Rising to meet this week’s staffing challenges

Thank you for submitting the staffing shortage form last week. Your responses helped us pinpoint the schools that most needed our support on Monday. In the end, 95% of all full-time DOE employees, including 96% of UFT members, received at least one dose of the vaccine by the Oct. 1 deadline. Redeployed DOE staff, including central and district office employees in UFT-represented job titles, along with substitutes, helped keep our schools safe and enabled teaching and learning to continue without major interruptions in the vast majority of our schools. We know these are temporary solutions; the UFT is working with the DOE to come up with a plan for permanently closing staffing gaps. If you need help with a staffing issue at your school, please contact your district rep or call the UFT safety hotline at 212-331-6317.

Review your nonmember report and sign up new hires

More than 5,000 new teachers and other staff have been hired so far this school year. You are the face of the union for these new hires. Please offer your support to them and invite them to your chapter meetings. Please check the nonmember report for your school in the chapter leader section of the website (you must be logged in to access it) to see if all new hires at your school have joined the union. Ask nonmembers to go to the UFT website and fill out the online union enrollment form at www.uft.org/enroll. New hires can also fill out paper enrollment cards, which you should submit to the union. If you don’t have any enrollment cards, please advise your district representative. Since new staff are hired throughout the school year, please ask your school secretary to give you a heads up each time a new hire in the UFT bargaining unit comes on board.

Protocol for resolving workplace issues this school year

The union has extended for another school year the use of the operational issues process to address the special work rules and temporary agreements negotiated as a result of the pandemic. The only exception is issues related to payment, which should be resolved using the standard grievance process. Chapter leaders should file an operational issues complaint on the day that they attempt to resolve the issue with their principal through a one-on-one conversation, an email or their UFT consultation committee. From that day, the principal will have five school days to resolve the issue. If still unresolved, the issue may be escalated to the District Paperwork and Operational Committee. The district representative and Superintendent have five days to resolve at the district level. If it is not resolved at the district level, the central committee, which meets monthly, will attempt to resolve the issue. Chapter leaders should file a Step 1 grievance on a member’s behalf to address violations of the regular DOE-UFT contract, including class size and reorganization. Issues concerning paperwork, curriculum, professional development, basic instructional supplies, workload and space issues go through the operational issues process. Both the operational issues report and the Step 1 grievance form are in the chapter leader section of the UFT website (you must be logged in to access them). 

Organize your school’s Go Pink day on Oct. 13

About one in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. Please organize your fellow UFT members to raise awareness about breast cancer by asking them to wear pink on Wednesday, Oct. 13. The activity helps build chapter unity and demonstrates commitment to fighting breast cancer. Take photos of your members wearing pink and post them on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtag #UFTgopink. Please send your best one or two photos (large size, with captions) to uftphotos [at] gmail [dot] com (uftphotos[at]gmail[dot]com) for the union’s Facebook, Instagram and website photo albums. Also, we want chapter leaders and delegates to wear pink at the Delegate Assembly on that same day. The UFT will send its photographer to several schools to take photos of members in pink. If a UFT photographer has not come to your school in the past five years to take Go Pink photos, please send an email request to editor Joe LoVerde at jloverde [at] uft [dot] org (jloverde[at]uft[dot]org).  

Register to attend Teacher Union Day virtually on Nov. 7

Teacher Union Day offers an opportunity to celebrate our union’s most recent accomplishments while remembering the brave educators who put everything on the line in the 1960 strike that forged the union. This year, on Sunday, Nov. 7, 89 school chapter leaders will receive Ely Trachtenberg Awards for building strong and vibrant UFT chapters. Ellie Engler, a former UFT staff director, will receive the Charles Cogen Award, the event’s highest honor, for her lifelong advocacy for safe and healthy schools and for her pivotal role protecting UFT members during the pandemic. The UFT’s Health and Safety Department will receive the Backer/Scheintaub Award. See all the 2021 honorees. This year, recognizing the need for social distancing, we are holding a hybrid event. Honorees and their guests only will be invited to attend the celebration at UFT headquarters. All other UFT members are invited to join virtually.

Register online

Donate new winter clothing for students in need

Please help us make sure the students in need who attend the union’s Thanksgiving Luncheon this November all have new winter apparel to bring home afterwards. Organize a winter clothing drive at your school for students in temporary housing and bring your school’s donations of new winter coats, sweaters, scarves, mittens, gloves and hats to the upcoming Delegate Assemblies on Oct. 13 or Nov. 17. You may also drop off donations until Friday, Nov.19, at UFT borough offices or at UFT headquarters, 52 Broadway, on the 14th floor. The union can only accept NEW articles of clothing. The garments may range in size from toddler to adult. For questions, contact Jeannette Noriega at JNoriega [at] uft [dot] org (JNoriega[at]uft[dot]org). Please post this coat drive flier on your UFT bulletin board.