In 1953, the West Hempstead superintendent approached a rookie teacher in the Long Island district about joining a union. "He said it was a good organization and even offered to pay my dues," said Emanuel Kafka. "He admitted he got credit for teachers who joined."

The New York State Teachers Association was dominated at the time by administrators, making it a less effective voice for classroom teachers.

Kafka refused the superintendent's offer to pay his dues and joined for reasons of his own. Like thousands of other teachers, he saw the union as it could be: a real avenue for improving conditions for students and educators. "I was disgusted with how school employees were treated, the low salaries, the few benefits," Kafka said in 1997, just months before he died.

Albert Shanker, also a rookie in 1953, joined a union soon after starting at JHS 126, Queens. "I understood very quickly that nothing would change for the better unless teachers learned to take matters into their own hands," Shanker said in the 1960s. (He died in February 1997 at the age of 68.)

A dream of unity

One strong statewide union had long been Shanker's dream, even as he struggled to organize all of New York City. In 1960, he led the fight to represent all 106 city staff organizations, then divided by subject matter, grade levels, boroughs, religion and politics. So began the United Federation of Teachers, which became the largest local affiliate of the Empire State Federation of Teachers.

That statewide union, meanwhile, changed its name twice more. In the sixties, it was renamed New York State Federation of Teachers. In 1971, the statewide union was renamed again, and Shanker became the first president of United Teachers of New York.

By the time Kafka was elected NYSTA president in 1969, he, like Shanker, recognized the need for statewide unity. Public employees were facing huge threats. The 1971 Legislature passed a series of bills that eroded teachers' rights, increased probation, and eliminated minimum salaries and sabbaticals.

Meanwhile, each of the two statewide teacher unions had spent untold amounts of time and money contesting its rival's right to represent teachers at the bargaining table. For teachers to have a united political voice, these battles would have to stop.

"In western New York, the idea of merger was not controversial," said Marcella Fugle, who taught science in Hamburg in Erie County. Those against merger either opposed collective bargaining or feared being swallowed up by larger groups.

At the state level, leaders of both NYSTA and UTNY worked to strengthen their organizations with the goal of achieving a merger. They increased field services and member benefits and created a unified dues structure. The two unions, now structurally similar, turned their full attention to the question of statewide unity. Merger talks, explored off and on since 1970, became a priority.

These negotiations were led by UTNY President Albert Shanker and newly elected NYSTA President Tom Hobart of Buffalo. After months of intensive bargaining, the merger agreement was signed March 30, 1972. Two statewide unions, long accustomed to competing for the attention of lawmakers and reporters, began to work together to protect members' rights and strengthen education.

Hobart said at the time, "We have made a commitment to working together instead of working at cross-purposes. By joining together, and forming the largest employee organization in New York state, teachers will now have the power to improve the quality of education for every child and to raise the status of the teaching profession."

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