“Teachers have always had power,” AFT President Randi Weingarten told the crowd at the TEACH opening plenary Thursday afternoon. “We need to own our power. And we need to build our power so we can move our agenda—for our students and our families; for safe, welcoming and well-funded public schools; for affordable higher education; healthcare that is a right, not a privilege; a living wage; a decent retirement; a healthy climate and a strong democracy.”
In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest column in the New York Times, she writes that, despite President Trump’s claims that we have the “best economy ever,” his policies are harming working and middle-class Americans, many of whom are struggling just to get by. “Our political and economic systems are so weighted toward the wealthy that opportunity will only come through the power of collective action,” she writes, using “the surest vehicles to increase opportunity for ordinary Americans”—public education, labor unions and voting. Read the full column.
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.
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.
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.
Some of education’s biggest problems come with its littlest students. At a working breakfast for paraprofessionals in prekindergarten, early childhood and Head Start, members swapped strategies for solving problems. Their discussion came during the AFT PSRP conference last week in Las Vegas, where paras from all over the country zeroed in on professional development and adequate classroom coverage.
After being snowed out in early February, leaders and selected members of AFT-Maryland locals gathered in Annapolis for their annual legislative reception. At this event, members and leaders interact with Delegates and state Senators in a light-hearted social affair. While the mood is light-hearted, business is always on the menu.
Come join with your sisters and brothers in labor for
Union Night in Annapolis
Monday, March 25th, 2019
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Meet on the Southeast Lawn
at the corner of Bladen & Calvert Streets
Annapolis MD 21401
On a March Friday, a collection of state workers who decided they no longer wanted to be just employees, but that they wanted to be leaders in their workplace, convened at the AFT-Maryland office for a steward training. This training equipped members with skills on how to engage fellow workers and managing a range of worker related issues.
When federal legislators wanted to protect public water, they knew they could call on President Antoinette Ryan-Johnson of the City Union of Baltimore. They knew she’d be the perfect ally for this fight to protect public water.