April 26, 2018

RA 2018 honors Goldman and Resnikoff

Source: RA 2018

'Not for Ourselves Alone:' The Sandy Feldman Outstanding Leadership Award honors those women who have provided throughout their careers significant service and leadership to their local and state affiliates, as well as to the labor movement.

The 2018 honorees are Anne Goldman, United Federation of Teachers and Nadia Resnikoff, Middle Country Teachers Association.

Anne Goldman
United Federation of Teachers

Nadia Resnikoff
Middle Country Teachers Association

NYSUT honors Goldman for leadership and advocacy

BUFFALO, N.Y. April 27, 2018 — Anne Goldman, a nurse and a United Federation of Teachers vice president, has been honored with the 2018 “Not for Ourselves Alone: The Sandy Feldman Outstanding Leadership Award” for her bold and skilled union and health care advocacy.

Goldman was feted during New York State United Teachers’ annual Representative Assembly, being held this weekend in Buffalo. The UFT is NYSUT’s largest local.

Goldman was among the first of those seeking collective bargaining rights for nurses in New York City, and she has claimed her seat at the table ever since. Achievements include successfully bargaining on behalf of nurses in the UFT’s Federation of Nurses against major corporate entities running hospitals and home care services. She has advocated politically with NYSUT to help push for the passage of state laws on behalf of nurses, including the end of mandatory overtime for hospital nurses and the safe patient handling bill. She is chair of the NYSUT Health Care Professionals Council.

An active unionist at the local, state and national levels, Goldman is a member of the NYSUT and UFT Board of Directors and of the American Federation of Teachers Program and Policy Council. She played an instrumental role in the inclusion of an additional 35,000 registered nurses to her national union. She works on professional issues and is on national and statewide committees dealing with nurse recruitment and retention, staffing issues and specialty training.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew recalled that Goldman approached former AFT President Al Shanker “and told him she wanted to bring the Lutheran Medical Center Registered Nurses to the UFT because she wanted a strong union that represented professionals.”

Since 2013, Goldman has served as the UFT vice president for non-Department of Education members, working with private-sector members in negotiations, labor relations and legislative activities. She serves as a liaison between private-sector health care providers and educators working together to form Community Learning Schools — providing a connection between health care services and education, to improve student achievement. She has testified on behalf of family child care providers to increase the state minimum wage, provide training, inspections, background checks and the need for subsidized early child care education.

The New York State United Teachers award is presented annually in honor of Sandy Feldman, former president of the UFT and AFT.

“Sandy would, indeed, approve of an award in her name being given to Anne Goldman, a strong unionist, advocate and professional,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. “Our union is fortunate to benefit from her leadership and tenacity.”

The NYSUT RA runs through Saturday and has brought more than 2,000 delegates, guests and staff to Buffalo. It is the union’s largest policy-making body.

New York State United Teachers is a statewide union with more than 600,000 members in education, human services and health care. NYSUT is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the AFL-CIO.

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Middle Country teacher Nadia Resnikoff receives union leadership award

BUFFALO, N.Y. April 27, 2018 — Sixth-grade Middle Country teacher and union activist Nadia Resnikoff is being honored with the 2018 “Not for Ourselves Alone:” The Sandy Feldman Outstanding Leadership Award by New York State United Teachers at the statewide union’s Representative Assembly.

Resnikoff has served as union president of the Middle Country Teachers Association in her Long Island school district since 2001, and is involved in union leadership on the local, statewide and national levels. She is known as a fierce advocate for public education, special education and organized labor.

“Nadia has acted as a coach, mentor and role model for women at many levels,” said Barbara Hafner, president of the West Hempstead Education Association and NYSUT board member who recommended her for the award.

As a teacher and education proponent, Resnikoff has focused on inclusion, literacy and Academic Intervention Services for students, serving on the State Education Department’s Commissioner Advisory Committee. She has taught all subjects in sixth grade, specializing in math.

In her role as MCTA president, Resnikoff has spent time as a volunteer activist and picketer to raise awareness about needs in public education. She has served as mentor/intern program coordinator, guiding new teachers through requirements, curriculum, regulations, evaluations and more. She also has met as an advisor with hundreds of teachers to help them grow as effective teachers. Her duties as union president include budgeting and negotiations, and coordinating her local’s outreach activities, such as food and coat drives, providing toys for children in foster care, and making up Thanksgiving baskets.

Resnikoff is an activist in other areas of interest as well, having served on NYSUT’s Civil and Human Rights and Fair Trade committees. She’s walked with colleagues on Women’s Marches in Washington, D.C., and New York City the past two years. Previously, she traveled to Ciudad Juarez with the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition Border Pilgrimage to learn about the effects of NAFTA and the impact it has had on people, economy and working conditions.

“It was our obligation to return home and continue discussing these issues and share our experiences to help change these unfair conditions,” Resnikoff said. “This was one of the most moving experiences I have encountered in my lifetime. I hope someday that borders can blend cultures rather than separate and keep people out.”

She is a past member of the NYSUT Board of Directors and a graduate of the Leadership Institute. She is also a delegate to the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, where she served on the AFT Program and Policy Council and Learning First Alliance Council.

“Nadia exemplifies the ideals of Sandy Feldman,” said NYSUT President Andy Pallotta. “She proves the adage that ‘a women’s place is in her union.’”

The NYSUT RA runs through Saturday and has brought more than 2,000 delegates, guests and staff to Buffalo. It is the union’s largest policy-making body.

About the Leadership Award

The "Not for Ourselves Alone" Outstanding Leadership Award was renamed in 2006 in honor of former AFT and UFT President Sandy Feldman. Feldman succumbed to breast cancer in September 2005. In the spirit of Sandy Feldman and all those female pioneers within NYSUT who have been recognized with the award since it was first presented in 2002, the award will continue to celebrate the contributions of NYSUT's largest constituency group - women.

A lifetime achievement award, it honors those women who have provided throughout their careers significant service and leadership to their local and state affiliates, as well as to the labor movement. In making a selection, the NYSUT Women's History Committee will consider length, breadth and depth of service. The selected honoree(s) will be recognized at the annual NYSUT Representative Assembly. All nominees will receive a certificate acknowledging the submission of their name for this honor.

About the Leadership Grant

The Sandy Feldman Leadership Grant in the amount of $2,000 has been established as a result of the generosity and vision of Sandy's husband, Arthur Barnes. READ MORE...

About Sandy Feldman

sandy feldman

A teacher and unionist, Sandy Feldman (1939-2005) had a groundbreaking career as a union leader in NYSUT, the AFT and her home local, the UFT in New York City. Her career in education and labor spanned more than four decades. From her beginnings as a second-grade teacher on New York’s Lower East Side in the early 1960s, Sandy rose quickly through the union ranks, organizing staff on her first job. Shortly thereafter, she took a job as a full-time field representative for the UFT, handling grievances, contract negotiations and a range of issues. She eventually took over the reins of the union, becoming its president in 1986. She was elected to head the AFT in 1997. In the process, she became a staunch advocate for civil rights and social justice, participating in the Freedom Rides of the 1960s and the historic 1963 March on Washington, evolving into a proponent of civic education and democracy in the international arena and a leading voice in the national and international labor movement.