AFT

AFT Annual Convention

By George Milkowski

 

      My wife, Rhonda Berow, and I were elected recently to be delegates to the AFT and the IFT conventions in 2022.  We attended the AFT Convention held July 13-17 that was in Boston.  There were over 2,352 delegates representing 1,775,000 members from across the nation.  Here is my report.

 

      Over the course of the Convention there were numerous speakers.  The politicians and notables who spoke included Michelle Wu, Mayor of Boston, Elizabeth Warren, senior senator from Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Ed Markey, junior senator from Massachusetts, Pres. Biden (via video), Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey who is running for governor and is endorsed by the AFT.  There were a number of other speakers from various union organizations, too.  

    Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union, lauded Wu for her work in helping to stop the State from putting Boston schools into “receivership”.

    Secretary Cardona reminded the assembly that there is a program to cancel student debt for those in public service positions but the deadline is October 31, 2022.  He said that over $8 billion of debt has been forgiven so far.  This was personal to Half Hollow Hills Teacher Association president Richard Harris.  He said he taught and has been paying his student loans for 21 years and still owed $20,000!!

    Darline Williams vice president of the Public Employees Federation (New York) thanked the AFT.  At the height of the pandemic they were using the same face masks for a week at a time until the AFT donated thousands of masks two years ago.

    Not to be overlooked was our own Stacy Davis gates, newly elected CTU president. 

    In her opening remarks, AFT president Randi Weingarten criticized recent Supreme Court decisions and the HUGE profits oil corporations are currently reaping.  She said the top five oil corporations reaped $35 billion in the first quarter of 2022, more than 30% higher than the previous year. She expressed concern for the gun violence that is tearing into our society and the role that politicians are taking to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach.  She said the Union has set up an “AFT defense fund for any teacher who is punished for teaching the truth”.

    At the last AFT convention a retiree committee had been established and the AFT has started having Retiree Divisional Meetings.  One of its subcommittees is aimed at getting retirees to come out and vote and to work to get others to come out and vote.  There is also a subcommittee on voter suppression.  The AFT is working to set up more local retiree councils.  There are thousands of retirees in Florida but only one local council to cover the whole State.  DeSantis won his last election by less than 1% so a group of organized retirees may have a big in pact on the election.  Lastly, a health subcommittee is working to repeal the Windfall Eliminations Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).  Both of these programs greatly cut into a retirees expected pension.  Even if a teacher (OR THE TEACHER’S SPOUSE) con-

tributed to at least the required minimum 40 quarters into Social Security, these programs would cause their benefits to greatly be reduced or totally eliminated and they wouldn’t know of this until they retire.

    The various speakers gave a brief background about themselves and generally they all favored a lot more investment in education, decried the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and insisted that more realistic gun control laws are needed.  Sen. Markey brought up two other points that the others did not mention.  First, he said the filibuster needs to be eliminated (I agree) and that the Supreme Court needs to have an increased number of justices (I disagree).

    We missed part of the remarks of Sen. Warren as we were in line for one hour and forty-five minutes due to very tight security as Dr. Jill Biden was coming to address the convention.  After getting into the hall, I heard Sen. Warren urge public workers to apply for Federal Loan Forgiveness.  She said under the Trump administration only 3% of the 200,000 who applied for it got it.  So far under Biden, almost $8 billion in loans have been cancelled to those eligible under the program.  She compared it to the G.I. Bill enacted at the end of World Ward II that enabled millions to get college educations that would have been impossible to do with out the law.  Economists estimated that for every dollar spent under the G.I. Bill, $7 was returned to the economy.  She also cited figures about the current program that followed white male borrowers who, after twenty years, still owed an average of 6% of their original loan but Black borrowers still owed 90% of their original loan!

    Dr. Biden spoke and admitted she is a member of our national rival, the NEA, so Randi Weingarten made her an “honorary” AFT member.  Dr. Biden cited that 150,000 individuals have received loan forgiveness so far.  She said people have to get involved to express the “will of the people”.   She concluded by saying that “We can change the world so let’s get to work!

    There were also a few panel discussions including one on gun control.  That panel had a young man who was a student at Marjorie Douglas Stoneman School in Florida who has been active in mobilizing young people to vote.  

    Chris Smalls, who was fired for complaining about conditions at Amazon Fulfillment Centers (a.k.a. warehouses), addressed the crowd.  He went on to form the non-affiliated Amazon Labor Union and said “There is a war goin’ outside every day against us”.  The AFT donated $250,000 to the Amazon Labor Union to help them establish an office.

    Additionally, three Starbucks workers, Richard Bensinger, Kylah Clay, and Jordiie Adams spoke to the delegates.  Jordie’s store just voted to form a union the day before.  Kylah said that seven months ago there were zero union stores and now 190 nationwide have voted to organize.  Hers was the first store to unionize in Massachusetts.  The next step is to get a contract.  By chance we ran into Jordie and Kylah as the convention broke for lunch and we ate together at a nearby restaurant.  It was refreshing to do so as these two young women are very energetic and optimistic about their future.  By the way, if you frequent a Starbucks location, consider giving your name as “Union Yes” and tell them to call you loudly when your order is ready as you are “hard of hearing”.  

    Nancy Pelosi was there to receive the AFT's Women's Rights award.  She was warmly welcomed although her acceptance remarks came via video.

    A large part of the convention was work done in committees.  I had requested to be on the Political Action/Legislation Committee but was instead assigned to the Labor and the Economy Committee.  The other committees were: Constitutional Amendments, Educational Issues, Higher Education, Human Rights and International Relations, Organizing and Collective Bargaining, Public Services, Retirement, Registered Nurses/Healthcare Workers and Healthcare Access, Schools and Colleges Support Staff Issues, and Women’s Rights.

    The job of the committees is to go over resolutions submitted by the various locals and vote to recommend their acceptance, to propose amendments to the resolutions, or recommend that they are not approved.  All approved resolutions become the official policy of the AFT.         

    After going through the various resolutions, each AFT committee then has to vote and prioritize just three of them to bring to the convention floor for debate and final approval.  Those resolutions that are not sent to the convention floor but were approved by committees are sent to the AFT Executive Council.  I have heard conflicting comments as to what happens to them there.   One person said that they are usually approved by the Council but another maintained that that is where they are sent to die.  All of the resolutions that were presented on the floor passed; almost all of them unanimously, since most of the work had been done in the committees.

    The committee on constitutional amendments recommended that a joint AFT Militancy/Defense Fund funded by $.95 per capita starting September 1, 

2021 and $1.00 per capita starting September 1, 2023.  Also, starting September 1, 2021 each local would have paid a per capita tax of $19.98 per month and that will go to $20.18 per member per month starting September 1, 2023.

    I would like to point out that about 52% of the CTU’s budget goes for required “pass throughs” like this to the AFT and to the IFT.  However, some of that is returned to the CTU and the IFT through the AFT’s Solidarity Fund.  Since the last convention two years ago Illinois received a return of $1,842,480.39 from this fund.  The money has been used to help pay for court costs and has been used to try to elect pro-union politicians.

    One last duty I had was to vote for the three officers of the AFT and for 43 members to serve on the Executive Council.  The number of votes a delegate has depends on the number of members in the local.  A local with 150 members who sent three delegates to the convention would mean each delegate would have 50 votes.  There was only one slate of candidates, the United Progressive Caucus, so Randi Weingarten and her group was elected.  Stacy Davis Gates and Dan Montgomery, president of the IFT, joined this caucus to get on the ballot and so they were elected to the Executive Council.

    Rhonda and I left as the last resolution from the last committee report came up because we had to evacuate our hotel room. I have no doubt they passed as almost every resolution passed unanimously or with just a few "nay" votes.