AWARDS

Retiree Member of the Year

George Altomare

United Federation of Teachers

As a beginning social studies teacher, George Altomare, along with Al Shanker and Dan Sanders, organized the New York Teachers Guild, AFT, at Astoria J.H.S., now renamed The Albert Shanker School.

Altomare went on to teach and organize at F.K. Lance High School, where he launched the Teacher Unity Campaign and forced the merger with high school teachers leading to the founding of the United Federation of Teachers in 1960. As a founding officer of the UFT, he served as high school vice president for 25 years.

During the early days of the union, he created the UFT Strike Committee and Organizing Network, and as its citywide chairman led all the UFT strikes of the 1960s. He completed his classroom teaching career at Stuyvesant High School and also taught labor studies as an adjunct professor at the Empire College of SUNY.

Currently, Altomare is the UFT director of worker education, heads the union's professional committees department, serves on the executive board and was elected secretary of the UFT/RTC, New York City Alliance of Retired Americans. He is a delegate to the AFT convention, the NYSUT RA and the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He also serves as vice president of the Council of Municipal Retirees Organizations, the Italian American Labor Council, the New York Labor History Association and the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. He serves on the national board of the Jewish Labor Committee and many other organizations.

Altomare has received many awards, including the Charles Cogen Teacher Union Award, the Congressional Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Cavaliere Ufficialle from the Republic of Italy, the Jewish Labor Committee award and the NYSUT Community Service Award.

Above all, George is most proud of having taught thousands of students as a classroom teacher.