Tuesday, March 02, 2021

WHY IS THE DC37 GRIEVANCE PROCESS FULLY REOPENED BUT UFT'S IS ONLY PARTIALLY OPERATING?

Someone needs to ask President Michael Mulgrew at Thursday's town hall why the UFT grievance process has not been fully reopened yet.

This is from Principal's Digest:

HR GENERAL

Guidance on UFT Grievances and DC 37 Disciplinary Conferences

Please note the reinstatement of past practices regarding UFT grievances and DC 37 disciplinary conferences below:

UFT Grievances: Effective February 8, all grievances regarding the termination of a paraprofessional, nurse, or therapist may be filed pursuant to the applicable collective-bargaining agreements. Effective February 22, all grievances regarding salary and leave matters shall be processed according to the applicable collective-bargaining agreements. Please note that these grievances are filed directly with the DOE Office of Labor Relations (OLR).  All grievance conferences shall be conducted virtually via video and scheduled in a manner consistent with the applicable contract. Except in extraordinary circumstances, all participants (e.g., DOE Hearing Officer) are expected to appear via video; however, principals and assistant principals (APs) may continue to participate by phone. In the event that the employee/grievant and/or union representative do not participate by video, all parties may participate by phone.

DC 37 Grievances and Disciplinary Conferences: All disciplinary conferences for DC 37 employees shall be scheduled in a manner consistent with the contract and may be conducted virtually via video or phone. The DOE shall provide the call-in information to the employee and the employee’s union representative, if identified, in the grievance form/email. To the extent possible, the DOEand DC 37 should exchange relevant information prior to any disciplinary conference; however, if the information is provided at the conference, the employee and union representative should be provided with a brief break to review and confer privately.

Effective immediately, all DC 37 grievances may be filed pursuant to the applicable collective-bargaining agreements. All grievance conferences shall be conducted virtually via video or phone. DOE supervisors shall provide a conference number and/or call-in information (Zoom or MS Teams only), to the employee and union representative identified in the grievance. If the employee and/or DC 37 do not wish to participate by video or phone, they may waive the Step 1 conference (in writing), and proceed to the next step in the grievance process.

For additional guidance or support, email your senior field counsel. 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

To answer your question it is because they would most likely be inundated. UFT talks all kinds of shit about how much they do for us and yet they are really dropping the ball on many real contract violations that are occurring. I have notified my CL, DR, and BR, even sharing up to Leroy Barr about stuff at my school in D19 that clearly violated the contract. I even copy and pasted the exact language from the contract to show them. Crickets. The UFT is broken. The new tagline is basically "You are lucky to have a job in these times. " Paraphrased? Shut up and do as you're told bitches.

Anonymous said...

The UFT is just a dues collecting entity. Almost a year ago it stayed silent as teachers were sent into a meaningless three day training during the height of the virus, that in order to ensure it’s automatic dues check off on payroll checks. It’s really up to everybody to try to turn it into something else, but no one can solve Mulgrew’s Rigged Rubric Cube of an organization. A tremendous of amount of working teachers will opt out in June.( Retirees won’t of course because they are catered to, unless they’re angry, grudge holding ex-teachers like me.) It’s a very frustrating Catch22 all the way around.

Anonymous said...

Because no matter what they do or don’t do, most members will still pay dues. That’s all they really care about.

Anonymous said...

UFT: "Grievances? We don't need no stinkin' grievances!"

Anonymous said...

Good, i expect a spring break resolution soon.

Anonymous said...

11.49 did your Cl win an award for her service? District 75 BX school here, mine did! UFT awards sell out shadow administration cl with awards. New line is we can't grieve because it's paperwork and IEP stuff is legal document.

Anonymous said...

Just curious...how is the middle school rollout going?did many return?if yes,time will tell about cases increasing.if social distance measures work,why rock the boat and send people back business as usual with overcrowding?why dont they just make several cohorts as needed in order to fully open safely even if it isnt 100%.will they offer remote classes in september??it will be interesting to watch things unfold...virus numbers will ghi o up if we go back to no distancing.we nee exc more classrooms.they can take back the space they gave away to charter schools to create more distance.our leaders are losers.it is difficult to stay positive.

Anonymous said...

The UFT has done a bait and switch. They do not protect the health, well - being and financial
concerns of their members. Why should they be in any hurry to act in good faith about
representing members with grievances when they betray the members time and time again?
The UFT advocates for the Democratic Party.

Anonymous said...

Nice work, uft. So, what about that strike?

120 NYC school buildings will be closed tomorrow.
35 new one-day closures
38 new ten-day closures
139 classroom closures (total of 786)
102 student cases, 62 staff cases

Elem schools have only been open 6 days since break. Middle schools just reopened 3 days ago.

Anonymous said...


Kamala Harris
@KamalaHarris

United States government official
· Mar 2, 2017
Happy birthday, #DrSeuss! “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

Didn't they just cancel him?

Anonymous said...

YOU ALL GAVE AWAY the right to grieve a letter in your file, step 2 grievances with the superintendent, ATR positions instead of seniority displacement, NYS law 3020a desciding your ability to teach and more all fought for by Retirees who struck lost pay for these rights. WIMPS

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, randi said everything is safe now that there is a dem president. To hell with the safety of the teachers.

Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten

What a tremendous relief to have a president who is meeting the moment. Vaccines are a key ingredient to #reopeningschoolssafely. The Biden administration gets it & is making vaccines 4 educators a reality which is great news 4 everyone who wants in-school learning.Thank u
@potus

mark said...

So, now that high schools are opening...

1. Students won't be showing up, but we must...

2. Are teachers with accommodations going in or are they milking it forever. I mean, they've had 3 months to get the vaccine, plus all of March. If they are protected from covid, no reason to stay home.

Anonymous said...

Well, high schools are opening. Safety be damned.

BREAKING:
@NYCMayor
Bill de Blasio will make an announcement regarding NYC HS Sports next week.

Anonymous said...

I'm very confused.

Today, Joe Biden predicted that America will be getting back to normal around March 2022.

But we are opening schools.

jeff said...

The boss speaks. She has now decided it is safe. What has changed? Oh, it must be politics.

Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten
By following the CDC guidance, and with the help of this federal commitment to prioritize teacher vaccinations, we’re confident that within the next weeks and months, we’ll be able to be back in classrooms.

https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-president-randi-weingarten-welcomes-biden-administrations-plan

Anonymous said...

With friends like this...

You proud, james?

Randi Weingarten
@rweingarten
What a tremendous relief to have a president who is meeting this moment of crisis.

Anonymous said...

Fuck Randi, Fuck Mulgrew, and Fuck DeBlasio. Game OVER!

Anonymous said...

But they are sending us into infected schools. High schools opening shortly.

Anonymous said...

Jamaal Bowman
@JamaalBowmanNY
Standardized testing is a pillar of systemic racism.

Anonymous said...

So, um, about spring break pay? Why am I begging for it?

Anonymous said...

Standardized testing was created by Asians in order to promote Asian supremacy, which is why Asians routinely outscore all other racial groups on American standardized tests. This must be stopped, obviously.

"Objective metrics are racist" is the most obvious example of the soft bigotry of low expectations.

Now, ask why we've had to lower the standards in NYC schools.

TJL said...

James fought Randi tooth and nail in fact ran for Union Pres against her so I don't know what you're talking about.

Yes Randi is a political hack, she's an establishment Dem activist, but do you think Trump wouldn't be taking credit for the vaccine if he was still in the WH?

Lastly people are still going on about "infected schools"? There's 3 vaccines if you're worried about it. And, where is the proof schools are any more dangerous than the supermarket, movie theaters, restaurants, airplanes, friend's man cave (for the just past Super Bowl or upcoming NCAA tournament), museums, casinos, etc.?

Anonymous said...

Jamaal Bowman sees racism in vanilla ice cream. Once you cry racism at every turn, you are no longer a credible assessor of what is and isn’t racist. Those problematic working class Americans who are Asian. They’re constantly demonstrating how smart they are. They insist their children behave and work hard. How do we stop them? I know... demonize them by labeling them privileged and have your police ignore them being attacked because the color of their attackers is politically inconvenient. Job well done nyc.

derek said...

Was told by uft today that plan is that mayor will be opening high schools on the wednesday before spring break, 3/24. Good luck. Nice work, uft. $1,500 well spent, right?

Anonymous said...

March 24th.. Jesus.

Anonymous said...

Like Mulgrew advised us, get your wills prepared and witnessed.

Anonymous said...

The students will never show in my school, not until September. No way I'm traveling on public for no students to be there.

h said...

Randi on CNN now, she is real funny. Says she has been trying to open schools since last April. Trump and DeSantis wanted schools open. She blames who? What a joke. What a pathetic union.

Anonymous said...

Some of is have been in schools teaching remotely for months. It's called District 75 and Elem. We don't get a thanks, an acknowledgement, nothing. You'll get bulletin board duty as a reward.

Shelley said...

James,
I'm not sure your post makes clear how the process is only partial for UFT members. Would you do that?

Also, I assume you read this and wonder if you would respond to this argument:

I've read several accounts saying we ought to approach Cuomo and ask. While that wouldn't hurt, neither would it be productive. First, it fails to consider that we need the federal waiver. Second, even a weakened Cuomo would not sign it. What's in it for him? Are we going to fight to keep him in office?

http://nyceducator.com/

James Eterno said...

Evaluation is a state law. In ESSA, the federal government stayed in the testing business but got out of the teacher evaluation business and left it to states. Why would DC punish us if we said our system is off again for this year?

This is from the NEA:

"The Every Student Succeeds Act has ended the federal government’s involvement in prescribing and influencing teacher evaluation systems. There is no requirement for states to set up teacher evaluation systems based in “significant” part on students’ test scores, which was a key component of the US Department of Education state-waiver system. The law permits states to design and submit their own accountability to the U.S. Department of Education."

As for the grievance process, I took it from the Principal's Digest a friend sent to me.