Thursday, January 31, 2019

UFT AT 98.8% STRENGTH POST JANUS

The Independent Budget Office has released a report showing that very few NYC employees are opting out of their unions even after the Janus Supreme Court decision last June made union dues optional for government employees.


 United Federation of Teachers
119,681
118,197
-1.2%
          (1,484)
District Council 37
85,552
79,471
-7.1%
          (6,081)
Police Benevolent Association*
24,281
23,524
-3.1%
              (757)
Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association
9,730
9,380
-3.6%
              (350)
Communication Workers of America
9,462
9,156
-3.2%
              (306)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
9,333
8,817
-5.5%
              (516)
Uniformed Firefighters Association
8,707
8,670
-0.4%
                (37)
Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association
6,278
6,733
7.2%
                455
Council of Supervisors and Administrators
6,573
6,549
-0.4%
                (24)
Detectives’ Endowment Association
5,600
5,602
0.0%
                     2
Professional Staff Congress
5,566
4,911
-11.8%
              (655)
Sergeants Benevolent Association
4,749
4,532
-4.6%
              (217)
Organization of Staff Analysts
3,478
3,176
-8.7%
              (302)
Service Employees International Union anyone who bets against
2,839
2,678
-5.7%
              (161)
Uniformed Fire Officers Association
2,587
2,553
-1.3%
                (34)
All Union Members
317,183
305,981
-3.5
(11,202)
Largest City Unions by Dues Payers
June 2018
December 2018
Percent Change
Change


Unions really deserve credit here for holding onto their memberships and getting new employees to sign up. 
We stated before Janus not to underestimate the UFT machine's ability to keep the dues coming in.
For those who argue the UFT hasn't faced its opt out period for 2019 yet so current members really haven't had much of a chance to leave, I say that anyone who bets against the UFT keeping their dues coming in is up against some long odds. 



This is part of what we said last May:

If the UFT gets over 90% of the membership to stay in the union under these conditions, I will tip my hat to them and admit that Michael Mulgrew's Unity Caucus loyalty oath based machine is one of the greatest political machines of all time. Unity offers little for $1,400 per year so if over 100,000 educated people say they will voluntarily pay, I would salute Unity. Those of us in opposition would deserve credit too for being able to beat this machine in elections at the high school level many times. I was on the Executive Board for a decade. 
Is it time to tip the hat?
I wish I could but I hear horror stories on an almost daily basis on how the UFT is coming up short supporting members who feel their rights are being violated. The UFT isn't changing. Maybe a union leadership that often tells us to shut up because we make $100k a year is as good as it gets. 

98.8% of the UFT membership are in right now.

*It was noted in a footnote in the IBO report that 450 cadets who were in the October Police Academy class were included as part of the 757 police not paying dues. Those police officers have since been signed up for the PBA. If we add in the 450 to the PBA numbers, their decrease is a little over 1% and is very close to the UFT's stability.

13 comments:

  1. Go UFT we are powerful and bloomberg is a midget

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  2. UFT all the way down the toilet.

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  3. I am still not sure what the UFT does for me. I did not experience any of the items below when I began teaching 25 years ago.

    I work 10 - 12 hour days then more time spent on school work on weekends.
    Insane amount of paperwork and/or computer work.
    Told to attend (with no per session or reimbursement) for after school, weekend and/or summer workshops and meetings.
    Professional duties
    Danielson's
    Regents exam scores attached to evaluation
    Bulletin board requirements
    CTLE hours
    Useless PD that everyone knows is all about the money
    Blatant corruption and incompetence at the DOE
    Corrupt and incompetent administrators
    Blatantly fictitious data; especially graduation rates
    Inconsequential discipline policies
    Daily verbal abuse from students
    Implicit threats to whistle-blowers
    Etc.

    I suppose others who have been around a while can add to this list.

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  4. So stop paying dues. Read the previous thread, there are 9 responses of valid complaints.

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  5. The numbers are all but meaningless one year post-Janus.

    Wait five years and see what they are.

    The UFT has to sign newbies up to maintain losses from attrition and retirement.

    In my building, some newbies have not joined.

    I would bet a spin on the Mulgrew Matrix that's happening in some other buildings too.

    The real danger to the UFT and other unions is not the opt outs from current members - it's in making sure new hirees join the union and pay dues.

    Perhaps they'll navigate that problem in the long run as well as they have the opt-outs so far.

    Perhaps they'll convince the newbies that a two tier health care coverage system (one for newbies, the other for vets) and shittier pension benefits is worth paying the same dues for as veterans pay.

    Perhaps they won't continue to eat the young in future negotiations as they did in the last one when they gave on a two tier health care coverage system.

    Perhaps they'll have CL's in every building who ensure new hirees pay dues or get ostracized as scabs.

    But all that remains to be seen.

    I know UFT leadership doesn't give a shit about much other than their own perks and power, so I wouldn't bet against them being successful at maintaining dues levels either.

    But I also know leadership suffers from arrogance, overconfidence and incompetence, which could lay the groundwork for diminishing numbers over time.

    The anti-union people play the long game - and less than a year after Janus, the UFT crowing about maintaining their numbers so far is anything but the long game.

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  6. New hires are usually easy to push around to get to join union. An organized opt out is what would scare UFT leaders.

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  7. I will not pay dues and use the money to pay my toll every day since uft refuses or cant help with placement in a different school.

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  8. Me too, over the bridge every day for 20 years.

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  9. disclaimer : I will still be paying dues because a shitty union is better than none , but here are some things I have encountered which I can see would make someone with less experience and knowledge pissed enough to say fuck it I'm keeping my money...

    Teacher switches licenses , has an agreement in writing signed by teacher, principal, superintendent, and uft rep, stating one year of probation with jarsma credit and tenure is attained in new cert. Teacher used open market to leave crappy school. Principal pissed , because her attrition rate is shit, Doesn't sign whatever and teacher has to do another year of probation at new school with unknown principal. No one cared about agreement signed by all parties, said if you like a pay check just do another year of probation.

    Teacher given ridiculous schedule at prose school, like I mean insane, wrote district rep who couldn't even be bothered with a salutation in their response which was "all schedules approved by the UFT" Luckily it was a newbie programmer mess up that once the principal got wind of was corrected pretty quickly.

    Chapter leader tells teacher with 6 preps (like 6 different classes) that it is fine and allowed and he must teach whatever 25 periods he is told to teach.

    Chapter leader allows PD during regents week because the win isn't worth the fight.

    Uft phone reps getting stingy with info and just referring back to chapter leaders who many times have less info than veteran teachers or are in admin pockets

    UFT telling many many many probationers to sign extensions if they want to keep jobs.

    UFT actually telling us they fought for every shitty thing we are subjected to that comes down the pike. Like Danielson and 4 observations and 22 components and then 8 , etc etc etc

    The wonderful below inflation rate raises we got and the interest free loans of retro, ahem, bonus, money they can wind up deciding to not give you or your kin for a variety of reasons.

    The wonderful one party democratic governing body called Unity UFT.

    Getting us killer deals like 2 vacation days for 1.25 percent of a fixed rate TDA! Thanks guys!!

    Not even considering fighting all the circular six abuses, especially in the small school where lunch duty and hall duty are once again being forced on teachers ( they claim the small school forces an minimal menu for C6 and since you are contractually obliged to do a prof. period it's lunch duty for you. Yes fuck you and your menu, stand here and be bombarded by out of control kids beating each other up for 43 minutes and make sure no one gets hurt or you are accountable.

    Be screamed and yelled at by your principal if front of students and told things like,,,, Mrs. X it's your job to keep these kids in line so it's your fault if they are out of control even if I refuse to give a consequence to that 17 year old 8th grade girl who stabbed you.

    Oh and thanks UFT for watching the discipline code erode before our eyes. Restorative justice my ass.

    THE UFT NEEDS TO DO ONE THING TO WIN ALL OF US VETS BACK AND THAT IS TO GET U AND S RATINGS BACK. THAT WOULD BE ENOUGH TO GET US TO TURN THE YOUNG AND DUMB SWJ'S INTO UFT'ERS. THAT IS THE ONLY KIND OF WIN THAT WILL GET US ALL TOGETHER AND BEHIND YOU AGAIN UFT. OTHERWISE BE PREPARED FOR THOSE DUES TO START DROPPING LIKE TEACHING FELLOWS IN HUNTS POINT.





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  10. I’ve been thinking about the upcoming elections. I’ve had some serious issues with Arthur but I was planning on voting for him. Now he’s running with Unity? Is he joking? So they won’t make him take an oath! Why not join the American Nazi party or other anti- American group, it’s the same thing.

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  11. Off topic, I believe it was you who posted a list of the extra salaries that the UFT is paying themselves. I lost my link to it. Would be appreciated.

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  12. found it for myself. https://www.unionfacts.com/local/employees/63924/AFT/2/

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  13. this is an old list. and i don't trust this site as not being an anti-union trolling site.

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