The blackout on contract negotiations news continues as the UFT leadersip requested at the special Delegate Assembly today that we not talk to the press or post information on the internet about negotiating committee matters. We will respect the wishes of the UFT president but some of the stuff is already out there in public so we feel ok to comment on information already in the public domain.
The press has been reporting for a while now that Chancellor Joel Klein wants to fire the Absent Teacher Reserves after 12 months if they cannot find a position. If we agreed to this, it would effectively mean the end of tenure and seniority rights as closing schools has become rampant across the city. Obviously, Klein is on the attack. How should the UFT respond? Please tell us as we would like to know what our readers think.
In other DA news, John Liu, the UFT endorsed candidate for comptroller and another politician, addressed the Delegates. There will be a runoff primary election on September 29 for comptroller and public advocate. Although ICE didn't make any formal endorsement, I will be supprting the UFT endorsed candidates and urging members to vote for Liu for comptroller and also for Bill DeBlasio for Public Advocate. If our endorsed people win, it should make us stronger.
Should the UFT also endorse Bill Thompson for Mayor? Tell us what you think.
Also, the Stella D'Oro workers who won their strike and are now having their plant moved to Ohio were at the DA to talk about their protest at Goldman Sachs. Goldman will be financing the union busting move.
That's about it except for a report from new President Michael Mulgrew on how horrible state and city budgets are. Same old stuff there.
You should have endorsed Tony Avella for Mayor in the primaries. Where has Bill Thompson been up until now, especially on the subject of the dictatorial way no bid contracts spew out of the Bloomberg/Klein snakepit? It's a morass of greed and corruption, and he remained silent all these years. Everyone says Bloomberg will get in again, so there goes the last vestiges of democracy in New York City or New York State. Cynicism has replaced hope already.
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean if ICE unseats Unity that they will not engage in political lobbying?
ReplyDeleteIf they cave on the ATR issue it will be open season for Bloomberg and Klein to purge the system of experienced teachers as principals look for ways to save money. Also, if they cave on this, there seems to be little point in belonging to the UFT. What has it done for YOU lately?
ReplyDeleteWe can not give ground on ATRs and seniority, period. If we do, everyone is in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteThe recent inflated ELA and math scores give Klein the perfect excuse to start closing schools when the tests get harder next year. He'll be able to close any schools whose scores decline, and rid himself of senior teachers by making them ATRs and ensuring they don't get hired. The whole thing is a trap, and I hope the UFT doesn't fall for it.
There is no way that our union will allow an ATR time limit. Right Mr. Mulgrew. Right?
ReplyDeleteMr. Talk, YOU ARE COMPLETELY RIGHT! The whole Thing is a BIG TRAP and a FARCE. The UFT is supporting the DOE in getting rid of the senior teachers. Mulgrew, Mendel, and the rest do not care about the experienced teachers. The UFT signed the ATR Agreement and they never kept track whether the ATRS were getting jobs or not. Plus the principals of the schools act like the landlords of the schools and hide the jobs from the ATRs. This is a big injustice against the senior teachers.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this stupid "CODE OF SILENCE" that the UFT demands? Is the UFT part of the MOB?
The UFT code of omerta. Did I spell that right?
ReplyDeleteFrom Gotham Schools.org some holes in the Cone of Silence:
ReplyDeleteArthur Goldstein, a chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, and a contributor to GothamSchools, was attending a delegate assembly meeting for the first time. He said that while he enjoyed hearing Liu speak, he was “disappointed that we spent very little time discussing the contract.”
Another teacher who would not give his name said he found the meeting “very undemocratic.”
“I was amazed at the utter lack of tolerance for differences in opinion,” Goldstein said, who was attending a delegate assembly for the first time. “It was like something from a Fellini movie; it was surreal,” he said.
Union officials would not comment on the meeting. “This really is our internal process, so we’re really not answering questions,” UFT spokesman Dick Riley said.
“There is already a contract,” said Michael Fiorillo, a delegate from Newcomers High School and a member of the internal opposition party ICE. “Maybe he’s [Mulgrew] tinkering around the edges, but it’s inconceivable that with so little experience he would be negotiating.”
I'm an ATR and I'm sick of being used as a political pawn by a couple of guys who care more about their stupid theories about rights than about real people. I heard some guy at the uft meeting was actually trying to get Weingarten to negotiate on ATRs and transfers! The union better not listen to that kind of talk. You start negotiating on that and they'll make mincemeat of us! Meanwhile, it's my ATR job on the line and I don't want it negotiated away because some jerk wants to make a theory.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT jerks do not care about their members, they just care about feathering their own nests. Why do we pay dues?
ReplyDeleteOne thing that they should do is allow ATRs to switch licenses and transfer their seniority to their new license.
ReplyDeleteGet ready to be sold out. How many ATR's received U ratings last spring from their principals? A record number and they were probably told to do this by the DOE
ReplyDeleteYes, Thompson should be endorsed and a great effort should be made on his behalf via mailings and phone banks.
ReplyDeleteIf ATRs are fired, then the union is not working for us. Tenure should never be on the table. Nor should poor teachers be allowed in the system. Principals need to do their jobs during the probation process.
The Cone of Silence is from the TV show "Get Smart" from the 1960's. For all you kids, it was a spoof of the spy-genre movies of that time, such as the very popular James Bond series.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ms. Ponzi.
ReplyDeleteSo does ICE endorse candidates or will they in the future?
ReplyDeleteNormally, I'd say "endorse Thompson". However we are in negotiations and we need all the leverage we can get. Teachers understand that the current administration is anti-union and anti-education. An endorsement of Thompson, before the announcement of an agreement, is probably unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteI did read elsewhere that Bloomberg thinks he can land the UFT endorsement... in return for some concessions.
Tell me he's dreaming, please. That's like saying "we have no union."
we have no union; we have a dues collecting organization.
ReplyDeleteRESETTLEMENT and RELOCATION
ReplyDeleteMonday Sept. 21, 2009 all ATR's have to report by order of Reich Chancellor Klein to be relocated. All ATR's from Brooklyn and Queens are to report to Grand Prospect Hall with your paper work and relocated to a place that the DOE would not sent new teachers to. Once you are sent there you will never be heard from again.
Try to file a grievance with the UFT (Vichy) and they will give your name up to the authorities so you will be black listed for the rest of you career. Does all this sound familiar? I think so. This is all a plan to make you so uncomfortable that you will quit your job or retire if you are lucky enough to do so.
So where will you be sent? Either some Alternative Learning Center ( 600 school) where your life will be threatened everyday or some new mini school where the principal will give you a Unsatisfactory rating for the year because he was ordered by the DOE to get rid of you.
Where is our union? They have not said a word about this entire process. Most likely because they are in bed with the UFT. A union is supposed to stand up for their brothers an sisters. Has anybody heard anything from the UFT about ATR's except some bogus agreement last spring.
Mike Mulgrew where are you? Probably kissing Bloomberg's ring and shining heir Klein's boots.
To Anonymous: "Monday Sept. 21, 2009 all ATR's have to report by order of Reich Chancellor Klein to be relocated"
ReplyDeleteThe job fair was the same joke as always. some bad schools, and the usual suspects from the UFT: Maria Atia, Pat Bonadona Jefrey ...(something), Ann Rosen, etc.
This time they had nice plates of fruit, cheese, crakers, good juices, coffe, etc. for the principals and intervievers and of course for the cream of the UFT. For the teachers they had jobs in bad schools and a half hour wait outside the Prospect Hall "Job Fair".