Saturday, June 09, 2018

WHAT DOES CHANCELLOR SHOWING UP AT CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS MEAN?

There is a picture in this week's Chapter Leader Update of Chancellor Richard Carranza shaking hands with UFT President at the initial contract negotiation bargaining session. Our contract ends at the end of November. The city will talk to us about financial terms but the Chancellor bargains education working condition issues with the UFT.

Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott were never there when I was on the Negotiating Committee. What does Chancellor's Carranza's presence mean?

Hard to say.


It could mean absolutely nothing. However, it could signify that the Chancellor is willing to discuss changing the anti-teacher culture at the Department of Education.

For anyone who wants to know how difficult it will be to really change the DOE culture, please read this comment from Harris Lirtzman on Arthur Goldstein's excellent piece on the end of the Leadership Academy. Change will not be easy and would require all of us to play a part in making sure the Union emphasizes that there are hundreds of abusive supervisors who need to be reigned in.


I have often wondered why Tweed never got a sweep.
This will be hard to explain but here’s part of the dilemma for anyone who runs a very large, complex government agency like, say, the DOE.
So, you sweep it. Then what?
You have dozens—hundreds—of senior positions that you need to fill by, oh, tomorrow. You don’t have months to find the best folks for each gig. Plus, the folks who are already there are telling you that they are indispensable. And so are their political and reformista allies outside the DOE.
The sheer inertia that keeps things and people in place in sprawling organizations is inconceivable unless you’ve ever been a manager of one.
The reformistas were smart. They had the money and muscle to start organizations that ‘train’ or, at least, certify people to run school districts.
‘We’ don’t have large pools of people ready to step into these gigs. Hell, the only person who gets called by and quoted in the mainstream edu-press is Diane Ravitch.
So, big city mayors change the superintendents but the supers are afraid to, or can’t, bring out the broom. Most don’t even want to.
It would be a great good thing if a billionaire would join our ranks and start the ‘Arthur Goldstein School for Education Professionals.’
Until then don’t expect to see any brooms . Anywhere. Ever.
To be clear, I am NOT justifying any of this.
Just offering the perspective of someone who was a manager for 20 years in organizations like the DOE].
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I understand that, but they've had four years. By now they could have at least made a dent if they wanted to. It appears they don't.


I suspect that the people at Tweed are already running to our "friend" Mayor Bill de Blasio and his team to tell the administration how important they are and how putting the teachers back in the drivers' seat will kill the schools. They are wrong as the school system needs a large dose of integrity as an initial step toward a brighter future. The people who could idemand an end to the DOE's anti-teacher bias are the teachers working in the schools en masse allied with the parents. We could do it but we need to push our union to take action.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wont hold my breathe.

Anonymous said...

Lets just get sonething done, after the screwing last time, need this to be on time.

Anonymous said...

1%-2% yearly is where it will be...

Anonymous said...

It means he’s playing deBlasio’s sad song of a broke city and sorry but if you want anything at all there has to be givebacks.

Anonymous said...

All of the the DOE administrators are useless. They are hopelessly overpaid and a great waste of money. The work they do us e useless. Have the schools improved? Have the test scores improved?

James Eterno said...

Test scores are up on unreliable state tests and graduation rates have gone up to record levels. Having teachers work in frar can produce results but those numbers are as phony as phony can be. NAEP (national test) scores are flat and college results are barely moving.

Anonymous said...

They should dismantle DOE Legal and the firing squad.

Anonymous said...

The Chancellor's there to get something from us. Who knows what Mulgrew will give away this time. I'm not hopeful that Mulgrew will ask for anything we want and I seriously doubt Carranza will agree to anything that makes our working conditions less disgusting even if Mulgrew asks. Carranza may be a NYC DOE outsider but he is an insider in the world of educrats. When was the last time any chancellor in any city gave a damn about teachers and sought to establish respect for us and right any wrongs done to us? Seeing Mulgrew shake hands with Carranza reminds me of chapter leaders in the principal's pocket. It was never a good sign seeing them together. It always meant the membership was about to get screwed in some way. Hope I'm proven wrong. Roseanne McCosh

Anonymous said...

He is there because the contract is a done deal. Expect a shitty contract by the start of the summer. Put it in the books!

jr said...

twu got 5% over 28 months. thats roughly 2.3% yearly. that ,minus whatever we pay for some type of paid parental leave equals 1.5% per year. Just a matter if its backloaded or not.

Anonymous said...

In all seriousness, if the next deal is, everything stays the same, 3 years, 3% overall, 1 plus 1 plus 1 plus $1000 up front, what percent vote yes? 80?

Anonymous said...

Whatever deal is made, expect it to be crappy; expect it to have give backs; expect the UFT to claim it is fantastic victory for everyone. The UFT is hopelessly corrupt.

Anonymous said...

There will be a small window of time for members to drop out of the union and stop paying dues, and as soon as that window is shut, Mulgrew will claim the city is broke and serve up 1% raises along with a few givebacks.

Anonymous said...

I would say opposite, Im pulling my dues unless the contract is something I deem fair. They better do this quick, or im gone.

Anonymous said...

The only effective push that the UFT would fear is the withholding of dues. That is what we should all do until they start working for us.

James Eterno said...

If you all withhold dues, the union will have even less power than it already does to make member lives better.

Anonymous said...

ok, so since they are getting all our dues, the contract being negotiated now should be amazing, just as 2014 should have been.

Anonymous said...

I don't want anything other than no givebacks and 2 observations. They can shove their 1% up their asses.

Bronx ATR said...

HI James, The UFT gets approximately $140,000,000 in dues per year. If 50% withhold their dues it's still a richly funded, influential union. It will however have to stop the upper caste excursions to Peter Luger's and The Quality Quail Quell, as well as the excessive patronage reward system. It will create an incentive for better service under the business model that they have introduced for themselves, with the customer card and hotline. No one has really addressed this - Bloomberg turned schools and every aspect of their management into a business model. The UFT rightly screamed foul and has now appropriated this abject model and incorporated it as its anticipated post-Janus philosophy. If the customers are unhappy with the service of the UFT as a business, then logically the UFT can't scream Unionism disloyalty.

James Eterno said...

Great points Bronx ATR but some of us want an activist member UFT. That will force the union leadership to step up their game.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea what the UFT is doing to support the teachers. This is my 25th year teaching and the conditions are worse than ever. When I think about the UFT getting $140,000,000 annually, I get even more upset.

Anonymous said...

Our Union is making it easy for the DOE to fire ATRs. It is a well designed plan.
For the ATRs its bad enough that the DOE wants to terminate us but it seems the UFT leadership is helping the DOE thin the ATR herd by stabbing us in the back. Vote for Mulgrew again. Abitrators are being pressured to fire ATRs in a pony show on flyby observations of ATR Field Assasins.