Ed analysts are UFT members, arbitrator rules

The UFT has more than 100 new members.

A precedent-setting decision by arbitrator Martin F. Scheinman, delivered in early September, extended union membership to 112 of more than 120 educational analysts whose status had been in dispute.

Emelina Camacho-Mendez, the UFT liason to the education analysts’ and officers’ chapter and one of the union staffers who led the charge to extend union protections to the analysts, described the arbitrator’s decision as a great victory for the UFT.

“Whenever we are able to achieve better working conditions and offer more support to those who serve our students and communities, it is a victory,” Camacho-Mendez said. “We are pleased to welcome these newest members into our union.”

In its grievance, the union argued that the Department of Education had violated the UFT-DOE contract by refusing to recognize certain educational analysts as members of the union.

Scheinman, the arbitrator, judged each of the more than 120 cases presented by the UFT separately, using the stipulation in the contract that all educational analysts are members of the union unless they are “managerial,” “confidential,” or work in certain offices such as the Office of the Chancellor to determine which of the analysts are, in fact, members.

In addition, the arbitrator ordered that, moving forward, the onus is on the DOE to inform the UFT whenever it hires additional educational analysts who fall under the union’s collective-bargaining agreement, or when it changes the roles or responsibilities of existing analysts in the union.