United Teachers of Dade is on the rise
Rebounding from troubles, Miami union is attracting members with its new energy and leadership

By Daniel Gursky

Today, at an all-time high of almost 18,000 members, UTD can boast of being the largest union local in the Southeast United States—in a state where employees are not required to join the union.

“The union seems to be getting stronger every day,” says Ingram, who is also a member of the UTD negotiating team. “I like the direction we’re moving. Things are very positive.”

Heading the UTD leadership team is president Karen Aronowitz. Since her election victory in December 2004, the former high school English teacher has pursued an ambitious union agenda in professional issues, politics and organizing, along with bottom-line contract issues of better salaries and working conditions. In addition, the leadership has made sure the union finances are open and transparent; members are welcome to drop by the office to talk about finances or anything else on their minds, she says.

Union finances were at the root of the problems that surfaced in 2003, when the AFT discovered that former UTD president Pat Tornillo had stolen or misappropriated some $3 million of union funds. The AFT installed an administratorship in May 2003, led by Mark Richard, a labor lawyer and president of the United Faculty of Miami-Dade Community College. A new union constitution and bylaws were adopted as part of the administratorship, which ended in April 2005.

The tremendous membership growth has come in part from refocusing the efforts of the UTD staff, with more than two dozen now designated as organizers or organizer assistants. Trained staff are crucial, but the union’s increased focus on professional issues—in fact, UTD’s new motto is “the education experts”—has helped attract many new educators as well as veterans who didn’t see much reason to be involved in the past.

“I look at this as a professional association,” Aronowitz says. She compares it to what doctors and lawyers have through their respective associations, but with a strong dose of social justice activism mixed in.

That professional issues focus prompted the union to organize its first-ever “education summit” last spring. The meeting brought together teachers, administrators, business and community leaders, parents and others for a series of general sessions and workshops designed to get participants to “define what excellent schools look like,” Aronowitz says. One of the UTD participants was Ingrid Robledo, a Spanish teacher at G.W. Carver Middle School and a union vice president, who called the meeting “a beautiful opportunity that UTD provided for the whole community” to discuss how to improve schools. The union has compiled the information from the various sessions and is forming committees to disseminate it and to follow up on some of the ideas that came out of the summit.

Robledo says the summit is the type of initiative that not only can highlight the good work of the union but also bring in new members. “If people notice that we are really working to defend public education and the rights of workers in education, they will come and say they want to join the union. They see that what we are promoting is not our personal interests but the general interests of school workers. That’s the best way to recruit.”

Battling the other Bush

Educators throughout Florida have been dealing with a tough political climate in recent years under Gov. Jeb Bush. For the fall election cycle, UTD’s re-energized political activism has paid off with some important victories. One of the governor’s aims this year was to rescind or weaken the state’s constitutional amendment that limits class sizes. While UTD and the AFT’s state federation, the Florida Education Association, helped defeat those efforts, the governor and his allies retaliated by attempting to unseat some of the Legislature’s strongest protectors of the class-size amendment. That included Republican state Sen. Alex Villalobos, who faced a primary challenge from a well-financed member of the Miami-Dade school board. UTD members worked hard to help Villa-lobos win the primary. “We want to make sure that friends of unions are in office,” says Ingram. “[Villalobos] voted with us, and we needed to help him. I would like to think that our push helped catapult him to victory.” Villa-
lobos won by fewer than 600 votes.

The union is continuing to work for its endorsed candidates in the November election, from the local school board up through governor and U.S. representative. Says Aronowitz: “We always want to support those candidates whose education policies reflect the needs of students and teachers.”

Labor relations are one of the biggest ongoing challenges for UTD, as for any local with collective bargaining rights. In their current contract negotiations, Aronowitz and UTD have staked out a strong position that the district needs to provide teachers and other staff with competitive salaries and benefits to cut down on the number of employees who are leaving for neighboring districts and states. One of UTD’s goals is to gain a $40,000 beginning teacher salary while maintaining competitive salaries for staff at all points in their careers.

While acknowledging that she is new to the area of contract negotiations, Aronowitz believes she has earned the respect of superintendent Rudy Crew. (Crew had previously headed the New York City public schools.) “I think he’s finding out how stubborn I am,” she says. “He’s discovered that I know what the issues are, that I am able to discuss them and that I will stand fast when necessary to make sure the requirements we need as professionals are met.”

Beyond the bargaining table, Aronowitz says a broad aim is to make sure teachers are listened to in all the decisions about how to improve schools. “People in classrooms and schools and work sites have to be part of the discussion if reform is to be successful,” she notes.

For his part, Crew has learned the importance of labor-management cooperation in districts he has led. During a recent symposium as part of the Broad Foundation’s annual awards program for successful urban school districts, Crew told the audience, “Your number one ally in school improvement is your teachers union. In New York and Miami, I was only able to do what I did because I did it jointly with the unions there.” The Miami-Dade schools were one of five finalists for this year’s award.

With all of UTD’s recent growth and accomplishments, activists like Ingram and Robledo are excited about the progress and the direction of the union. “There’s a friendlier atmosphere about the union now,” Ingram says. “I think people feel a lot better about how things are being run.” Adds Robledo: “The great news is that the union is stronger than ever. We have the support of members and even nonmembers. They notice the changes we are making.”