CAN THE UFT BE REPAIRED?

Here at the ICEUFT blog, we have a diverse readership which covers the political spectrum. It still surprises me somewhat that there are conservative teachers who comment here as the right considers public education and teacher unions to be a major adversary and my perspective is obviously pro-union.

In spite of our rank and file political differences, we still need to be unified where we can be because the forces that want to destroy public education and unions are working diligently to privatize the system thereby finishing us off. We have been on defense for years. I truly believe that only by standing together as a militant union in pursuit of common goals can we save our profession. Unfortunately, we are stuck with an unaccountable UFT leadership that controls our union so getting members to support a militant union is an uphill struggle. It still has to be done somehow.

Why is it so necessary? Union power comes from a fully engaged rank and file willing to do what it takes to advance our interests. Leaders without a membership that is willing and able to stand up for ourselves are toothless. Democracy is an essential ingredient in strengthening the unions by empowering members to feel their voice matters. Alternet's Simon Greer and Andy Potter describe it this way:

Inside their unions, working people build a place where the left and the right, the radical and reactionary and the liberal and conservative elements of our society coexist, and out of them a new politics can be born. It is a common good politics that contends we are better together and at our best when family, work and place are at the center of our shared commitments. This comes out of the real-life union experience of deeply held values passed on from generation to generation

It is in unions that a communal spirit wins out over a narrow self-interest. In unions, working people hone a sense of obligation to one another. In unions, working people build a fierce loyalty to a vision of a shared economy that honors and respects them, and where labor is treated with dignity.

This is why unions are public enemy number one to the modern conservative movement. As Corey Robin states in his thoughtful piece on conservatism:

Modern American conservatism, I've long held, has succeeded. It essentially destroyed the labor movement, which was, in conservatism's most recent incarnation in response to the New Deal, its original enemy.

We will not be holding the so called liberal Democrats blameless for union weakness either. This quote from Blue Collar Buzz in Labor Press sums it up nicely:

“Stockholm Syndrome” is the very disturbing psychological phenomenon where victims come to bond with their abusers over time — and according to Andrew Tillett-Saks, an organizer with Unite Here Local 217, it’s a great way to describe Labor’s dysfunctional relationship with Democratic Party elites who continually come up short for American working men and women.

Unions are in trouble but are we done? Let's take as a given that both major political parties are not our friends and the minor parties are not electable. However, bringing the camaraderie back that Greer and Potter talked about is certainly possible as the Verizon strike showed in the private sector earlier this year.

Can union solidarity and militancy be attained at the United Federation of Teachers?

We are a huge local with almost 200,000 members and a leadership that realistically cannot be defeated in an election so has virtually no accountability. The leadership from Unity Caucus requires a loyalty oath from party members to support whatever leadership tells them to support. Unity relies on a top-down system of governance. They keep their members in line by rewarding complete loyalty with union jobs and free trips to conventions. They tell dissenters to leave the caucus. Unity seems more interested in protecting the institution of the union rather than the members they serve.

From reports that come in here, it seems the UFT at the chapter level in most schools is as defeated as Robin says unions are and there is a sense among teachers that there is nothing we can do about contract violations at the school level. Therefore, the UFT is irrelevant to most members unless they want dental forms or something like that. Hiding out until retirement seems to be the best way for teachers to survive in most schools. There certainly are active chapters out there but it seems they are the exception.

Why pay union dues then if it is that hopeless?

That is a question most teachers probably grapple with in New York City and is seen on some of the comments on this blog. Some teachers wanted us to lose the Friedrichs Supreme Court case so they would not have to pay union dues. I was not one of those people as our lame union is better than one that is dead. We survived Friedrichs but we are still too weak to matter much as our defeats on the evaluation systems and the substandard 2014 contract show. We have to rebuild the union from the ground up. We need to reboot at the chapter level, district level and the divisional level (high school, middle school elementary, non-teachers). 

Can the union be repaired so that it can actually mobilize its members under its current structure where the Unity monopoly can't be broken (winning 7 High School Executive Board seats on a 102 seat Executive Board doesn't count)? I have been attempting to work within the system with opposition groups for two decades, including serving for a decade on the UFT Executive Board, and have had only limited success. 

I would certainly appreciate it if readers (left, center, right, apolitical) would help out by telling us how you think the UFT can be mended or what we should do if our union is too bureaucratic to ever be a militant force in the real world.