To Our
Members

Between contract fights, budget season and the daily work of getting through a school year, it can be easy to lose sight of a simple truth: our union is powerful because of you.

Not because of a title or a logo. Because hundreds of thousands of everyday people have decided to stand together and fight for something bigger than themselves.

And when we do, extraordinary things happen.

When 15,000 NYSUT members and allies packed MVP Arena and demanded that New York Fix Tier 6, we moved the state. We won years of life back for our members and made retirement fairer for the next generation.

But none of that happened because someone powerful decided to give us something.

It happened because people organized. They showed up. They spoke up. They stood together. And they stayed in the fight.

That’s how change has always happened.

It wasn’t so long ago that New York educators didn’t even have the legal right to bargain collectively. The rights and protections we have today were won by ordinary people who believed things could be better and were willing to do something about it.

That same power belongs to us now.

You see it in the educator who speaks at a school board meeting. The bus driver who stands up for a coworker. The professor who organizes their campus. The retiree who knocks on doors. The local leader who brings people together around something they believe needs to change.

None of them has to be extraordinary on their own.

The extraordinary part is what happens when we stand together.

That’s the story we’re telling in this issue.

Whether you joined NYSUT this morning or 30 years ago, I hope these pages remind you of something important: You don’t just belong to this union. You are this union.

And 700,000+ everyday people standing together have extraordinary power to make a difference.

In solidarity,