Thank you to our fantastic members who joined us at our Annual Member Meeting. We look forward to continue working to keeping our members connected, protected and respected.

(New Orleans – May 22, 2017) Educators at Mary D. Coghill Charter School will move to bargain a first contract with the school administration after decisively voting to join the United Teachers of New Orleans, an affiliate of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

The Michigan Department of Education, Office of Professional Preparation Services requests your feedback on a proposed structure for the future of Michigan teacher certification.

Please click the Web link below to view a short video explaining the proposed certificate structure and a link to the survey. Your perspective is extremely important to us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSSY4EJKeQ&feature=youtu.be

Bow, NH - May 18, 2017 

The NH House met briefly yesterday, primarily to pass an emergency bridge appropriation to keep the Dept. of Health and Human Services functioning until the end of the budget year on June 30.  While there was the usual vocal opposition from those who oppose virtually any governmental spending, the bill passed easily. 

Action Needed     So, many important votes lie ahead.  Please contact your House Representative and ask her/him to oppose SB 3 (voter suppression), SB 8 (the Edelblut/Croydon bill) and to fully fund full-day kindergarten.  And, while doing so, keep your eyes and ears open, as we await the Senate’s version of the 2017-2019 NH State budget.  

Colleagues,

1) NTU Hall of Fame Dinner – Huge Kudos to the NTU Staff and Ed Resource Committee!  This year, we were able to give out 15 scholarships totaling $21,750 to our members and Newark students at our annual Hall of Fame Dinner.  Our fund raising efforts raised over $56K for this terrific event.

Pictures from the event will be posted on our website soon. 

Colleagues

1)     Contract Update: We have gotten a lot of questions about “When we will be receiving our retro checks?” We are working with NPS to get them out as soon as possible. Right now, we know that they will be two separate checks (one for 2015-2016 and one for 2016-2017 school year) and both checks will be out by July 15 at the latest.

Unions Begin With YOU!

While on union business in Carbon County, I spent some time with a volunteer at the Mining Museum in Helper, Utah. This gentleman, as a young man, personally knew my great-grandfather and other members of my family that lived and worked in the coal mine located in Kenilworth. As he gave me a grand tour of this fantastic and historical museum, I caught my breath as I entered a room dedicated to unions and those leaders that protected the rights of these hard working men and women of Carbon County.

I was drawn to a photograph of miners that had just come out of the darkness after their shift into the sunlight. I recollect my grandfather telling me how he used to walk to the mine entrance by the light of his carbide headlamp before dawn only to emerge hours later to the brilliant sunlight of the afternoon. My guide shared with me the stories of my great-grandfather, a Swedish immigrant, and how kind he was to everyone in the community. How hard he worked and as a timber boss how important his job was to ensure the safety of all the workers. He also shared the dark times when the community was put under martial law by state officials who called in the National Guard to break up the union. A curfew was set and anyone having lights on after 10:00 p.m. or found outside their homes would be arrested and beat. No matter the attempts to disband their union, they stood firm as a union family. When there was an explosion and workers died, they would rally as a community to comfort and provide for the needs of the loved ones left behind. My family members lived, bled, and died to provide a life for their families in those mines, and each of them were proud, strong, and active union members and supporters.

Jump forward 76 years. I carry the blood of those union members. I am their legacy. As I gazed at a sign hanging on the wall in that museum with the words “Unions Begin With YOU! ” I could literally hear the words of my great-grandfather echoing in my mind, “It’s up to YOU to make a difference.” That’s the heart of our union. You make the difference in your workplace, in your community, in your state. Each of us have to decide how involved we want to be. No one can make that choice for us. Once we commit to be involved, we find others in order to form and unite as a union family. Just as the union members came together in solidarity to protect each other and their families in this small mining community in Eastern Utah, we as union members should come together in solidarity.

Many of our colleagues shy away from joining the union. Our opponents use the same tactics that have been employed for over a century to discourage workers from organizing. As in the past, our union is vital to protecting our rights today. In fact, unions are more important than ever in ensuring that our collective voice is heard. The more I have thought about the current condition of AFT in Utah, I have come to the realization that we have not held the course. We have tried to fit in with the status quo. We have a long proud history as a union in Utah. In 1919, the public school employees in Ogden organized a chartered AFT local. They faced extreme backlash from anti-union officials and their own district administration. Other locals sprang up for the next several decades under difficult circumstances and persecution. Yet they held up under the pressure and remained union proud and union strong. They only diminished when they moved away from their union roots and that tight knit union community.

So I propose we get back to the basics. We look, act, and function as a union! In our Annual Member Meeting and Delegate Assembly on Saturday June 24, 2017 we will start the process. YOU are personally invited by me to attend. (RSVP Here) It’s up to each of us to keep our heritage and legacy alive.

As I did that day, in that special room, in a small museum in Helper, Utah you have my commitment that I will do all in my power to keep our union alive and help you in your commitment to our cause.

In Solidarity,

Brad Asay

President

AFT Utah

Betsy DeVos visits Utah, AFT protests

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. Sec. DeVos was invited to speak at the ASU+GSV Summit. During her speech, a group of protesters rallied outside the hotel speaking out against the Secretary’s aggressive anti-public education agenda. AFT Utah was proud to be numbered among that group of protesters. AFT Utah President, Brad Asay, was a scheduled speaker at the rally. Brad stated the following, “Ninety percent of our kids attend public schools yet Secretary DeVos would do all that she can to actually privatize our schools with the voucher system…[Utahns] support public schools, not privatization, not vouchers, not austerity measures” (Desert News, published May 9, 2017).

Around 100 community members and public education supporters gathered to show their displeasure for privatization and recent policies put into place by Secretary DeVos. It’s our duty as union members to stand up in the face of adversity to protect our profession and to protect our students. Without our voice as professionals, Corporate America will attempt to capitalize on our education system at the expense of our students. We MUST fight to keep business out of public education.