As the clock ticks down to November 3rd diesel prices continue to soar, Iran is a forever war, mortgage rates climbing, Republican candidates ask the president not to campaign in their district, a number of journalists comment on the upcoming election The MAGA Flag is in Tatters, , listen here, worthwhile.
In the Spring of 1975 contract negotiations crept along. The negotiating team, the UFT officers and three District Reps, decades younger. Lucille Swaim a phd in labor economics, led the negotiations, a stern woman, no one uttered a word at negotiating sessions without the approval from Lucille. Negotiations dragged into the summer: were we heading towards another strike? The UFT policy was “no contact, no work” and the union had been on strike in 1967 and the contentious strike, racially charged Ocean-hill Brownsville strike in 1968.
Al Shanker, the UFT president floated recommending to the Delegate Assembly a month contract extension, before the delegates could vote a letter, “We regret to inform you ….,” a letter laying off 14,000 teachers, all elementary school teachers with 5.5 years seniority or less, French teachers with fifteen years or less. At the Delegate Assembly the delegates chanted “we won’t go back until we all go back,” and the strike was on. The Comptroller was planning to declare bankruptcy. For years the city had balanced their budgets by borrowing and pushing the debt forward, bonds were coming due and the city had no funds and no credit. The UFT and the City scrambled to resolve the strike, the city asked the UFT to use pension dollars to pay off city bonds. With only hours left until the city filed the bankruptcy papers. Richard Ravitch, a real estate wheeler/dealer nudged Shanker to fund the bonds, the city avoided bankruptcy. Would the City repay the TRS? Read a blow by blow account here.
President Ford refused to bail out the City, The Daily News famous headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead”
After the 68 strike Shanker was reviled, an unfeeling union leader who kept black and brown students out of school for two months.
In the movie Sleeper (1973) the main character, Woody Allen awakes after being cryogenically frozen for 200 years, he asks what happened
…the scientists explain how the old civilization was destroyed, they explain that society collapsed because “a man named Shanker got a hold of a nuclear warhead”
The City began to recover, paid off the bonds, the economy improved and Shanker’s reputation moved from a reviled union leader to the savior of New York City.
After the 68 strike the state legislature passed Tier 2 and Tier 3, sharp diminutions of pensions for new teachers, Shanker used his new credentials as the savior of the city, to convince the legislature to pass Tier 4, a significantly improved 55/25 plan.
The highly critical 1983 A Nation at Risk report was dismissed by the education establishment, except Shanker,
When the landmark education report A Nation at Risk was released in April 1983, Albert Shanker—the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—stunned the education world by openly endorsing its findings rather than reacting defensively. While other union leaders and school advocates dismissed the report as a political attack by the Reagan administration, Shanker used its “rising tide of mediocrity” warning as a catalyst to pivot his union toward aggressive educational reform. Shanker’s reputation moved from his description in Sleeper to a highly respected labor leader and a voice in national education policy Read a Richard Kallenberg essay by Shanker’s biographer here.
Michael Mulgrew, the UFT president, has been incredibly successful in both setting education policy and gaining rights for his members, in a way mirroring Shanker.
Class size in New York City was substantially greater than across the state. NYC mayors refused to budge, if teachers wanted class size reductions they could pay for it by accepting lower salaries. In the closing hours of the June 2023 legislative session a Class Size Reduction Act passed, Mayor Adams demanded Governor Hochul veto the bill. As her lead in the gubernatorial election was slipping the governor signed the bill into law.
Former mayor Bloomberg gave the governor $5M for TV ads to support her bill to give her the power to override local zoning laws in exchange for lifting the NYC charter school cap. The legislative leaders refused, delaying approving the budget for weeks. Lifting the cap would have resulted in 100 new charter schools in NYC, the loss of thousands of teaching positions and the loss of millions of $$ in funding.
Mulgrew led the Fix Tier 6 campaign, in spite of opposition from school districts across the state and hesitancy from the governor the retirement age was reduced from 63 to 58.
Union leadership matters, the ability to work successfully in the swirling eddies of politics, to defend members and defend public education is a critical skill.
Al Shanker moved from a Woody Allen character to a major voice in education across the nation, respected across the political aisle.
I’m not comparing Mulgrew to Shanker (yet!), in the climate with Trump and company determined to turn public education into unlimited vouchers Mulgrew, turned away our enemies and dramatically improved working conditions for members.
If, or should I say when, (finger crossed), the democrats sweep, a Blue Wave, two New Yorkers will be running Congress. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both Brooklynites.
Biden’s Chips and Science Act funded two enormous chip factories, one in Arizona and one in a suburb of Syracuse, an investment of billions of dollars, thousands of high paying union jobs, the locations determined by Senator Schumer. Read details here.
As Mamdani, hat in hand, seeks federal dollars, it is likely that our congressional leaders will ask, what does Mulgrew think, in other words, he’ll be “… in the room where it happens.”
As the union interacts with the city across the bargaining table the city will bemoan its financial difficulties, and the union will be happy to assist lobbying the Brooklyn leaders of Congress if the contract meets our expectations.
A Blue Wave on November 3rd is a step.
