Before there was a union

NYSUT members today have the power of a statewide union at their back, providing a collective voice, strong contract protections and a secure retirement.

How bad was it back then, before there was a statewide union?

Retirees remember.

When Lou Cammarosano started teaching in 1956, members of the profession barely met second-class citizen status. You could be disciplined for reasons ranging from your politics to your pantsuit — to the sales job you’d taken at night because your daytime salary was so low. Or because the superintendent’s brother-in-law wanted your job, or for no reason at all.

“Forget having any preparation time. Teachers did not have time off for lunch. Principals could call a meeting at any time in the morning or evening and, to keep your job, you had to go,” said Cammarosano, who taught for 40 years in Harrison. “We were to be seen and not heard.”

Rosalie McLean, who began teaching in 1947, was incensed when the Amherst district arbitrarily laid off teachers and school nurses, destroying careers and retirement security. The reason — “simply saving money” — galvanized her into becoming a union activist.

College faculty could be fired without charges or hearings — a fate that befell 31 faculty at St. John’s University in Queens after a 1965–67 strike.

In the late ‘60s, a married teacher with two children made a starting salary so low the family would qualify for food stamps. Banks were wary of issuing mortgages to teachers because of their meager salaries. Central New York teachers made less than day laborers; people who washed cars made more than teachers in New York City. Other school employees fared even worse.

Married or pregnant women need not apply. In 1956, Sabina Brown was forced out of her Herricks teaching position because she was pregnant. “When I came back in 1958, I got very active in the union,” she said. “The issues of salary were always there, but it was the issues of fairness that drove me.” Also destined to become an activist, Central New York teacher Charlotte LaPorte was directed by her principal to hide in a closet so the superintendent wouldn’t notice she was pregnant. In the early ‘70s, Amityville teacher Elaine Gangloff was forced to take unpaid leave during most of her pregnancy.

Westmoreland teacher Francis C. Plano was fired over topics he assigned in English class.

A teacher in Western New York was fired because of his haircut. Another, because she wouldn’t make homemade baked goods for her principal.

New York City nurse Anne Goldman, now a United Federation of Teachers vice president, recalled how nurses in the ‘70s could be compelled to scrub floors instead of caring for patients. “It was a horrible time, and when we look back, we all say, ‘Where did we get the nerve to do this?’” Goldman said of their union organizing.

“There were never any good old days for trade unionists,” emphasized UFT leader Jeanette DiLorenzo. “That’s a myth. There were always hardships, a hostile press and fear — but we persevered.”

Despite the low pay, non-existent benefits and lack of respect, decades ago many teachers wrestled with the novel idea that you could be a professional and a unionist.

That included a young Buffalo teacher who was not in favor of unionism when he was hired in 1959 for a starting salary of $3,500.

“I was on the salary committee, and we made a presentation to the school board with flip charts showing why we needed a $100 raise,” Tom Hobart recalled. “The board president got up and he said, ‘These teachers are wonderful. I don’t think $100 is enough. They deserve a $1,000 raise.’ Well, I was happy to hear that but then the president said, ‘Only we can’t afford it. So as an alternative, I would ask all the members of the board of education stand and give them a hand.’ And the members did, and we didn’t get a raise, and I became converted on the spot.”

Hobart would go on to be a principal architect in NYSUT’s formation and serve 33 years as its founding president.