A focus on working conditions in this month’s contract campaign

Make sure your members know a lot has happened since our last Day of Action in our contract campaign. DC 37 has reached a tentative agreement that will likely set a pattern for all city workers in this contract round, but we need to build on our momentum and continue to activate our members in the fight for a fair contract. This month, we will mobilize to get the community on our side as we negotiate to improve working conditions. We need more self-directed time and control over how we serve our students. The union will hold a mobilization meeting for Contract Action Teams as well as their chapters on Tuesday, March 7, and again on Tuesday, March 14. Please share the registration link and encourage your chapter to join. At this meeting, we will discuss holding a grade-in as a citywide action in late March as well as present a menu of other mobilization actions and resources for members to take back to their schools. We will also unpack the possible pattern set by DC 37 and what it means for our own negotiations. 

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Aetna presents its proposed premium-free retiree health plan to the unions

Aetna presented an overview of its proposed Medicare Advantage PPO plan for all Medicare-eligible New York City retirees on March 2. Over the past two months, while the Municipal Labor Committee has been engaged in intense negotiations with Aetna over the new plan, the UFT has been at the table fighting to ensure that it fully meets our retirees’ needs. The UFT told the city repeatedly that it would not agree to a new premium-free plan that does not address all of its concerns. After aggressive negotiations, Aetna agreed to customize the new plan to provide the widest possible choice of providers, a restricted number of services requiring prior authorization, an array of new benefits and fewer out-of-pocket costs for members. The 100-plus unions in the MLC will vote on the proposed plan next week. If the plan is approved, it is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1, 2023.

UFT rallies in support of bill to rein in hospital charges

Union leaders including UFT Vice President Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT, spoke at a City Hall rally on Feb. 23 in support of greater transparency in hospital pricing prior to a City Council hearing on proposed legislation to address the issue. The bill, sponsored by Council Member Julie Menin, would establish an Office of Health Care Accountability that would force all city hospitals to disclose what they charge for medical procedures and make it harder for them to engage in price gouging. The discrepancy in costs, Goldman said, “has amazed me, it has galled me. Transparency is a right for everyone who pays taxes and needs health care.” The city could be overpaying private hospitals by as much as $2.4 billion a year, according to a report commissioned by SEIU 32BJ. Hospital pricing and insurance company profits – big drivers of escalating city health care costs – have been black boxes that municipal unions have sought for years to penetrate with minimal success. 

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Nominate your chapter for a Trachtenberg Award

Nominate your chapter for the UFT’s Ely Trachtenberg Award, named for a UFT member whose rank-and-file organizing skills were crucial to building the union. The Trachtenberg Award honors UFT chapters and their leaders who show strong member engagement and advocacy. Hallmarks of award-winning chapters include holding regularly scheduled chapter meetings, empowering members to ensure contractual rights are respected, and having a high or growing proportion of members who contribute to COPE. Winning chapters will be honored and given their Trachtenberg plaque at the 2023 Teacher Union Day ceremony in November. See the online nomination form for more information about the selection criteria. Please note: Chapters that have received a Trachtenberg Award in the past three years are ineligible this year. The nomination period closes on April 28.

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Celebrate the UFT’s 63rd birthday on March 16

Thursday, March 16, will mark the 63rd anniversary of the union’s formation. Dignity and respect, professionalism, due process, competitive wages and health and pension benefits: Sixty-three years ago, those things didn’t exist for New York City public educators. It has been progress hard-fought and hard-won by our union. The anniversary gives you an opportunity to remind UFT members how far they’ve come as union members. You can show this two-minute video about the story of the UFT’s founding to set the tone for a conversation with your members at this month’s chapter meeting about why the union matters to them. If you bring a cake or make a card to celebrate the anniversary, please send a photo to uftphotos [at] gmail [dot] com (uftphotos[at]gmail[dot]com).

UFT urges lawmakers to reject charter school expansion

Union activists and parents began the midwinter break by joining UFT Vice Presidents Karen Alford and Janella Hinds at the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus weekend on Feb. 18 and 19 in Albany to warn state lawmakers that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to significantly increase the number of charter schools in New York City would come at the expense of needed space and resources for our public schools. In conversations in our schools and our communities, we will continue to drive home the message that public schools must receive priority over corporate charters. Hundreds of rank-and-file members will travel to Albany for the UFT’s Lobby Day on Monday, March 13, to tell their state representatives how an increase in charter schools will come at the expense of our public schools and to ask them to support the rest of the union’s 2023 legislative priorities.