From Michael Mulgrew's latest email declaring another UFT victory:
All UFT members with in-person assignments will continue to report to school buildings next week even if they initially are providing remote instruction or services. Your eyes and ears in every school building are the key to ensuring that the safety plan is made real in every school. Please continue to be the advocates for safety in your school building.
It's not safe for most students but UFTers can keep reporting with some becoming infected with COVID-19. Mulgrew is admitting you, D75, 3-k and pre-k students are guinea pigs to make sure school buildings are safe. I guess the staff infection rates are acceptable enough for him.
The only question I have left is this:
How much more of this will UFT members keep putting up with?
Full remote until it's safe.
Teachers should not be thinking about opting out of a union but might want to contemplate how to collectively decertify the UFT and start over with a new union. We still need a union.
48 comments:
I'm beyond disgusted. This will be my last year teaching.
I raise questions about when it will be considered safe. In essence it won't be for the rest of this school year and maybe beyond. https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2020/09/should-we-worry-about-covid-19-teacher.html
I am also beyond disgusted with the UFT. Mr. Eterno
I continue to pay dues to the UFT only because of what you have written on your blog about maintaining the union. It is a foolish pipe dream.
This current re-opening is one very unethical experiment with regard to the safety and health of teachers, students and their families. The UFT is complicit in this highly unethical experiment.
I WILL NOT LISTEN TO YOU NEXT JUNE BECAUSE I WILL OPT OUT. I WILL NOT PAY DUES UNTIL MULGREW AND UNITY ARE FORCED OUT AND THE UFT RULES ARE MADE MORE DEMOCRATIC.
WE NEED A DUES STRIKE, PERIOD.
First step to decertify? The point has been proven over and over. He keeps sending us in.
Again with the dues and the opt out. I get it, I've been talked off the ledge myself for one reason or another. Do realize though that teachers in plenty of nonunion schools are back at work, and if they refuse they get fired. No due process, no half-a-loaf remote in the building, no nothing.
P.S. Couldn't the DOE and UFT at least have the sense to canvass for volunteers who want to work in the buildings? Maybe there are a sufficient number of TJL's to run things.
Well we both know that would've made too much common sense. With the number of remote students at the very least more people could've been accommodated. If there was an incentive, like a 6th class pay, at least some who were on the fence would come in rather than stay home.
I think a future plan of action is to say if Mulgrew doesn't step down or is re-elected next time we opt out of dues. If enough make that threat maybe it goes somewhere. If he wins, we opt out. What do we really lose if that happens? our vote in 3 years? We obviously aren't getting who we want in charge so why pay into it.
That's why a strike doesn't make sense. We would be basically striking to build Mulgrew's brand.
What works is the photos. The reports. The full disclosure when a staff member tests positive. That is what works. More families are opting out.
I don't want to make it sound like I playing both sides. I recognize the economic impact of the city getting back to normal. I recognize the value of in-person learning as opposed to remote. If we have to go back we need to be smart and safe. Those teachers getting the virus and bringing it into the school may or may not have been negligent in how they acquired the disease but they were possibly negligent for not taking all precautions to make sure they were negative before coming back. That's on them. Wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping our distance will keep us safe. I would bet we are all less strict with those guidelines with our neighbors, friends and families.
That's being said, the numbers are low because we are closed. Some schools have not done well, again for a lack of responsibility by those bringing infections in. Other districts have been remarkably successful so far. Any future failure remains on all of us to do our part and not enough of us are doing that which is why schools should go full remote until A) a rapid test is created and accurate B) Medicine that lowers hospitalization and death of the virus is approved or C) A vaccine is verified to work. Even after that we still need to have precautions.
If we have to go be smart, be safe, get tested and report everything to the public. That's how we get through this.
There is no degree of shit we won't take since we are NYC's dumbest. Do you need any further evidence?
Opt out of uft. Dont show up for work on first day of student attendance.
TJL makes a great point. How many non-union states have teachers that have been canned for nothing? A bad union is better than no union.
We all have to remember that guys like James and TJL think logically. When it comes to the doe, you cannot apply logic to people who live in a different universe.
Bloomberg and Klein were bad, but carranza and de blasio on their best days couldn’t even change a light bulb without delaying it a hundred days. These two are morons who won’t think logically.
Do what is asked by your principal, nod and say yes and then do what we do each year and stay under the radar.
Remember, through all of this, uft has done nothing. Staff has gone in for 2 weeks to be on a computer. Kids still on Monday. Tests still slow. Thermometer not working. Buildings still unsafe. People still protesting. Dues well spent. Scabs are smart. Uft has been valueless. Mulgrew talks, no action as people are getting infected daily. You guys have been played for suckers AGAIN. When will you learn? Well, maybe next June.
I am willing to bet a hundred bucks that if we go fully remote, teachers without medical notes will still be required to come into the buildings. (Yonkers started out their year like this)
This is uft propaganda as mulgrew sits with de blasio and talk leadership. It should be nobody in building, period. Keep paying $1600+. Teachers aren't too smart. Enjoy when they take triple dues on October 15.
Neither Mulgrew, nor DeBlasio care if teachers live or die, and he's got some pair saying that he expects teachers to play the part of Building Inspector when it's really about he and DeBlasio saving face on the utter fiasco on this ridiculous A/B/D, fully remote, blended, whatever schedule because there simply are not enough teachers to make it happens. So now while they try and manage that debacle they'll just force in-person teachers to come into schools for no good reason whatsoever.
I didn't mind giving it a go and remaining in-person because and I detest remote teaching, but if I MUST do remote teaching anyway, why the hell do I have to travel to the school to do it.
@4:58 - they'll just have more teaching signing up for accommodations. Some people who would likely qualify for a waiver prefer in-person teaching but they are NOT going to commute for hours to do remote teaching.
Mulgrew...
Q--If I don't have accommodation but am full remote, why can't I do it at home?
A--If you're full remote I will let you know shortly, but we need you on site now to check that schools are in shape. We hope to clear this up by tomorrow. If you're fully remote you should be working at home. If school has large number of opt-out kids, some may have to teach remotely from building so everyone else can teach from home. Not resolved yet
Ok, James, you've got me contemplating. So do you know anything about the decertification process? Thanks for the correct wording, I was able to google it and I found the following:
The process to decertify a union starts with filing an RD petition at the regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) office or electronically on the NLRB website. If 30 percent of the bargaining-unit employees sign the petition, the NLRB may hold a hearing and authorize an election to decertify the union.
But is that the only way? There is no way to just decertify Mulgrew while keeping the union?
Ours would go through PERB. It would take 30% of members of any division (high school, middle school, elementary teachers or non-teachers) to sign a petition asking for perb to hold an election to what is called fragment a new bargaining unit. If all three teaching divisions were in, you could decertify the UFT for all NYC teachers. If there are 100 activists willing to get petitions signed by about 60 high school teachers each or 50 middle school or about 100 elementary school teachers, you could make history. I have written about this process previously. You wouldn't lose any benefits at all because of the Triborough Amendment to Taylor Law keeps contract and benefits in place until there is a new one. PERB does not recognize longer than 3 year contracts so in February 2022 the UFT could be voted out and a new union could negotiate and administer the next contract.
James,
We should try to organize and de-certify the UFT. It would be a great moment in the history of organized labor, even if we do not succeed. Now is our best chance of succeeding.
Mulgrew is a lowlife. Now he back to be buddies with de blasio. After all this, back into the buildings.
DOES ANYBODY NKNOW IF ALL ATRS HAVE BEEN PLACED AND I MEAN ALL before DOE hires new teachers?
I cant believe mulgrew and the dues payers think something was accomplished today. How does what happened today benefit teachers?
PERB does not recognize longer than 3 year contracts so in February 2022 the UFT could be voted out and a new union could negotiate and administer the next contract.
Can you clarify this part? If we got the petitions done, we'd still have to wait until Mulgrew's 3 yr contract comes up for a vote? Also, are UFT and Unity the same entity? Meaning if we want to get rid of Unity, we have to get rid of the UFT and start a completely new union from scratch?
Our commuting the work does help the economy: Money paid for gas, public transportation, parking, tolls, stopping for coffee or breakfast, getting lunch out. This is why they want us to do remote in the schools.
Are you serious? They want us to do remote from schools cause they don’t trust us to work from home. They already think our job is easy so they don’t want to make it any easier.
9:33 PM - I am an ATR school counselor. I have an assignment. It is not permanent. I can be reassigned at any time.
Unity has controlled the UFT since around 1963. They have rigged the system in a very sophisticated way by having retirees all over the country and beyond vote in UFT elections. No opposition group could possibly get to those retirees to be known well enough to get votes. The non teachers and retirees now are the clear majority in the United Federation of Teachers. Unity takes care of retirees so in essence Unity is the UFT.The vote is like 9 to 1 for Unity for retirees in UFT elections. Yes, the retiree vote is capped but they are the UFT members most likely to vote so beating Unity in a UFT election is nearly impossible. By going through PERB, you get around the retirees as only the teachers would vote to decertify the UFT and start a new teacher union.
There was a vote to certify the UFT as the NYC public school exclusive bargaining agent in 1962. It might be time for a new certification election. The catch is 30% of the teachers have to ask for it. Could the time finally be right? It's you who have to help organize it.
This contract started in February of 2019. PERB recognizes contracts for up to 3 years. Therefore, if there was a new union they would take over in February 2022. That is 17 months away. The UFT election isn't until the spring of 2022. If you organize to get those 30% to sign for a new certification election, you will get help and support from most of the people I know. Up to you to get those activists.
If you got anywhere close to 30% of teachers to sign a decertification petition, the UFT leadership would freak out beyond anything ever seen. Trust me on that one.
Wow. I am in awe of your knowledge of this.
I am totally in for this. If we start with just 10 people organizing and work on plan to grow exponentially we can get this done. Now is the time.
I wrote earlier on this thread that we should demand Mulgrew resign or we threaten to opt out of our dues...
Would that be a simpler option to start or have any impact before starting the decertification movement?
First, the city wants atrs. Principals have power and some love playing the ‘well, if you don’t do what I say, I’ll make you an ATR!’ Then, sometimes people quit or retire and worst case scenario, a decent principal has some coverage for a while that they can use. A per diem sub can go into bedlam and say ‘no. Not for me!’ An ATR can’t do that and the anti-union groups can say ‘see. These atrs stink and the unions protect them.’ Plus, charter school folks are anti-union and deep down, that is what city hall wants. Make no mistake. Bloomberg was more open on his hatred towards unions, but de blasio also hates unions.
Second, what difference does a delay make? Every year is bedlam day 1. I have had my schedule changed on day 1. Heck, I have had subjects I am teaching change. Folks, this is the doe. It will never change.
Third, like a prior post said, us going in to work to sit and twiddle our thumbs does in a weird way stimulate the economy. Gas, tolls, parking tickets, coffee, stopping at corner stores etc all stimulates the economy. Never lose site of that.
Finally, I am a little over a decade away from retirement. My kid is in middle school. I have repeatedly told her that if she chooses to go into teaching, then I will not contribute a dime for her for college. This is not a ‘career.’ This is a job. Day to day survival is paramount. The days of planning and legitimate grading are over. Each day, fake it until you make it. Dress neat, smile and hide.
So I show up to a school building every day to sit around basically and do nothing. Until 2 days ago I didn't even have a roster of students. now I'm calling the parents and trying to have the students learn how to log on to their devices using the new logins. I'm in a room in a school with other teachers and paraeducators. We're uncomfortable because we are not equipped with desks technology or anything that makes it reasonable to work in this environment. I'm a fit guy and I've gone home every night unable to get off of the couch. With five or six different people in a room how do you expect to conduct live online learning when you have feedback from devices? Just think about having three or four devices tuned to the same program with a live mic in the same room. The solution is to all use one computer and in that case there's no social distancing.
Let's touch on live instruction and the students that come in for blended. The doe is selling it like it's the perfect bubble environment with safety as the top priority. The reality is that it's nowhere close to a bubble. Students are set to be picked up in the morning on buses jammed packed. Of course the official line is that the buses will only be 25% capacity. in reality the bus company is going to go by and stop at every single house the a groups of students and the b group of students as well as students who are fully remote that were never removed because of glitches in the antiquated system of the office of pupil transport. On these jams buses you have parent educators who are one-on-ones for students in the school. these power educators are one-on-ones in most cases for other students in the school. This is the first of many failures to the in quotes bubble system. When the students arrive at the school they're going to interact and grab their breakfast and be scanned for temperature. At that point they go up to classrooms where they're supposed to be sequestered to the same room. the reality is that these students will need to use the bathroom and in many cases need toileting and diaper changes. All of these things require exposure in rooms with little to no ventilation.
Think about the cluster teachers that are sitting around waiting for assignments. Either they'll be asked to go 100% live instruction in person to substitute for missing or absent blended teachers or they're going to be asked to do remote instruction. If they end up filling in for absent teachers we're doing coverages at that point you have another failure in the bubble system. If the cluster teachers are doing coverages and substitute teaching they're exposed to everybody in every environment which they've met.
I can go on and on about this but it needs to be put in words how ridiculous this entire situation is. For anybody in their right mind to think that this is a safe environment I just don't understand. I know I've been teaching with the doe for long enough to understand that logic and sense does not have any part of doe education procedures or protocols or decision making.
I'm still at a loss of words to describe what is going on. Some of the teachers and parent educators in my building are showing signs of mental distress. Adding to the fact that they have personal issues and family things going on outside of school is the fact that they really have no idea what is going on inside the building and what their days will be like. For professionals with master's degrees holding themselves too some level of professionalism the start of the year has been a joke. Paying somebody who's a hard worker to sit around and wait for orders is insulting degrading and as I'm seeing causing mental duress amongst my colleagues.
7:13: Although I agree with a lot of what you said, you have a lot of nerve saying ATRs stink. Very few ATRs are in there for disciplinary reasons. Most are from schools that closed, excessing and restaffing of schools. I'm in the ATR because my principal at my old school didn't rehire me because I refused to play his game of pass all the kids. This is my third year and I was at two really good schools the prior two years and let me tell you I could teacher circles around many of the teachers in these schools. I've seen lessons that were straight down developing or ineffective while I was covering for a co-teacher. Many are in the atr for circumstances beyond their control. I agree that the atr pool stinks but not the actual people in the atr. I come to school every day even though some days I don't do anything, so I internet surf most of the days. I also rarely have to plan lessons or grade. It should be all you teachers complaining about the atr pool that we do a lot less work and get paid either the same or more than you. I'm at the top of the pay scale with 30 above so principals won't hire me because I take too much out of their budget.
The uft doesn't care about our safety.
There were over 45,000 new cases of covid19 in the United States yesterday.
Quite the plateau to be sitting on with cold/flu season coming, indoor dining back in NJ (and soon NYC?) and some schools back in person (maybe NYC?
😱
844,
This is 713. I never said atrs stink. I said anti-union people aka the doe will say that as a way to say unions are bad.
I’ve been in and out of the ATR pool.
Atrs do not stink. They do whatever is asked of them and are team players.
But, the doe will never do away with atrs because of the reasons I outlined.
Okay, it just looked like the way you wrote it you thought atrs stank. Thanks for clearing it up.
Good morning James,
Could the key to all the decertification process be Solidarity?
Do they have enough teachers on board that with a vote the combined number of teachers who are currently dissatisfied along with Unity would reach the magic number?
In my nonscientific opinion we would need just about every sympathetic UFTer who reads this blog to bring along a few colleagues (not whole schools but close circle) and then the ball would be rolling.
It seems practical if we think of it exponentially. If we start with just three of us and those 3 commit to getting 3 others and continuing the chain like that, then we're at 10,000 after 8 rounds of it. Can we put together an email list to get the ball rolling?
Mulgrew should be honest and straight forward with members. If he wanted to have members report back to schools, document and inform the union he should be have been direct about it. If he wanted to first test the waters before really considering a strike, he should have indicated that. He should explain what the strategy is and be clear about it. If he had a change in strategy, include the membership to discuss.
Did not like that after his press conference with the mayor, chancellor, presidents of CSA and DC-37 he did a turn around. What happened to the press conference with the health professionals?
What happened to the town halls? Where is leadership? I guess it's easier to send out a video than to have a town hall.
If anything, now it was publicized on television for all to see how he made a 360.
Right now, Mulgrew, De Blasio and Carranza are not looking too nice.
UNITY HAS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!
James,
What happens with health care and welfare fund in decertification? Also if you get 30% that leads to what? A separate election for just the high school Division?
Trust me, I've thought about holding back dues. But I have friends who live in states with no unions. It's worse than you can imagine. I know people in other states WITH unions who have it far worse than we do: for example, works in a school where they have kids in full classes in windowless rooms. That being said, we need to figure out how to unseat Unity. It's not as simple as getting Mulgrew out; he'd just be replaced with another Unity Hack. My issue is the only caucus that has any traction is MORE. However, while I like some of their actions during the strike, it's much easier to take their positions when you're not the party in power. In other words, I don't know how they'd behave if they were dominant. Having spoken to several people, my sense of them is they talk a good game but are not democratically run, controlled by members of their in crowd, which does not instill confidence that having them in control wouldn't be a benevolent dictatorship. Thus, I'm not yet sure what the solution is.
You could fragment by divisions or all 3 together. Up to the organizers. City pays welfare fund and healthcare benefits. Healthcare is now done by Umbrella group of municipal unions called Municipal Labor Committee. It wouldn't change. UFT Welfare Fund just administers the eyeglass, hearing aid, dental and prescription drug programs. As stated above, city pays for them. That would remain in force until something new was negotiated by a new union.
Unless you elect someone worse than Mulgrew, you could improve the benefits or at least maintain them.
James.
If you get 30 % would the process be an overall decertification election and then a General election? Or once you get the 30% the high school division for example automatically starts anew? In that scenario people could choose to stay with uft?
Post a Comment