Why I Am Voting for UNITY

"We need leaders with a clear plan to protect us when our jobs are on the line. I know that UNITY has leaders with that track record. I trust them to fight the fight and not make empty promises."

Annawa Naing is a veteran Queens elementary school teacher, activist and chapter leader.

This is my 20th year teaching as a NYC public school teacher. I have seen chancellors and mayors change throughout my teaching career. When I was a new teacher, Bloomberg was the mayor of NYC. He was brutal toward teachers. He wanted to get rid of tenure, fire teachers, and used “bad teachers” as an excuse to drive his campaign to end our job protection. He shut down schools if they were not performing well. He broke apart big high schools into smaller ones and was obsessed with test scores.

I will never forget the time Bloomberg tied teachers’ ratings to their students’ test scores. One year, the teachers’ scores were published in the newspaper. I was mortified to see my colleagues’ names and their ratings displayed for everyone to see. Those were dark days for the teaching profession in NYC.

However, I also remember our UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, going toe to toe with Mayor Bloomberg to stop him from taking control of our schools. Bloomberg didn’t get to fire teachers like he wanted to, and he did not get to continue shaming teachers by publishing their ratings in the newspaper the following year. Mulgrew fought and won in arbitration when the DOE wanted to excess 24 staff members in “turn-around” (low-performing) high schools and make them reapply for their positions.

This is one example of why I am voting for UNITY. We need strong leadership that is not afraid to fight bullies. We need leaders with a clear plan to protect us when our jobs are on the line. I know that UNITY has leaders with that track record. I trust them to fight the fight and not make empty promises.

Great leaders lead and are not afraid to take action, and I believe Michael Mulgrew and UNITY have proven that over the years.

That is why I am voting for UNITY.