Recognizing the importance of this year’s elections, UUPers from across the state volunteered to participate in phone banks in the weeks prior to Election Day.

Close to two dozen UUPers staffed NYSUT’s regional office in Syracuse to get out the vote in Central New York for NYSUT-endorsed candidates. Members from four chapters—Upstate Medical University (UMU), Cortland, Morrisville and Environmental Science and Forestry – reached out to urge their union brothers and sisters to vote.

“Our people were motivated to support candidates who are pro-public higher education,” said statewide Executive Board member Brian Tappen of UMU, who organized the Syracuse phone bank operation. “This was a turnout election, so we called fellow union members to express the need for them to vote for endorsed candidates.”

With key election races taking place on Long Island, close to a dozen Stony Brook UUPers turned out to make calls on four different evenings. Western New York, also a major electoral battleground, set the stage for 15 UUPers from the Buffalo Center, Buffalo State and Buffalo HSC chapters to take part in a phone bank.

Covering the Southern Tier, a group of UUP members from the Oneonta Chapter traveled nearly 70 miles to staff the phone bank at NYSUT’s regional office in Vestal. New Paltz Chapter members traveled to NYSUT’s Kingston office to participate in a phone bank.

Smith commended the efforts.

“I’d like to thank our members for setting aside time from their busy schedules to work the regional phone banks,” he said. “I am proud of the work our members did to help carve out these victories.”

— Donald Feldstein