UFT members are prepared to fight for the contract they deserve. That was the message resonating across the city on Jan. 30, as educators gathered in their schools for “teach-ins” led by members of each school’s Contract Action Team.

A restaurant industry-backed coalition collected enough signatures to force a binding referendum on a new California law that would empower a state council to set wages and working conditions for 550,000 fast-food workers.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the Starbucks union movement, the company’s workers held rallies on Dec. 9 in 10 cities nationwide, including New York City. The UFT was among the unions at the City Hall rally.

Just two of this school year’s grievances over excessive class sizes citywide remained unresolved by Thanksgiving — thanks to a powerful provision in the 2018 Department of Education-UFT contract.

The thousands of layoffs at Twitter and other tech companies in recent months have renewed a focus on the decades-old federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires written notice of at least 60 days for mass layoffs and plant closings.

The UFT is fighting to preserve the "unicorn" status of premium-free health care for New York City public school educators, even as most public and private sector employees have to pay hefty premiums.