Today's NYSUT activists are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Those giants loom in the pages of Teachers United, a new book by Dennis Gaffney chronicling the history of the statewide union. They are there in fascinating pictures that evoke union history.

"These courageous men and women paved the way for later generations of educators to be treated with the professionalism and respect they always deserved, but were long denied," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi, who was raised in a union household and active in his local union from the beginning of his teaching career. "My thanks to the many teacher activists who helped create thie teacher union movement."

Iannuzzi went on strike with the Central Islip Teachers Association in 1970, his first year teaching. He later became president of his local and, in 2005, president of NYSUT. The book explores:

• the grass-roots activism of Al Shanker and the United Federation of Teachers in New York City in the early 1960s;
• the merger of the New York State Teachers Association and the United Teachers of New York in 1972 to create NYSUT;
• the growth of the union in representing School- Related Professionals, higher ed faculty and professional staff and health care workers from the 1972 merger onward; and
• the unification of NYSUT and NEA/ New York in 2006.

Gaffney, a member of United University Professions, is an adjunct professor at the State University of New York at Albany.

"I'm happy that we've finally put this history down in print," said Tom Hobart, NYSUT president emeritus. Hobart, a union pioneer from Buffalo schools, was at the forefront of both the NYSTA/UTNY merger forming the present-day NYSUT, and the 2006 NYSUT and NEA/NY unification. "I want teachers to realize that unity was very important to the successes we've had.

"We can do a lot if we stand together," Hobart continued. "But if we fragment, we will find ourselves saddled with the status quo, or even losing some of the many gains we've achieved."

The book is due to be released in mid-April. For copies of Teachers United, published by the State University of New York Press, visit www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61492 .

- Kara E. Smith