Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Teachers Union Members May Grow 25%’
The characterization of the United Federation of Teachers as one of the “most powerful” unions in the city does not adequately consider the experiences of its members [New York, “Teachers Union Members May Grow 25%,” May 18, 2007].
From a worker’s perspective, a union’s power is measured by its ability to negotiate superior wages and working conditions.
In workplaces represented by strong unions, competition for jobs tends to be fierce, while employee turnover tends to be low. This hardly describe the city’s public schools.
Because the UFT is weakened by state laws that forbid its members from striking, the union hasn’t been very successful in negotiating strong contracts. As a result, most city teachers, particularly newer ones, find themselves working long hours under high stress while receiving relatively low pay and little administrative support.
These conditions drive half of the city’s new teachers to quit within five years of starting — a turnover rate unheard of in other unionized occupations — while the city is forced to do extensive recruiting in order to replace them.
Most city teachers would be delighted to be represented by a union so powerful that many more New Yorkers would be eager to teach in the public schools. Until then, we should keep the UFT’s power in perspective.
MICHAEL DOWD
Teacher
Medgar Evers College Preparatory School
Brooklyn, N.Y.
‘Let the Healing of Ground Zero Begin’
It was disheartening to see the Sun giving into the mindless psychobabble so often invoked after 9/11 with your headline, “Let the Healing of Ground Zero Begin” [New York, May 24, 2007].
Such a debasing of language only contributes to the trivialization that has come to be associated with this attack on America.
THOMAS McGONIGLE
New York, N.Y.
Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.
