This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Functional chapters are made up of UFT members who perform a particular job, rather than work together at a school or worksite. Functional chapters were formed to allow UFT members with common issues and concerns to have a voice on the job.

Here are some items to take care of right away and others that will help you prioritize and stay on track.

Download print-friendly versions of UFT-DOE and city contracts.

Here is the calendar for the 2025-26 school year.

For Milton Pincus, the decision to call off the November 7th strike in return for Mayor Robert Wagner’s promise of a fact-finding committee loaded with the leading lights of the city’s labor movement, was a no-brainer. From where he stood — outside...

Learn about commonly used terms in evaluation and what they mean.

Learn how much you are being charged in union dues and how they are calculated.

Learn how much you are being charged in union dues and how they are calculated.

Become a member of the UFT!

The UFT offers many different ways to stay in touch with the union and get the latest updates on your rights, benefits, discounts, workshops, campaigns and more.

Within months of the end of World War II the country was convulsed in the greatest wave of strikes in its history, before or since. With the memory of the Great Depression still fresh in their minds, many workers saw the huge post-war layoffs as a...

March 2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the union’s formation, the beginning of its remarkable growth and extraordinary power and influence. Those 50 years of triumphs and advocacy have strengthened the education profession and New York City public...

The Big Bang theory may be right about the origin of the universe, but it isn’t much help when it comes to explaining the making of a union. Like other unions, the UFT didn’t just explode onto the scene in 1960.

Class lessons can’t always be used right from the web, but they can offer teachers a great place to begin their planning, and can help you to shape your own ideas.

The United Federation of Teachers accepts advertising in its newspaper, the New York Teacher, and on its website. For advertising inquiries, please contact UFT sales representative Jacqueline Gottlieb at jgottlieb [at] uft [dot] org (jgottlieb[at]uft[dot]org) or 212-598-7735.

If a controversial topic is dominating the education debate today, it’s probably something that Al Shanker proposed decades ago

As his fledgling union teetered on the brink of a strike, Albert Shanker was the linchpin of a last-minute settlement that laid out the goals that would dominate his thinking for the rest of his life.

Links to online resources cited in "Linking to Learning" columns in New York Teacher.

The UFT offers many programs and services for teachers to help them hone their skills and meet certification and licensing requirements. The union also offers courses to help teachers prepare for state exams and workshops to fulfill requirements for...

Roger Parente still gets up early. Only these days it’s to get in a game of tennis before the stifling mid-day heat of the Southern California desert sets in. Approaching 70, Parente is surprised how well a decade of retirement has agreed with him...

Nat Levine will never forget the time his principal made the mistake of tangling with a young union organizer.

As a state-approved provider of continuing teacher and leader education (CTLE) hours, the UFT's LearnUFT program offers low-cost professional learning opportunities specifically designed to meet our members’ needs.

Our contract includes a provision that allows teachers to challenge procedural flaws in their observations and/or other aspects of their evaluation. This “streamlined process to resolve APPR compliance issues” has come to be known as the APPR...

Below is an alphabetical list of member rights. Click on the topic to view an easy-to-follow explanation of that right with links to additional resources and/or contract language.

We've compiled some of our most frequently-asked questions for our members looking for information about retirement and UFT retiree benefits.

Learn how much you are being charged in union dues and how they are calculated.

The current school-budget crisis is no surprise to many veteran city public school educators. Fiscal turmoil seems to assault our schools every 15 or 20 years. Typically, teachers are called upon to save the day and, for the sake of the children...

The UFT offers an array of programs to meet its members' needs.

Albert Shanker was born to immigrants from Czarist Russia, Morris, who delivered newspapers, and Mamie, a garment worker holding union cards in both the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union.

The UFT represents many employees other than teachers, both in the school system and beyond. Paraprofessionals, school counselors, secretaries and others participate in their local school-based chapters, but they are also part of union-wide...

Read what we are seeking from the city to support our youngest learners so all kids #StartStrong.