Nobody that I know of has expressed complete rage in public (using their own name) except for me about the UFT's lack of action in March when the Union was not willing to pull members out of schools that had COVID-19 cases. The UFT cares more about protecting their dues than the lives of their members. But what to do about it?
There is a group of individuals that say we should cease paying dues to such a morally bankrupt organization. They then provide a compelling list of other UFT failures including but not limited to: the 2005, 2014, 2018 Contracts with paltry raises and huge givebacks, the 2009 agreement to reduce the interest on the fixed TDA from 8.25% to 7% that CSA (principals and assistant principals) and PSC (CUNY teachers) have not had reduced, Danielson observations, Tier VI pensions, four years to get tenure and routine extensions of probation, etc. These arguments are all valid.
Even some of my colleagues who are very pro-union want us to consider encouraging our readers to drop out of the union. I thought about it. I called it a potential "dues strike" and did some research on how those who went on a "dues strike" could still be protected in case they were in trouble at work. Every avenue on the internet I went to would lead me to anti-union websites who want to finish unions off and use our anger with the union leadership as a justification. There is one group that will even take your money and support you as long as you are against union action.
From a critic of this organization:
The organization focused on the bottom line, literally, because it barely raises enough money to sustain itself, and as a result, does not provide its employees with decent wages and benefits. This was always troubling to me especially since we represented teachers who are underpaid.
The structure is decentralized with so-called hubs in Orange County, CA and Alexandria, VA although there is no management actually in the Virginia office.
I thought this was an organization focused on advancing the teaching profession but saw little evidence of that. In fact, there are no teachers in senior leadership at AAE. They'll say that the board is made up of teachers but they hardly have any say in day to day work and the founders have zero K-12 experience. I found it's a front organization created to sell teacher liability insurance. In fact, the founder was an insurance salesman, which now all makes sense. I kinda feel duped and so should teachers if they think this is more than an organization that tried to sell liability insurance.
Advice to Management
If you are anti-union, say so. If you are pro-teacher, act like it more than selling a product. If you are trying to improve the teaching profession, prove it. Otherwise, be who you really are, an insurance company (but currently in disguise).
These people are not our friends. A separate right-wing organization that is Koch funded is backing a lawsuit by two Chicago teachers who crossed the picket line during last year's successful strike and now want their union dues back. The Chicago Teachers Union only lets members stop dues in September of each year. Here is the reaction to the suit from a CTU lawyer in the Chicago Tribune:
In response, CTU attorney Robert Bloch said the suit was part of a national effort to hurt unions and workers’ rights.
“This is another anti-worker lawsuit from a reactionary, Koch-funded law project, filed as part of a coordinated, national right-wing effort aimed at undermining the rights of workers and their unions," Bloch said in a written statement. “We operate stringently within the letter of the law” governing dues collection, he said.
I believe those right-wing funded or at least inspired individuals might be two or three of the regular commenters on the ICEUFTblog. The two Chicago teachers who are suing for their union dues back are Ifeoma Nkemdi and Joanne Troesch. They sued the CTU, the Chicago Public Schools, and the AFT to get their dues money back. These two scabs from last year's strike were tried by the union.
Someone who crosses a picket line could face “appropriate charges” by the CTU executive board and then go through a judicial process akin to a trial, according to the union’s bylaws. If found guilty, they could be fined, or even expelled.
In March, the CTU informed Troesch and Nkemdi that they had been found guilty of violating the union’s internal strike policy and would be kicked out of the union unless they paid a fine equal to the amount of money they made during the strike, according to copies of the notices.
It's not dues first at the CTU. They don't want teachers who are scabs in their union.
Nkemdi said she was paid for the days during the strike when she worked, helping out with child care alongside nonunion staff, since schools remained open for students who needed care. When she walked by the picketing teachers, they called her names.
“They called me a scab. They said, ‘You turned your back,’” she said. “They were just saying how dumb and stupid I was. ... It was very traumatic, and I knew right then and there that I had to take a stand. I wasn’t going to be bullied out of my decision, and I wanted to make sure other teachers, if they felt the same way that I did, that they had opportunities without harassment and without bullying to go ahead and do so.”
There is no defense for crossing a picket line and making your brothers and sisters face the risk from the strike while you get paid.
These are the types of teachers and groups that are backing pedagogues who want to quit their unions. I looked around if there were non-right wing alternatives and I couldn't find any.
Quite frankly, I am in a terrible bind now. I despise what the UFT did in not telling people to leave unsafe buildings in March and letting those three days of staff development occur on March 17-19 at the height of when COVID-19 was spreading in this area. UFT inaction played a role in getting people sick. I know full well the Union will probably have no good answers in the fall if there is a second wave of COVID-19. Michael Mulgrew, in my opinion, will not tell members to leave unsafe situations as he did not in March and has been silent on the question since then.
In addition, it is virtually impossible to change the UFT electorally since Mulgrew controls very tightly the flow of information. I have said on many occasions that it is unfeasible to get to the huge number of UFT retirees scattered all over the country to get them to answer yes to the three questions Politics 101 says must be answered yes before voters will vote for you:
1. Do they know you?
2. Do they like you?
3. Do they trust you?
I still keep praying that something will happen to wake up teachers so that they demand a real say in their union representation. I even did the research in 2017 to find out what it would take to pull one of the three teaching divisions (high schools, middle schools, elementary schools) out of the UFT and start a separate union. Just to be clear, if a group broke off and started their own bargaining unit, they would keep all current salary and benefits, including the welfare fund. The Taylor Law taketh away double pay in a strike but it also giveth the right to keep a contract until you negotiate a new one.
For high schools, it would take about 100 activists to get about 60 signatures each from high school teachers exclusively to get a decertification referendum to start a separate union. At the time this was being pondered, the daughter of High School Teacher's Association and early UFT leader Roger Parente got in touch with Norm Scott to defend her father's honor. Doctor Matilda Parente and I soon thereafter became email friends. I think she saw me as a spiritual heir to her father. Chaz was also notified and did not discourage this push for divisional unions. We asked for 100 activists. So how many volunteered to help? Ten. Maybe COVID-19 has changed things and teachers are no longer willing to accept a union that would send them into unsafe buildings. I don't know.
Electoral or structural change is tough but the alternative right now to the UFT is right-wing and neo-liberal groups who want to destroy public education and make working conditions and salaries much worse (see Moskowitz, Eva for a possible future for education). They could do real damage in this economic climate. I don't support Mulgrew and I don't endorse Koch. The UFT might react if a bunch of school Chapters go on a "dues strike" with demands for union reforms. Scattered individuals opting out mean nothing even if it is a thousand lone wolves. You will only weaken the UFT more than it already is.
I thought about if there is anything of value in the UFT. There is. The school Chapter level is where there is still real democracy (Chapter Leader, Delegates, School Leadership Team, School Based Options, PROSE, Chapter Committee, School Safety Committee). A majority can still have a great deal of say in school-based decisions if they are organized. If you leave the union as an individual, you lose a chance to serve, vote, or have any influence at the school level. Some schools still do it right. Make sure yours is one of them.
My best hope now is that more schools will become organized and we will stand by them if they take action as we did in March when UFTers asked me if they could stay out if it was unsafe. It is still worth the price of paying dues to have a say in how your school is run. If everyone in your school is on the take or you are an Absent Teacher Reserve, then I totally understand your frustration but rather than quitting, expose the corruption out loud like we bloggers do. You'll feel better and the world is listening.
Finally, I have trouble making the stop paying dues argument in my own home. My wife (a great union activist) told me it was not up to me to lead anyone who wants to quit the UFT. She correctly pointed out that as a retiree, I switched over to her health plan and face absolutely no risk if I leave the Union. I pay dues basically for symbolic reasons as I get no substantial material benefit from being a UFT member.
92 comments:
Forget right wing vs left wing. Has the uft done the job?
When I was in the atr pool, due to a school closing, one school chapter was dumber than the last. They had no idea about the sbo they voted on. One was actually an illegal sbo, there was no vote, the CL said he didnt realize. I, who was there for a week, had to complain about it to Amy Arundell. So, that is the strong chapter you are speaking of?
You keep saying don't listen to Mulgrew, just walk out of buildings. Has the uft, with well over 100,000 members, 10s of millions of dollars in annual dues, done what we are paying them to do? The list has been written plenty of times. I cant find an excuse for all those failures. Teacher morale down. Raises smaller. Benefits worse. Teacher abuse higher. Inability to use what is currently in the contract, like travel hardship clause. Sorry, I just don't see the worth.
When I ask for help with a travel hardship transfer for 20 years, and Sill says, in writing, I agree but I cant do anything...Then who can help? Why would I pay for no service?
So it the worst it has ever been? Well, what are we doing in response?
Prehistoric pedagogueSaturday, May 23, 2020 11:18:00 AM
In 1975, my second year of teaching, we went on strike for a week. Things were not nearly as bad or as serious as they are now. 45 years later that week on strike is still my proudest professional memory
BUT NOT LIMITED TO IS RIGHT, THERE ARE MANY MORE...They then provide a compelling list of other UFT failures including but not limited to: the 2005, 2014, 2018 Contracts with paltry raises and huge givebacks, the 2009 agreement to reduce the interest on the fixed TDA from 8.25% to 7% that CSA (principals and assistant principals) and PSC (CUNY teachers) have not had reduced, Danielson observations, Tier VI pensions, four years to get tenure and routine extensions of probation, etc. These arguments are all valid.
-Still no schedule for next year?
-Still no response as to why we were made to go in those 3 days
-Still no info on spring break comp, which they promised to negotiate
Don't forget there are many teachers in good schools that are happy where they are, so you are not going to get their support. They feel the alternative would be working in a bad school, so they are just shutting up. It's really only the teachers in bad schools with rotten principals and undisciplined students who want the uft To change.
When I started teaching, 1990, we used to protest against unsafe schools and horrible principals. Now teachers, except in outrageous cases, take all the abuse without a peep. The UFT has stopped openly criticizing any member of the CSA. There are no articles in their monthly rag of a paper or any hint of a job action. The President of the Union is a disgrace to unionism. As an Irish American, I find him especially revolting. March 17th was St. Patrick’s Day. Mulgrew has fought for every ethnic minority’s day off, except his own - teachers would have had that day off if he did some pushing. Teachers should openly protest against the UFT’s inaction on 3/17 - 3/19.
As a retiree there is something to lose - SHIP. It’s the only reason most of my retired ATR buddies still pay dues. A dues strike during a normal abysmal year might have been a great idea, but not during Year 1 of the Apocalypse.
People are still, today, on teacher Facebook pages, asking about the 2.5% raise, if, when, etc. Sounds like an informed bunch of chapters. Soon, everyone will start asking about the October retro...When, how much, do I get it, how do I get it...Same uneducated member questions every year. Seems like failure on school level.
newchoiceny.com is the site to help you stop union dues in June
Can you imagine if we had 1/10th of this representing us at the bargaining table?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fXLuAFddhk&t=327s
It took a lot to get me to drop out. At some point there has to be a straw that breaks the camel's back. All the begging and pleading and getting ignored...At some point I couldn't just keep seeing $62 getting taken out while I got destroyed. And never a bad rating, so that wasn't the issue.
Right wing, I am pretty sure Koch funded site 12:17.
This is Mulgrew in bed with the enemy. Delayed raises, delayed retro and tiny raises. Normally retro, alll of it, is paid within a month. We waited 11 years. When Mayor Michael Bloomberg finally left office on January 1, 2014. UFT President Michael Mulgrew saw an opportunity to curry favor with the Bill de Blasio administration and pushed for a long delayed contract for the members. Being his first negotiated contract, Michael Mulgrew wanted to show he was a tough negotiator and his top priority was to get the two 4% raises owed to the members that Michael Bloomberg refused to give the UFT for the years 2009 and 2010. This is when the story begins.
In the winter of 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio told his Labor Commissioner, Bob Linn to start negotiating with the UFT and he gave Mr. Linn two demands. One, that the contract becomes the "new pattern" for all other municipal contracts and two, that the new contract be affordable to the City. Mr. Linn, a veteran of the Koch administration is a savvy negotiator with decades of experience in negotiating municipal contracts. He quickly realized that Michael Mulgrew's top priority was to get his members their two 4% raises. Mr. Linn also knew that the City would lose if the UFT had taken the retroactive payment issue to arbitration. In fact, in the latest PBA arbitration, Arbitrator Edelman emphasized that the "pattern bargaining" is a mainstay for all negotiated contracts and Mr. Linn was probably 99% certain that the City would be on the hook for billions of dollars and put extreme stress on the City budget. Luckily for Mr. Linn, he was negotiating with a novice, Michael Mulgrew.
Mr. Linn dangled the two 4% raises to Mr. Mulgrew as bait in exchange for deferring most of the retro payments out six years to 2020. Customarily, all retro payments were given in the second paycheck to members after a contract was negotiated. However, Mr. Linn persuaded Michael Mulgrew to waive the traditional practice and stretched out the retro payments with 87.5% of these payments not given to the members until 3 to 6 years after the contract was signed. Moreover, Mr. Linn convinced Michael Mulgrew to allow certain teachers who worked during the 2009 and 2010 school years not to get their retro payments. They included members who resigned, were terminated, on unpaid leave, or died. This forced many teachers to retire rather then fight their 3020-a charges. Finally, with the urging of the DOE, the ATRs were made "second class citizens" with reduced due process rights for the first two years of the contract before the UFT thankfully allowed it to sunset.
Mr Linn outmaneuvered the municipal unions when he convinced an over matched Michael Mulgrew to accept a contract that averaged 1.42% for the seven year period, less than the cost of inflation since Mr. Linn was well aware of Michael Mulgrew's eagerness to get a contract. Further, he also received Micheal Mulgrew's approval to reduce health care costs that has saved the City millions of dollars as the municipal workers found themselves paying significantly higher health care costs. The majority of municipal unions howled in disapproval, especially the uniformed unions that saw a meager annual raise since they already had received the two 4% raises, the contract was vastly inferior and thanks to UFT President Michael Mulgrew it became the pattern.
To say that UFT President was over matched by Labor Commissioner Bob Linn in negotiating the City favorable 2014 contract is an understatement. It was like a man negotiating with a boy.
What you commenters fail to realize is that, as poor as our representation is for the price (almost $1500 a year), the alternative is NO representation at all. No raise instead of a bad raise. NO tenure instead of waiting longer. No hearing at all ("at will employment") instead of the 3020a kangaroo court.
For $1500 I can get a life membership with the NRA which does a much better job fighting for my (and everyone's) rights. However it won't protect my job. There's no free market where I can have James, Camille, Norm Scott, Jeff Kaufman, Francesco Portelos, or even Arthur Goldstein or Mike Schirtzer work for my 1500 a year instead. And the only chance as slim as it is to change things is to stay in and dissent.
H james, you wrote this. The contract was actually made worse as they added another 3 month with 0% raise.
I asked the President to show us a copy of the Memorandum of Agreement but there was none. However, the UFT machine is spinning faster than any Wascomat washing machine.
UFT members in the new contract will get the 4 % + 4% salary increases that other city workers unions received back in 2009 and 2010, but we won't see the money until 2015-2020.
For the seven years from 2011 to 2018, where the UFT will set the pattern for raises that other city unions will now follow, we will be getting a total of 10% in raises for seven years plus a $1,000 signing bonus. That works out to less than 1.5% per year.
2011-2012 = 0% raise but we will get a $1,000 signing bonus if we ratify the contract.
Nov 2012- April 2013 = 0% raise
May 1, 2013 = 1% raise
May 1, 2014 = 1% raise
May 1, 2015 = 1% raise
May 1, 2016 = 1.5% raise
May 1, 2017 = 2.5% raise
May 1, 2018 = 3.0% raise *Update February 14, 2015-This final 3% raise will be deferred to June 16, 2018 to help pay for retiree lump sum payments.*
For those of you expecting to go back in the fall and at least have the 4%+4% added to your pay, forget it.
The 4 % + 4% that other unions received in 2009-10 will not be added to our pay until the increases kick in one year at a time starting in 2015. Here is how the 8% will be added in:
May 1, 2015 = 2%
May 1, 2016 = 2%
May 1, 2017 = 2%
May 1, 2018 = 2%
All we get added to our salaries now if we ratify is 1% for 2013 followed by 1% for 2014 and the $1,000 bonus.
The 8% won't be added to our salaries fully until 2018 and the retroactive money the city owes us since 2009 won't be coming soon either. Here is the schedule for the retroactive payments:
October 1, 2015- 12.5% lump sum
October 1, 2016 - Nothing
October 1, 2017 - 12.5% lump sum
October 1, 2018 - 25% lump sum
October 1, 2019 - 25% lump sum
October 1, 2020 - 25% lump sum
We will not be made "whole" for Bloomberg denying us the raises that other city unions got 5 years ago until 2020.
Thanks to inflation, Retro delayed is really Retro denied!
koch wants many of the things the lib/dem/fascists want. dont let labels confuse you. look at their policies.
Someone wrote that they wont opt out now because we are in an apocalypse. What do you think the uft will do now differently then a year ago? They will do better work because the situation is dire? I doubt it. What extra value do they have at this time?
Remember, mulgrew agreed that if you die, you forfeit the retro. Think about those people.
Jr, Where is this 1:37 piece from? It is brilliant.
Remember, to balance out those huge 1% raises, we gave 1 billion dollars per year in healthcare givebacks.
Ok TJL, how would you suggest we dissent? Has it ever worked? Not over the last 2 decades.
TJL, I agree on dissent. The alternative is to organize a better union. Virtually nobody wants to do that hard work of organizing so better to keep what we have.
But unlike the traditional process in which such awards are paid in a lump sum, often in the second paycheck after a contract is ratified, this award will be paid in five installments starting Oct. 1, 2015 and ending on Oct. 1, 2020 to ease the impact of the estimated $3.4-billion cost on the city. There will be no installment paid in October 2016 before monies are disbursed in October of each of the following four years. And the first two installments will consist of smaller amounts than UFT members will receive in the final three.
Wow, with negotiators like this, who needs enemies? Did Koch negotiate this deal for us? The key was Mr. Mulgrew’s willingness, while also accepting raises totaling just 10 percent over the final seven years of a record nine-year contract, to stretch out the back-pay disbursement beyond the contract’s duration.
Traditionally, the first employee paychecks after a contract is ratified are used to implement whichever raises have already taken effect, and the second check is when the back pay shows up. Mr. Mulgrew agreed to defer a large amount of the money—which for senior UFT members approached $55,000 apiece—so that the final 75 percent would be paid in three equal chunks in October 2018, 2019 and 2020.
2:16, I wrote that piece after I came home from the final negotiating committee meeting in May of 2014. Most well read post in this blog's history by far. Google sent Jeff Kaufman a viral award or something like that for it. Those were pretty good notes I took at that meeting and I still managed to speak out asking for the MOA.
I will never forget when Mulgrew asked for those who supported the agreement to say I and the Unity faithful screamed I. Then he asked for those opposed and one loud voice screamed abstention. I would not vote on an MOA I never saw. Mulgrew dismissively said to note one abstention.
I forgot the spinning faster than a Wascomat machine line. I have no idea why you copied this now but I am very proud of that post and my abstention which turned into a strong NO when I saw the full deal.
I said right wing and neoLiberal so I cover both parties 2:25.
Chaz had it...
I copied your article to show how bad it is and that is what we are paying for. Just proving the point.
3:27, I led the fight for a no vote. You hear about me standing up to Mulgrew at that May 2014 DA?
Contract in 2014 was voted unanimously no at what was left of Jamaica HS even among the two retiring teachers who got their retro upfront. Even the teachers in the schools that replaced Jamaica told me they were voting no after Janella Hinds and James Vasquez came to Jamaica to sell the contract but they heard my friend Steve Heiss and me trash it.
75% of teachers overall voted yes. We didn't get to everyone. I did my best.
I again here put out the roadmap to decertify the UFT and start over. The UFT does not have a divine right to be the NYC teacher bargaining rep. The last certification referendum was in 1962. Start a group, get signatures. You have to organize. Call me when you are willing to organize.
By the way if you started an independent union that had nothing to do with NYSUT or the AFT, you could provide better service at a fraction of the cost. TJL, People like Jeff Kaufman and Camille could represent teachers about a thousand times better than the Unity crowd.
Thank you for crediting the source. 3:49. What date did Eric put that out?
1/4/17
Any comment, uft? While Chancellor Richard Carranza plans to cut hundreds of millions from NYC classrooms, his little-known yoga czar — the school system’s first “Director of Mindfulness” — makes nearly $200,000 a year while organizing retreats for educrats in the Berkshires.
Barnaby Spring, the Department of Education’s chief yogi, is trying to expand yoga and meditation for students, staffers and execs, deeming the contemplative practices and body-bending postures like the Downward-Facing Dog as important as academics.
Brooklyn principal caught on tape: Pass students who don’t learn but ‘try’
By Susan Edelman
May 23, 2020 | 1:33pm
The acting principal of a Brooklyn high school was secretly recorded saying that too many students — up to 71 percent — were failing remote classes, and that teachers should pass kids “just because they’re trying.”
“If a child is engaged, if the child is doing work, but somehow the child doesn’t get it, gives you the wrong answer, but the child is doing something, checking in with you, doing work … I would have passed the child,” said Costas Constantinidis, acting principal of Cobble Hill High School of American Studies in Carroll Gardens.
Two clips of leaked audio from a May 14 remote meeting of administrators shows that remote instruction amid the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated poor performance at some schools. Under pressure from the Department of Education’s upper echelons, the schools are lowering the bar to pass students and keep their graduation rates up.
“What’s going on is a push to pass every kid — with careers and tenure on the line,” a Cobble Hill staffer told The Post.
Two teachers who posted 100 percent passing rates for the latest marking period are “gaming the system,” but they have been praised by supervisors and cited as models for others not toeing the line, the staffer said.
Constantinidis said teachers are giving grades in the 85s and 90s range to struggling students, calling it “flexibility.”
His remarks echo those of schools Chancellor Richard Carranza, who urged principals to adopt his mantra, “flexibility and patience,” in a staff webinar in early April, as The Post reported.
In that webinar, Carranza also hinted at the watered-down student grading policy he unveiled on April 28. Under the directive, high school students can receive numeric final grades or opt for a pass/fail, but the fail is recorded as an “incomplete.”Students have until January 2021 to make up the work.
Also attending the May 14 meeting was Anna Maria Mule, the longtime Cobble Hill principal who took a one-year position as a “new principal coach.” Her move came after whistleblowers complained to the Special Commissioner of Investigations for city schools that she masterminded rampant grade fraud. Investigators interviewed teachers at the school before the COVID-19 shutdown, an SCI spokeswoman confirmed Friday.
Mule, who is set to return in July, still guides Constantinidis, staffers say. The DOE said Mule was “not an active” member of this meeting.”
In the audio, Constantinidis and Assistant Principal Rocco Gentile discuss their alarm at the latest progress reports.
“Looking at these rates, these failing rates, to me, that’s a problem, a major problem,” Constantinidis said. “Because we cannot survive with a failing rate of 60 percent … and in some instances 70 percent.”
The failing students include some who have rarely, if ever, took part in remote classes, staffers said.
The audio clips were posted on Twitter by @ed_watchdog, who commented: “Any true educator should be outraged. Our kids deserve better than graduating not ready for college.”
Constantinidis declined to comment on the audio, saying “I’m not allowed to speak to you.” Mule could not be reached.
DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson said, “The secretly recorded conversation occurred after grades were already submitted and had no impact on how Cobble Hill students were graded. Earning credit is based on mastering course content, and the flexibility we’re providing is the Course in Progress mark, which gives students additional time to master course content through January 2021.”
We need yoga now. Breathing exercises are one of the best remedies for reading comments from you do nothing complainers who are the problem more than Mulgrew.
And when you stood up to Mulgrew in may 2014 you got laughed out of the building and ignored. Not blaming you, but again, further makes the point for not paying dues.
Sources say he's going to continue the bias training mandate. Now it will be focusing on Asians instead of Blacks and Latinos.
Another uft highlight...
If you are considering resigning, quit or die, be aware that you will lose eligibility for retroactive payments in the new contract if you resign, quit or die.
I was at that DA. Eterno was not laughed out of the building.
Far from being laughed at, Eterno won the majority of high school teacher votes in the next UFT election.
Like I have said all along, the doe will do what the doe does. Waste money.
Atrs will still occur, hiring freezes will be lifted, morons will be hired(see yoga consultant), and principals who tell kids to pass kids and are caught on tape(see article in NY Post today) will not be reprimanded.
The song remains the same pandemic or not.
Carranza will disguise the spending and shuffle numbers so the civilians won’t know.
The UFT will play ball bc of double dues and we will all get paid and retire and move on with life.
I give credit for the crusaders who want to really teach(I really do), but those days are done in the doe.
Ok, not laughed out of the building, but ignored. The DA voted, contract ratified within days, no contract in hand, awful contract, done deal.
The acting principal of a Brooklyn high school was secretly recorded saying that too many students — up to 71 percent — were failing remote classes, and that teachers should pass kids “just because they’re trying.”
“If a child is engaged, if the child is doing work, but somehow the child doesn’t get it, gives you the wrong answer, but the child is doing something, checking in with you, doing work … I would have passed the child,” said Costas Constantinidis, acting principal of Cobble Hill High School of American Studies in Carroll Gardens.
Two clips of leaked audio from a May 14 remote meeting of administrators shows that remote instruction amid the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated poor performance at some schools. Under pressure from the Department of Education’s upper echelons, the schools are lowering the bar to pass students and keep their graduation rates up.
“What’s going on is a push to pass every kid — with careers and tenure on the line,” a Cobble Hill staffer told The Post.
Two teachers who posted 100 percent passing rates for the latest marking period are “gaming the system,” but they have been praised by supervisors and cited as models for others not toeing the line, the staffer said.
Constantinidis said teachers are giving grades in the 85s and 90s range to struggling students, calling it “flexibility.”
Pass students who dont learn but try. I hope that isnt my surgeon or pilot.
Lower the bar? We put the bar on the ground and the students still can't get over it.
Is the uft listening? I could use this raise. With a tiny cost of living...
Detroit Public Schools are raising starting teacher salaries to $51,071, making them the highest paid first-year educators in metro Detroit.
The new salary marks a 33% increase over the current starting wage of $38,400. It takes effect in the 2020-21 school year.
Why do you assholes keep commenting? You won't do shit to change a thing.
Whose fault is it that the contract passed?
Then don't pass them. Why such hostility towards the kids? You should be upset with the ones asking you to forgo your integrity and rights. The kids are being victimized just as many of you have been when they asked you to walk into a minefield in March. Again,where is all the hostility coming from? Civil liberties are challenged daily and it's blindly accepted because of $$$$. Boy, it seems like the lost of the old guard damaged the union
How are kids being victimized?
I can't believe so many jugheads on this site are arguing with each other over these petty issues when a freight train is heading our way. NYC is in the worst Financial shape of its history as a result of the ineptitude of Governor meatball and the Communist mayor. Don't you people understand economics 101?
You would have some credibility 10:04 if you mentioned Trump too?
Are you saying some will be laid off? What is the end game you are implying?
@9:54 pm....anyway any ideas on how you will proceed in the fall if sent back into the hot zone.?
James you have mentioned decertification many times but never with all the details. Does it have to be a certain number of teachers overall? Or a certain number from each school? And even if only ten people volunteered why not get as many signatures as possible and then let momentum build on itself. Again I don’t know all the details but it seems like even the effort would be a powerful weapon when “ negotiating” with unity for some say.
We have 30 million businesses in the US. Most are small. Almost all of our job growth comes from small business. 10 million businesses will fail from the pandemic. That's 25-35 million jobs. The labor force at peak was 174. So in high end we will see 15-20% headline unemployment just from small business losses. The loans to small businesses part of previous packages are failing and now even Mnuchin, Powell, several Republicans are calling for a compromise with the Pelosi house bill to get another Covid-19 relief package. In an election year the politics is playing out as Trump plays golf and the congress takes a vacation as the nation suffers and Biden blunders, again, but we will get some money in NY eventually. How much? Well, we have to stop talking about Yoga and who is getting a bigger check in public education and trimming the fat, the meat, the bone. We need to stick together. Everyone in education needs to fight to get the package first. There will be a time to talk of how to spend and distribute the money but right now we need the money. Our enemies are very good at divide and conquer. They are out there calling for a cut to teacher salaries, healthcare, pensions and benefits, pushing private for profit education and machine automation. And they have the ears of our governor. Our "communist mayor" as one idiot poster describes him, as if this is the fucking fifties and to be a communist is evil, is more likely than our governor, a capitalist who hates unions and especially the teacher's unions, to keep us employed. So yes, there is, as Chaz's last and wonderful posting noted, more fat in administration than in classrooms and this is very important and we can't forget about this but we need focus, people. Focus on funding for education.
I love the comment in the article about how the two teachers who had 100 percent passing were praised. It's the same everywhere, the kiss asses are praised while those that follow the real rules of grading are publicly shamed. Our principal told us to remember that most of our kids are below level and we should be lenient with grading but then on our observation reports we get developing or ineffective when our lessons aren't rigorous enough. Principals don't even hear themselves when they contradict themselves.
I have put the details out there on several occasions 11:45. You need 30% of the teachers to sign a petition asking for a new bargaining unit.
You need 30% of a division overall. For example, there are around 20,000 high school teachers. 6,000 would be 30%. They could be from any high school.
There are fewer middle school teachers if they wanted to have a go and more elementary school teachers would be needed if they want to decertify.
Having petitioned in UFT elections many times, I know what an arduous task it would be to get 6,000 signatures. We won with around 2,300 high school votes in 2016. You would need almost three times as many to get the decertification referendum.
There has to be a large group of people willing to take on this enormous responsibility. Asking ten to start is hardly momentum. If it was 40 or 50, I could see your point.
Email me. We could call a meeting if that many were interested. As far as I can tell, they're not so then stick with the UFT. If you know the activists willing to put in the time, I am available to help.
You won't hear from that guy or anyone else to help out.
We have met the enemy and they are us.
A weak union is better than no union. The way I see it is AFT and UFT leadership are managing "up", not "down". They are divorced from the rank and file. Mulgrew has been reported as one of the most frequent visitors of Cuomo. Weingarten sat next to Clinton at the '16 primary. Part of this disconnect is because the union passes leadership from one on to another-Shanker to Feldman to Weingarten to Mulgrew. Another is that only very few union members have any memory of the fights that UFT had in the early 60s. It is a union membership that is "out of shape". A third reason is the entire culture as a whole. We have all become more selfish and greedier. Weingarten negotiated raises for teachers that eliminated secretary's sabbaticals. There were substantial raises that gave up critical rights, and we allowed it. All of these shortcomings are correctable though.
That said, no union means only the protections that the "boss" feels like giving. We all need to stick together.
Good argument 12:22
I wonder if you were made to go over the Verrazano bridge for 25 years and the uft refused to initiate a hardship transfer grievance, pay tolls, gas and time...Would you still be for paying dues?
Help start an alternative or shut the fuck up. We need a union.
12:22 said, "...no union means only the protections that the "boss" feels like giving. We all need to stick together."
Said it before I will say it again, "We have met the enemy and they are us."
Ok 149pm, what do you want to do? Make a suggestion.
Somebody said this earlier:
And even if only ten people volunteered why not get as many signatures as possible and then let momentum build on itself. Again I don’t know all the details but it seems like even the effort would be a powerful weapon when “ negotiating” with unity for some say.
Do something!
Yes, if this union sucks, start a better one.
What does stick together mean?
Still not understanding "We are the enemies." The uft has had 100% membership forever. They now probably have 99%. We have gotten trampled with all that cash flowing in and everyone a member...Do you want a new union or is the current one working properly?
The membership ultimately controls the union. If you can't fix the big monster, then tear it apart piece by piece to put it back together again. That's why you have to explain to members about what's going on.
Sticking together is the whole idea of union.
This is like trying to win over converts to a new religion. You got to be like evangelicals.
441 pm said tear apart, isnt opting out doing the right thing to bring change?
“To have Carranza run training on anti-Asian bigotry is like having the KKK run training on anti-Black bigotry,” a Chinese-American group charges.
Opting out is not collective action. It flies in the face of everything unions stand for. Taking down a union collectively to build a new, better one is the definition of unionism.
If you can't see the difference, may you end up in one of Eva's Success Academies. That's where you belong.
So James I have a follow up question. Once you get the 6000 signatures where does it go? There is then a overall decertification vote? And what does that require 50% + 1 or a larger majority? Would all hs teachers then be required to leave the UFT or could some stay with uft? These are important details to know before you decide to do something like this. Because once you start organizing something like this you become a target of the uft leadership
And also he details you said earlier about how we would still be part of the welfare fund? How would that work?
To those of you who can retire or resign and haven't yet done so: leave now, with good memories and justified pride in a job well done...
To those looking at 5,10,15, 20, or more years in the system:
- if you can see yourself doing ANYTHING else in life, get out and do it while time is still on your side;
- if you firmly believe in your calling as an educator, find a place where your talents, love, and dedication will be valued
So now we see where is Shelly's coming from. She's okay with Communism oh, probably a communist herself
70 whining comments from people who have been getting paid to sit home for months while 30 million people lost their jobs. But worse than that all they do is complain but won't lift a finger to do anything about it. New York's meekest. And spoiled rotten.
Good questions 6:57-6:58. Read the links. It is all in the Taylor Law. Our 2017 piece covered all of this as did prior pieces. The research has been done.
The city, not the UFT, pays for our welfare fund. The Triborough Amendment to the Taylor Law would keep an existing contract going until you have a new one, including the welfare fund that as I said NYC pays for. The UFT administers it.
If the high school teachers (or middle school or elementary teachers) got the required 30% signatures from their members, they would take the petitions to PERB for a new certification election. The divisional teachers would say they have a community of interest to be a more appropriate bargaining unit. The last NYC certification election for teachers was in 1962.
For high school teachers, the appropriate bargaining unit hurdle would be easy to jump over since the UFT is a merger of the Teachers Guild with the High School Teachers Association. Restarting the HSTA would be a natural move. High School teachers could simply say that we are treated worse by the UFT (higher class sizes, massive school closings,etc). The merger has not worked. If Sweet Sam Hochburg and Roger Parente were alive today, I have been assured by Matilda Parente that they would stand beside their high school successors.
PERB would then run an election. Winner (50%+1) is the exclusive bargaining rep for those teachers. Election would take place when current contract expires. Before they made peace with the AFT, the NEA up through the 1990s was giving money to some NYC high school teachers (not me) to try to get high school teachers to defect from the UFT.
As for being a target of UFT leadership, who gives a damn? I have stood up to Mulgrew for years. I led the teachers out of the building at Jamaica HS when there was no running water in 2006. Randi Weingarten supported us. In 2020, I showed people how to legally stay out of dangerous schools. Mulgrew did nothing to pull members out of infected schools except to threaten a meaningless lawsuit.
The Unity folks used to say I am crazy at DAs. They know full well I am a passionate trade unionist, as is my wife. They would freak out beyond anything a few hundred opt outers could do if a group came anywhere near to getting those 6,000 signatures and that group would have extraordinary leverage. The 20,000 strong high school teachers union would be one of the top ten largest teacher union locals in the country.
I know what it would take to change things: Lots of work to organize. It's up to all of you to make real change a reality.
No, we didnt all sit home and get paid...Some of us are dead due to uft and doe negligence.
You will all be sad once you get to july 1, you didnt opt out, we get screwed again, then you have to wait another year and get talked out of opting out again.
Good information and interesting points to ponder. Thanks for info James
Also James one more question. What would happen to the minority in this theoretical vote where we decertify. Could they stay in uft as opposed to joining new union?
WE all know how the UFT screwed us been stated hundreds of times. Time for these annoying, whiny, narcissistic millennials to come through and be involved. anonymous posts with good ideas nice in here but will not help.
1. every borough should be having monthly ZOOM meetings
2. Chapter leaders should be doing monthly ZOOM meetings
3. Choose a date when time is right to gather
I would not drop out of UFT in these unknown fragile times. We all need to vote someone who will fight for us and we need a mayor with common sense to be on our side. Between the chancellor, mayor, governor, and UFT little to no chance anything gets done.
Exclusive bargaining agent means just that 11:23. You win the vote and then you get to represent everyone in the bargaining unit. UFT would be out completely!
@Anon: Right on
I still did not see one of the whiners join the fight.
How many bloggers on this blog join the UFT's Committee to get Heroes Act and join the UFT's fight to get the resources to protect us.
Text "Lifeline 30644". Join the fight instead of complaining.
We are the UFT only working together can get a successful outcome.
Anonymous
I am so sad to read all the negativity and distrust here. This is EXACTLY WHAT THE RIGHT WING PRIVATIZATION CREEPS WANT.
They want us to turn on each other and do their work for them. Reading much of this blog makes me think they are accomplishing their goal very well.
Michael Mulgrew the enemy? Really? What about the true and proven enemies...like Betsy DeVos, our 45th orange head, Bloomberg, the Kochs, Evil Eva etc.
We are in a massive war against a mighty enemy. We need to focus on taking them down rather than each other. This is how the right always wins. Are we going to be manipulated against each other...AGAIN????
Keep on keepin' on, Mr. Eterno and all of you standing up for teachers and students! Stay well.
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