One can usually figure out the state of the UFT's relationship with the mayor by how President Michael Mulgrew talks about the state of the schools. If his phone calls are answered at City Hall, schools are great. If he has to leave a message, then some reality about major problems in the schools may actually come from Mulgrew's mouth. Today, Mulgrew's call may have been answered on the first ring.
From Arthur Goldstein's report from tonight's Executive Board:
Our focus has to be getting our schools up and going. Six months and six days since we had in person learning, wants to thank d75 staff, early childhood all teachers who were there today. First time I felt everyone DOE, UFT and CSA were on same page. Really was good day in terms of what we were able to accomplish.
We understand people are anxious and apprehensive. We worry about children being traumatized and adults are too. Thanks teachers and paraprofessionals who welcomed kids today.
Forget about the UFT fighting for full remote. The spin is going to be that it's wonderful for the most part in the buildings. I hear Mulgrew more than Chancellor Richard Carranza these last few days promoting the reopening of buildings. This top-down union that ignores so many members will continue like this until you collectively say no more, not by opting out of union dues, but by organizing for a better union.
For some reality on what is likely to come in the next few months, this is from Reuters:
Although new cases are down about 50% from the peak in July, the United States is still reporting on average nearly 40,000 new infections a day - the highest number in the developed world.
Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has said he would like to see new cases below 10,000 per day before flu season starts in October.
"We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter, because it's not going to be easy," Fauci said during a panel discussion with doctors at Harvard Medical School earlier this month.
"We've been through this before," he said. "Don't ever, ever underestimate the potential of the pandemic. And don't try and look at the rosy side of things."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield has also warned that Americans are in for "the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had," citing concerns of a possible "twindemic" of COVID-19 cases and the seasonal flu overwhelming hospitals.
18 comments:
A teacher tested positive at the Daniel Carter Beard school building but it wasn't listed on that interactive map.
A double tsunami of flu and Covid. Schools will spread it everywhere. deBlasio and Mulgrew have made the Grimm Reaper an ATR. Grace Dodge will be his first rotation.
My heart weeps for ALL. Pray.
Mulgrew sounds trustworthy. Well worth 300k. Dues well spent. Keep complaining.
Teachers are ready but we had to tell them, no you have to wait. Mulgrew actually said that with a straight face.
There will be blood on the Mayor's and UFT President's hands! There was no reason to rush back and that is what they have tried to do. Mulgrew is only doing it for the extra dues from the 10,000 people they have had to hire to try to make it work. The UFT does not care about our safety or the safety of students one bit.
Covid is smoldering across this nation and across NYC. Open the schools, the subways, put hundreds of thousands of children and staff on buses and in cramped poorly ventilated buildings...and see what happens. There will be no accounting and no repercussions because teachers are morons and de Blasio leaves next year with only one person loving him, David Dinkins, you certainly cannot say Dinkins was a the worst mayor ever after this!
I will be sitting in my home safe, not because of the UFT, but because of NYC, NYS, and Federal law which requires my employer to offer reasonable accommodations. The UFT won absolutely nothing! I implore everyone to be safe! If you are over 65 they will approve you within hours to work remotely. If you have asthma, obesity, cancer or any other condition the CDC says puts you at greater risk then get a doctor's note and apply before things get bad.
The parents should always be the first ones to protect their children, but we know in NYC that is not always the case. Parents are struggling just to survive in this city and have few choices. Then we have the politicians and I think we can all agree our politicians here are completely incompetent. Finally, we have teachers and their union standing as the bulwark against unsafe schools. In Dallas and Huston the parents stepped up to stop schools from opening, in Los Angeles and Miami it was the politicians and school board, in Chicago it was the unions, and in NYC none of those entities stood against this experiment that is sure to meet with disaster. we all must applaud the teachers that tried to stand up and were pushed back into their schools by their own union to face the onslaught coming.
I hope Mulgrew and DeBlasio get covid and share it with their families. He cares so little about memberships health and safety. He is a trader to the people he represents. Karma, Karma come out, come out....
Here's some nostalgia for you: August 31, less than a month ago, UFT/Unity was talking, publicly, and calling for a vote on a strike action. What went down? We were all there, but what actually went down is anybody's guess. And here we are in the same old debate about dues and the impossible. It seems to me that the a look back to August argues supports the dues argument. Why pay dues? Cause we need a union? We don't have a union. So why pay dues? You will never defeat Unity. So why give them your money when they only screw you?
Shelley, Been saying that all along. This is a farce. We are fighting the doe and uft.
People like myself said striking was a bad idea, it turns out we were right because not only did we not have the stomach for a strike but it made us look weaker than teachers weren't even asked.
Now, James, who I respect greatly calls for decertification, which I am sure if done correctly would be effective but do we even have the numbers for it or really the stomach for that.
Many of us are beaten down from the job, from this virus, from the stress this all gives us. We are happy still receiving a salary and going home to our family. I know it sounds defeating. I know it sounds passive. But for some of us if we keep our dues we can say, "hey, they are not getting this too."
...6 months.
Covid has turned the world, this country, this profession upside down.
6 months and folks are running around yelling "fire" "unfair" "disgrace" etc.
6 months and the proverbial boat has tipped over.
The gate is removed and the chickens are home.
6 months
Why are we required to report to our buildings?? We are the forsaken. Why are there no teachers from my school being tested? It is a sham of smoke and mirrors. I hope more parents smarten up and keep their kids home for full remote.
The idea that somehow we will replace Unity or force significant change is a pipedream. It won't happen. We had a once in a century crisis / opportunity to take action, to strike, to sick-out, to come together and make change. We missed it. Now we are only three floundering caucuses trying to kick the weak UFT in the shins. A sitout here, a shutdown there, an accommodation for a few more, a letter, a bog post, a complaint...a scream ....
We are not going to do anything because we are defeated.
But we don't have to keep paying our dues. Our dues are not helping us. So why not keep the money? if nothing else we can take pride in being nonpayers.
Have some dignity and stop paying the thieves.
To rob me of my earnings with a gun is one thing, to rob me because I will not stand up to abuse is another.
Have some dignity. Stop paying the people who are selling you out.
I am a trade unionist. Ask anybody who knows me and what have been about all my years in education and I say I am opting out.
I am raging against the machine the UFT has replaced me with.
Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate’er it touches; and obedience
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,
A mechanized automaton.
--Shelley
So that makes me and Shelley opt outs. Great. Anybody else want to stop contributing to their own demise?
"THE MOST COMMON WAY PEOPLE GIVE UP THEIR POWER IS BY THINKING THEY DON'T HAVE ANY." A. Walker.
Teach people how to treat you.
1,600 x 150,000 teachers= 240,000,000 where in the fuck is all thus money going too?
That's insane, very simple we all stop paying dues to take power and leverage back, said this months ago it is the only way to truly grab their attention, once that happens we can always opt back in when real changes have been made.
I just found this site and see truth frustration and a feeling of defeat voiced by fellow members. It is obvious that those at the top do not have an inkling of an idea as to what truly goes on in a school building. I want to address another issue--I would like to list and make transparent the insurmountable number of tasks DOE related service providers are mandated to do prior to providing services to children who require them (completion of multiple digital forms for caseload, emailing said forms to parent, then uploading forms to SESIS.Much of this paper shuffling is redundant. Requesting caseload schedules 1st week while there continues to be confusion/last minute decision making around blended and remote learning schedules created by the school. This rush to initiate service within week 1 serves to confuse students due to ever changing schedules, frustrate parents, and most of all, makes us look extremely unprofessional. I'm not hearing providers who are vocal about this and just don't get it. Reduction of paperwork? Please!!!. Would like to post an open letter, so I can detail what is going on to the fullest extent.James, where would you suggest I post for all to read. To post for educators only would be preaching to the choir.
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