Saturday, March 20, 2021

SOLIDARITY SPONSORED CHAPTER LEADER-DELEGATE ELECTION WORKSHOP TODAY AT 1:00 PM

I will be on Zoom this afternoon along with Lydia Howrilka and Johnny Hinsley talking UFT Chapter Elections. Join us please.

Here is last week's posting on the workshop.

Anyone who genuinely wants to improve the UFT is welcome to join me on Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 1:00 PM for a UFT Solidarity sponsored Zoom workshop on running for chapter leader or delegate. 

The school chapters are the backbone of the Union. If multiple UFTers with integrity and some guts are willing to step up and defend the rights of the UFT members in their schools and also to make UFT policy, then we can take the first steps toward changing the UFT in a positive way. 

The UFT Constitution mandates chapter elections for this May or June. Chapter elections are fair and this year will be conducted by phone by the American Arbitration Association. Stand up and get involved. Stop making excuses and expecting the UFT to magically improve. It is up to you to fix the Union and not opt out of it.

If you've ever wondered why school chapter leaders and delegates do not follow the will of the members of their schools but instead just vote the way Michael Mulgrew tells them to vote, it is because they join Mulgrew's political party called Unity Caucus. To join, they sign a Unity Caucus obligation application that binds them to "support the decisions of Caucus / Union leadership in public or Union forums." It is nicknamed the Unity Loyalty Oath.

If your chapter leader or delegate belongs to Mulgrew's caucus, they are not allowed to disagree with the party at Union meetings. The Unity leadership wines and dines new chapter leaders at chapter leader training weekends with offers of free all expense paid trips to NYSUT Representative Assemblies and AFT Conventions and then part time and full time Union jobs. The main qualification to be accepted into Unity  is that someone has to sign up to be loyal to Unity, not the members of the chapters that elect them.

UFT Solidarity has asked me to be a presenter at Saturday's workshop. I said yes I would do it. ICE stands for the Independent Community of Educators. I would like to propose our own loyalty oath for chapter leaders and delegates.

If elected to a UFT position, I pledge to be loyal only to the will of the majority of the members of the UFT Chapter that elected me and to my conscience, not to the decisions of any caucus or whims of school administrators.

If you really want to move the UFT ahead, we need many school chapters to break free of the Unity stranglehold over our chapter leaders and delegates. Change starts with all of you.

Now is your chance!

The link to sign up for the workshop.

19 comments:

Bronx ATR said...

Solidarity should think about coming out with a statement against sexual harassment and a no confidence vote on Andrew Cuomo, especially since the UFT will not. I thought of the Governor again this morning while reading this article -
https://nypost.com/2021/03/20/horny-doordash-driver-reportedly-holds-food-hostage-for-sex/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=mail_app
Cuomo is much worse than the doordash driver, who was rightly fired.

Anonymous said...

What did you accomplish?

Shelley said...

Solidarity is the future of the UFT, 3-5 years down the road. And that is all well and good for those that will be around, as teachers for the changes Solidarity will make, but in the mean time, the next 1-3 years it is Unity and how we thwart their madness. So support Solidarity, James is right in this.

Anonymous said...

Had a remote pension consult the other day. I asked her how much I should expect to receive, but was told they do not have access the software platform to calculate it.

I explained that I usually get estimates for three different scenarios. She told me to go onto the TRS website, as it is accurate.

Total bull.....

Mulgrew...time to put on your bigboy pants do something for us.

Anonymous said...

Yes. What a croc!

UFT OFFICES SHOULD BE OPEN!

How long are we dragging this out!

TRS should be open too!

All services are MIA!

Getting paid but services not in person!

Anonymous said...

Why pay dues?

Anonymous said...

Dues payers from high school get to wake up at 5 am tomorrow to get abused, travel for hours just to get sick and babysit 1 student.

Anonymous said...

Yes 9:58, and hopefully those teachers aren’t Asian. If they are they may be attacked on their way to work or coming home from work. If they are attacked by a white guy, it will automatically be a racially motivated crime, if they are attacked by a black guy it will be considered not racially motivated. This city, led by deBlasio, is so fucked up in so many ways. In trying to vacate past systemic racism, they are creating more racism. These thugs always start with somebody they know will not fight back. An old person or an easy victim. This behavior was learned in New York City public high schools. Lots of these guys abused their teachers, peers and got away with it. Now they’re abusing society. DeBlasio and his nemesis Cuomo, aka Dumb and Dumber, should elope, off world.

Eric said...

Dr. Gotleib said the variant is infecting vaccinated people. Mayor and mulgrew are silent, as usual. But you schmucks will report tomorrow. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

1:28 00 PM - There are people who retired before the pandemic who do not have their full pensions, nor have received sick leave pay owed them. Wonder what will happen if a retirement incentive does pass???

Anonymous said...

Randi dancing again.

Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten
Fantastic news. Congrats to The LA community for getting #schoolsreopening right..

Shelley said...

The TRS Planning Tools provide an estimate. That's all you are going to get from anyone. You need to understand that a precise number simply can't be calculated and that anyone that gives you an exact number is not to be trusted.

That said, the estimate is all you need to retire. Take your pension estimate, and as you said, you can look at several scenarios based on the available options, do the same for your TDA options, and for your Social Security options, add in what monies you have invested elsewhere (your IRA, Roth, etc.), and do a simple cashflow spreadsheet vs, costs (this too can only be estimated) and walk away happy. Or run.


"We gotta get out while we're young 'Cause tramps like us, baby, we were born to run."

Anonymous said...

I’m going to state the obvious here, since I haven’t heard anyone say it in a long time. If you have to go in, fail the Covid screener each and every day. There’s gonna be another big spike in Covid cases here very soon, mostly from older teens and twenties. The New York variant is vaccine resistant. Let Mulgrew and deBlasio act out Brokeback Mountain if they must, but no one has to or wants to watch.

Anonymous said...

Ok, where is the spring break pay? I'm resigning shortly, at the 20 year mark. enough is enough. I hate this job, as most seem to. A pathetic babysitting service...

Anonymous said...

11:21 Best paid babysitting gig in the world! Sure I have to listen to bullshit from kids, coaches, administrators for 5 hours a day but I’m paid well to watch and listen. My grandfather slept on an army cot in someone’s kitchen, worked 12 -14 hour days to save to bring his wife, kids here and ate onion sandwiches for the first 2 years he was in this country. 2 generations later all I have to do to make 100k+ and fill my fridge with prime meats is listen to assholes talk and make sure no one jumps out a window. Every once in awhile some good hardworking kids cross my path and I actually teach. Life is good. God Bless America. Try looking at things through a different lens. Best of luck to you.

Anonymous said...

I'm working towards leaving too. This job has led to so many health issues, it isn't even funny. Weight gain from stress (went from slim thin to a little chunky). Gray hairs at a relatively young hair. UTI due to not being able to find anyone to cover during class to use the restroom. Digestive issues from stress.

I'm going to get out of this while I still can. I have a high demand teaching license as well as undergraduate background. I'll come back when things get better, otherwise ciao.

I'm done trying to give this job a chance. Every year I give this job a chance is one less where I can do something that doesn't drive me to a full blown meltdown. Not giving anymore of my youth away.

Anonymous said...

This whole thing about opening the economy is bull. I still see tons of people shopping. It's not about having money for survival, it's about having money for luxuries.

Anon2323 said...

@10:15 more like dumber and dumbest

@2:03 that is a great perspective. During the pandemic we stayed home watched netflix, social distanced, played video games, had phones food etc. Meanwhile, 80 years ago teenagers went to war defending our country. When our grandkids ask what we did during the pandemic it is a whole different story.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 they have a 25/50 early retirement buyout. It's nice to get 100k to babysit but it takes 20 fucking years to make that money which is a joke in itself when you have 2 masters degrees,

Anonymous said...

Anon 2323, Dumb - deBlasio, Dumber- Cuomo, Dumbest- Biden. Although the order is changeable at any moment.