MOORE, Okla. (KTUL)--Oklahoma teachers are fed up with state lawmakers. A public school teacher in Stillwater created the Facebook group "Oklahoma Teacher Walkout - The Time is Now!" two days ago, and it has already gained more than 20,000 members.
Today, teachers gathered in Moore to discuss the possible statewide strike.
"Frustration levels are high, so a strike is not a touchy word anymore," said Molly Jaynes, a teacher in Oklahoma City.
Don't expect Michael Mulgrew to lead it. The West Virginia teachers' strike is buried as about the 25th story in this week's Chapter Leader Update. This after Executive Board member Mike Schirtzer introduced an amendment I wrote to a UFT resolution in support of the WVA teachers stating that the Union "will publicize the courageousness of the WV teachers to help educate our members about the power of union activism, including strikes, even when they are illegal." This amendment passed unanimously at the Exec Bd.
The UFT at least gave us some lip service but the WV paragraph came under such "important" stories as applying for peer evaluator positions so you can observe teachers rated ineffective and a Share My Lesson virtual conference. From what I saw in the weekly NYSUT Update, there is nothing on WV. There is nothing in NEA INsider either.
My point is any movement in NY will have to come from the ground, not from the leadership.
22 comments:
Hmmm, my school wont let us give a grade below 45. How is that not grade fraud? So a child gets a 0, they get 45 averaged in...They dont do a project, they get a 45.
This makes it nearly impossible to fail. No wonder we have a 97% grad rate. I write this here because...where is the CL? The district rep?
We can't keep looking up for answers. We have to band together at the school level. If we don't, we're done.
28,454 members and counting
Demands:
1) Ending testbased evals and prohibiting commission based teacher pay linked to tests. 2). Eliminating the 200% increase in copays for ER visits. 2) Restoring unit funding for school budgets to end the rampant age discrimination which is used to underpay and underinsure staff. 3) Ending C-6 (a prep period for each prep in HS to reduce the take home work that is crushing our family lives). 4) Granting the paid maternity leave that all other NY employees get by law, with mandatory leave replacements to eliminate the current system of coerced overtime. 5) No exceptions to class size limits (no such thing as an emergency when 34 is already twice the national average). 6) An immediate pay raise that puts the median salary equal to that of the median for all adjacent districts. 7). Eliminating the pre-capped percentage of grievances since there is no way to predict how many contract violations will occur (all grievances should once again be heard on their merits instead of the current process of exponential decay in our ability to redress workplace violations). 8). Restoring the Office of Curriculum and reinstating the practice of providing all teachers with pacing calendars. 9). Ending the practice of surreptitious lesson plan and unit collection with formal recognition that crowdsourcing of curriculum is a poor practice which leads to disjoint curricula and uneven standards. 10) Restoring the practice of mailing a printed contract to all members prior to expiration of the current contract.
A memorandum of agreement must be reached on these terms by August 31st or teachers will not return to work. The new contract must be ratified by The end of September. The expiration date for all new contracts will henceforth be August 31. Teachers will no longer work under expired contracts. The Taylor law is not to be used as an excuse for undermining the process of collective bargaining. Printed contracts are signifiers of good faith, the importance of which should not be downplayed. The strike in West Virgina serves as a reminder of how written declarations of good faith prevent strikes as well as the role they play in ending strikes once they are underway.
NY city teachers are like sheep. They are passive servants beholden to authority and power figures. As such, N Y city teachers enable corruption and a highly racist school system. They will never strike; they will never revolt against Mulgrew. They are enraptured by the utterance "yes sir."
They think in short term fragments unable and unwilling to stand up against the catastrophe that has overtaken our schools.
Anonymous 1:34 nails it on the head with those demands. Though many may be difficult to do, THAT'S where a strong Union negotiates from...
It doesn't allow the other side to dictate what will be offered, then acquiesce so easily on their demands.
Make the DOE and NYSED earn a seat at our table, for once.
2 OBSERVATIONS FOR TENURED TEACHERS!!!
1 observation for tenured teachers
2 observations is NYS law. We have 4 here in NYC. We can get 2 in the next contract if Mikey fights for it. Change the state law later.
Miley works on the behalf of the DOE.
You fools still don't get it.
He is a Gates & Broad stooge!
Yes, we get it, Mikey is a stooge for the DOE. However, he does not get paid by the DOE. He gets paid by us. 2 observations or he will be $1.400 short on his next paycheck after Janus.
Get rid of Danielson, get rid of drive by observations and bring back all rights eliminated by the 2005 contract.
LET'S negotiate A FAIR CONTRACT. NO MORE 1% RAISES OR LOANS TO THE CITY. RAISES AT LEAST EQUAL TO INFLATION. 2 OBSERVATIONS, NO MERIT PAY( BECAUSE ALL NEIGHBORHOODS AND STUDENTS ARENT EQUAL! IF NOT-I 100% SUPPORT A STRIKE!!!
IF WE DON'T TAKE CHARGE WE WILL BE EITHER WITHOUT A CONTRACT AT THIS TIME NEXT YEAR OR SITTING WITH INCREASED MEDICAL FEES..AGAIN.
WE NEED TO STAND UP FOR OURSELVES NOW!!!
I predict all those with BALLS will leave, whatever that number is.
I say pull the plug on dues and lets drain the swamp. Lets get rid of all those career union FATCATS that are feeding like leeches off of membership. Put them back into the classroom and let them experience first hand what we on the front lines are up against.
I am 100% willing to strike. In fact, I think we must! Complain all day. But no one has a plan. Mulgrew has to go so how do we do this? Or start from scratch? Why can't I choose who to pay dues to? I would pay 2x the dues for a real union, not the shit show we have now. I don't think the union we have now is fixable. Let's organize a march to the UFT headquarters in every borough, call or something. Bloggers are in a unique position to help facilitate this as you have loyal followers who are fed up!
First things first. We must get new Delegates, so, when a strike is called for it gets ratified. Most schools have nobody actually occupying the Delegate seat, so, tell your CL you want to be Delagate, you’ll have an election and will win unopposed. DON’T tell them how radical you are, or, your CL will find someone to run against you. Make your CL think you want to be a Unity hack just like them.
I’ve thought about marching on 52 Broadway before, or, Occuppying the UFT to demand democracy. Might be worth while. But, I think we could focus on flooding the Assembly with good Delegates.
Also, most schools have *two* Delgate seats, so, even if you have one seated delegate, run for the other seat. It’s amazing that they keep this a secret.
12% over 3 years, fair transfer system, 8.25% TDA, Retro paid in full this fall, enforced discipline code, no more grade fraud, no more of this SBO garbage, 1 observation if tenured with good record...tons of ways UFT can assist before we walk out...
1:46 has a great idea. It is one delegate for every 60 teachers or major fraction thereof. Therefore, you need 90 teachers to get two delegates. That's teachers as other UFT titles like counselors send their own delegates to the DA. Chapter elections are coming. You need to vote out people who don't want change.
1:44 here, and, for the record, I din’t think electing delegates is enough or should determine our success. We will pretty much have to do what WV did and run our campaign online with Rank and File. But, awareness of what the DA is will be good long term.
There are around delegates I believe -- 1800 schools with a CL and Del plus the schools with over 90 teachers - some schools are big enough for 4 delegates. Yet maybe at most 7-800 show up - and often less. 2/3 are usual Unity. Imagine if a few hundred more non-Unity showed up and then became organized into a block?
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