NYC Educator's report of the most recent UFT Executive Board meeting shows that very little is changing at 52 Broadway.
We need some bold strategies from the leadership in the face of the pretty much guaranteed bleak future under President Donald Trump with anti-union laws and an anti-labor National Labor Relations Board.
Add to that some anti-union Supreme Court Justices and at some point in the next year or two we should have a Friedrichs II case that will take from public sector unions their right to collect union dues from people who don't want to join the union.
A smart union would be using the time now before the storm to seriously organize and mobilize its members.
Will that happen? I wish I could be optimistic.
The UFT Executive Board in a resolution can't even use the name Donald Trump when condemning campaign rhetoric from the recent election. That was what they were reconsidering on Monday. The leadership says they don't want to alienate UFT members who are Trump supporters. That is ridiculous. Look at the comments on this blog. Those people are gone already. They will only come back when, to paraphrase Trump, the Union starts winning again.
In reality, it looks more like the UFT is continuing their ingrained strategy of concessionary unionism where they give away many of our rights but they keep their lofty positions. It seems the ones they don't want to alienate are those close to the top of the Republican food chain. Maybe they can beg them to leave the union, not the teachers, alone.
We keep hoping that something, anything, will happen to tell us that the UFT, NYSUT or AFT leadership gets it this time and will do what it takes so that we can survive but the only hopeful sign was they allowed a real debate to take place on Monday on whether or not to condemn Trump in some whereas clauses. Other than that it is business as usual at the Union.
Restarting a public relations union proud campaign isn't going to help much either.
Please someone give me some kind of hope that there will be a change that can make some of us pro-union people feel like we can really work with our union to fix it so our members will want to be mobilized.
20 comments:
The UFT leadership simply refuses to change. They expect the members to blindly follow their dictates while failing to protect their members.
Just look at the 2014 contract that made ATRs second class citizens with reduced due process rights. They only allowed that awful provision to sunset when the DOE abused the provision.
Instead of their stupid and irrelevant slogan the union leadership should be reaching out to the members and ask them how to make the classroom a better place for us to practice our profession with respect and dignity.
Mulgrew and Wiengarten are pathetic puppies for authoritarian politicians.
Incredible cowards!
Let's please take a 5 minute break from the Trump discussion. Can ANYONE please let us know what is going on with the new DOE/UFT teacher evaluation? New York State Law says the city has exactly 31 days left to come up with a new evaluation that will effect every teacher in NYC. There has been no mention of this since before the election. There is no more extensions to this law by the way. It must be hashed out by Jan 1st, 2017.
Yeah, whatever. Would have been done by now, situation wouldn't have gotten this bad.
The Democrats have no clue. The AFT has no clue. We are like sitting ducks.
Abigail Shure
This is what we asked for...
Check out the nbc news...2 black teens assault somebody on E train leaving broken bones...Yeah, they are more important than my salary, rigts, job, etc...Keep protecting the trash more than the staff...
According to Arthur Goldstein's reports from the Executive Board, Mulgrew can't even be bothered to show up on time, stay for the whole meeting, or this week even show up at all. The man is an utter fraud and embarrassment.
It's taken us many years, as a union and as a nation, to get where we are right now, and it's really hard to see a way out.
Agreed, as stated, its over.
While Im a Union member and do see the need for unions, I also have to admit that forcing someone to join or pay an organization to obtain a job, should be unconstitutional.I'm hoping if the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs maybe the union would start responding to its membership.
You keep sending us stories of crimes committed by African American males. What do you suggest we do?
Then don't take the union benefits. Go negotiate your own deal with DOE.
The 77% that voted for the last contract are the same ones who will opt out. The UFT and everyone knows it. We'd be better off negotiating by playing pin the tail on the donkey than having Mulgrew do it. I really don't even care anymore.
If the UFT used this time to defend itself, we could survive.
I got a new one, teachers from school telling ATRs to switch programs with them. Why? They cant control their own class. Amazing.
That's nothing new. Ironic that we're labeled as bad teachers from the DOE and UFT. ATRs start recording and filming some of the shit that goes on in these schools and when the ATR supervisors try to 3020a you, bring it all to Channel 7 and Sue Edleman at the Post.
I got a good one too. Just got a DOE email about an optional interview. It says its optional so its outside of school hours. When is it? Tuesday at 10 AM. How is that outside of school hours? What a bunch of idiots.
the basket of deplorables has triggered me. im off to my safe space.
No more mandatory interviews. That ended with 2014 agreement that sunset Ted in July.
The UFT died long ago, we're just having the funeral now. Enjoy as it all passes away!
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