In 1882, seven years before statehood, Montana frontier parents and teachers formed what ultimately became MEA. From the beginning, MEA was a union of public school educators, especially teachers, and until the middle 1970s and the adoption of the Montana collective bargaining act, public school administrators. The 1975 Montana collective bargaining act identified school administrators as management. As management school administrators were no longer eligible for MEA membership much less union representation. From that point forward MEA evolved from a so-called professional association to a union of public school teachers and in time public school classified employees determined to bargain collectively for salary, fringe benefits, and working conditions. From 1975 to 2002 a number of MEA local affiliates (and a smaller number of MFT local affiliates) exercised their lawful right to strike in communities across Montana, twice in Great Falls and Billings. The Billings Education Association conducted the last major Montana school employee strike in 2002.