News
Addressing Everyone’s Social and Emotional Well-Being
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Social Distancing and Social Isolation
 Before we delve into this more deeply, it's important to understand what exactly is "social isolation." Social isolation is a term that refers to the size of an individual's social network and the physical separation from his or her support networks. Telehealth is available by calling 1-855-215-2023 There are two key ways that you can help your members address social isolation:
It's key to have a working understanding of how many members are struggling with social isolation. It doesn't need to be an exact count - but it does need to be a comprehensive effort to check-in on your members. Telehealth is available by calling 1-855-215-2023 Expanded access to telehealth is vital. Members need to know that they have an outlet, where a professional will be on the other end of the line to hear their concerns. Social isolation is not to be taken lightly.
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2020 Share My Lesson Virtual Conference
 These high-quality sessions span several topics from organizations like Discovery Education, the U.S. Census Bureau, StoryCorps, NASA and the Folger Shakespeare Library (to name a few). Topics include: Current events and student activism; Building inclusive communities; Trauma-informed practices and social emotional learning; Instructional strategies across the curriculum; Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); and Webinars for teachers, leaders and all school staff. Be the first to sign up for our March 24-26 webinars. Tell a friend! And while you’re at it, join the Share My Lesson Virtual Conference community. We’ll be posting updates about the conference and sharing ideas with fellow conference attendees. REGISTER NOW |
2020 National Election
 It’s been a year since we started the AFT’s endorsement process, and we’ve had the largest, deepest engagement with AFT members and the candidates we’ve ever had. More than 300,000 AFT members have engaged personally in our Election 2020 work so far. This process has helped us hear from nurses, teachers, school support staff, bus drivers, adjunct professors, graduate employees, public employees and more from all over the country, and understand their aspirations and who they connect with and trust. At our executive council meeting, we reviewed our direct experiences with members and the feedback we’ve gotten from them: the 10 separate candidate town halls, five regional meetings (to date—there are more on the way!), multiple telephone town halls with hundreds of thousands of members around the country, member surveys and polls, our Public Education Forum 2020. It also helped us understand the state of play in the race, including the number of states holding delegate selections in the next few months, and we realized we needed to go from the listening and questioning phase and lean into the next step—the advocacy piece of this process. While we found that our union has divergent views on who should be the Democratic nominee, there is no question that AFT members from all over see Donald Trump is an existential threat to the values and aspirations of our families, our communities and those we serve. And while our members have a respect and admiration for Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer, they gravitate toward Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren because of their leadership in public education, affordable higher education, healthcare, labor and civil rights. Therefore, our executive council is encouraging our members to actively support Biden, Sanders and/ or Warren because they share our values, have demonstrated effective leadership through their records, have earned significant support within our membership, and are best positioned to achieve meaningful and lasting victories on the issues that matter to us most. The executive council’s resolution encourages our members and leaders to become involved in one of these three campaigns. We announced this decision in a national telephone town hall last week with more than 47,000 AFT leaders and activists from all over the country. Our union knows that Bernie, Elizabeth and Joe share our values, and we know we can count on them. Each has been a strong and reliable friend and advocate on critical issues such as ensuring safe and welcoming environments in our schools, our hospitals and our communities; investing in public schools, colleges and services that are necessary to fund our future; protecting the freedom to teach and the freedom to care so we can meet our students’ and patients’ needs; fighting for the freedom to live securely on one job’s wages, with a decent retirement and the right to join a union, and without catastrophic healthcare costs or crushing student debt; and fighting the destructive hate, bigotry and divisiveness that is undermining our democracy. We felt it was important to take this step now, while there are a number of critical contests still to be decided. This is the most important election of our lifetime, so our members want to shape the race, not chase it. By the end of March 2020, more than 65 percent of the delegates will be allocated, and it is essential that our affiliates, our members, and our leaders engage and support candidates now, if we are to effectively influence the political dialogue. And this includes leaders providing their individual support as they feel compelled to voice their own preferences. Our union thrives when democracy is strong and members are engaged, so I’m sharing our resolution along with possible steps you can take to get involved and encourage others to be part of this process. We’ve already seen a number state and local affiliates endorse Biden, Sanders and Warren. Leaders across the union have announced their personal preferences. And we have rank-and-file members running for delegate for the candidates they are most passionate about. While I haven’t announced my personal support for a candidate, the AFT vice presidents, the other executive officers and I may make personal announcements in the coming weeks. Additionally, as we discussed at the regional meetings and the telephone town hall, we need you to engage directly with your members at the state and local levels and, if you so choose, with one or more of these three candidates What are some ways you can get involved? You can: Send a letter or email to members of your local, or host a conference call with your local’s activists, to urge their engagement with the presidential—and down-ballot—races. Using Action Network, we will be syndicating an email to all of our affiliates that you can send to your members about this resolution and next steps. Visit AFTvotes.org for the most up-to-date information on the candidates and their positions on the issues. Run to be a delegate to your party’s national convention, and encourage your members to do the same. Visit AFTvotes.org or contact the AFT’s political department at 202-879-4454 for more information. Volunteer for a campaign. We encourage you to check out: joebiden.com/take-action berniesanders.com/volunteer elizabethwarren.com/volunteer Register young people to vote, and get out the vote! - whenweallvote.org Help engage even more members in discussions, telephone town halls, labor walks and other campaign activities. Show up online—celebrate our endorsement process, your favorite candidate’s victories and your AFT union values on social media as we head toward the 2020 general election. We are so grateful to you and our whole union for the leadership and commitment it is showing at this juncture. As educators, healthcare providers and public employees, we have an even greater responsibility, as we are trusted messengers at a time of significant disinformation campaigns that have sown mistrust and division in our country. We know it will be an intense year ahead and the stakes couldn’t be higher. So please accept my most sincere thanks for all you do, and will do, for our union and our country. We’re counting on you. In unity, Randi Weingarten AFT President You can read the entire resolution here. We also have a Q&A document regarding the resolution to help you answer any questions that might arise. |
Office Depot/Office Max Discounts for Union Members
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Milestone Celebration (Thurs, Nov 14, 2019)
 Date: Thursday, November 14, 2019 Time: 4:00 PM - 8:30 PM Price: $75.00* (per person). See your Union Representative by November 1. *Prices are $70 for 5th Year Honorees $65 for 10th Year Honorees $0 for 25th Year Honorees (+1 guest, also free) $75 for all other attendees Click on each flier below to print! Location: Villa Almafi - 793 Palisade Ave, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010 |
Skyline Run Club
 Skyline Run Club meets twice per week for group runs that include a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercises. A big part of the club incorporates learning opportunities with seminars and workshops as well as social events with its members. If you’re interested in learning more, please visit their page and follow their social media outlets: Website: www.skylinerunclub.com Email: skylinerunclub@gmail.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/skylinerunclub Facebook: fb.me/skylinerunclub |
NBFT Urges Board of Education to Approve New Contract
Negotiating since November, North Bergen teachers union urges BOE to approve new contract Written by John Heinis of Hudson County View  “I wanted people that are teachers to come up here tonight so you could see the people you are dealing with. Sometimes we get caught up with the negotiating team, it’s the negotiating team, but it’s not just the negotiating team: these are the people I’m representing,” said North Bergen Federation of Teachers President Elizabeth Lynch. “These are the people that we’re at the table for. These are the people that live in North Bergen, many of them. These are the people that work in North Bergen, that go to your stores and shop in your shops, pay taxes in your town and vote in your town.” Lynch, who said negotiations have been ongoing since November, showed up with at least 150 of her fellow union members for a meeting that took place during the same time as a police promotion ceremony that featured the first Latina captain in the county’s history. For her efforts, Lynch received a standing ovation for at solid minute as the BOE trustees and Superintendent of Schools Dr. George Solter looked on. After the meeting, Solter spoke with HCV about the latest contract dispute with the teachers union, “I definitely understand that they want certain things and we have things that we can offer – I’m trying not to break the agreements that we’ve had. I would just say right now that we’re a family. I grew up in North Bergen, I was a North Bergen teacher, was a North Bergen vice principal, supervisor, now superintendent,” Solter began. “I have friends that are colleagues, they work for me, I call them colleagues, we have conversations all the time about kids. Conversations all the time about different thoughts … they have to understand and we have to understand them and that’s really where it comes down to.” The board did not take any action on the teachers contract at Wednesday’s meeting. |
North Bergen School District Teachers Show Unity!
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North Bergen School District Teacher of the Year Recipients (2019)
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