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| The AFT's new leadership team. Photo by Russ Curtis. |
The convention—AFT’s 78th—kicked off with an emotional session that highlighted the accomplishments of retiring president Sandra Feldman and featured her final keynote address as president. Feldman, who has headed the national union for the past seven years and is stepping down for health reasons, urged the delegates to continue the fights she has led for equal rights and the interests of the nation’s schoolchildren. That includes advocating for high academic standards for all students, high-quality preschool programs, universal healthcare, better wages for workers and, perhaps above all, “a level playing field for all children, in and out of school.”
Feldman’s speech also turned personal, as she recalled her formative years as a civil and human rights activist and her subsequent role as a union activist and leader. As much today as at any time in its history, the AFT “must—and will—continue to lead the way” in fighting for children and families. In a number of states, the union and its affiliates have made gains in securing good preschool programs and smaller class sizes. Fittingly, one of Feldman’s central ideas—extending the kindergarten year to 15 months to better prepare disadvantaged children for first grade, what she calls Kindergarten-Plus—was the focus of introductory remarks by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). The senator announced that he is introducing national Kindergarten-Plus legislation in Congress—in a bill named in honor of Feldman.
The tribute to Feldman ended with a video covering her career as a teacher and organizer in New York City for the United Federation of Teachers; as a UFT and AFT president; and as an advocate for children, the labor movement and democracy. Surprise guest Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) praised Feldman’s “extraordinary vision, leadership and commitment” to education, healthcare and labor.
The new leadership team delegates elected at the convention pledged to carry on the rich tradition of Feldman and her predecessor Albert Shanker. Edward J. McElroy was elected president, along with Nat LaCour as secretary-treasurer and Antonia Cortese as executive vice president. Cortese, an AFT vice president from the New York State United Teachers, is the new face on the national leadership team. Delegates also elected the union’s 39 vice presidents. Ten of them are new, including PSRP leader Kathy Chavez of New Mexico. (See box at right.)
McElroy focused on politics in his first speech as president. He outlined the damage done by the “misguided leadership from the White House and the majority in Congress” to AFT’s various membership constituencies, including PSRPs. “Paraprofessionals and school-related personnel know firsthand that funding cuts for schools often mean job cuts for school support staff,” he declared. “Their work is crucial to our children’s well-being, yet too often school support staff pay the price for short-sighted local, state and federal policies.”
The AFT’s first order of business, McElroy said, is to rally the full force of the union and its members behind the effort to elect John Kerry president. After outlining many of President Bush’s destructive policies, he added, “There is one more thing that this administration and this presidency will be remembered for—lasting only one term.”
Kerry rocks the house
A few hours before delegates elected McElroy, Sen. Kerry delivered a powerful plea to the audience that packed the hall to join his fight for the White House. The Massachusetts Democrat detailed a vision for the nation’s future based on hope and a belief that values without deeds are no values at all. “Politicians who talk about valuing morality and personal responsibility ought to start by keeping their own promises,” he said.
One glaring broken promise has been the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. “Millions of children have been left behind—left with overcrowded classrooms, left without textbooks and left without the high-quality tests that measure what they are learning,” said Kerry, who pledged not only to fully fund NCLB and special education but also to address the longstanding crisis that inadequate, unsafe public schools present. His address touched on a range of other issues important to AFT members, including teacher quality, affordable college tuition, the threat posed by vouchers, the need for healthcare reform and our country’s role in the world. “I will keep America secure, but I pledge you this: We will never go to war because we want to; we will go to war only because we have to.” Before Kerry’s speech, delegates resoundingly adopted a resolution endorsing him for president.
A focus on PSRP issues
The PSRP divisional meeting, held early in the convention before the general sessions and resolutions, also incorporated politics as a main theme. Two speakers discussed unprecedented ways the AFT and its allies are working to get as many union-friendly votes as possible to the polls this fall. Shamina Singh from America Votes talked about the efforts of her group—a coalition of the AFT and 32 other organizations that together represent 20 million members—to increase voter registration and participation. Neil Robertson of the AFT’s political and legislative mobilization department focused more specifically on how the national union is working with PSRP affiliates to communicate with their members on key issues.
PSRP division leader Lorretta Johnson emphasized the vital role to be played by the AFT’s PSRPs, about a third of whom live in battleground states. “Politics has got to be the most important focus when we leave here,” she said. Johnson also outlined the continuing impressive membership growth of the division, which now stands at just under 200,000 members.
Delegates at the divisional meeting discussed a number of resolutions of interest to PSRPs that were later adopted by the entire convention. One of them, “It Takes a Team,” picks up a theme the AFT is using to spotlight the vital work of support staff. After highlighting the work of paraprofessionals, secretaries, bus drivers, food service workers, custodians and security personnel, the resolution resolves that the AFT will continue to pursue and support research that documents PSRPs’ work, encourage its affiliates to “recognize and promote” the importance of PSRPs, and urge state federations and locals to advocate for professional development for staff “that enables them to positively contribute to student achievement.”
One resolution that drew PSRP delegates to the microphones dealt with work-related musculoskeletal injuries. The resolution was initially aimed at promoting better ergonomic standards for office personnel but was amended to broaden the focus to all workers. Jackie Ervolina, who heads the United Federation of Teachers’ school secretaries chapter, said many of her members suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome and other work-related injuries. Fellow UFT office employee Diane Moriarty, who suffers chronic pain from workplace injuries, testified in front of officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, as part of an effort to get the agency to adopt ergonomic standards five years ago. One of the first things the Bush administration did after taking office was kill that effort.
Other resolutions adopted by delegates dealt with such topics as NCLB, childhood obesity, and training in health and safety.
Another lively general session celebrated the AFT’s impressive organizing successes. As Nat LaCour pointed out, in the seven years that Sandra Feldman led the national union, the AFT won 90 percent of its elections, gained 365,372 members and issued 829 new local charters.
