by the American Federation of Teachers at a meeting on March 17, 1938. The organization grew out of a longstanding local salary freeze and conditions within the Kenosha Educational Association, the professional organization for Kenosha teachers affiliated with the National Education Association. Because the KEA was dominated by principals and the Superintendent of Schools, it was thought by some to be ineffective in representing the interests of classroom teachers. At the same time the local situation was such that the Board of Education only met behind closed doors.
Among the first achievements of the new local were open school board meetings held in the evenings and free textbooks for all children. The KTU also initiated bargaining talks with the school board before the law provided this right, winning such benefits as teacher tenure and a single salary schedule. The KTU also took an active part in the labor movement in Kenosha, and W.W. Martelle, an officer of the KTU, served as a leader of the Kenosha Trades and Labor Council for many years.
Although KTU and KEA had bargained jointly with the school board for many years, in 1963 the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board ruled that the KEA was a labor union and subject to the election rules that governed unions. In the 1965 election held because of the labor rules KTU was defeated in a contest to become the sole bargaining agent for Kenosha teachers. KTU was also unsuccessful in subsequent recertification elections and in legal cases arising from the first certification vote.
Although never selected as the recognized bargaining agent for Kenosha teachers, after 1965 KTU became a responsible minority party in contract negotiations, and it continued to work to influence the outcome of educational problems in Kenosha. During these years KEA gradually became more like a union, and in 1972 it authorized a strike, the first in Kenosha, in which all teachers were allowed to vote regardless of their affiliation. The KTU supported this action, and in the following months relations between the two organizations improved. However, merger talks repeatedly collapsed during the 1970s over the issue of KEA affiliation with the AFL-CIO. In 1976 KTU membership declined further when it lost in a fair share election that required that all teachers pay dues to the KEA regardless of their membership.
