YOU GO, GIRL! — PEF Region 12
Coordinator Ruth Gaines is congratulated by her husband
and fellow PEF delegates to the American Federation of
Teachers Convention. Gaines received a “Living the
Legacy” award from the AFT Women’s Rights
Committee for “30 years of exceptional leadership
and union advocacy in support of women’s
rights.” Gaines said she was delighted to receive
the recognition, and she pointed out that PEF Region 9
Coordinator Neila Cardus, who was not at the July
convention, was also honored with an award for advocacy.
— Photo by John Epting
Delegates find common needs, common goals
Sense of democracy, history converge at AFT convention
By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF delegates to the American Federation of Teachers
Convention in July found themselves celebrating their
nation’s Independence Day in historic Philadelphia.
“It was a very special feeling to be there at that
time,” said PEF Region 1 Coordinator Joyce
Degenhardt. “You see the Liberty Bell and
Independence Hall and you realize that this is where it
all started.
“Vice President Al Gore addressed the convention and
we voted to support his candidacy for president of the
United States,” she said. “We really felt the
significance of participating in the democratic process
and helping to pick our country’s leaders.”
PEF President Roger Benson said he found democracy alive
and thriving at the AFT convention this year. While it
still is not as open and democratic as PEF conventions,
the year’s AFT event “was a much livelier and
more open process than we had at the one just two years
ago in New Orleans,” he said.
“This time, we had honest debate on many critical
issues,” Benson said, “and that kind of debate
allows the best decisions to be made.”
Benson recalled that AFT President Sandra Feldman would
not go to a vote on the Gore endorsement without first
asking if anyone wanted to speak against the motion.
“A very articulate delegate from California spoke
for five minutes and gave very compelling arguments for
why we should endorse Green Party candidate Ralph Nader,
instead of Gore,” Benson said.
A few years ago, that kind of minority or dissenting
opinion would not have been allowed, much less sought,
Benson added.
AFT delegates
move agenda
“There was much less discussion than at PEF
conventions.” said first-time PEF delegate, Greg
McBride.
“They had just one vote — for and against
— on each item and they went right on,” McBride
added.
“The AFT dues increase passed as quickly as it hit
the floor. There were 3,000 people in the room and no one
said a word. The vote was over before we knew what
happened,” he said.
PEF delegate Bridget Pawelczak said she was glad to vote
for the dues increase.
“We need AFT and its financial backing for big
projects, such as our contract fight,” she said.
“We can’t do it alone. We need them and they
need us.|
“The ordinary PEF member needs to realize that
without the money and member support, we wouldn’t
have been able to do 90 percent of the things we’ve
accomplished in just the last year,” Pawelczak
added.
Common goals
The PEF delegates said they felt right at home at the AFT
event.
“We had a more active role this year. Everywhere we
went, people recognized Roger and they knew what PEF was,”
Pawelczak said.
An education supervisor who oversees the work of 29
teachers and instructors at Gowanda Correctional Facility
in western New York, Pawelczak said it was great for her
and other PEF delegates who are educators to be with
3,000 delegates from all over the country — most of
whom are teachers.
“Although their students are much younger than mine,
I found we are struggling with many of the same things
— classroom discipline and the need for more and
better equipment and materials. We found a lot we could
relate to,” Pawelczak said.
This was McBride’s first venture into representing
PEF members at an AFT convention and McBride said he was
struck by both the contrasts and the similarities.
Although he works for the state Office of General
Services as a junior construction supervisor, McBride
said he could readily relate to the educational issues
raised by the many teachers at the convention.
“My mom is a retired teacher, and I teach blueprint
reading part-time in the vocational program at Albany
High School,” McBride said.
“It was so much larger than our PEF conventions, and
public employees other than teachers were in the
minority, but we felt very welcome. We were glad to see
that a lot of the issues were in line with those we face
here in New York. Their themes of political action,
mobilization, solidarity with other unions promoting
education and fighting privatization were all ones we
share,” McBride said.
“We felt a lot of camaraderie with the other
delegates. I had a good feeling that these people want to
do something about the things that matter to me.”
Degenhardt and PEF delegate Brian Hyde are both nurses
who said that they, too, relished the opportunity to meet
with other AFT delegates at the nursing meeting.
“It was a really good session,” Degenhardt
said. “We saw that nurses from throughout the
country are facing the same problems of understaffing
that we face.”
Degenhardt said it was “an extremely valuable
opportunity to network with other nurses. And it
impressed them to see that our PEF nurses are really
starting to move up in the union to more influential
positions. Dee Dodson (also a PEF delegate) was the only
one there to have had a chance to be part of contract
negotiations. And I was just elected PEF Region 1
coordinator.”
She said that AFT delegates attending the meeting for
public employees were very interested in Benson’s
description of PEF’s member mobilization program and
the crucial role it has played in achieving a fair
contract and legislative victories.
Gore
endorsement popular
As much as they enjoyed the meetings, Hyde and Degenhardt
both said Gore’s speech was the highlight of the
convention for them.
McBride said he attended a meeting on political action
and found AFT “very active and successful. They got
a very positive response from Vice President Gore when
they asked him to address the convention.”
For him, too, that was the highlight.
“I liked the speeches by Gore and the mayor of
Philadelphia best,” McBride said.
Pawelczak said she also appreciated the chance to hear
Gore speak in person and to vote for his endorsement.
“His speech gave me quite an insight into what he
wants to represent as president. He was very clear and
concise and he made it clear that he sees teachers and
public employees as an asset that serves the public, not
a burden on it as some candidates see us,” Pawelczak
said.
“I was very glad we endorsed him,” she said.