30 Years Ago Today: Our Pension Funds and The Fight for Divestment
From the Frontlines #2 By Michael Shulman Thursday, January 9, 1986 was the first day I took office as the elected Vice President for Academic High Schools. Although I was elected in the spring of 1985, the Unity led UFT under the leadership of Albert Shanker refused to allow me to take my rightful
How Not to Fight the Friedrichs Case!
By Michael Shulman, Co-chair, New Action/UFT By now most union members have heard of the Friedrichs case before the US Supreme Court. The threat is real and in the hands of this conservative court it is almost a given that the justices will rule against all unions and eliminate dues check-off . The
Resolution on delinking testing from evaluation
New Action urges: delink teacher evaluation from test scores. Unity responds by not letting members vote. The following resolution was presented by Jonathan Halabi (New Action) at the Monday, January 11 UFT Executive Board meeting. A representative from Unity moved to table (could be for future cons
The Fight to Divest Pension Funds – in the 80s Apartheid, today Fossil Fuels
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the November 2015 UFT Delegate Assembly). For a printable version click: November 2015 Leaflet back The Fight to Divest Pension Funds from Corporations Doing Business with The Republic of South Africa In 1984-85 one of the predecessors to New Action/UFT
Jia Lee Endorsed Unanimously by New Action/UFT
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the November 2015 UFT Delegate Assembly). For a printable version click: Leaflet 2015 November The New Action Executive Board gave a resounding approval to the candidacy of Jia Lee, Chapter Leader of the Earth School for UFT President. Jia has been a lea
New Action Proposals and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision for NYC Schools
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2015 UFT Citywide Chapter Leaders Meeting). For a printable version click: Leaflet 2015 September In his first day back to school remarks “Equity and Excellence” Major Bill de Blasio laid out two goals for our schools and school childre
New Action 2015 – 2016 Priority Issues
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2015 UFT Citywide Chapter Leaders Meeting). For a printable version click: Leaflet 2015 September Abusive Administrators – Identify them, retrain them, work to remove them Teacher Evaluation – mitigate the effects, seek to repeal the St
New Action announces a coalition slate with MORE for the 2016 UFT elections
New Action Caucus/UFT is the oldest opposition caucus in the United Federation of Teachers. We have a decades-long history of fighting for social justice, including initiating the campaign to divest from apartheid South Africa, moving the UFT to take a position against “stop and frisk,” and winn
Teacher Diversity in Our Schools
Under Bloomberg/Klein the number of teachers of color in our system fell dramatically. The UFT’s Social and Economic Justice Committee (which New Action co-chairs) played a leading role making the issue of diversity of the NYC teaching staff a UFT priority, bringing it to our Delegate Assembly in
Unfairly Discontinued Probationers
Probation is a training period. Principals, APs and mentors work with beginning teachers. But during the probationary period, teachers can be discontinued at any time. Under Bloomberg weak, abusive, or incompetent principals used probationers as scapegoats. They did not try to help these teachers. A