Message from President, Cordelia Anthony
Dear Brothers and Sisters, we start February still working hard for the settlement of our collective bargaining agreement. Although I know this is a daily added stressor, you continue to provide high-quality instruction to the students of Farmingdale. Since June 30th, it has been over 200 days since the expiration of our contract. As I travel to many of your buildings I am always impressed at how professional you continue to be despite quite a few changes since the school year commenced.
Although settling our contract is a priority, we have also been trying to educate and shed light on a case that will soon be heard before the Supreme Court. The outcome of this case supersedes our contract settlement because it threatens to take away the opportunity for not only our union but all public sector unions to collectively bargain or even function. The JANUS v. AFSCME case will be seen before the SCOTUS starting on 2/26/2018. It threatens to overturn 40 years of precedent of unions being able to function and will turn every state into a "right to work" state. What we know about those states that are right to work is that workers are making significantly lower salaries and now have no say or power in negotiating any opportunity to improve their terms or conditions of employment. We cannot let the well-funded special interests groups break our resolve as union members. You are benefitting from working conditions that have been hard fought because unions fought to make them what you see as normal and expected.
During this month you will be approached by your fellow members who have been trained as JANUS Ambassadors they will be asking you to verify your NYSUT data but most of all the major ask is to recommit yourself to the Farmingdale Federation of Teachers. This is not the time to even waver on that thought. More than ever before we need to make sure we really understand the power of your individual part of the big picture of union solidarity and to stay FFT United.
