Dec 8, 2005 5:48 PM
This year’s Charles Cogen Award, the UFT’s highest honor, went to Thomas Y. Hobart Jr. for his visionary work in helping to forge a statewide union — New York State United Teachers — that today represents more than a half-million educators and health-care workers.
In her introductory remarks, UFT President Randi Weingarten spoke of the vision Hobart shared with former UFT and American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker “of putting together in New York State something not replicated anywhere: a single teacher union of rural, suburban and urban teachers that would speak for all of them with one voice.”
Through that vision, she said, Hobart and Shanker created this “united, strong powerhouse in New York State.”
She also praised his work as co-founder of the state Labor-Religion Coalition.
In accepting the award, Hobart said, “Our voice in the state is a mighty voice.” He described the UFT as “the rock that held NYSUT together” and spoke of all he learned from Cogen in the early years “when I was wet behind the ears.”
Paying tribute to Cogen, Shanker and Sandy Feldman, another UFT and AFT president, and to the “trail blazing” of Weingarten, Hobart declared, “The future is bright because of what Charlie started and you continue to build.”
He credited “the power of our voice in the state” for the defeat of former Sen. Alphonse D’Amato and the election of U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. While he called the union structure “mighty,” he added, “Our work is not done. The elections of 2006 and 2008 will be crucial.”
Looking back to the days when “a woman’s hair length and clothes were up to a principal’s whim and when starting salaries were $3,500 a year so that teachers had to have a second, part-time job,” Hobart cited “the strides made in the last four decades.”
As the leader of NYSUT, the union president traveled the world working with organizations to fight for trade unionism, health care, fair employment practices and humanitarian causes. He began his 50 years as a union activist as a teacher and president of the Buffalo teachers’ union.
Hobart spoke movingly of the “15,000 brothers and sisters, some of whom lost everything,” in Hurricane Katrina and encouraged UFTers to support the relief fund as generously as Louisianians helped us after 9/11. He is serving in the state and AFT relief effort to support hurricane-stricken members.
Cogen, the first president of the UFT and leader of the strike that won members the right to bargain collectively, was called “the George Washington of the UFT” at the time of his death in 1998. The union presents the award in his honor for outstanding dedication and service to the union.