President’s Message

Welcome to the Providence Teachers Union (PTU), AFT Local 958!

We are an organization of almost 1,700 workers, a powerful organizing union that leverages our collective power to move in solidarity and action toward securing better working conditions and dignity for our members.

We believe in a democratic union that centers member voices in decision-making, prioritizes member education and support, and defends and strengthens our contract. PTU members are ready to mobilize, to make our voices heard, and to reclaim the narrative about our schools.

Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions, and we have the power to leverage our contract to help build the schools educators, students, parents, and our community at-large deserve.

The key to building and maintaining an organizing union is in having hard conversations with our co-workers, in finding commonalities despite our differences, and in grounding into that which unites us: our labor.

Bargaining is an ongoing process and our contract campaign is happening every day. We are standing on the shoulders of the organizers and unionists who came before us, who helped secure these rights for us to enjoy, and it is our responsibility to honor that work and to keep the tradition alive for generations to come.

An injustice toward one of us is an injustice toward all of us.

You are the union. We are the union. And we need you in this fight. Join a committee, start a working group, share your story. Together we can transform our schools and create the teaching and learning conditions that will allow us to build the world in which we hope to live.

In solidarity,