I hit a little bump in the road recently, healthwise, and being housebound 24/7 for a few weeks has given me plenty of time to think, analyze and reflect on many things. One of the areas that kept returning to my thought channels is how far the teaching profession has come, and how much you and I have profited from it over the years. Each of us has our own individual story and I'm sure mine is not that much different from yours.  

I started teaching at Turtle Hook Junior High School in Uniondale in September 1962 at the age of 22. My starting salary was $5,100 per annum; 8 percent went to my pension. My take-home pay was a whopping $275 per month. At first, the pittance I was paid did not bother me in the least, because I was proud of what I was doing and loved being a teacher. By 1966, I was the sole breadwinner in our family, and Kathy and I were struggling to raise two toddlers, make ends meet and trying to become part of mainstream America. I quickly realized I was in a dream world. The administration never failed to remind the teaching staff that we were professionals. But professionalism to the administration meant how much more the school board could get out of the staff without raising the pay. I still remember having to come into school three times a year after the school day for chaperoning or crowd control — gratis — because it was our professional responsibility and district policy.

It was at that point I dedicated myself to do everything possible I could do to raise the status of teaching to a true and honest level of professionalism.

Why should dedicated individuals committed to the most important natural resource in our society — our children — be treated as second-class citizens?

By the time I was 27, I was elected first vice president of the 400-plus Uniondale Teachers Association and was fortunate to be at the forefront of intense teacher activism.

In 1967, when I became part of the UTA's negotiating team, teachers were not guaranteed by law the right to collectively bargain for wages, hours and conditions of employment.

Going before the board of education was facetiously (although accurately) referred to as "collective begging." There was no such thing as a contract, and the end result of the abbreviated process was a salary agreement promulgated by the board. If you didn't like it, well, tough; there was absolutely no recourse.  

The breakthrough came in 1967 with the enactment of the Public Employees' Fair Employment Act, better known as the Taylor Law, which gave all public employees in the state of New York, for the very first time, the right to collective bargaining.

It was that law and the dedication of local teacher associations and union leaders throughout the state that raised the status of a teacher to where it rightfully belonged in society. The tremendous gains made in the 1970s and '80s in wages, hours, benefits, grievance rights, extracurricular compensation, etc., carefully delineated in a collective bargaining agreement called a contract didn't come easy. There were vicious and bitter negotiation battles, strikes, recriminations and threats. But teachers collectively never gave up the fight. It was the teachers of that generation who knew the cause was right and were willing to stick their necks out to achieve their goal of being respected for what they were — professionals. They are the individuals who have made teaching today the honorable profession it most assuredly deserves to be. 

I know the scene for today's teachers is much different and more complicated than what we experienced, and I realize the complexities of collectively bargaining for a contract in today's society. I just pray current unionists realize how hard we fought for the accomplishments that are part and parcel of the contract the teachers and board abide by and are very careful not to give back too readily what we worked so hard to achieve.

I'm proud to have been one of the founders of the United Teachers of Harborfields and a long time UTH officer and to have continued the battle with you over the past 20-plus years — the battle that allowed us to retire with dignity. 

Eddie O'Sullivan, a member of United Teachers of Harborfields, retired from the Harborfields School District in 1995.