Randi Weingarten, head of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers, was elected president of the American Federation of Teachers yesterday. She was elevated by the delegates at the national teachers’ union convention in Chicago in an uncontested race. Weingarten stated that she will continue in her role as head of the city union even as she assumes her new national post in Washington.
As head of the 200,000-member UFT for the past ten years, Weingarten negotiated a 43% pay increase for city educators and in 2007 led an organizing campaign for the AFT among New York City-based home child care workers that brought 28,000 new workers into the union fold.
With the national election just around the corner and the city’s finances sliding into the toilet, only time will tell if Weingarten can keep up her fight now that it’s on two fronts.
