Editorials
The backbone of the union
Jun 5, 2008 11:54 AM
"Your EKG is great, blood pressure is down, pulse is strong — either you’ve quit your teaching job or the school year is almost over."
It’s easy to forget, sometimes, when there is an eventful year like this one — do you feel like the little Dutch boy with 11 thumbs? — how much the union is indebted to its chapter leaders. UFT President Randi Weingarten called them the spine of the union.
It is a crushing job. The paperwork, alone, takes up all their spare time. Well, it would if they had any spare time.
Chapter leaders have to be inspirational leaders, shepherds, negotiators, intermediaries, psychoanalysts, politicians, money-collectors, bodyguards and cheerleaders. And more. And oh yes, they have to do a little teaching, as well.
They have to know all about member rights and member benefits, they have to have command of arcane facts and details about pension and payroll, they have to memorize Department of Education regulations and … well, you name it. And if they don’t have the facts at their fingertips — or in that mountainous pile of paperwork — then they have to know where to get it or where to direct their members for the information. As we said, it’s a crushing job and the wonder of it is that so many UFTers have been such excellent and dedicated chapter leaders, some for many years.
So it is particularly distressing when there is a situation like the one at IS 193 in Brooklyn, as the story on page 4 makes clear. Chapter leaders should not have to put their professional life on the line to stand up for contractual rights or to insist that the students receive all the services to which they are entitled. No one should, but chapter leaders are particularly vulnerable because they often take the heat for their members.
Chapter leaders have to stand up to school administrators when there are problems. They have to become advocates for school staff members. Often, they are the ones who file grievances so individual educators don’t have to, like for class-size violations, for example. They have to take the lead in defending the contract.
That is their role in what ought to be a civilized balancing of power between management and worker. In many schools there is such a civilized give and take. In some schools there is even much more, a true collaboration between the administrators and the staff, where the chapter leader and the principal can discuss problems and reach an amicable, mutually acceptable solution. Regrettably, there are some schools where chapter leaders feel like they are walking the plank every time they go into the principal’s office.
And yet they do it.
The UFT will pull out all the stops to support and defend chapter leaders in such situations but it is the chapter leaders who must live with the daily threat and unpleasantness. We salute them for their courage and steadfastness. We salute all chapter leaders for the enormous contributions — known and unknown — that they make for the welfare of their chapter members and for the strength of the UFT.
They truly are the backbone of the union.
