In his first State of Union address as NYSUT's president, Dick Iannuzzi urged delegates to continue to "walk the walk" with a union that he described proudly as "old-fashioned."
"If values and compassion are old-fashioned, if walking the walk is old-fashioned, then NYSUT is old-fashioned and I'm proud of how old-fashioned we are," Iannuzzi told cheering delegates and guests at NYSUT's 34th RA.
In his 18-minute speech that was interrupted a dozen times by applause, Iannuzzi cautioned delegates to be wary of NYSUT's enemies and their strategy, which he described as "well-versed in deceit and deception." In the case of the Bush administration, he said, that strategy includes an empty promise that no child will be left behind, less funding for public education and a blind eye to realities on the ground in New Orleans and Baghdad.
Among the year's accomplishments, Iannuzzi noted that politically active members helped defeat the "Trojan Horse of private school vouchers." Meanwhile, NYSUT staff have been working to help locals with the next immediate challenge to public education - passing school budgets and electing pro-education school boards on statewide voting day May 16.
Despite increases in state aid, Iannuzzi warned delegates they are likely facing their most difficult year ever.
"While vouchers may be gone for now, they are not forgotten," he said. In K-12 classrooms, the watch is on for abuses in testing and scoring. In higher education, an increase in online baccalaureate programs and the continued abuse of part-timers "minimize the value of full-time, on-campus faculty, which we know is critical to quality higher education," Iannuzzi said.
The union's Program Services Department continues to monitor developments in health care, the rights of School-Related Professionals and the security of NYSUT's current and future retirees, Iannuzzi noted, especially where it concerns their pensions.
"Public employee pensions will always be under attack as long as private corporations are allowed to jettison the futures of their employees in order to increase the bottom line and to line the bottom of their own pockets," Iannuzzi said to vigorous applause.
In a witty rejoinder to "anyone trying to grab onto and rip away the hard-earned pensions of New York's public employees," he quoted the lyrics of a 1960s folk song:
"Take your fingers off it.
Don't ya dare touch it.
Cause ya know
It don't belong to you."
What critics suffer from, the NYSUT president said, is "pension envy."
"It's envy for what everyone in the public and private sector should have. It's envy for what should be the model for working people everywhere. It's envy for a plan where workers don't have to choose between the work they love and the secure future they have earned," he told delegates.
Noting that a union is defined by its social agenda just as much as by its bread-and-butter issues, Iannuzzi thanked delegates for showing that NYSUT locals can do both. In addition to helping hurricane victims in the Gulf states, members have worked with the union's Labor-Religion Coalition on global issues.
Strength to meet challenges
The NYSUT president said Friday's upcoming vote on unity with the National Education Association of New York will help give the unified body "the strength we need to meet the challenges we face."
Iannuzzi said he was especially proud of NYSUT's efforts to heighten awareness of the achievement gap - "not just the numbers, but also the pain, for both inner-city children and poor children who live in suburban and rural areas." He described a recent visit to two schools in Rochester.
"I saw first-hand the tremendous efforts and sacrifices teachers, parents, students and administrators are making to close the gap," Iannuzzi said. "What they are doing is extraordinary, but they shouldn't have to do it without the resources they need."
Closing the gap
Taking the lead in addressing the achievement gap, he said, must include accepting the responsibility of facing institutional racism and poverty. He recalled Coretta Scott King's description of "lifeboat ethics" - where people who can afford it flee failing schools for better settings. Instead of scrambling for lifeboats, he noted, King called for building "a great ship of hope" to provide safe passage for all children.
"Our next step at NYSUT will be to explore how to build that great ship of hope," he said.
Iannuzzi's address, which received standing ovations as he began and concluded, closed with a rousing call for solidarity: "NYSUT's strength is in its pluralism," he said. "We, sisters and brothers, must walk that walk.
NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi applauds the performance of Rochester's School of the Arts Wind Ensemble earlier Thursday before proceedings began.