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Randi Weingarten is the newly elected president of the more than 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers. Ms. Weingarten also served on the AFT executive committee and the democracy committee, and headed the professional compensation committee. She has acted as an emissary for the national AFT in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Ms. Weingarten has been president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, since 1998, representing 110,000 non-supervisory educators in the New York City public school system, as well as home child care providers and other workers in health, law and education.
Ms. Weingarten also led New York City’s Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), an umbrella organization for the city's 100-plus public sector unions for 10 years. In that position, which she gave up after being elected AFT president, she coordinated labor negotiations and bargained for benefits on behalf of the unions’ 365,000 members.
Ms. Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University School of Industrial Relations and the Cardozo School of Law. She worked as a lawyer for the Wall Street firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 - 1986. She is an active member of the Democratic National Committee and numerous professional, civic and philanthropic organizations. Born in 1957 and raised in Rockland County, N.Y., Ms. Weingarten is currently a resident of Manhattan.