The UFT has mounted a campaign in Albany this spring to pass legislation that would help rein in spiraling health care costs by barring hospitals from charging outrageous fees for emergency care to out-of-network patients.

As the July 1 deadline to pass the city budget approached, the UFT made a full-court press for city funding for Teacher’s Choice and four other UFT-led education programs: the United Community Schools initiative, the Positive Learning Collaborative, the BRAVE anti-bullying program and the Dial-A-Teacher homework helpline. 


Telling the story of why the union matters, Geof Sorkin, the executive director of the UFT Welfare Fund, discussed the “very robust benefit package” that UFT-represented employees have.


The UFT Delegate Assembly on May 22 overwhelmingly voted to endorse Queens Borough President Melinda Katz in the special Democratic primary for Queens district attorney scheduled for June 25.

This year, the legal cap was reached. While the charter sector is pushing Albany to raise the cap, public school communities are saying enough is enough.

The wave of teacher strikes hit California’s Bay Area on May 20, when teachers walked out of their classrooms in the school district covering Union City and South Hayward for the first time in the district’s history. About 600 educators, represented by the New Haven Teachers Association, joined picket lines outside their schools to demand pay raises over two years totaling nearly 7 percent.