UFT ACTS

Join us on June 1 for Bringing the Common Core to Life with Primary Sources: Text-Based Academic Discourse, a FREE workshop developed and delivered by the UFT Teacher Center.

Participants will:

• Deepen their understanding of text complexity;
• Learn strategies that will engage students in evidenced-based discussions with informational text using the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources and additional online resources.

Click here to register.

When: Saturday, June 1, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Where: UFT, 50 Broadway, 2nd Floor Room B, New York, NY 10004

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Registration is required and space is limited.

By Rob Callaghan

Teachers from the Imagine Me Leadership Charter School have chosen to join the UFT.

The head of Imagine Me Leadership Charter School on April 5 sent a letter to all faculty and staff informing them that they would be terminated as of June 26, the last day of school, and would have to reapply for jobs.

“I’m really not pleased at the way teachers here have been treated — it is downright disrespectful,” said parent Ronald Lang, who serves on the school’s leadership team. “A lot of the students here have emotional issues. The teachers at the school refuse to give up on them and will not let the students give up on themselves.”

Educators reached out to the UFT in response to the letter and on May 1 they announced their decision to join the union.

“Charter school educators are organizing because they want a collective voice in order to create better schools,” said Anne Goldman, the UFT assistant to the president for charter schools and vice president-elect for non-Department of Education members. “I’m excited to welcome these brave educators into the UFT family.” Continue reading…

By Rob Callaghan

The educators at Lefferts Gardens Charter School in Brooklyn have joined together to form a union at their school.

In an April 15 letter to the school’s administration and board of trustees, the 32 teachers and teaching assistants invoked the vision and mission of the school as their reason for joining the UFT and expressed the desire to work collaboratively with the administration to continue to make progress at the school. In a separate letter to parents and guardians, educators asked for parents’ support of their decision to form a union, noting that the stability the union provides will help students, parents and teachers alike. Continue reading…

By Rob Callaghan

Educators at the Amber Charter School in East Harlem have a new contract.

The two-year contract, hammered out by the UFT and the school’s board of trustees, was ratified by a nearly unanimous vote on April 24.

Amber Charter School, a 13-year-old charter school, was the first charter school to organize into the UFT. The new collective-bargaining agreement, which runs from Aug. 14, 2012, to Aug. 14, 2014, is the sixth contract negotiated at the school. In that time, the UFT, Amber educators and the board have been able to craft a contract that supports educators to meet the needs of Amber’s students. Continue reading…

Teachers at two Brooklyn charter schools, in Lefferts Garden and East New York, have recently decided to join the UFT, which means the union will now represent hundreds of teachers and staff at 22 charter schools. In Chicago, more than 400 teachers and staff at a nonprofit network of charters recently joined an AFT affiliate, putting 20 percent of that city’s charter school teachers in a union. These are important victories for the labor movement, the teaching profession and the future of public education. Continue reading…