Tenure At UFT
Feldman was known for being a quiet but very effective leader of the UFT. She fought school system chancellors and mayors both, winning significantly higher wages and benefits as well as improved working conditions for her members. She lobbied so fiercely for Bernard Gifford as New York City schools chancellor that Robert F. Wagner, Jr., President of the New York City Board of Education, threatened to resign unless Feldman backed off and he was given a free hand.
She was instrumental in helping David Dinkins win election as mayor of New York in 1989 by using union members and resources to build a winning electoral coalition of black and white voters. But once mayor, Dinkins stalled on signing a new contract with the teachers' union. Feldman rarely criticized Dinkins publicly for his actions, but she kept the UFT out of Dinkins' 1993 re-election. Dinkins lost in a tight race to Rudy Giuliani.
While president of the UFT, Feldman was also elected vice president of New York State AFL-CIO and vice president of the New York State United Teachers (the AFT state affiliate in New York).
Read more about this topic: Sandra Feldman
Famous quotes containing the word tenure:
“A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)