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Higher union membership strengthens our position at both statewide and local bargaining tables. More members mean a better contract and less chance of a strike.

Union dues are your fair share of funds to process grievances. By joining the union, you help keep these funds available for the time when you or a colleague needs grievance support. The union provides this support whether you join or not.

Joining the union allows you to vote for officers and to be a candidate for an officership.

More members for our Local means greater voting strength at the State Council where major decisions are made

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FAQ: Campus Free Speech/Academic Freedom: Protests

Considering the new "time, place and manner" restrictions that many universities have enacted in the last year as a response to the protests and encampments prompted by the Israel-Hamas war, we have provided additional guidance supplementing our Campus Free Speech/Academic Freedom in Politically Charged Times FAQ.


Photo of AFT President Randi Weingarten addressing TEACH 2023

The AFT has always been a solutions-driven union, and our new campaign, launched during TEACH on July 21, proves it once again with a fresh, practical approach to strengthening public education. As AFT President Randi Weingarten pointed out during her keynote speech, the $5 million, yearlong campaign, “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities,” stands up against attacks on public schools and offers real-world solutions to build up, rather than break down, our communities.

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What unions do

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

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