biography
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1939– )
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| biography:
| Union leader, born in New York City, New York, USA. Growing up poor, she would later credit the public school system for ‘saving my life’. She studied at Brooklyn College and took an MA in English literature from New York University (1964). As a young woman she joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and was arrested several times on civil-rights marches in the South. She began as a supply teacher in the New York public schools, and in 1963 got a full-time appointment, teaching fourth grade. In 1966 she became a field representative for the United Federation of Teachers, and became the union's executive director (1981), secretary (1983), and president (1986), succeeding Albert Shanker (who had long praised her as the effective administrator). The first woman to head this union, the largest local union of any kind in the USA, representing some 85 000 teachers, guidance counsellors, and teachers' assistants, she became known as a tough and dedicated advocate of the labour union movement and the cause of public education. She was married to Arthur H Barnes, one-time president of the New York Urban Coalition; they had no children. She is a collector of art and an avid reader of fiction. |
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