New Action – UFT
Fighting for educators, building chapters, increasing democracy, with a progressive agenda
"Educators are under attack. This is not news. What has changed in the last 30 years is a decrease in the effectiveness of the UFT to counter the power of the DOE. There are many reasons for this decrease starting with a young, new workforce with many barriers to union activity and a lack of connection to unionism. Teachers today have no connection to the necessary strikes and job actions of yesterday that produced workable conditions in our schools. There is no solidarity, union or otherwise.
Second is the change of pedagogic philosophy from an education model to a corporate model. We recognize some of the elements: top-down structure with no feedback or collaboration from teachers, data driven based on massive testing and without regard to proven educational practices (educate the whole child), establishing a subjective pay system based on merit and bonuses, and strongly anti-union."