Union leaders and representatives from the union’s private sector, 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.

“It’s important that everyone in the union understand that there are UFT members all throughout the city, in all kinds of roles — from education to health care to law,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “Knowing that there are UFT members everywhere we go will make us stronger.”

Of the UFT’s nearly 200,000 members, New York City’s nearly 80,000 public school teachers represent the largest share and UFT retirees account for another roughly 70,000 members. That leaves approximately 50,000 workers — in other DOE job titles or working for other employers — who make up the rest. Those UFT members belong to the Federation of Nurses/UFT, UFT chapters representing an eclectic group of private school educators and nonprofit organization workers, and the union’s DOE and city functional chapters, which represent members in specific job titles such as school secretary or education officer.

Anne Goldman, the UFT vice president for private sector and other non-DOE members and a leader in the new initiative, emphasized that the sheer size of the union gives the UFT its strength in collective bargaining. “We have an incredible bench of very dedicated people,” she said, indicating the attendees at the launch. “That’s what a union of this magnitude can do. It means we can respond to the needs of the members and fight for a fair deal.”

Surveying the wide range of members at the launch, UFT Secretary LeRoy Barr said, “We are truly a union of professionals.”

A chief goal of the new initiative is to inform members about the diversity of UFT members in terms of both job and employer. “I look at the union as a family, and you don’t want to go on Ancestry.com to figure out all the members of the family!” said Mulgrew.

That understanding can produce a deeper sense of common purpose.

“This is an unveiling of the breadth and scope of our union,” said retired Vice President for Special Education Carmen Alvarez, who is heading the initiative. “We’re not little disparate parts — we’ll be stronger the more unified we are.”

As part of that effort, the Dec. 19, 2024, issue of the New York Teacher honored and recognized the expertise of school related professionals in the union.

Another prong of the initiative is a project to research and write short “biographies” of each of the functional chapters, starting with those that represent school related professionals.

In the fall, Kiara Royer, a fellow with the Coro New York Fellows Program in Public Affairs, began the painstaking work of researching the origin and early days of each chapter to record those histories for posterity. Royer completed 17 biographies; Joe LoVerde, the former New York Teacher editor, will continue the project throughout 2025.

The evening was a “lovely opening event,” said Susan Kavanagh, the chapter leader of the UFT’s Audiologists Chapter.

She particularly enjoyed Royer’s description of her research. “The UFT has a long and storied history,” Kavanagh said, and she is looking forward to learning more about the history of each functional chapter.

The UFT collected feedback from the chapter leaders at the event and will survey the members in those chapters to ask how the union can better support them.

The thread that connects all UFT members, Mulgrew said, is their commitment to their fellow New Yorkers.

“Every title in this union is about caring,” he said. “We have almost 200,000 members who have dedicated their lives to caring.”