The power of the grievance process convinced our new principal to listen to us.
It also reassured us that we have a right to be heard when important workplace issues are at stake.
We returned to school in September 2016 to learn that those of us who taught Grade 6 would no longer have our own classrooms. Instead, we would have to travel from class to class while 6th-grade students remained in the same classroom. This complete change in procedure blindsided us. It was attributed to the relocation of a charter school in our building that limited our school’s space.
Traveling schedules for some 6th-grade teachers were excessive — moving each period up and down from the first floor to the third, with some teachers teaching in 10 different rooms.
Our attempts to work out with our principal a more equitable way to share the burden of traveling from class to class were futile.
We realized that we would have to stand up and be counted if we were ever to be listened to seriously. As chapter leader, I accompanied each grievant through the first step of the grievance. We had to file 17 separate grievances that September because each programing situation was different.
Eventually, the principal got the message and settled most grievances at Step 1.
The ordeal has had positive results. There is now more dialogue and collaboration here at IS 281. The principal listens and our UFT chapter is stronger now that members understand we have a voice.
I feel for young teachers who may not realize they don’t have to teach four periods in a row. As UFT members, we have a contract and a process to protect the rights negotiated for us in that contract.
I walk around with a dog-eared copy of the contract to make sure we protect all those rights.
AnnaMaria Comuniello is a 6th-grade teacher and the chapter leader at IS 281 in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
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