In the latest salvo in its bid to control and reduce the size of the federal workforce, the Trump administration has decreed that union contract provisions permitting telework for federal employees are invalid because they conflict with management prerogatives.

Union leaders and representatives from the union’s private, nonprofit and Department of Education functional chapters gathered at union headquarters on Jan. 16 to kick off a new union initiative intended to showcase and amplify the work of members in the diverse titles and collective bargaining units in the UFT.

Teaching artists at Lincoln Center, who are represented by the UFT, have reached agreement on a new five-year contract with significant economic gains and more input to help shape the type of education they provide.

New city legislation requires that city-owned property, including public schools, generate at least 100 megawatts of electricity from solar panels by 2030 and 150 megawatts by 2035. The bill is a boon for the environment, public health, affordable energy and union jobs, the UFT and other advocates for the law say.


Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed legislation to set a maximum classroom temperature of 88 degrees in public schools following a campaign led by the UFT and its state affiliate NYSUT. The new law takes effect in September 2025.


Educators at Boerum Hill School for International Studies in Brooklyn have banded together with students, parents and PTA leaders to demand the city reallocate classroom space being underutilized by a Success Academy charter school.