UFT Teacher Union Day
AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten
Nov. 7, 2010
United Federation of Teachers
Exactly 50 years to the day that the fledgling UFT went on strike against the Board of Education for the first time, the union on Nov. 7 celebrated its own members at its annual Teacher Union Day Awards Ceremony. AFT President Randi Weingarten received the Charles Cogen Award.
Thank you, Michael. And thank you all. Being with my UFT family always feels like coming home. Teacher Union Day was always my favorite of the UFT rituals because it is a way to honor our own—generation to generation. I was honored to present the Cogen award each year I did, so you can imagine that receiving this honor makes this one of the most special days of my life.
I’d like to first say a few words about the man for whom this award is named, Charles Cogen, as well as my two predecessors Al Shanker and Sandy Feldman. All three were presidents of both the UFT and the AFT. Charlie led the strike that secured bargaining rights for the city’s public school teachers. But that strike and the work that lay ahead was not about the fight—it was to secure a voice for teachers, and a greater measure of economic dignity for them, and to use collective bargaining as a tool to secure conditions that improved teaching and learning. (Sound Familiar?) Sandy and Al are best remembered by others for their clout and savviness in building this amazing union, and the bread and butter work they did for the members.
And although Charlie, Al, Sandy and I were very different in personality and style, we share much in common. We saw (and see) the labor movement—and teachers unions, in particular—as the cross-section—the pivotal catalyst—of economic and educational opportunity. One the great equalizer for young people, and the other the great equalizer for working people.
Al and Sandy dedicated their lives to make our country a more just place, and for public schools to be places of greatness. They fought for kids as much as they fought for the adults who served them. They knew that the fight for economic security and professional dignity that workers rightly deserve went hand in hand with the fight to ensure that our schools and our public institutions were the best they could be. And speaking of dignity and respect, no group of workers deserves that dignity and respect more then the educators of our city, our state and our nation, who because of what they do everyday in their classrooms, and every night at home preparing, are the