You have our condolences. There are a number of steps you need to take. You can find out what to do when a retiree passes away on the UFT website. If you have further questions, please contact the UFT-RTC Pension Department at 212-598-9536.

The UFT maintains five borough offices where you can call or walk in to ask a question or have a problem addressed. You can find a list here, with hours and addresses. 

In the borough offices, you will find:

• Salary representatives to help you with payroll problems or delays, and check that you are getting the right salary.
• Pension consultants who can respond to your questions about the pension system.
• Educational liaisons to advise you about certification requirements as well as classroom issues.
• Safety representatives are specially trained to respond to incidents as well as environmental health and safety issues.
• Other staff who can help or direct you to the proper place for any other issue such as leaves, health insurance, transfers, contractual problems.

If you aren’t sure whether or not you are already a member, look at your pay stub. If the deduction code says “UFT,” it means you are a member. 

If you are not a member, joining is very simple. Active DOE employees, retirees and charter school employees whose school has a UFT bargaining agreement may enroll in the UFT online. If you have any questions about enrollment eligibility or run into difficulty with the online union enrollment process, please call the UFT at 212-331-6311. They will be happy to assist you.

For DOE employees, dues are currently set to .85 of one percent of the maximum contractual salary of your title at Step 8B plus 20-year longevity, plus added amounts for the union’s state and national affiliates. So, all the members who are teachers are paying based on the teachers’ salary schedule, all the school secretaries are paying based on the secretaries’ schedule, etc. The exception is paraprofessionals, who pay half the dues of teachers. Dues for members of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter (who joined the chapter on or after July 1, 1984) are 0.4 of 1% based on their retirement allowance. In general, members who do not have the step and lane salary structure like teachers or who are not DOE employees pay dues around .85% of salary, plus the pass-through. Dues change as a result of salary changes or revisions to the pass-through. Changes and the entire schedule of dues are published annually in the New York Teacher.

Here is the full listing of UFT dues for all bargaining units.

UFT members’ dues pay for the full array of services that your union provides to support you and your career — everything from professional support services and development to help you be better at your job to negotiating and enforcing the contract; from representing you in disciplinary cases to providing you with professional, social and entertainment activities; from keeping you informed through this website and union publications to shaping public policy through the media. Some part of your dues goes to support our state organization NYSUT and our national parent the American Federation of Teachers. But most of your dues pay for services provided directly to you.

Check the current dues schedule on the UFT website or call the UFT at 212-331-6311 to find out your dues amount. The website dues section also explains how your dues are calculated.

Yes, you can. You can join the union by filling out our online enrollment form. 

If you have any questions or run into difficulty with the online union enrollment process, please call the UFT at 212-331-6311.

Active DOE employees, retirees and charter school employees whose school has a UFT bargaining agreement may enroll in the UFT online. If you have any questions about enrollment eligibility or run into difficulty with the online union enrollment process, please call the UFT at 212-331-6311. They will be happy to assist you.

Other job titles should contact their chapters or call the UFT at 212-331-6311 to enroll. 

You can enroll in the UFT if you are a New York City Department of Education pedagogue, paraprofessional, hourly group or retiree, or if you belong to one of the charter or private schools, hospitals or non-profit organizations in which employees have UFT representation.

To find out if you belong to a UFT collective-bargaining agreement, call the UFT at 212-331-6311 to verify your eligibility for UFT membership.

To find out if we have your correct address on file and to update it if we don’t, the quickest way is to log in to the UFT website and go to "My Account" in the top right corner. From the My Account page, you can access our online change of address form. 

You can also send an email to membership [at] uft [dot] org (membership[at]uft[dot]org) from the email address on record with the union.
You must include:

• your first and last name
• your UFT member ID number OR the last four digits of your Social Security number OR your file number OR your EIS number
• the new information

If you receive Welfare Fund benefits, you may also update your mailing address by filling out the fill out the Welfare Fund’s Change of Status Form on the UFT website. You must be logged in to access this form.

You can also call the UFT at 212-331-6311 to check if we have the correct address.