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2007 CFT Convention
"We need to weigh in on the issues of the day"

LOS ANGELES, CA – Five hundred members of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) convened at the Wilshire Grand Hotel the weekend of March 16-18, and chose new officers to lead their union. The convention is the highest ranking decision-making body of the statewide union.

The educators heard from Raquel Cruz Manzano, a leader of the Oaxaca teachers union, who spoke about the recent statewide teacher-led popular uprising against school privatization. The educators also heard from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on his plans for LA schools. Senator Gilbert Cedillo addressed the educators regarding the value to Californians of allowing undocumented residents to get a driver's license and receive help in attending college. U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey received standing ovations for her pledge to end the Iraq War and bring the troops home, and to redirect funding to education.

The convention delegates adopted policies that endorse single-payer health care (Sheila Kuehl's SB 840), providing incentives to retain quality teachers at low-performing schools, improving professional development for preschool teachers, and called for reform of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The delegates elected a new president, Marty Hittelman, a Professor of Mathematics at Los Angeles Valley College. Mr. Hittelman is the first CFT President from a higher education institution since the 1940s. He was formerly CFT’s Senior Vice President, and leader of the union’s Community College Council for 12 of the last 16 years. He began his teaching career as a high school teacher.

Los Angeles educator Laura Rico was chosen as CFT’s Senior Vice President. Ms. Rico, a preschool teacher, is a national AFL-CIO Vice President, a national Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers, and the president of the CFT’s K-12 ABC Federation of Teachers in southern California. Said Rico,

Elected Secretary-Treasurer by the delegates was Dennis Smith, an accounting professor at Sacramento City College.

Newly elected President Marty Hittelman said, “I am dedicated to continuing the California Federation of Teachers' strong progressive traditions of advocacy for better working conditions for all of its members, higher quality learning conditions for California's students, and better living conditions for all Californians. I believe that to further those goals, we need to weigh in on the issues of the day—ending the war in Iraq; cleaning up the environment; implementing a single payer universal health care system; protecting people's personal and civil rights; and, having a progressive tax system which adequately invests in education in order to enhance the quality of life for all Californians.” (Click here for a clip of Hittelman on CFT and social issues.)

New CFT Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Smith said, “The floor of our civilization is the educated citizenry and we, the members of CFT, play a critical role in maintaining that civilization. I promise to be a tireless advocate for the core issues of public education, and I am proud to join the newly-elected officers and the CFT professional staff as a steward of my union's records and resources.”

Laura Rico said, “I want to continue to build the CFT on the foundation put in place by Mary Bergan and all the others who came before me. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and I feel keenly my responsibility to carry their work forward, and to prepare for those who will carry the torch of unionism after me.”

Mr. Hittelman succeeds Mary Bergan, who has led the CFT since 1991. Ms. Bergan, known as an effective educational legislative advocate for more than three decades, received a prolonged standing ovation at the conclusion of the convention for her service on behalf of the union and California public education.

The most fun occurred on Friday evening, when Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center hosted a program during the delegate reception celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the statewide union's Labor in the Schools Committee. Delegates were treated to the music of the L.A. Labor band, led by Lenny Potash, and viewed a video featuring highlights of the Committee's work. Members of the Committee roamed the room in costumes inspired by the Committee's publications.

 

• Press coverage
• To download the full text of all final convention resolutions as amended, click here (PDF document).
• To view Communications Awards, click here.