Sandra Feldman, Scrappy, Outspoken Labor Leader for Teachers, Dies at 65

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Sandra Feldman, Scrappy and Outspoken Labor Leader for Teachers, Dies at 65
By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: September 20, 2005


Sandra Feldman, the blunt-spoken former president of the American Federation of Teachers and its local in New York, who emerged from the shadow of her mentor, Albert Shanker, to become a deft and intimidating labor powerhouse on her own, died Sunday night at her home in Manhattan. She was 65.

Alex Wohl, a spokesman for the national union, which Ms. Feldman led from 1997 to 2004, said the cause was breast cancer, which recurred last year and deterred Ms. Feldman from seeking re-election.

A scrappy fighter who rarely minced words, the Brooklyn-born Ms. Feldman took on mayors, school chancellors and American presidents with the same inattention to ceremony with which she dispatched rivals for her union leadership.

As head of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's second-largest union, with 1.3 million members, she was an impassioned advocate for the public schools that educated her. She worked with members of the Bush administration and members of Congress to write the education law known as No Child Left Behind, which imposed stricter performance standards on all schools receiving federal aid. But she was not timid about assailing President Bush when she thought he was not funneling enough resources to sustain those standards.

She put the power of the United Federation of Teachers, the New York local, with 110,000 members at the time, behind the election of David N. Dinkins as mayor in 1989, an effort that helped him garner white votes. But when he disappointed her by letting a year pass without a new contract, she publicly let him know. "I feel angry at him," she said, and added, "The mayor had better understand that I'd fight him to the end for the needs of my members."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/nyregion/20feldman.html

[AnneD]

1. OMG

she retired from her position not too long ago. She was a great champion for teachers and kids.

[Sabriel]

2. Thanks for your work for teachers, Sandra.

This teacher appreciated the work the AFT and NEA did to get my profession to be taken seriously (sorry about the awkward syntax).