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 Paying tribute to the union I love
By Tom Hobart, President, New York State United Teachers
A few weeks ago, a reporter working on a story about my career with NYSUT asked me if I had any advice for my successor. I told her the same thing Al Shanker told me so many years ago: Love the union, and listen to the members.
For 33 years, I've tried to do just that. I love this union of ours. I've been blessed with the greatest job in the world, working with the greatest people in the world. I'm just a kid from Buffalo, but I've met presidents, senators, members of Congress, governors and world leaders. I've shaken hands with Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa. I've witnessed a world in transition, and helped form teachers' unions in former Soviet bloc countries, watching teachers revel in the freedom that Americans so often take for granted. Our own union, NewYork State United Teachers, has accomplished amazing things for our members and the children and citizens we serve. It's been an extraordinary experience, both exhilarating and humbling.
The most thrilling part of the past 33 years has been the second part of that equation: listening to the members. Nothing has been more rewarding than meeting the people I work for: in health care and in every level of education from pre-K through post-grad - all of the great, caring, dedicated professionals who make up NYSUT. From the early days, when we were struggling for basic rights and living wages, to the May 3rd Rally two years ago, when thousands of you marched on Albany to save public education, NYSUT members have stood up for the principles this great union was founded upon.
I was lucky enough to be the face of our union, but all of you are the heart and soul.
John Adams once wrote: "Let us … cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge." You are that means, whether you teach in a classroom or lecture hall or drive a bus or run the book loan at your school or work in a health care facility. When I look back on more than three decades, I cherish each and every NYSUT member, current and retired, for your contributions to our union and to society.
A few years ago, in my speech at the RA, I called on "every member, every day" to work to make our union stronger. I really didn't have to make that call. For 33 years, it's been my privilege to witness that firsthand: every member working every day, doing the job you were hired to do with professionalism, dedication and commitment.
NYSUT faces many challenges. The current administration in Washington would like nothing more than to see the labor movement stumble and fall. Public education is under attack from those who would deny educational opportunity to the children who need it most. Our health care system is underfunded and our health care professionals are overworked. Public colleges and universities have been neglected for years. The president is looking to tear down Social Security, one of the greatest programs our nation has ever created, as the first step in eliminating FDR's New Deal. The road ahead is not without peril.
But I leave NYSUT with a confidence born of experience. NYSUT has never backed away from a challenge. We've never abandoned our principles because the fight was too hard, or the road too difficult. NYSUT has, as FDR put it, "always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world beyond the horizon."
Because we stand together in solidarity, united and strong, I know NYSUT will continue to face the challenges and tear down the walls put in the way of progress toward that better world.
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