Susan E. Wagner HS Chapter Leader Lillian Palladino credits the union-negotiated process for tackling excessive paperwork for resolving an issue at her Staten Island school and for “unifying staff, revitalizing morale and bridging the gap with...

Melissa Alvarez, the chapter leader at John Bowne HS in Flushing, Queens, used the new dispute resolution process in the DOE-UFT contract to get a speedy response to a safety violation: no teacher assigned to the high school’s SAVE room.

Chapter leaders are the backbone of the UFT. It is you, the union’s frontline representatives, who know best what is happening in the schools; who can be the union's eyes and ears in these uncertain times; and who can motivate and mobilize UFT members into the powerful force that we are.

This section of the website was created to provide you with information and tools to do this invaluable job.

Chapter Leader Lucas Rule knows he is fortunate to have a collaborative working relationship with his principal at Pathways College Preparatory School, a grades 6–12 school in St. Albans, Queens. But when one of his members struggled to resolve a...

When teacher Jeanette Acevedo arrived at Automotive HS in Brooklyn in September 2015, she was amazed to discover there was no chapter leader and “everyone was afraid.” “I wasn’t afraid,” she declared, “so I ran for chapter leader and won unanimously...

Chapter Leader Deborah Navarro has built a “union proud, union strong” chapter at PS 226 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, based on what she calls “true collaboration.”

Chapter Leader Rose-Marie Hannon is working hard to get a new roof over the heads of staff and students at PS/MS 47 to end the chronic leaks, mold and odors that plague the school in Broad Channel, Queens, and create a safe and healthy work...

When her former principal at PS/MS 108 in East Harlem declared, “The UFT is bad for teachers, bad for students and bad for schools,” Chapter Leader Amanda Walsh accepted the challenge and stood up to him.