Editorials

Something special

Mar 1, 2007 3:11 PM

UFT members are about to engage in something quite special though for them it’s routine: union elections.

It’s special because of the unusual openness in which the UFT conducts all its business, particularly its elections. It has always employed an independent outside agency to count the ballots — since 1975 the American Arbitration Association. As a result, throughout the existence of the UFT no presidential election result has ever been challenged.

The union makes its list of chapter leaders available to all candidates and caucuses, it permits candidates to give out materials in the schools and outside Delegate Assemblies and it is one of the few, perhaps the only union in the nation, to give free space in its official organ to all candidates and caucuses. See for yourself on pages 31 through 38. These free election ads will be repeated in our next issue, as well.

This openness during the election is consistent with the union’s philosophy since its beginning. For example: The UFT publishes — in the New York Teacher — a full audit report of its finances every single year. Delegate Assemblies and Executive Board meetings are open to everyone and the negotiating committee and most key committees are determinedly bipartisan.

The election, of course, is the most basic element in building a democratic union and there you have a major responsibility. Democracy, as we know, is not the will of the majority; it is the will of the majority that votes. So read the material in our election section, familiarize yourself with what the various caucuses and candidates stand for — and participate.

Having a union is something we wish all workers in the country could have. And with that union, free and open elections should determine who will speak for the people in the field. Both should be routine in the American workplace. It should not be something special.

But it is.