The Retired Teachers Chapter has gone through a lot of changes this year, and so has the country. RTC general membership meetings now have open discussion, debate and voting. The UFT did a 180-degree turn on Medicare Advantage. A resolution introduced by the Retired Teachers Chapter assured that, going forward, major health care changes will go before the UFT Delegate Assembly. RTC members’ activism helped get a pension re-amortization amendment removed from the 2025–26 New York State budget, keeping the city’s annual contributions to the Unfunded Accrued Liability fund on its current schedule.

But none of that will mean much if the world keeps falling apart around us. Our country now feels like a dangerous and scary place. Free speech is on the rocks, judges are being arrested, immigrants are being disappeared and deported to prisons in third countries, and student protesters, including legal permanent residents, are being arrested and expelled not for crimes they committed, but for words they spoke. Public education is being defunded, and the Trump administration is squashing efforts to close the achievement gap and make all students feel welcome in our schools. Organized labor is under attack, too. The Social Security Administration, Medicare and Medicaid face cuts. Trump is attempting to erase our nation’s complicated and rich history and replace it with a white nationalist fantasy.

And yet, I don’t despair. I’m encouraged to see UFT members taking to the streets and uniting in protest with our fellow union members on a grand scale. In-service UFT members and retirees are working together. That’s the way it should be! The RTC Labor Solidarity Project is now joined by the UFT Member Action Committee in recruiting and organizing members for the fight. Organized labor is an integral part of the firewall of resistance that is forming around the country. At a time when the president and the legislative branch are aligned against us, we are part of a strong movement to protect our immigrant communities, our unions and our speech.

As I write this column, I have no idea which of the three slates has won the UFT elections. But I do have some thoughts about the process. I believe that our union would be stronger if winner-take-all voting were eliminated. It unnecessarily divides us and has resulted in low voter turnout. The promise of proportional representation would encourage more members to vote.

I also believe that we would benefit from term limits on officer positions. There have been only five UFT presidents since the founding of our union in 1960, while in that same period there have been 12 U.S. presidents.

Rotation is the norm in our schools. Out-of-classroom school-based option positions last for one to six years, and professional assignments rotate. Rotation ensures equal opportunity among members and is a hedge against principal favoritism. Term limits for union officers would open opportunities for talented new candidates to take the reins and act as a hedge against the creation of a permanent leadership class.

Let’s move away from winner-take-all factionalism, which has turned union members against union members in this election. Instead, let’s focus on the real enemies around us. We have no lack of them.

We are all one union, and we only need one label: UFT.