The Road Ahead

This week, members of AFT Connecticut will travel to Alaska to be part of a Public Employee Organizing Blitz.
And, this week, members of AFT Connecticut will travel to the Virgin Islands as part of a team on a healthcare mission to hurricane ravaged islands.
And, next week, members of AFT Connecticut will travel to Parkland, Florida to continue to provide support to the teachers and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Taking time from their own busy lives, these dedicated members are on the road to help their sister and brother AFT members in Alaska, Florida and the Virgin Islands because they recognize that we are bigger than our individual workplace or Local or even State Federation. We are part of a 1.7 member family that is AFT.
And, we are part of the greater union movement.

My utmost thanks goes out to them all, my heart travels with them and my pride in being a small part of this family runs over.
It is both ironic and fitting that several months ago, we chose a slogan for the AFT Connecticut convention in May,
“The Road Ahead.”
These dedicated members, being literally on the road, are showing us the road ahead.

Our members in Alaska this week are part of a Public Sector Organizing Blitz, something that has gone on for at least 7 years, where members and staff come together in a week filled with honing organizing skills and practicing those skills through mapping of units, door knocking, and site visits.
It is an exhausting and fulfilling week.
It literally changes lives.
If you ever get the opportunity to go, take it.

Our members in Parkland next week are from the Newtown Federation of Teachers.
They are members of a fraternity that no teacher wants to belong, a fraternity of school shooting survivors.
Their goal is to help the newest members of that fraternity, in ways only they can.
This is their second trip since the shooting.
Our prayers are with them.

Our members in the Virgin Islands are not on vacation.
The Virgin Islands, like Puerto Rico, were devastated by 2 hurricanes last fall.
As a result, they have a housing shortage and the nursing shortage has become so severe that the schools are 10,000 basic hearing, vision and dental screenings behind.
These screenings catch problems before complications set in and students fall behind in their studies.
5 of our nurses will be part of a team of 26 AFT Healthcare members from around the country who will do their best to screen as many as possible over this coming week.

I have a particular pride in this group.
Our 5 members are from my local, the Backus Federation of Nurses.
It is wonderful to see that the work and struggles we went through 7 years ago to organize have led to a local with members willing to sacrifice for their sisters and brothers of the AFT Virgin Island Teacher’s Local.
It is fitting because without the help of AFT Connecticut, AFT, and the greater labor movement, we would never have been successful in organizing.

The challenges ahead are immense but to me the road ahead is not dark.
We are a diverse union and in that diversity is our strength.
Our members are showing the way.