Growing Pains: By 1976, the statewide union's existence was in jeopardy.
By 1976, the statewide union's existence was in jeopardy
In some ways, 1972 was the best of times and the worst of times. Two rival teachers unions had merged in New York state, creating the hope of hard-won unity. But there was continuing tension. New York State United Teachers had alliances at the national level to both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Differences of philosophy were so great that soon after its formation, NYSUT was threatened with breakup.
"It was a tense time," recalled NYSUT First Vice President Antonia Cortese. "The entire organization could have gone down."
High hopes
NYSUT President Tom Hobart said that "after the statewide merger, we had high hopes for teacher unity nationwide. Things were going so well." NYSUT had gained NEA approval of the statewide merger at its 1972 convention in Chicago. Hobart recalled, "We thought that would be a trend when we promoted teacher unity nationwide."
After helping to form the National Council for Unity, NYSUT leaders traveled across the country talking up the dream of a national merger between rivals AFT and NEA. "But we didn't anticipate or understand," said Hobart, "that there was an NEA staff network operating through a service program for locals which was out to prevent any move to a national merger."
Walls of resistance
For the next three years, NYSUT faced resistance and isolation at NEA conventions and board meetings as its delegation tried to argue the case for national teacher unity or challenged NEA on the issues. During those years, Cortese observed, NYSUT local leaders realized that AFT "had a better grasp of the issues, was a better member advocate and, being in the labor movement, was better oriented to the goals of working people."
Jeanne Mattis, a NYSUT retired member from the Westmoreland Teachers Association, recalled "getting callouses" from mostly sitting around at NEA conventions. "We were well informed on the issues, but weren't given any committee assignments or real work," she said. "Our leadership was being treated so shabbily."
Still, NYSUT's leaders remained hopeful. "We felt we were going to make this work," said Hobart.
Tensions rise
But in 1975, officers learned that NEA was moving to end its affiliation with NYSUT. NYSUT's directors balked at such coercion. They proposed to eliminate wording in the statewide union's constitution that required affiliation with NEA.
"No one was planning on dropping out of the NEA," Hobart recalled. "We just didn't want to be bullied."
Tensions heightened in the months prior to the 1976 state convention when NEA, over NYSUT's protests, launched what it called an image-enhancement campaign in the state. "Actually, it was a thinly disguised Trojan horse to undermine NYSUT," said Vito DeLeonardis, the union's executive director at the time.
The growing tensions with NEA sparked debate at NYSUT's 1976 convention in New York City. It was there that Albert Shanker gave a speech that galvanized delegates behind NYSUT. Shanker compared the 4-year-old union to an intricate but still delicate clockworks that could be shattered by NEA's attacks. Many said NYSUT truly came of age at that moment.
It would take another year of challenges by a rival state organization set up by the NEA before it became clear that the NYSUT merger would remain intact.
NEA fell far short of its prediction that it would win 50,000 members away from NYSUT. In fact, NYSUT lost fewer than 20,000 members that year.
As many of the locals that left NYSUT during the 1976-77 school year reaffiliated, NYSUT membership continued to climb.
"I think people were genuinely concerned about making the wrong decision," said Cortese. "But local leaders saw that this (NYSUT) was an organization which was going to make it, and an organization that was going to make a difference. We still say it today."
Today, more than two decades after the disaffiliation vote, the dream of national teacher unity is close to being realized. With many of the past's divisive issues resolved, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are making progress on merger talks.