Educators in California’s Bay Area ended their three-week strike on June 9, enabling them to be back in their classrooms for the final week of school. The strike, the New Haven Unified School District’s first, saw nearly 600 teachers, school counselors, psychologists, speech therapists and nurses join picket lines outside their schools in a fight over pay.

Some 18,000 teachers in the Clark County School District in Nevada have vowed to strike if the state doesn’t come through with funding to pay for salary increases without cuts to the classroom.

With the UFT’s support, Farah Louis won the special election on May 14 to fill the New York City Council seat left vacated by Jumaane Williams when he became the city’s public advocate. 

Public school teachers in California are forced by state law to pay for their own substitute teachers when they take extended sick leave. 

Hundreds of McDonald’s workers walked off the job in 13 cities on May 23 to call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour and expanded rights in their workplace, including protection from sexual harassment. The labor action came the same week as employees in 20 cities filed sexual harassment complaints against the fast food company.

Although they officially became Albert Shanker College Scholarships in 1998, UFT college scholarships have been helping New York City public high school students from low-income families since their inception in 1969. Many of these scholarship winners have gone on to distinguish themselves in amazing careers. Here are the stories of six of them.