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Organizing
The UFT believes that all workplaces benefit when workers have a voice on the job and can engage constructively with management to address concerns. Since its founding days in 1960, the UFT has steadily expanded to help more educators and more professionals organize. Initially a union of teachers, it grew to represent secretaries, paraprofessionals and other school employees. Most recently, the union helped 28,000 child care providers unionize. We have also welcomed nurses who wanted representation from the UFT into our union of professionals.
In addition to DOE educators, the UFT has helped educators in numerous private, charter and secondary educational institutions organize, and is committed to continuing to welcome all educators who want a union voice.
Charter schools
Schools work best when educators are respected and when they are included in program and policy planning. We believe collaboration and communication are most successfully achieved when educators are organized and have the collective power of a union. Nowhere is this more important than in the charter school movement, where so many educators sign up to be a part of exciting, innovative efforts to improve education. Helping charter educators who want a union is thus an important commitment for the UFT. The UFT supports the organizing efforts of New York City’s charter educators through the UFT Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (UFT ACTS).
We reject the idea, unfortunately perpetuated by some charter advocates, that charter schools are better or have more potential because they are non-union. The UFT represents charter educators at 19 schools, whose track records refute this knee-jerk anti-unionism. It is not anti-charter to be pro-union.
Our ultimate goal is to help school and community leaders work with educators to build better schools and to help all our students, in both district and charter schools, meet their full potential. The UFT helps charter teachers do their jobs, their schools reach their goals, and their students achieve their potential. For more information, visit the UFT ACTS website or call our confidential hotline at 212-510-6464.
Read more about where we stand on charter schools in the Where We Stand section >>