TheOhio Federation of Teachers (OFT) is a statewide federation of unions in Ohio affiliated with theAmerican Federation of Teachers (AFT) and theAFL–CIO that represents over 20,000 members in 60 local unions including public school educators, higher education faculty and staff, and public employees such as library workers and health care staff.

In 1933, American Federation of Teachers officers met inSpringfield, Ohio, to test the concept of state federations for legislative, lobbying, political, and organizing roles, making Ohio the first test case, and on May 26, 1934, the Ohio State Federation of Teachers held its convention in Springfield whereIrvin Kuenzli, president of theSpringfield Federation of Teachers, was elected first president with the office located in Toledo. In 1936, the OFT established a dues system for locals to become the first self-funding and staffed state federation in the AFT, receiving its formal AFT charter on February 26, 1938, after similar charters inWisconsin,Minnesota, andPennsylvania, but following Kuenzli's departure in 1936, E. Glenn Baxter of the Elyria Federation of Teachers became president while Michael Eck of theCleveland Teachers Union served as the first executive secretary. At that time, the OFT had 5,000 members in 13 locals representing one in five of the AFT's 25,000 national members, and it focused on legislative activity mainly for increased public school funding and on organizing new locals during its first three decades.

From 1936 to 1939, the OFT added 1,000 members in 13 new locals including six that represented educators in Works Progress Administration vocational programs which disbanded when funding ended in 1943. Starting in 1939 and through the 1940s, the OFT debated affiliating with theOhio Education Association (OEA), the state affiliate of theNational Education Association (NEA), and some AFT locals in Ohio affiliated with both to form an AFT caucus in OEA, but over time differences on tenure, school funding, and collective bargaining led them to end dual affiliation.^[1] In 1965, OFT hired its first organizer and moved offices to Columbus while in 1966 it hired staff for services like contract negotiations, research, and grievance processing, and influenced by the United Federation of Teachers, the OFT chartered 21 new locals from 1965 to 1967 although without collective bargaining laws many disbanded soon. In 1968, AFT required locals to affiliate with state federations and in 1969 it required affiliation with state and local AFL–CIO bodies.

In 1978, OFT presidentRon Marec became a vice president of theOhio AFL–CIO as the first AFT member on its executive board, and in 1976 theCincinnati Federation of Teachers won a collective bargaining law for teachers and paraprofessionals in Cincinnati public schools which led OFT to campaign for statewide public employee bargaining. In 1979, OFT made the presidency full-time, and in the 1980s following AFT policy it raided established teacher unions to grow membership by targeting OEA and independent unions with bargaining rights so that by 1988 thirty of its locals had collective bargaining agreements including twelve raided ones compared to six of forty-one in 1978, while OFT organized school paraprofessionals, higher education personnel, and public employees for stability and helped pass Ohio's Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act in 1984 leading to surged education organizing statewide where OEA and OFT competed in elections but raiding mostly stopped due to a 1998 AFT-NEA agreement. In 2000, Marec retired andTom Mooney, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers president, succeeded him until dying of a heart attack on December 3, 2006, after which Sue Taylor, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers president, was elected OFT president on March 9, 2007,^[2] and OFT endorsed the Citizens Not Politicians campaign for the 2024Issue 1 ballot initiative against gerrymandering.^[3]

• Ohio Federation of Teachers, AFT, AFL–CIO

• Eaton, William Edward.The American Federation of Teachers, 1916–1961. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1975.ISBN 0-8093-0708-1
• Kemme, Steve. "Teachers' advocate dies."Cincinnati Enquirer. December 4, 2006.

• 1933 establishments in Ohio
• American Federation of Teachers
• Trade unions in Ohio
• Education trade unions
• Trade unions established in 1933
• Statewide trade unions in the United States
• Organizations based in Columbus, Ohio

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