Speaking for women and the public

Speaking just two days before the six-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., AFT president Sandra Feldman opened the AFT Women's Issues conference with a call to continue fighting for the things that make America a great nation and against the forces that would diminish it. The conference, called "Woman Power: Inform, Educate, Act," was held March 8-10 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, D.C.

"Our nation is learning lessons that are strengthening its values," said Feldman. "First we've seen that America is more than an economy--it's a community." When the terrorists struck, a spirit of community brought out people from every walk of life to answer the call for help during the disasters and their aftermath, she said.

A second lesson we learned, said Feldman, is that the marketplace is "hardly magical." We've been watching the terrible shame of the Enron executives who've ripped off investors, workers and their families. "Employee pensions would have been protected if they had been unionized," said Feldman to audience applause.

These terrible disasters have also allowed us to see what happens when freedoms are forbidden, said Feldman.

"We can be proud that for all its faults, our nation is an ally and example for freedom," said Feldman.

Seventy percent of our members are women with rights and benefits, said Feldman. Half of all presidents of the hundred leading locals, and 22 state federation leaders are women. "We're a union that speaks out louder and clearer than ever, not only for professionals in public service but for all the people we serve."

Feldman noted that the changes and improvements that the union fights for "always mean better services for the public we work for." Teachers want what children need and nurses want what patients need, college professors want what students need, she cited. "We have always fought not only for ourselves but for others."

The union president made a call for universal preschool education, noting that 60 percent of mothers with children under age 3 are working outside their homes. "Early childhood education is key--it should be available to all with costs that are shared," she said. "It's a fight we're continuing to make."

Feldman also noted that the union has begun an ambitious HIV/AIDS education program in Africa, where an estimated 30 million people are infected with the virus. "You'll be hearing a lot more about our campaign in coming months," she added.

Also on the dais to open the women's issues conference, presented by the AFT human rights and community relations department, was AFT vice president Louise Sundin who welcomed the more than 130 participants and Coalition of Labor Union Women President Gloria Johnson.

During the conference, AFT leaders heard from such speakers as AFT vice president Ann Twomey, Democratic Governors Association campaigns and elections director Pam Womack, AFL-CIO assistant to the president Karen Nussbaum, and Regan Grice-Vega, a UFT chapter leader whose firefighter husband was killed in the World Trade Center attacks.

An organizing committee of graduate employees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute voted this spring to affiliate with the New York State United Teachers and the AFT. The group, the Graduate Employees Association of Rensselaer (GEAR), will be seeking an election to represent some 500 graduate and teaching assistants on the private university campus. They are part of a wave of graduate employee organizations that have come before the National Labor Relations Board seeking to hold an election in the past year.

GEAR is fighting RPI's imposition of dramatic changes that will take a terrible bite out of the employees' finances. The worst: While formerly funding the graduate employees for the duration of their Ph.D. program, a time that could span five to 10 years, the institute wants to change the funding guarantee to two years, forcing many to find their own funding to complete their studies.

Other issues for GEAR include health insurance benefits, wide cross-departmental disparities in compensation, health and safety issues in some departments, and inadequate anti-discrimination and sexual harassment policies, says NYSUT field representative Megan O'Brien.

International higher education labor leaders met in Montreal, March 14-16, to discuss how they might leverage power to improve their institutions, the education systems in their countries and the large organization of which they are a part, Education International (EI).

EI has more than 25 million members worldwide. They are teachers, faculty and education personnel who are dealing with issues such as globalization, the rights of educators and the need to educate increasing percentages of their populations even though resources are declining.

A nongovernmental organization (NGO), EI aims to exert influence on international bodies, such as the World Trade Organization and UNESCO, the education branch of the United Nations. At the EI Third World Congress held last summer in Jomtien, Thailand, the delegates passed resolutions on the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), ending child labor, AIDS education and prevention, and human and trade union rights, among other topics. They also voted on their officers and re-elected AFT president Sandra Feldman as a vice president.

The leaders who gathered in Montreal for the third EI Conference on Higher Education and Research represented 36 national organizations from 26 countries. With the theme of "Reasserting the Global Academic Community," the group picked up where its parent organization left off last year. The academics made presentations on the commercialization of higher education, threats to academic freedom and human rights, understanding intellectual property issues and the growth, internationally, of the contingent work force.

Unquestionably, the issue most on people's minds continues to be GATS. The agreement would allow free market policies for trade in services, including adult and "other" education and possibly extending to higher education. Through the passage of resolutions, AFT delegates have signaled their opposition to any trade policy that threatens to weaken public education--or public services--at home or abroad. The AFT, working with the AFL-CIO, has communicated these positions and works to oppose multilateral organizations or mechanisms that undermine national sovereignty and weaken democracy.

As in the United States, faculty leaders from near and far expressed concern over actions their administrations take that have less to do with institutional missions and serving the public good, and more to do with profits and a bottom-line corporate mentality. International faculty also expressed frustration over the need to raise the awareness of colleagues who are not paying attention to these global issues.

In opening remarks, EI president Mary Futrell noted that at George Washington University, where she serves as dean of the School of Education, and at other institutions, colleges have "commercial appendages" to promote marketable products or to secure research funding. "The question I would ask is, what is the voice of faculty in planning, developing and implementing such initiatives, especially since the world is now viewed as the market by many colleges and universities?"

Futrell also touched on a topic that came up frequently over the weekend: the implications of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on what we teach, how we teach and how we, as influential organizations, advocate for federal spending policies. This was a topic that Mary Burgan, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, dealt with further in the only conference presentation by an American.