Powerhouse in action

When NYSUT fights, we win. Our grassroots political action gets results that change lives for the better. That was true in the union’s earliest days and it is just as true today. Victories celebrated in the union’s 50th year rest on a foundation laid by generations of union activists.

In 2022-23, the statewide union and its national affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, notched some legendary legislative wins:

• Student loan debt relief for members, after years of advocacy to fix the broken student loan system and make it easier to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
• A 7.2 percent increase in school aid, more funding for pre-K and support for tackling the teacher shortage.
• More funding for SUNY, CUNY and community colleges; mental health services; and much-needed relief for SUNY hospitals.

These gains reflect a philosophy voiced by Al Shanker, a visionary founder of NYSUT, who told members: “It is as much your duty to preserve public education as it is to negotiate a good contract.” When public services are strengthened, everyone benefits.

Securing funding is a perennial focus at the start of the legislative year, while later sessions present opportunities for safeguarding or expanding members rights. Examples include the 2014 Safe Patient Handling Act that provided guard rails for NYSUT health care members and their patients; a 2018 law that gained for School-Related Professionals enhanced protection against unfair terminations; and a 2022 pension improvement to begin fixing Tiers 5 and 6 — reducing vesting from 10 to five years of service. An estimated 85,000 members are now vested because of that change

This two-part mission — fighting for members and the institutions they serve — has been a constant since NYSUT’s earliest days.

In its first decade, NYSUT achieved “a revolution in tenure” that established transfer rights for teachers who changed tenure areas. In the 1990s, the union successfully defended members in East Islip whose tenure rights were threatened.

Throughout its 50-year history, NYSUT has been a strong advocate for fair and equitable funding in education. In 1976, union lobbying resulted in a legislative override of the governor’s veto — the first in 104 years — to prevent devasting funding cuts to New York City schools. In 1993, NYSUT joined coalition partners suing the state for adequate funding in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit.

In 2003, after years of litigation, the state’s highest court reaffirmed the state’s obligation to offer all children the opportunity of a sound, basic education. The court directed the state to take steps to correct existing inequities and deficiencies. For years following this historic ruling, New York state had mustered only piecemeal compliance. NYSUT’s timely “Fund Our Future” campaign in 2020, featuring a statewide bus tour and multi-media messages highlighting student need, was a manifestation of the union’s non-stop advocacy. In 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state’s commitment to finally fully fund the Foundation Aid formula.

“This closes a chapter that dates back to the first Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit in 1993,” exulted NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. It meant more than $2.7 billion in additional school funding in 2023–24 alone.

NYSUT history shows that virtually every major advance resulted from steady, sustained union activism over not just days, or years, but decades. Whether the issue was correcting pension inequities or ensuring workplace safety, persistence has been essential to progress in the political arena.

The banner year of 2000 illustrates that point. That was the year NYSUT advocacy achieved a milestone, eliminating the career-long mandate for a 3 percent pension contribution by Tiers 3 and 4 members and making it easier for them to retire before 62. That same year, after NYSUT and its allied unions held one of the biggest rallies ever mounted in Albany, the Legislature enacted a permanent Cost-of-Living Adjustment for public sector employees — immediately benefitting 100,000 NYSUT members then and continuing to benefit members going forward.

Over the years, the union had secured hundreds of incremental improvements — one-year sweeteners, for example — while pressing relentlessly for a permanent COLA. In the 1980s, NYSUT won a half-dozen early retirement incentives and pension supplementation and health insurance protection for retirees. After three years of intense advocacy, NYSUT in 2016 celebrated a new law that allows all veterans in the state’s public retirement systems to receive credit for their service, regardless of when and where they served.

It won passage of the “12-for-10” law, providing School-Related Professionals a full year’s retirement credit for each full school year worked. In the 1990s, there were more early retirement incentives and the largest one-shot pension supplementation to that date. The historic achievement of a permanent COLA represents the proud culmination of years of effort.

When Velma Hill, a legendary UFT leader of paraprofessionals, was discouraged over the seemingly slow pace of change, she sought counsel from her mentor, the revered civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who had organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. “He told me a story that still guides me,” she said. “A stone cutter had to break a rock. He hit it 100 times, and it would not split. He got so tired. But at the 101st blow, the stone split apart. And Randolph said, ‘Velma, it was not the last blow that did it, it was all that went before.’”

NYSUT’s proud record of legislative achievement is matched by its success in stopping or undoing bad ideas. Three times in its history, NYSUT helped derail the push for a Constitutional Convention that could jeopardize pension rights, the last time — in 2017 — in the face of significant odds. Voucher schemes aimed at privatizing public education were stopped. NYSUT has several times achieved legislation that hit the pause button on the state’s reviled Annual Professional Performance Reviews. Similarly, thanks to NYSUT lobbying, the burdensome edTPA assessment for aspiring teachers was eliminated once and for all in 2022.

Safer workplaces benefit everyone — including the students who share them and the patients who receive medical care. NYSUT’s efforts helped secure the landmark Safe Schools Against Violence Act and dozens of bills addressing air quality, mold prevention, safe laboratory procedures and more. In 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic showed the alarming gaps in the health care safety net, NYSUT helped win requirements for Safe Staffing Labor/Management Committees for hospitals and nursing homes.

Taking direction from the Representative Assembly, NYSUT drafts and proposes bill language. It organizes lobby days, briefs and supports the Committee of 100, and strategizes advocacy campaigns. Its work is supported by NYSUT lawyers and communications, field and research staff.

The dry legalese of legislative victories can never convey the blood, sweat and tears they represent. For each member whose life is changed, it’s personal.

Because NYSUT persisted in achieving a permanent COLA, Sullivan County retiree Winifred Temple no longer had to “make do” on her rapidly eroding $704-a-month pension.

Because NYSUT persisted in eliminating the “parenting penalty,” Vivian Berkowitz of the Utica TA, who had taken time off to have children, was re-instated in her original pension tier.

Because NYSUT persisted in supporting a bill requiring AEDs in every school, hundreds of lives have been saved, including East Hampton custodian Dexter Grady, SUNY Oswego professor Judy Schneider and 16-year-old student Andrea LaFleur.

Because NYSUT persisted, achieving the landmark Safe Schools Act, the agony member Dawn Jawrower suffered from an attack was not in vain. Pregnant at the time, the then-Yonkers teacher and her unborn child survived. She went on to represent her union on the task force that developed the Safe Schools Act. As NYSUT marked its 50th anniversary, she was back in the classroom, a teacher still.

Behind each individual stands generations more who have benefitted from NYSUT victories over the union’s first half century. It is too soon to catalogue the impact of 2023’s victories, but we know from experience: When we fight, we win.

And lives are changed for the better.