ICEUFTBLOG OPPOSED UFT DE BLASIO ENDORSEMENT IN 2017

The UFT got it totally wrong in endorsing Bill de Blasio's reelection in 2017. There was ample evidence in the mayor's first term that he was not an ally to teachers (see 2014 Contract for major details). 

Now that the results from almost two and a half years of term two are in, we can safely say we've been vindicated in opposing de Blasio at the Delegate Assembly. City and DOE negotiators take the UFT to the cleaners each time we negotiate anything and the anti-teacher Department of Education from Mayor Bloomberg's days remains intact.

Covid-19 magnified municipal managerial incompetence we already knew existed in the schools. It is widely documented how de Blasio and Governor Cuomo messed up the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stages by dithering and that ended up costing lives. (The Wall Street Journal link is behind a paywall, but there is a good summary here.)   

While leaders in states like California and Ohio acted quickly to contain the spread, Messrs. Cuomo and de Blasio delayed taking measures to close the state and city even as the number of cases swelled, despite warnings from doctors, nurses, and schoolteachers. California issued a statewide lockdown with 1,005 cases as of March 19, while New York remained open with 5,704 cases, according to updated Johns Hopkins data.

In terms of overall popularity, the pandemic has impacted on de Blasio far more than the Governor. Here are some numbers from a spring 2020 poll that show de Blasio in the Trump range on favorability:

De Blasio fared far worse [than Governor Cuomo], with a 40% approval rating. More than a third of voters, 31%, said he is doing a poor job of handling the crisis; while 14% gave him an excellent rating; 28% said he is doing a good job; and 26% said he is doing a fair job of it. 

Anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback, but this blog opposed de Blasio's reelection from the getgo. In this piece from February 2017, ICEUFTblog tells the story of how I attempted to speak out against the UFT de Blasio endorsement at the Delegate Assembly but was shut up by Leroy Barr. Barr did not allow a response after UFT President Michael Mulgrew left the chair and spoke out for de Blasio who was waiting in the hallway to speak. 

In retrospect, no de Blasio endorsement was a very good position to take in 2017. de Blasio was not our friend, has not been our friend during COVID-19 and more than likely will not be our friend when UFTers and students probably return to school buildings in the fall. UFT endorsements should be earned.

From our 2017 post:

The main problem was that after calling on the President, temporary chair Barr had an obligation to call on a speaker against. Instead, he called on a Unity person. Caucus obligations require that Unity members support leadership positions in union and public forums so I was totally right in calling for a point of order.

If readers would like chapter and verse, in Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised it says on page 31 in paragraph 3: "In cases where the chair knows that persons seeking the floor have opposite opinions on the question, the chair should let the floor alternate between those favoring and those opposing the measure."

Since I raised my objection immediately, I should have been recognized. Instead, Leroy gave a speech about how the UFT as a courtesy called on a speaker against but they don't have to. I wonder what his definition of debate is.

I immediately objected to the ruling of the chair but Leroy moved on to a vote as if I wasn't even there. According to Roberts Rules on page 256, appeals are taken from the chair and go to the assembly. I never had a chance as they didn't even give me a microphone throughout the entire process. I had to shout. What a disgrace.

Actually, I should feel pretty good about the whole fiasco. The reason they were rushing through the non-debate was because the mayor himself was right outside in the hallway probably listening in as there are closed circuit televisions out in the hallway. Leroy Barr and Michael Mulgrew wouldn't permit me to talk against de Blasio while he was in the building. Democracy be damned.

What I wanted to say:

I rise in opposition to endorsing Mayor Bill de Blasio's reelection bid. The timing is very questionable.

There are two investigations on de Blasio's fundraising taking place right now. Do we really believe a federal prosecutor and a local district attorney are both going to spend all of this time and money looking at the mayor's fundraising and indict nobody close to the mayor or the mayor himself? 

The question I hear in the schools is if it is actually worse now compared to when Bloomberg was mayor. Yes we have a contract but the mayor gave us paltry raises and he had us make an interest free loan to the city that won't be paid back in full until 2020 while the city now has record budget surpluses and reserves. 

The contract terms are insulting enough but what really concerns me is how the mayor and his chancellor have kept the Bloomberg-Klein system at the DOE basically intact. NY1 reported last month that spending on bureaucrats is up a whopping 70% at DOE Central compared to when Bloomberg was in power. Spending is up considerably at the DOE on non personnel costs too. What is this money being spent on? Not the classroom. Most of Bloomberg's people kept their jobs at DOE and new blood has been added. Extra money is certainly not going into the classroom.

As my colleague Marc Epstein said, "de Blasio-Farina cemented Bloomberg-Klein into the DNA of the system." My wife Camille was at a recent arbitration where the UFT did great for her but there were three DOE attorneys on the other side. Two were training. The DOE's anti-teacher army at the Office of Labor Relations continues their work to destroy teachers. De Blasio has done very little, if anything, in three+ years to stop the war on teachers. For that, does he really deserve our early, unqualified support.

I don't favor endorsing a pro-charter Democrat or a Republican but when a mayor and his chancellor show they do not support our members and there is a corruption scandal surrounding that mayor, now might be the time to consider staying neutral. The mayor needs to do something concrete to earn our endorsement.

That was three years before COVID-19. The UFT is even more dictatorial nowadays while the Mayor has Trump level approval numbers and might be facing a vote of no confidence from the City Council. 

It's really sad that UFT members don't demand change within the Union, not to dump a union. We really need a real, democratic union now.