If we are to have any chance of denting the Unity machine, everyone who reads this must reach out to every UFT member they know (word of mouth, phone, email, social media or carrier pigeon) to urge them to vote MORE-NEW ACTION.
May 2016
Dear Colleagues,
As many of you know, ballots
for the UFT election were mailed out on May 5. One should be in the mail at
home. The strength of a union comes from a membership that is willing to be
engaged in standing up for themselves. One of the simplest ways to become activated
is to vote in union elections. As you look over the ballot, we urge you to
place an [X] in the MORE-NEW ACTION box and then drop it in the mail to easily
vote for hundreds of union activists who will make the UFT a stronger union.
If we are elected, we would
never consider accepting a contract where members have to wait over a decade
until 2020 to fully receive raises and retroactive money that other city unions
(police, fire, sanitation, DC 37, etc...) were given between 2008 and 2010.
Singling out educators to wait for raises and back pay while the city has
record surpluses of $6 billion and NYC is
creating more jobs now than ever before is a slap in the face to educators. UFT
President Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus allowed this to happen. The
pattern raises that Mulgrew accepted for this round of collective bargaining in
2014 for city employees is 10% over 7 years, the lowest pay increases in a
contract of our lengthy careers. All unionized city workers are basically stuck
with Mulgrew's pathetic deal. Mulgrew/Unity needs to be held accountable.
In addition, in the 2014
contract the UFT and other city unions agreed to healthcare savings but they
wouldn't tell us what they were. We found out recently that members on GHI and
HIP have had co-payments for emergency room care tripled from $50 to $150 while
urgent care co-pays have risen to $50. Some members who are on HIP are seeing
co-payments of $10 for the first time as HIP's network for free care has
dwindled by a third. These are not the last of the savings as next year we have
already agreed to an additional $1.3 billion. These health givebacks recur
forever.
Unfortunately, our choices
are to keep increasing co-pays, which hurts the people who need medical care
the most, or to start charging everyone a healthcare payroll deduction. An
honest union leader would have told us all of this when the contract came up
for a vote so we could vote with our eyes open. Mulgrew has not been up front
and should be ousted.
The teacher evaluation system
is a disaster. We are rated now on subjective cookie cutter 1-4 Danielson
rubrics along with results on unreliable student test scores on exams that were not
designed for rating teachers. If we are rated ineffective for two straight
years, the burden of proof for tenured teachers shifts to us in dismissal
hearings. This amounts to teachers being guilty until proven innocent and is
truly un-American. Mulgrew-Unity refuses to push for repeal of the evaluation
system. If you elect MORE-NEW ACTION, we will work to create a fair evaluation
system.
School secretaries, guidance
counselors, social workers-psychologists and paras continue to have workloads
expanded while absent teacher reserves have weaker due process and the army of
lawyers hired by the previous administration at the Department of Education
continues to help administrators make life miserable for UFT members in many
schools. Some schools are plagued with abusive, vindictive, viscous and/or
incompetent principals and assistant principals. Useless paperwork is out of
control. Close to half of newer teachers are forced to sign extensions of
probation letters. Many non-tenured teachers have been dismissed and had their
careers ruined. Mulgrew has no answers to any of this other than to try to buy
off politicians with contributions in a corrupt political system.
An engaged UFT membership
fighting for what it wants is the answer to the problems that plague the
system. Union power comes from the rank and file, not the leadership. There are
close to 200,000 UFT members. Imagine the strength if we activated ourselves to
truly fight for our rights and our schools. We can envision class sizes
actually being lowered!
A robust, active and engaged
membership will become a reality only if we elect a union leadership that
pushes for it. The time for Mulgrew making back-room political deals where
membership loses and out of touch leadership wins more perks for themselves is
over. Give yourself a voice by voting for the entire MORE-NEW ACTION slate!
Sincerely,
Camille Eterno, Candidate for
UFT Secretary
James Eterno, Candidate for Academic High
School Vice
President
3 comments:
You have my vote and my fervent wish that 199,999 UFT colleagues follow suit.
Maybe some people will wake up and vote MORE-New Action
I've voted for MORE since its inception. I will continue to vote for MORE/NA in this election. I truly hope that the members realize that they have the power to change the leadership. Hoping for a very successful union election with the MORE and New Action Causes!
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