The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers was founded as the Rhode Island Branch, American Federation of Teachers, on March 27, 1947. The original unions making up the federation were the Warwick Teachers' Union, the North Providence Federation of Teachers, the Pawtucket Teachers' Alliance, the Woonsocket Teachers' Guild, and the Providence Teachers' Alliance. Four years after its formation, the Pawtucket Teachers' Alliance went out on strike—one of a handful of local unions to disobey a national AFT policy banning strikes by teachers. The federation changed its name to the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers in 1958. The Pawtucket strike ended in a settlement favorable to the union, and a rudimentary contract—one of the first teacher contracts in the United States. Another strike in Pawtucket in 1964 also ended in a contract, this one personally negotiated by Governor John Chafee. This collective bargaining experience helped pave the way for legalization of teacher unionism in Rhode Island two years later.