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UUP members made their presence felt during the 36th annual NYSUT Representative Assembly (RA) in April in New York City. The largest delegation of UUPers to ever attend an RA — more than 110 in all — debated nearly 70 resolutions, shared opinions on myriad issues, and elected four of their colleagues to the NYSUT Board of Directors.
UUP President Phillip Smith was elected as the union’s at-large member of the NYSUT board. And in the sole contested race for board seats from NYSUT Election Districts, UUP delegates re-elected Rowena Blackman-Stroud of Brooklyn HSC, Patricia Bentley of Plattsburgh and Thomas Matthews of Geneseo. Glenn McNitt of New Paltz, chair of the statewide UUP Outreach Committee, challenged the incumbent board members.
The UUP delegation then split among the nine resolution committees — ranging from college and university, to civil and human rights, to political action, to health care, to retirement — to lend their voices to the debate and to urge their NYSUT colleagues to support higher education initiatives.
Key among them: A UUP resolution asking NYSUT to monitor the continued work of the state’s Commission on Higher Education as it prepares its final report, and to ensure that any public policy stemming from the report “have a positive effect on our state’s public higher education institutions.” RA delegates adopted the resolution.
UUP President Smith served as recorder during the committee meeting, which was co-chaired by UUPer Candelario “Kiko” Franco of Old Westbury.
The other UUP resolutions that were adopted ask NYSUT to:
- call on the state’s purchasing officers to implement the intent of New York’s sweatfree legislation by
contracting with responsible, sweatfree vendors (those who do not employ children or violate workers’ rights); - express outrage at the actions of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute president, provost and Board of Trustees for suspending the college’s Faculty Senate following an election of senate leadership critical of the campus president; oppose the interference of politicians in medical decisions and to support a woman’s right to control her reproductive rights;
- condemn the acts of censorship and restrictions on intellectual freedom on the people of Burma by that
government’s restricting access to information networks and the Internet; - support justice for workers at Smithfield Packing in their efforts to organize, and to urge management at the North Carolina plant to stop all forms of abuse, intimidation and violence against workers; and
- publicly declare support for the federal Employee Free Choice Act, which would give employees the right to choose union representation.
Following a non-concurrence recommendation from the Constitutional Amend-ments and Bylaws Committee, delegates voted down an amendment that would have made additions to the NYSUT membership bill of rights in the constitution.
In a separate vote, RA delegates overwhelmingly endorsed United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), to take over for retiring President Edward McElroy. The election will be held during the AFT’s July convention in Chicago.
Meanwhile, one UUP chapter newsletter and the union’s retiree publication earned high honors in the annual NYSUT Journalism Contest run by New York Teacher.
The Active Retiree, UUP’s newsletter for its more than 3,300 retiree members, earned two first-place awards, while Unifier, the Farmingdale Chapter newsletter, picked up three second-place awards.
Unifier — edited by Farmingdale UUPer Yolanda Pauze — won Awards of Merit for General Excellence and Best Front Page. An editorial on salary disparities by UUPer Robert Reganse earned the chapter an additional Award of Merit.
“Content is rich and well focused on local issues and activities,” the judges wrote. “Nice clean look and good use of graphics.”
The retiree newsletter won top honors for General Excellence for publications with a circulation of more than 1,000. The award recognizes outstanding writing, photography and design.
The Active Retiree offers “nice, clean layout with good use of color and photos,” according to contest judges. “Broad-based, excellent content.”
Another first-place award went to SUNY Albany retiree Donald Cohen for Best News Story. Judges hailed the article, “SUNY Albany opens emeritus center,” as a “most comprehensive and well-written look at the emeritus center” and “a good, clean report of the event.”
Committee on Active Retired Membership Chair Judith Wishnia of SUNY Stony Brook was on hand to accept the awards from NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi.
— Karen L. Mattison