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BTU New Teacher Steering Meeting

With the school year underway, educators in Baltimore city eagerly welcomed their students back to school. For new educators, the first week was an opportunity to get themselves acquainted with the daily mechanics of the school and the students. The advice and preparation from others were now to be put into practice. After the first week, the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) gathered the New Teachers Steering Committee for a brunch to goal-set the committee’s objectives for the upcoming school year.  

BTU field representative Cindy Sjoquist organized the gathering at Baltimore’s Dovecote Cafe

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Sen. Guzzone & Del. Hill Visit Perkins

Healthcare professionals at Clifton T. Perkins turned to their union when they wanted changes at their facility. Their union, AFT Healthcare-Maryland, hearing the demand from members, arranged a meeting with state legislative leaders so they could hear from our members just what was going on in their districts. State Senator Guy Guzzone and Delegate Terri Hill met with AFT Healthcare-Maryland members at Perkins Hospital Center. Del. Hill shares quite a bit in common with the members at the facility, as she is also a trained medical professional. Her knowledge led to a robust conversation

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Statement on Gun Violence in Texas and Ohio

STATEMENT FROM AFT-MARYLAND PRESIDENT MARIETTA ENGLISH
ON THE RECENT MASS SHOOTINGS IN TEXAS AND OHIO

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"62648","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image media-image-right","style":"width: 45%; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px; float: right;"}}]]Over the weekend, the nation once again witnessed violence in its worst form: mass shootings that took the lives of nearly 30 people in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. These shootings are again abhorrent and represent the worst in human behavior. They demonstrate that too many Americans use violence as the language with which they communicate. While we are still waiting for a motive in the Dayton shooting, we know the violence in El Paso was motivated by white supremacist xenophobia and ethnic hatred. We also know the shooter was inspired by the words and behavior of our president. White supremacist violence has long haunted many Americans and has resulted in the death of too many black and brown people.

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AFT-Maryland COPE Meeting held

AFT-Maryland convened the state federation’s political committee to discuss and prepare for the upcoming 2020 elections. In compliance with all federal labor laws, no members’ dues are used for electoral politics. Instead, the Committee On Political Education (COPE) raises funds from member contributions outside of dues, dedicated explicitly to and for use in political candidate campaigns.

The locals represented at the meeting were the Baltimore County Federation of Public Employees (BCFPE), AFT Healthcare MD (AFTHCMD), and the City Union of Baltimore (CUB). Leaders from those locals discussed

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BTU 2019 Teacher Leaders

The 2019 cohort of teachers that made up the Baltimore Teachers Union Teacher Leaders Program displayed their work before an audience of peers and supporters at their closing exercise. The Teacher Leader program is funded by a grant from AFT. It allows participants to identify an educational obstacle, and during the course of the eight-month program, they research solutions to the problem.

BTU Teacher Leader Facilitator Carla McCoy said, “As has been the standard for the AFT/BTU Teachers Leaders, Cohort 7 did not disappoint! Each participant used their passion for students and other

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Bills benefiting members signed into law

AFT-Maryland had a busy legislative session, working to get several bills passed and signed into law. Gov. Larry Hogan held a signing ceremony for three bills that affected locals in the state federation. One was a bill placing employees at the Maryland School for the Deaf into the State Personnel Management System. This was a bill that MSD and AFT-Maryland worked hard over the course of several sessions to get passed. Teachers at the Maryland School for the Deaf are fully considered state employees and are no longer contractual.

The other two bills signed were pieces of legislation of

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