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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.

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What unions do

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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.

Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

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NCLB Let's Get It RightAFT Responds to the NCLB Commission Recommendations
The AFT has several concerns with recommendations released Feb. 13 by the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Read AFT president Edward J. McElroy's statement on the report, which also includes a link to the AFT's own recommendations for NCLB.

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      Overview of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), 28 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq., applies to most employers with fifty or more employees. The FMLA requires covered employers to grant up to twelve weeks of family and medical leave each year to eligible employees.

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The AFT-Maine office is now located at:

16 Winthrop Street

P.O. Box 1007

Augusta, Maine 04332-1007

Phone: 207 / 621-2854

aft.maine@gmail.com



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