ATRS have been screaming for years that they need their own separate chapter within the UFT as their needs are different from those of the regular teachers so they should have their own representatives. For anyone not familiar, Absent Teacher Reserves are teachers and other UFT members who have no permanent school assignment. Either their school was closed, their program downsized or they beat charges where the DOE tried to fire them and didn't succeed but the employee loses their position in their school.
The Union's argument against having a separate chapter for ATRs is that the ATR job is temporary. That just doesn't fly. The UFT created the huge expansion of the ATR pool in the 2005 contract by agreeing to end preferred placement for teachers and other UFT staff when schools closed or placement within a district for teachers and others when programs were downsized. Before 2005, principals were getting qualified people just as supervisors in other civil service jobs such as police officers firefighters get qualified people when they are transferred. We work for the city and not a particular school where we are assigned.
Teachers do have rights to stay in the school based on seniority if the school remains open but we can no longer transfer based on that seniority. 2005 gave principals total hiring power and basically turned way too many schools into patronage mills. In most cases, once you have a basic license it is much, much, much better to know someone than to be qualified.
Throw fair student funding into this mix, where teachers on higher salaries cost schools more money than new teachers on their budgets, and it makes it nearly impossible for an ATR to be hired in a school permanently if someone has too much experience. The DOE also labels certain teachers who have beaten 3020-a dismissal hearings so they are stuck in the ATR pool too. I was told that I was on a troublemaker list but somehow I was still hired. I know I am the exception, not the rule.
Having ATRs vote in Chapter Elections in schools they are at on May 1 of this year is the height of ridiculousness. ATRs are voting and running for office in schools that they are virtually guaranteed not to be working in after this school year ends when the people who win the Chapter Elections will take their positions.
It's kind of like saying whatever state you in on November Election Day is the state you will vote in, whether even if you don't live there. It is is nonsensical.
Here is the actual language of the proposed section in the Chapter Election Guide and Bylaws:
Eligibility
Any full-time member may nominate, run for a position and vote in a school’s election if he or she is on the school’s permanent table of organization or assigned to the school on the first Monday in May of an election year.
I hope at Monday's Executive Board meeting that the MORE-New Action people will protest and propose an ATR Chapter.
Finally, three of us complained to the Department of Labor that ATRs were disenfranchised in Chapter Elections. We lost because the DOL ruled that since the Delegate Assembly has the constitutional authority to make policy but makes no policy (we sent them minutes of DA Meetings), it does not have to be elected. The UFT is so in need of structural reforms.
I fully understand why people want to leave after the Supreme Court says we can. I especially get it why ATRs will say enough already. However, the Department of Education wanted a time limit to stay in the ATR pool before someone gets terminated like they have in Chicago. The UFT to their credit said absolutely no and have held to that since 2005.
If the ATRs leave the UFT in droves, do you really think ATRs will be in a stronger bargaining position afterwards? It's better to fix our Union now.
35 comments:
Just another example of your union dues hard at work
Due to the 2005 contract is is pretty much impossible for veteran teachers to transfer, even with Open Market. Veteran teachers are trapped in whatever Hellhole school they are currently in until they retire. It is total bullshit. We are all paid whatever we are paid regardless of what school we are in or if we are an ATR. Why does it matter if we want to transfer? The reason is the DOE wants veteran teachers to be miserable and quit so we don't have to be on the payroll anymore.
There was a time, 20-25 years ago, where if you were in a rough school, the administration was on your side, and everyone worked together to battle the insanity.
Since centralization, (and thanks also to the UFT) we in the trenches are taking fire from all sides, with ZERO support from whom we are paying a lot of $$ to every month.
The UFT has been tone deaf for the past 15 years, and will soon pay dearly for it.
I’m a 20 year teacher and I remember the days when teachers would choose to stay in a hell hole because the administration had your back and was supportive. If a new administration or supervisor came in and didn’t support you or just didn’t like the way you looked, you had an option to transfer based on seniority. This option MUST be brought back. Fair student funding must go. Seniority transfer rights must be restored. Payroll has to go back to DOE and not the individual schools. Every other city agency has seniority transfers, why are we the only ones who don’t?
When I got hired back in the mid 90's the DOE was begging for teachers. There was a massive teacher shortage.I already had my masters degree. After getting my fingerprints cleared in Brooklyn, they sent me to a district in the Bronx. District office literally handed me a clipboard with about 20 open teaching positions in various schools. They said "pick one". I loved teaching back then. Now it is all new admins doing drive by hits with Danielson ammo. We need a return to a sane evaluation system, an end to Fair Student funding, and the ability for seniority based transfers.
How do we dare ask these teachers to pay dues? For that matter how can we support a union that commits this disgusting behavior?
ATRs have no bargaining position. LIFO saved us and continues to do so. No one can fix something that doesn’t exist. It has nothing to do with the $1400 it’s about examples like you just mentioned. You have to be out of your mind to pay dues if you are an ATR.
The Legislature can take away Last in First Out at any time. As we saw with evaluations, the Legislature will give if the UFT goes along on education issues.
If they do it for teachers they have to for cops and firemen and sanition - and they have unions and they will fight. So no I’m not paying dues to the UFT for fear of LIFO disappearing because of what they already would have if the could have. You’re to have start a new union James. I told you I’d help you. Jim
Sorry for gramaw On the train some nut is going crazy
Is it possible to leave the UFT and form a new union for high school teachers (maybe middle school too) under a stronger union like the teamsters? Elementary schools seem to overwhelmingly support the horrible union that we presently have and the awful contracts that they provide. Perhaps separate unions for elementary, intermediate and high school?
Michael Mulgrew should pay a price for allowing discrimination against veteran teachers.
Maxine Waters is a dumb bitch.
I have written several times on what it would take to form a high school teacher union. There was some, but not nearly enough, enthusiasm for it last fall so the idea is on the shelf. High school teachers would need over 6,000 signatures on petitions (30% of high school teachers) to get before PERB (NYS Public Employees Relations Board).
That means 100 activists would need to commit to getting about 65 signatures each (you want to get over 30% as Unity would challenge each signature) to get a vote to fragment the high schools into a new bargaining unit.
Maybe ten people said they would get the signatures. That leaves the movement to start a high school union over 5,000 signatures short.
Movements start with all of you. I cannot emphasize that enough. I am a soon to be retired teacher. Happy to help but only so much I can do.
Being in the UFT is like searching for the perfect shade of dark-blue by having some some strangle you until you see that perfect shade appear.
NYS REGENTS MAY RECONFIGURE THE SCHOOL YEAR: I just read that NYS is trying the change the law regarding the 180 day school year. They want to change it to 900 hours for elementary and 990 hours for middle and high school. Those hours can be spread over however individual school districts want including before Labor Day. This could mean a longer school day or year. There was a public comment element to this but I can't find it. Does anybody have info on this???
https://www.regents.nysed.gov/common/regents/files/1217p12d2.pdf
LINK TO SEE REGENTS CHANGE PROPOSAL. It mentions a 45 day period to leave feedback. If we're in that period, we should get working... The article I found mentions a March meeting about the proposal.
Timetable for Implementation
Following the 45-day public comment period required under the State
Administrative Procedure Act, it is anticipated that the proposed amendment will be
submitted to the Board of Regents for consideration at its March 2018 meeting. If
adopted at the March 2018 meeting, the proposed amendment will become effective on
March 28, 2018.
9:41:
The Labor Day situation is different then the 180 / 900-990.
The Days/Hours is State Ed. Post Labor Day is in the Contract.
Plenty of places around start before Labor Day.
i believe that the city might try and end LIFO -- doe only. They know it will get tied up in courts, but some( atr's) may lose jobs till then. and they will use other cities as an example.
Good let them. Teacher won their jobs back with pay and interest.
If Bloomberg and Klein couldn’t do it, pot Bill and Meathead Mike don’t have a chance. Mike doesn’t want to lose even more dues.
Ok, just buy me out.
Cannot wait till they lose Janus. I will be first one not to pay union dues. Reason : I was given incorrect information by a UFT rep. It cost me over 7000 dollars. Got to make the money back some how
Only freakin’ morons won’t pay union dues. So, when our health benefits get gutted, do you think $1,400 is going to pay the difference? You’re an idiot. Unfortunately, we have many idiots in our union, so our fate might be sealed. I really wish I hadn’t tied my financial fate up with you numbnuts and nincompoops like you. Ask your friends what they pay for health insurance, you goof.
Hey anno 11:28. Our health benefits have nothing to do with our union dues. The city pays for our health benefits. You have been duped by UFT propaganda if you think our health benefits will be gone if you stop paying union dues or if the UFT becomes history.
Hey dingbat, if our health benefits have nothing to do with our union, then why did de Blasio mandate that we find $300 million in savings during our last contract negotiation? Yes, our health benefits are the same as other city workers, because all of our unions negotiate them. So, as I said, ask a non-union worker what they pay for healthcare. We will likely have them, but, it will be expensive AF.
The non union city workers pay the same as us for healthcare, zero. Look it up.
Yep. We will have healthcare if there is a union or not. Also, there will always be a teachers union in NYC even if it is small. I am not worried one bit about loosing health insurance as a city employee here. What I am worried about is the massive deterioration of my working conditions as a NYC school teacher. The current evaluation system needs to go as does Danielson. Lastly, I don’t mind being called a dingbat. After 22 years teaching in NYC, I have been called a lot worse. I take it whoever wrote that comment a big Archie Bunker fan. -Dingbat Teacher
Because we bargained for that healthcare��. But, as our bargaining unit weakens, what do you think will happpen, genius? De Blasio went after healthcare in our last contract. You think he won’t do it again?
We are the biggest local in the city. If you cut our bargaining unit in half (which is a slightly conservative estimate given Wisconsin), then you will drastically effect the power of our union at the bargaining table. Even with all the leverage we had before, we still had to cough up $300 mil. What do you think will happen when we are half as powerful? We will have to cough up $600 mil, which comes out to about $7,500 per person. Do you think all of that will come from increased copays? No way. And, what do you expect will happen to our working conditions when fewer people are part of the union?
We have no leverage because the city/DOE knows the UFT will not take collective action with almost 200,000 members. If 20,000 were willing to take action, we would have a ton of leverage.Look at UFT history as a guide.
Good point. But, what then is our strategy for a good contract? If we don’t agitate for a “direct action”, well, then we’re kind of doomed. Mulgrew made this next stinker of a contract a fait accompli when he allowed the retro payments to be spread beyond both the mayoral election *and* past the contract expiration.
You mention our union’s History, about which I am interested. If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Sandra Feldman put a bum contract to a vote which got turned down? At that time, I believe the DA then authorized a strike vote, which gave her more leverage. Is that right? we’ve been very shy about direct action, but, it’s clear that de Blasio is gearing up to lay a whopper on us (probably Merit Pay based on the Carvahlo fiasco). Mulgrew and co. are busy figuring out how to sell the inevitable stinkburger instead of how to fight it.
I do not think merit pay is on the table in the next contract tract. Bloomberg pushed for it and it did not fly. If Bloomberg could not get it done, I don’t think Big Bird will be able to pull it off. The crucial thing to look for is if DC37 or another union settles a contract first and sets the pattern. Whatever that pattern is the rest of the city unions will have to take it.
ATRs should sue the Union for collaborating in age discrimination and harassment with the DOE.
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