On Thursday, April 7, elementary, secondary and higher education faculty came together with health care workers and school related professionals for the NYSUT Representative Assembly. This is the yearly gathering where the 600,000 member state-wide union’s agenda is set for the coming year. It is also an opportunity for rousing speeches, sobering assessments, and joyful celebrations. This year was all the more joyful because one of our own was being celebrated. Frank Frisenda, the NCCFT Vice President for Classroom Faculty, and an Associate Professor in the Engineering, Physics, and Technology, was named NYSUT Higher Education Member of the Year. Here is the video shown at the RA.
Frank’s acceptance speech was even better than the video, and we’ll share it with you as soon as NYSUT sends us a copy. Meanwhile, here is a photo of him at the podium:
Another bit of good news: When the RA concluded on Saturday, thousands of NYSUT members marched to Times Square to join the We Are One rally organized by the New York State AFL-CIO. The rally stretched from 43rd Street all the way down to Penn Station. Labor leaders from unions like the Teamsters, the Sheet Metal Workers, the Theatrical Stage Employees, and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers joined those from PSC-CUNY, UUP (SUNY), and NYSUT to address the crowd. The message was clear. We are united in defense of the right to collective bargaining, and to the expansion of the middle class. We are opposed to the growing gap between the rich and everybody else. We are strong enough to take the nation back. Here’s a short slideshow from the rally:
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Elizabeth ran into Stephanie Sapiie and Ed Boyden, from the History, Geography and Political Science department at the rally. Were you there too? Send your photos to us at nccft@ncc.edu and we’ll post them here. And remember, if you want to be entered in our Visibility Campaign raffle, you have until today at 5pm to enter a photo of yourself wearing your NCCFT shirt out and about in your community. Send your photo to nccft@ncc.edu.
Last but not least, for your Monday Morning Music listening, here is a slideshow of New York State We Are One events set to music: Steve Earle’s “The Revolution Starts Now”.