Testifying in Albany on Feb. 6 on the executive budget, UFT President Michael Mulgrew called for a $2.2 billion increase in education funding in the coming fiscal year — substantially more than the governor proposed.


Ray Frankel, a founding UFT member who continued to serve the union until the end of her life, died on Feb. 23 at the age of 98. Her union work was her life and her true love.

Public school teachers in Oakland, California, ended a seven-day strike on March 1 with a deal to boost teacher salaries by 14 percent and improve classroom conditions.

Members of the lone bargaining unit to vote down the Department of Education-UFT contract last fall ratified a revised agreement on Jan. 31, allowing them to receive their February salary increases with all other UFT-represented employees who work for the DOE.


Licensed practical nurses at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York — members of the Federation of Nurses/UFT — unanimously ratified a two-year contract on Jan. 30 that provides for the largest salary increase in the history of the chapter.

Slightly fewer U.S. workers belonged to a labor union in 2018 than in 2017.