|
|
Article: Rhonda `Randi' Weingarten;Class act on educators' behalf; Head of teachers union seeks respect for members.
- Article from:
- Crain's New York Business
- Article date:
- September 27, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
It is yet another day of chart-topping heat. Inside P.S. 10, a battery of fans blows swirls of humid air. But Randi Weingarten is unfazed. The seemingly unflappable president of the United Federation of Teachers is basking in the part of her job she loves most.
Her eyes light up and her whole body smiles as second-graders sing her a hearty chorus of "G-o-o-d Morn-ing."
"This is why people do it," she says on a tour of Brooklyn summer school sessions. "Those kids are the reason people teach in this city, despite being pathetically underpaid."
It's also the reason Ms. Weingarten, 41, is a tireless fighter for UFT's 14,000 members -- the largest ...