WHY UNITY?

Reflecting on how the Home Instruction chapter organized in the face of COVID: "So as she was insisting that we would continue to go into homes, I reached out to Mulgrew's office."

Emmanuel Duruaku is the UFT Chapter Leader for Home Instruction

This story must be told – a story from an extraordinarily challenging moment in time.

It was the early days of the pandemic and death and dread were everywhere. Our mission at Home Instruction Schools requires us to go into homes to teach homebound students. My members fretted (and rightly so) for we were dangerously exposed. Our safety proposal to the Principal, which included a recommendation for her to advocate for a transition to remote instruction, was casually disregarded.

So as she was insisting that we would continue to go into homes, I reached out to Mulgrew's office. While I was still on the phone, and through Richard Mantell, Michael said he'd get back to me in 15 minutes. He did in 10 - with the assurance that we were going remote effective immediately. I promptly passed on the message to a relieved Chapter and the Principal who later got her directive from her superiors hours later.

In the months that followed and toward the September 2020 opening day, the UNITY crew was all hands on deck. It was Mulgrew, Leroy Barr, Michael Sill, Richard Mantell, Ellie Engler, Mary Vaccaro, Mary-Jo Ginese, Debra Poulos, Carl Cambria, Mark Collins, David Doorga on deck. While the UFT leadership led, the DoE fumbled, dithered, and obstructed. (We even had to go to arbitration to wrest back vacation days they took from us).

Yet, the team powered on without cease. In the midst of all that fight in the summer of 2020, I reached out to Sill and Poulos on the unique exposure of my members to CoVid infection and for special arrangements be negotiated for the Chapter.

Once again, the urgency of the moment met the full weight of the Union. Arrangements for a presentation to the DoE were made. The crew worked fervently and forthrightly with me as we imagined and crafted and strategized. In fact, on one of several Zoom meetings, Mulgrew chaired the team from 8:00pm of a June 2020 evening to midnight. I was to produce a working document by sunrise. In the months that followed, the team did not let up. They persisted until an MoA that established our current Remote-hybrid-inperson model was agreed to. With that up for renewal soon, the crew is back at it – yet again.

Our Chapter is less than 1/10th of a percent of the Union. So why exhaust this much effort, one may ask. Well, it was keeping faith with the understanding that a fight for a member's well-being is a fight for all; that in supporting a member, we strengthen everyone. This crew understands this and walked the walk.

And so, for this and it’s continuing support and sharp advocacy, I am UNITY.

For the consistency in clarity of plan and purpose while the DoE dithers and fumbles, I am UNITY.

Yes, for holding steady the rudder while storms rage, I am UNITY.

But now, another storm is upon us!

The attack on public education by today's Washington administration is without question a full-on frontal attack on our professional careers. Doubt it? Ask the thousands that have already been laid off at the various federal agencies. This may be a fight like no other. If it succeeds in sticking a knife into the Federal DoE, it is our careers and students’ education that will bleed out.

Who would you have on deck steering us through such stormy seas? History is a guide. Extraordinary leadership is revealed only by extraordinary challenges.

For leaning against the harsh headwinds of the COVID days with fulsome measure of rigor and vigor, of sensitivity and persistence, and for the excellence of the outcome, I am UNITY.