It’s fitting that snow is falling in Buffalo today and tomorrow as I still mourn the lack of snow this winter in the Capital Region. Unfortunately, it will probably have all melted by the time the bus of staff get there tomorrow to start setting up for the local and retiree council pre-conference Wednesday and [...]

Congrats to those voters who  turned out to to elect new state representatives in special elections last week. Except for residents in the five  large-city school districts, the public next gets a chance May 15 to go to a polling place and do what many other countries don’t allow their citizens to do: vote. It’s [...]

NYSUT sets its Committee of 100 dates about a year in advance. This is when typically more than 500 volunteer lobbyists-for-a-day come to Albany to advocate for school aid, higher ed, health care and retiree issues. This years’s dates are March 20 and May 22. Special elections for one Senate and three Assembly races have [...]

That’s the video the National Education Association produced about the repeal of Issue 2. Way to go Ohio voters, who overwhelmingly rejected efforts to limit collective bargaining. Here’s a short article about how unions were successful or click  here for the link to an AFL-CIO video featuring the work of labor. The American Federation of [...]

Polls are open across the state for a number of interesting races. Click here for a link with an interesting recap. I wish I could vote in some of those races. Not in that recap, but I also wish I could vote in Onondaga County. That’s where a sales tax grab orchestrated by the County Comptroller and [...]

How you vote tomorrow is a personal decision. What matters is that you go to that ballot box and exercise your right to vote. Why do I care? I’m second generation on one side of the family. My grandparents came from Sweden in the 1920s.  They lived with us for a short time. My grandmother was [...]

Do you think that headline is a bit harsh? If you don’t vote next week aren’t you saying you don’t care about your local roads getting fixed? your county nursing home staying open? changes to where your garbage goes? Local races matter for so many quality of life issues.If you don’t vote next week, then [...]

Ah, November’s finally here. And you know what that means. On TUESDAY, NOV. 8 you get a chance to race to the polls to exercise your right to vote. In this “off” election year, it’s all about your town, village or county. So check with your local union leader and your local labor federation to [...]

Coming to your local president’s mailbox is this handy poster. Whether NYSUT members are newly registered or have been registered for years, we hope all NYSUT members will exercise their right to vote next week. If you want a copy, you might be able to download from this blog post. If your computer won’t allow [...]