Welcome to the Hammond Teachers Federation Local 394 website!

I would like to welcome to the Hammond Teachers’ Federation Website. I hope you find the site useful. Our public portion of the site contains news and events relevant to our members and the stakeholders of public education in the city of Hammond. This is also the place that the great work of our teachers and community members is on display. Additionally, you will find information from our affiliates: AFT Indiana and AFT National as well as our social media feeds. The Member Center contains relevant information for our members.

The Hammond Teachers’ Federation is a community of colleagues joined for the common good. We support one another’s personal and professional success and we stand together and we fight-for each other, for our public schools, the teaching profession, and our community.

We are a union of professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families, and our community. We are committed to advancing these tenets through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining, and political activism.

Members of the HTF and AFT affiliates can join us at our monthly membership meetings that take place the first Monday of each month during the school year.

If you are seeking additional information about the Federation, that is not on the public portion of the site, please contact our office.

Sincerely,

Louis P. Gikas

President, HTF Local 394

Statement of the Hammond Teachers’ Federation Expressing Support for Student Protests

The Hammond Teachers' Federation expresses our full and unwavering support of our students’ recent peaceful protests in support of immigrants and opposing the reign of terror that has been imposed on our communities by ICE. We applaud the actions of students at Hammond Central and Morton High, which are part of a growing movement that has spread across the country, including cities and towns throughout Indiana. The brave actions of these students are representative of the core democratic ideals that we should all cherish and wish to defend.

As educators, our foremost responsibility is to foster safe, inclusive, and supportive learning environments where all students feel valued and protected. We support and affirm our students' constitutional rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and applaud their exercise of these rights in recent protests. We believe that civic engagement of this kind is not only healthy, it is fundamental to the existence of a democratic society.

Public schools are and should remain places where every child—regardless of immigration status, background, or family circumstance—can learn without fear. This cannot happen when so many of our families are living in terror due to the lawless actions of the current administration. This is a moment in history in which we are all called upon to speak out and take action—as the famous saying goes: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

The Hammond Teachers’ Federation remains committed to advocating for policies that protect and uphold the dignity and rights of all students, including their right to a high-quality public education, regardless of immigration status. We stand with our students in their desire to be heard and will continue to work collaboratively with families, administrators, and community leaders to ensure that Hammond schools remain welcoming spaces for every child.