|
Feldman addresses AFT's agenda for higher education Higher Education Breakfast Highlights
Transcript of President Feldman's comments Good morning. I ask your indulgence in advance. I have been awake and working since 4:30 this morning releasing our charter school report. You'll probably see a lot of stuff on it today. We did, of course, radio across the country which was very good and a lot of fun, but it was very early in the morning. I actually always look forward to this breakfast. I don't think I've missed a Higher Ed breakfast since I've been president. I think this is the largest breakfast that we've ever had in Higher Ed. It's great to see you all here. (Applause) I always enjoy not just talking to you but with you. I hope you'll continue a lot of the exchanges that we've been having. We're going to try to do some Q and A after I make some remarks. I love it when it gets down and dirty, as some of you know well. (Laughter) So, I want to just spend a few minutes, though, first talking about four things that I think will be central to the AFT success over the next decade and the role of Higher Ed's involvement in meeting those goals. The first of them I think is quite obvious and that is growth, organizing. There is just no question that if we're going to continue to be a strong and thriving union, which is what we have been throughout our history, we need to be an expanding union, an organizing union, a union that's imbued at every single level with the culture of organizing. I think we're having a lot more success at that than we've had in the past because we've actually got a conscious effort of trying to imbue that feeling about organizing at every level of the union instead of just having it come from the national staff, we're trying to get the state feds involved in it and the locals involved in it. If we don't successfully reach out to the next generation of workers in our own fields, as well, of course, in all other industries, we just will not be able to survive as a labor movement and as a union. So that's number one, organizing and growth. The second is political strength. I think that what we did Tuesday morning -- Tuesday morning? Yes. (Laughter) Was incredibly important. It was historic. The AFT has not adopted that kind of commitment, financial commitment to political activity before in its history ever. That was a major, major accomplishment. I think it's quite obvious -- I don't have to go through all of that -- but given the political challenges that we face, we have to really be organized and strong on the political front. Of course, you know, it would be a much better world if elected officials did the right thing just because it's the right thing to do, but too many of them don't. Even sometimes friends, sometimes people who in lots of ways are on our wavelength, find it politically expedient to go in another direction; and what convinces them to go in our direction basically is for us to be a force that candidates and public officials always have to reckon with because of our financial and political and intellectual capacity. So that's No. 2. No. 3: This union, and it took me a while but I'm getting really into it, needs to become adept at using the technologies. Just looking out at all of you -- although, I do see a good generational mix here, which feels good, but I know that it isn't easy to get into this. But we're finding that more and more communication is taking place through technology. We're trying to work on innovative ways that we can support our members to communicate better. I know that we have to try to figure out ways to help the locals really communicate with their members. I was a local leader for a very long time and I know that that's where the life, the heart of the union is, that connection between the local union, the local leadership and the members at that level. At the national level I feel a very deep responsibility to find ways to help our locals do the best possible job of communicating with and supporting the members and especially the new members, the younger members, and also give them the sense, which is the truth, that they are part of a larger union, national union, and also part of a wider labor community, the AFL-CIO. I think that that's something that we have to continue to work at and technology obviously is a big part of how we're going to be able to do that, especially communicating with newer and younger members. Fourth -- and I say this without seeming snobbish about it -- but AFT has always been, and I think must always be a union with substantial intellectual power. I mean that's who we are, that's who we've been. An important ingredient in our leadership has always been our capacity to produce research and do analyses and to have argumentation behind our positions that cuts to the heart of our issues, and succeeds in the marketplace of ideas. When you look at those elements, I think it's very clear -- and I don't say this to flatter you -- Higher Education really is and will continue to be central to our efforts as we go forward being a successful union. Just look at organizing. As I said, nothing is more important to our future than growing our membership. The record of Higher Education in that regard is, I think, enormous. The potential for growth is extraordinary. We still have a long way to go. But when I became president in May 1997, our Higher Education membership was 79,000. As we head into this convention, our Higher Education membership grew from 79,000 to 114,000. That's an increase of 44 percent. (Applause) You know, it's been in every sector in Higher Education: Four-year colleges and universities, two-year colleges, professional staff, part-time and adjunct faculty and graduate employees. Of course, these last two examples bring me to another point, which is that without a doubt, the union's success is going to be in our ability to attract the so-called new workforce, including this growing army of contingent and part-time professional and technical workers, many of whom may work for more than one employer. That's why we adopted that bylaw change after a lot of tough discussion. This was not an easy decision to make, and I congratulate you really because you had to compromise out so many different needs here, and you did it. You did it intelligently and I think it's going to make a very big difference and enable us to organize. We know that, you know, issues of contingent workforce touch every aspect of our union. We have substitute teachers, we have private agency nurses, we have a lot of people who are itinerant and who move around, who work from employer to employer. But Higher Education is the main stage where this is being played out. I think that we're also going to be learning a tremendous amount from your efforts to organize the contingent workforce. I want to say that we are very clear about our position on this. We know that overusing and exploiting contingent labor is not the way to provide essential services. We are a very strong force promoting full-time employment in the university and well-paid -- (Applause) We're going to continue to do that; we've been fairly successful at doing that. But we also know it's absolutely critical for the union to organize and represent part-time and contingent workers, we just have to, particularly in higher education. We have to help them win better wages and benefits, but also full professional treatment. It's not only in their interest, it's in our interest as a union. I know that so many of our affiliates have really made great strides in that direction, either in the legislature or at the bargaining table. There are very really wonderful successes out there that we can name in terms of creating a more professional environment for the part-time and contingent workers and, obviously, that strengthens us as a union. I'm very proud that AFT is the clear national leader in terms of organizing and bargaining and political action, as well as research and analysis on behalf of contingent faculty. We have our new good practices standards for part-time adjunct faculty, which I think is coming up on the floor at some point. It's, you know, again a demonstration of our leadership in this field. Now, I have to say something about NYU because we've come through a long and hard-fought battle there. I spent quite a bit of time there. It was a tremendous effort. We lost to the UAW, which they were on the campus before us. I am convinced that if we had more time, we would have won that, no question about it. (Applause) I wanted to thank everyone who participated in that, because it was a tremendous effort. The New York State United Teachers in particular really partnered with AFT and, of course, the Professional Staff Congress made a tremendous effort there. I just know that given another month, we would have had that, right? (Applause) Yes. Now, I have to say that with that behind us, I want to be very clear that we are going to continue to be a national leader in organizing part-time and adjunct faculty in America. You can count on that. We're already exploring new campaigns. You're going to find us wherever we feel we can mount a successful effort and that goes for higher education as a whole. We intend to maintain our leadership in higher education. Of course, with your involvement and support because we can't possibly do it without you. Your leadership I think has just been tremendous in this regard. Now I want to get back to the second element I cited, which was political action and look at higher education in relation to that. Now, what's interesting -- I just found this out recently -- we do these election night exit polls to try to find out, are our members following our recommendations, are they voting? Well, AFT Higher Education members turn out to vote in incredibly high numbers, which is not a surprise. But it's heartening anyway, 94 percent of our membership goes to the polls on election day. (Applause) What's even more pleasing in some ways, in many ways for us anyway, is that almost three-fourths of our Higher Ed membership turn out for AFT-endorsed candidates. (Applause) Which means after we fought it out, after we've had our arguments and our discussions and we make an endorsement, it's an endorsement ultimately that our members have faith in. That's really important. Not only that, but Higher Education members make the highest per capita voluntary contributions to the union, to AFT COPE. Those contributions are really, really important, because even with what we did on Tuesday morning, you have to remember that it is illegal to use those funds in federal elections. Those funds that we're going to have now will enable us to do so much more at the state level fighting these initiatives. But when we endorse candidates to the House and the Senate or a presidential candidate, we have to use voluntary dollars. We cannot use dues money, it's illegal. So your effort in the collection of those voluntary dollars is absolutely tremendous. I want you to know that your contribution to the AFT's political effectiveness is matched by the union's commitment to your union issues. There is just no question that when candidates come to us for support, we tell them that they have to place Higher Education issues high on their agenda. (Applause) We're going to continue to help our affiliates fight budget cuts, fight privatization. And the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act is going to be a major priority for us at the national office. (Applause) And just a few things that we know are of great concern to you, and I think it's also, you know, it speaks to your heart and soul in terms of that legislation, one of the things we're going to really fight to change is that short-sighted, mean-spirited trend of relying increasingly on loans instead of grants for students in greatest need. (Applause) Now, it is no secret that we, to put it mildly, that we have quite a few disagreements with this administration. Nevertheless, we're a large union and you've got to work with the other side, you just have to as a practical matter. We have developed a relationship. It's not easy, it's up and down. But we do have a regular relationship with the Department of Education. I had a meeting, my last meeting with the Secretary of Education, Rod Paige. I talked to him very specifically about higher education and I told him that we really wanted to have someone in his office whom we would have as an ongoing contact to talk about higher education, particularly as the reauthorization comes up. They've agreed to do that. Listen, if we can find ways that we can work productively or we can even mitigate some of the White House's opposition -- they're very, very powerful -- with the political situation that we have, it's a horrendous political situation. We've got a Congress, we've got a House of Representatives that is controlled by right-wing Republicans with, I think, really a horrendous point of view. They're way to the right of their own party. They're to the right of the White House. They're unbelievable. Then we have the Senate that has, you know, Daschle in the majority leadership by one -- one delegate vote. These elections coming up in November are going to be extremely important. Then you have the White House that is on the opposite side of so many of our issues. You know, we are going to be fighting vouchers in Washington, D.C. I mentioned in my speech, that Armey, Representative Armey put a bill in the very day that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cleveland voucher program, Armey put in a bill for vouchers for the Washington, D.C. School System. Now, mind you, here is a Congress that lives in Washington, D.C., that does nothing for the Washington, D.C. School System, that provides no support or appropriations for them. (Applause) Not only that, they don't provide jobs, they don't clean the streets, they don't care about housing. You know, when you get out of that federal circle, you are in a different city in Washington, D.C. So here he goes and he introduces a voucher bill for the schools. It's insidious because one of the things it does, for example, is it says that Washington, D.C. kids who use a voucher can go to the surrounding suburban districts with it. (Laughter) Now, like you will live to see the day surrounding districts will take kids with a voucher from the Washington, D.C. School System. They've attached this to the appropriations bill. So money that Washington, D.C. needs desperately, because obviously in terms of its residents, does not have a strong tax base. They've passed a voucher program for Washington, D.C. before when they had the entire Congress. And it is very likely that they will have the votes, unless we can somehow figure out how to stop it in the Senate. It will be difficult because of the so-called new Democrats, many of them are for vouchers as we know. So it's going to be very difficult. They passed it once before with Democratic votes, but we had a president in the White House who vetoed it. That's why we up to now do not have vouchers in Washington, D.C. We're very, very concerned that if we can't figure out how to get those votes in a much more difficult and toxic political situation, if they pass a voucher program, there's no question that Bush will sign it. So, you know, we really are in some very tough times. For me it's extremely gratifying to see that the union is so solidly together. Let me talk about the third item which I raised at the beginning. That is the whole issue of communications. Once again, not surprising that when we do -- we try to always keep on top of what our members are doing -- Higher Education members are the biggest users of our web site in the union. They're the biggest web users in general in the union. We know that graduate employees and part-time adjunct faculty are increasingly turning to the Internet to make decisions about whether and with whom to unionize. We expect that trend to grow. We also expect more and more people are going to turn toward electronic media for professional development. Here again, you are at the forefront of that. This spring the Higher Education web site was completely revamped and the new site is being continually updated with news and information. Now we are taking another step, we're starting to put together a private AFT web site for Higher Education members which will, among other things, give you access with a private password to give you the capacity to access data for collective bargaining, about salaries and about state spending. It will also provide analyses of contractual issues and eventually we hope electronic forums for information exchange which is all very, very important work. You'll be leading the way in this, and I think it's just great. The last issue I want to raise is, again, come back to the importance of the AFT leadership on the intellectual front. This union, when it was organized at the beginning, you know, by giants like John Jewett and George Counts, Albert Einstein -- we always remind people was a member of the AFT -- and our union pioneers in higher education, and in general of the union, Israel Kugler. Phil Kugler is sitting back there. I mean, his father was a major leader in developing this union, not just higher education. And Jules Kolodny who was a professor, he actually taught at NYU and he was a leader of the UFT and helped organize the union. So our Higher Education has always made an enormous contribution to our unique character. We are a unique union, a union that marries ideas and activism and professionalism, as well as being very, very tough on bread-and-butter unionism. That tradition continues today. I see it in every one of our locals out there making the fight on behalf of members and on behalf of students and on behalf of the institutions that we care so much about, much more most of the time than the people running them. (Applause) Now, next year we're going to implement an idea that was adopted by your program and policy council for an annual AFT Higher Education journal that's going to be called "Academic Labor." Really looking forward to that. It will be a publication that will have scholars from all areas of the academy analyzing important academic and workforce issues around a yearly theme. That will be a good way to show a face to the world of our intellectual capacity and leadership. Let me conclude with this: There is no doubt that Higher Education will be, has to be and will be central to the growth of the AFT, to the vitality and success of the AFT over the next decade, long into the future. I consider it an honor, really an honor to be president of the largest higher education union in America, and the best. (Applause) I want you to know -- and obviously we're going to have our disagreements, we're going to fight like cats and dogs, hopefully in a civil manner, but you can always count on me to put the strength of the union behind your efforts to advance the quality of your institutions, the work lives of your members, the education of your students, and to make the union stronger than ever. Thank you. (Applause) Q&A ROY WEATHERFORD, Local 7463: Madame President, I want to thank you for putting the strength of the union behind my organization. I'm Roy Weatherford, the president of the United Faculty of Florida Chapter at the University of South Florida, the largest university that nobody ever heard of. (Laughter) We are, in fact, the 13th largest university in the nation, but because we didn't have a football team for so long -- (Laughter) Unfortunately, a lot of people are hearing about us now because we have one of the most important academic freedom cases in the nation where the university is now under the thumb of the board of trustees consisting of campaign contributors to Jeb Bush who voted in December to recommend the dismissal of a tenured professor for political reasons. The letter that you wrote to the president of the university in support of our local and the principles of academic freedom and due process and collective bargaining rights, was extremely important, not only for the usual reasons of boosting the morale of the organization and getting the attention of the press, but particularly because your letter did such a good job of showing that the American Federation of Teachers disagrees strongly with everything this jerk says. (Laughter) But we will fight like hell to protect this right to say it. And your letter did a marvelous job, and I want to thank you very much for that. (Applause) PRESIDENT FELDMAN: Thank you. It's amazing, I've gotten some pretty ugly mail over it, you may have heard. Go ahead. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you for your remarks. It's a very exciting vision that you put forward for us. I know the fight on the legislative level is really important. I teach sociology of education at a community college. I also work with high school teachers and faculty as a part of a program. This voucher decision really profoundly upsets the idea of American education as a public institution; and that the attack on vouchers is really, as you have argued, it's a form of privatization. It also destroys the separation of church and state, which, of course, affects us in so many ways with librarians being censored on every level for trying to maintain a public sector. Two years ago during the stolen election, Randi Weingarten and other leaders called a demonstration of union people on 42nd Street. It was great being out there with my brothers and sisters from the UFT, from health care workers. I wonder if you and the leadership would consider a campaign that would involve grassroots organizing, almost like a week where we talk about vouchers, where we talk about privatization, where we join with community groups, where we really try to address the public as well as using the legislative agenda. PRESIDENT FELDMAN: Well, we have done quite a bit of that. For example, we were in the street when Bush came to Cleveland right after the decision and had an enormous demonstration there, the Cleveland Teachers Union, the AFL-CIO, and a bunch of other unions. The AFT, of course, helped organize it. We have already started meeting with the community leadership in Washington D.C. We intend to focus on trying to stop that bill. We will be doing demonstrations. Some people call for national marches. Those are sometimes effective and sometimes not effective. I mean, I've been marching all of my life. I have spent my entire life, and I love it. Anybody who's ever been to march with me knows that it's one of my favorite things. But I also think you have to be strategic if you want to be successful because you always have limited resources. You have to figure out, you've got to keep your eye on the ball. You have to make sure you're putting your resources and energies in places where you can be able to bump the struggle up even if you're not going to have an immediate success. So we're looking at places across the country where it's rearing its ugly head. Unfortunately, it's a lot of places. Truthfully, those kind of local demonstrations in many instances are much more effective because that's where the folks get elected. You have to remember that. We always try to remind people -- now, we do lobbying days in Washington, D.C., but if you don't pay attention to the home office where those people know that's their constituency, that's who's voting for them, it doesn't work. So we will be, we easily do demonstrations and rallies and we will have street action and will be doing all of that. But we'll be doing it strategically. LOU STOWER: Lou Stower (phonetic), Fashion Institute of New York City. My local had been without a contract for over two years and locked in a horrible struggle. I want all of the people here today to know that when Sandy found that out, she reached out to me, set up a meeting with me, intervened on behalf of our local. Last week we finally got a contract. (Applause) I tell you this for two reasons. The first reason is to very publicly thank Sandy for all of her help. But also to let everybody know that this is the kind of organization that we have and this is the kind of a president that we have. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause) PRESIDENT FELDMAN: Thank you. I do want to say this, speaking of demonstrations. You know, the UFT was in a major contract fight. The day when NYSUT was having its Representative Assembly, they took all of the delegates out into the street in a demonstration, which was very effective not only because it affected the mayor, but there were a lot of new young delegates there from upstate New York who had never been involved in any kind of action like that, which is interesting when you think about it. It's one of the challenges that we face, how to educate the new people who come into a full-blown situation where a lot of us have gone to jail and had strikes and done all sorts of things, and how to get them involved. That's another thing that these local demonstrations are so good for, because you get more people involved, young people involved. So there was this big demonstration on behalf of the UFT. When I was reading about it, I noticed that they also sort of, P.S., we went over to IFT. That's when I called Lou, because I wanted to help in any way I could. I'm glad whatever I did had some effects. VICE PRESIDENT SCHEUERMAN: Last one. SUSAN DI RAIMO, Local 2334: Yes, I'm Susan Di Raimo from the Professional Staff Congress. Just something that you mentioned about part-timers because I've been a part-timer for 20 years at the City College of New York. Of course, we would like all part-timers to become full-timers. But, unfortunately, as you see, it hasn't been realistic, at least at the City University of New York. So one of the things that part-timers are asking for is just better conditions for part-timers. Until that situation changes, which we don't see it happening soon, that the AFT work in that sense. PRESIDENT FELDMAN: Well, absolutely. I did, you know, say a few words about that. I want to say I think that what the PSC accomplished with regard to part-timers was a major accomplishment. (Applause) I tried to -- you know, I guess I'm just a very hands-on type. I try to stay in touch and Barbara knows, I'm in touch very often during those negotiations as well. I felt that she was absolutely on the right track. You know, the kind of contract that was negotiated in PSC and that also was not easy with a limited pot of resources, getting office time and getting the kind of arrangements that were made on -- professional arrangements for part-time faculty was an extremely important breakthrough, I think. Clearly that is what the AFT wants. VICE PRESIDENT BOWEN: Thank you for your help with that, Sandy. VICE PRESIDENT SCHEUERMAN: Sandy has been working since 4:30, and she'll be working probably until 10:30 this evening. We thank you for coming, Sandy, but you're not done. (Applause) Sandy is going to make a presentation to a friend and colleague who's retiring. We're going to miss him. I'll turn it back over to Sandy. Thanks, Sandy. PRESIDENT FELDMAN: I was doing radio this morning and, you know, it's across the country on our charter school report which is coming out today. So unfortunately the East Coast is three hours behind us. I had to get up early to be on drive time, wherever. (Laughter) |
