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Weingarten launches new campaign: ‘Real Solutions for Kids and Communities’

Photo of AFT President Randi Weingarten addressing TEACH 2023

The AFT has always been a solutions-driven union, and our new campaign, launched during TEACH on July 21, proves it once again with a fresh, practical approach to strengthening public education. As AFT President Randi Weingarten pointed out during her keynote speech, the $5 million, yearlong campaign, “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities,” stands up against attacks on public schools and offers real-world solutions to build up, rather than break down, our communities.

Randi Weingarten at a Massachusetts high school

Summer is upon us, and parents, children and teachers are winding down from what has been an exhausting and fully operational school year—the first since the devastating pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 has affected our students’ and families’ well-being and ignited the politics surrounding public schools. All signs point to the coming school year unfolding with the same sound and fury, and if extremist culture warriors have their way, being even more divisive and stressful.

"Ketanji Brown Jackson embodies the spirit of justice that must inform and guide the Supreme Court," writes AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram

https://aftvoices.org/what-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-means-to-me-a5…

Fom AFT President Weingarten

This is a fraught time. COVID-19 has been deeply disruptive to families. Even though kids are back in their classrooms, it has been a very tough school year. I’ve seen students’ joy as they learn alongside their friends and teachers, and I’ve seen their social and emotional struggles as we all endure the uncertainty and anxiety of the ongoing pandemic.

Just as we all need to be pulling together, there are divisive forces pouncing on families’ fears to stoke division—fears many people have about the effects of the pandemic and school closures and fears some people

In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

Happy Veterans Day!!!

Please be safe! Remember we are still in the life of Covid-19. Thank you to all of you that have served and are still serving!

#1. COVID-19 Prevention

Top 3 Defenses that we all must use to Protect ourselves from COVID-19.

1. Educate Yourself - if you understand how the infection is transmitted , you will become aware of how your routine behavior must change in order to decrease chances of infection.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html

2. Practice basic hygiene behaviors - frequent hand washing, couching and sneezing into the inner elbow or into a tissue and the like.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#anchor_1584386949645

3. Practice Social Distancing - maintain 3 feet to 6 feet distance between yourself

Why join a Union?

United We Stand and Divided we fall

Your union’s mission includes keeping the children and our members as safe as reasonably possible, as well as, keeping everyone gainfully employed during this unprecedented pandemic. Since March, we have worked tirelessly to mitigate risk from COVID-19 and to continue with full employment for all of our members by meeting, conferring and negotiating with the district.

SLPS has decided to open Instructional Support Centers (ISC’s) which will provide in-person support to students at each site. Local 420 insisted and the district agreed to ensure that conditions at the centers will meet and

Weingarten launches new campaign: ‘Real Solutions for Kids and Communities’

Smears vs. solutions

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Where We Stand: Empathy for All

What unions do

Happy Veterans Day!!!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

#1. COVID-19 Prevention

Why join a Union?

AFT St. Louis, Local 420’s Statement on St. Louis Public Schools Instructional Support Centers