[ Social Justice ]

Justice conference unites three NYSUT committees

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ctivists gathered in Albany for the NYSUT Justice Conference in November, a first-ever joint meeting of the union’s Civil and Human Rights, LGBTQ and Women’s committees. Members gathered for a weekend filled with inspiration, and a shared commitment to uplift voices, celebrate diversity and advance social justice in communities statewide.

a banner for the 2024 Justice Conference, featuring overlapping hands and handwritten messages of support and action
A weekend-long highlight was a “perseverance” group art activity. It asked members to write a response to the question “how do you persevere?” on fabric squares and pin them onto a large canvas to create a colorful justice conference collage banner.

NYSUT Executive Vice President Jaime Ciffone opened the event. “Post-election we should be as one as we commence this work,” she said noting that uniting efforts would help committee members better achieve the union’s social justice goals.

NYSUT Board member Kim McAvoy, treasurer for the Rondout Valley Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel, agrees. “Knowing the positive pieces that come from being a part of this union … I know that we will continue to fight,” she said.

“We have three big pieces that we’re digging into to move this conversation of social justice forward,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person of the union’s One-in-Five anti-childhood-poverty initiative; its campaign to combat hate through implicit bias trainings and other awareness programs; and NYSUT’s reverse runaway inequality initiative that calls for an additional tax on those earning over $5 million to fund public-benefit programs.

Committee members met as one for a Friday opening session, broke off into individual committee meetings for day two and rejoined as a group for day three to discuss how the committees could work together to advance the union’s three-pronged social justice agenda.

Women’s Committee
Sessions developed by Women’s Committee co-chairs Latrice Curry, Leslie Rose and Marne Brady ranged from the impact of alcohol on women’s health, to menopausal self-advocacy to a presentation about the American Cancer Society Voices of Black Women cancer study, which seeks to enroll and track 100,000 Black women to improve Black women’s breast cancer survival rates.

“This is the first time we’re looking at a population and saying ‘what is going on here? Why is this happening and how can we help?’“ said Joni Richter, associate director of Cancer Center Partnerships.

A group of Women’s Committee members staged a live reading of “We Were There,” a play about notable female activists and leaders, for all conference participants Saturday evening. “We’ve been trying to bring the play to NYSUT for years, but we’ve finally had a chance to pull it together,” said Rose.

Civil and Human Rights Committee
Presenters Malcolm Gilbert and Jeff Orlowski discussed the detrimental impact of stress on educators and shared coping techniques in a resilience-building workshop.

“We’re not going to be able to cut the stress out of your life. That’s not the goal of this training,” said Orlowski, who with Gilbert shared breathing exercises and other centering techniques to help participants manage the sometimes overwhelming responsibilities of union work. “Our goal is to build up your capacity to handle the stresses … resilience is the difference between the capacity you have and the stresses you have.”

Other committee workshops included a session that explored how to become a co-conspirator in pushing back against institutionalized racism and the benefits of and strategies for teaching Black history.

LGBTQ Committee
LGBTQ committee members broke into subcommittees to brainstorm policy resolutions for the next Representative Assembly. These centered on developing unionwide training and awareness programs and fostering new ways to engage with the community and build alliances.

A panel of LGBTQ + parents also spoke about their experiences with their children’s schools, and shared strategies for overcoming difficulties. After choosing Huntington for its welcoming environment as the birthplace of the Long Island Pride movement, United Federation of Teachers member Eric Rubin Perez and his husband were disappointed when a Pride month initiative was undermined. “I talked at a PTA meeting about celebrating Pride month and parents seemed really excited … but behind closed doors, another story was unfolding and eventually nothing happened,” said Rubin Perez. “It was disappointing.”

The NYSUT Social Justice Conference was developed under the leadership of NYSUT Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham, whose office coordinates social justice issues for the union. Learn more about NYSUT’s social justice work at nysut.org/SocialJustice.