A Tale of Two Teachers Union -- Norm Scott writes in Indypendent
A Tale of Two Teachers Union -- Norm Scott writes in Indypendent
Scott asks in his latest Indypendent piece: Why have teachers unions in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York taken such divergent paths?
The following is an excerpt from Norm Scott’s piece in the Indypendent. Read the entire piece at: https://indypendent.org/2023/05/a-tale-of-two-teachers-unions/
Why have teachers unions in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York taken such divergent paths? What is New York City losing by having a neutered teachers union that eschews militant grassroots organizing in favor of insider politicking? What would it look like for New York City to have a teachers union with deep ties to its school communities as well as other social movements and that was ready and willing to throw down against our local billionaires in order to elect a bold progressive to lead the city? After all, the UFT has almost 200,000 members, making it almost 10 times larger than its sister union in Chicago and has more financial and personnel resources at its disposal.
Norm Scott is a retired New York City public-school teacher who taught for 35 years and was involved in three UFT strikes. He has participated in many UFT opposition caucuses since 1970 and is the editor of Ed Notes (ednotesonline.blogspot.com) since 2006. He is currently active with Retiree Advocate, a retiree caucus challenging Unity Caucus for control of the 60,000-member UFT’s retiree chapter.