Former UUP officer wins award

A former UUP officer was recently honored by the AFT Communications Association (AFTCA) on her distinguished career as a labor communicator.

Dorothy Gutenkauf, who served as UUP’s first statewide secretary from 1973-75, earned AFTCA’s 2002 Albert Shanker Lifetime Achievement Award during the association’s annual conference held prior to the AFT Convention in Las Vegas. AFTCA is an organization of public relations professional staff and elected leaders of AFT state and local federations.

“Dottie has a long and distinguished career in the labor movement and as one of its premier union communicators,” said AFTCA President Peter Boespflug, who handles communications for NYSUT’s Division of Field Services. “We in AFTCA recognize her as a pioneer in promoting unionism and the cause of public education.”

Gutenkauf’s commitment to AFTCA and its predecessor organizations is well documented. She has been a longtime member of the organization’s Steering Committee and is most remembered as “Dr. Dottie,” the inspired leader of AFTCA’s annual publications clinics, particularly for up-and-coming locals.

Her first foray into higher ed unionism came in September 1966, when she joined the State University Federation of Teachers (SUFT) as a member of the SUNY Cortland faculty. By 1970, Gutenkauf was president of the SUFT chapter at Cortland. She worked with other organizing pioneers to successfully unite competing AFT and NEA organizations into one SUNY bargaining unit — UUP.

In September 1977, Gutenkauf joined the New Jersey State Federation of Teachers (NJSFT) as a full-time staffer responsible for organizing campaigns, handling contract disputes, training new union leaders and creating publications. One of Gutenkauf’s most interesting publications was the NJSFT “NEWSL,” a self-proclaimed “truncated newsletter” that won its share of national and international labor communications awards.

After her retirement in 1997, Gutenkauf set up Solidarity Services, a pro-labor consulting firm that assists in organizing, negotiating, leadership training, communications and collective bargaining campaigns. Always the frontwoman, Gutenkauf also writes songs and performs with the Solidarity Singers of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council (NJIUC). The group has compiled a CD of labor-inspired songs recorded in English, Spanish and Yiddish.

Gutenkauf has a number of awards under her belt, including the Working Woman of the Year Award from the Coalition of Labor Union Women/New Jersey and the Labor Achievement Award from the NJIUC Women’s Affirmative Action Committee.

— Karen L. Mattison