The following email was sent to all school secretaries from UFT Elections Coordinator Yasmin Colon on Thursday, March 18.

A city DOE employee since 1986, Friedman says she now works 24/7. “My phone is always with me. Teachers who work in the building call or text me if they're going to be out and then I have to get a sub. That’s been much harder this year.” She misses the kids and hopes they’ll soon be “yelling and screaming and smiling and laughing without a mask on.”

The following email about remote era licensing requirements was sent on May 22, 2020, to school secretaries by the New York City Department of Education. 

With the New York metropolitan area the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, we want to inform you about the health benefits that in-service UFT members with EmblemHealth coverage, whether GHI or HIP, have.

“There’s always something new to learn” at the UFT’s School Secretaries Chapter events, said Gloria Cahill, the secretary at PS 182 in Jamaica, Queens. Cahill, in her first year as a school secretary, said her new job is “very hectic,” but she doesn’t “feel alone” thanks to the support of the union.

PS 150 Chapter Leader Anne Wine successfully went to bat for three probationary teachers in her Queens school who were being treated unfairly.