UFT Solidarity listens when UFT members have valid suggestions to try to fix our union. Last week Solidarity's Council discussed how their resolution calling for the UFT to take a strong position against remote Danielson never made it to the floor at the Delegate Assembly. This issue needs to be debated by the UFT but never was. Solidarity did have a discussion on how undemocratic UFT electronic meetings are.
Democratic procedures are essential in any labor union. I went right to Robert's Rules of Order to see what it says about electronic meetings. There is nothing there about questions being screened or rewriting rules for the duration of a pandemic to limit debate, to suppress open discussion or not allow members to question if the rules are being adhered to.
Electronic meetings are supposed to be the equivalent of regular live meetings. UFT leadership has used the excuse of the pandemic to screen questions and create an even more controlled environment compared to in-person meetings. Some of Solidarity's leaders asked if I would like to join them in a push to bring back some democracy at UFT meetings. I said yes.
Step I is to let UFT leadership know they are out of order. We can go further if they refuse to change their electronic meetings' undemocratic rules.
Our email to Staff Director Leroy Barr in full:
Dear Mr. Barr:
Recently we have been reviewing Robert's Rules of Order as it pertains to remote meetings. We are thrilled that the UFT is hosting Delegate Assembly, Town Hall and Executive Board in these tough times. But we are alarmed at how these sessions are carried out. Members are muted, unable to freely ask questions, they cannot engage easily in the Delegate Assembly for motions and someone screens questions ahead of time (so people known to be vocal or problematic will not be called on).
Additionally, the rules for remote DAs eliminated the ability of participants to raise a point or order, a point of information, a point of personal privilege or any other motion that interrupts debate. The body is ultimately responsible for enforcing its rules, not the president or even the parliamentarian.
We read Robert's Rules of Order on electronic meetings after a UFT Solidarity motion against Remote Danielson was ignored. We believe the way the UFT does them is not exactly proper. For an electronic meeting a group using Robert's Rules of Order must have "conditions of opportunity for simultaneous aural communication among all participating members equivalent to those held in one room or area."
Having someone screen questions and not being able to make a motion would not meet that definition. Elminating the ability of participants to raise a point or order or a point of information does not meet this definition as well. Pressing 0 should be all a member needs to do to get the floor.
We want you to change the way you do meetings, assembly's and town halls. Let us engage in democratic discourse and not a watered down version meant to stifle dissent.
FYI, here is a link to the sample electronic rules that do not include limits on member rights.
https://robertsrules.com/sample-rules-for-electronic-meetings/
Please let us know when you receive this and when you plan to make these changes.
Sincerely yours,
Lydia Howrilka, James Eterno, John Lawhead and Quinn Zannoni
36 comments:
This has trickled down to Chapter meetings too. My DR has been running our chapter meetings and has everyone muted and chat settings set up so we can only chat with the CL or DR and can't see each others questions or comments, they then pick and choose whose questions they answer. The UFT is as bad as the DOE.
Thank you for getting the conversation started.Hopefully, there can be constructive dialogue.
You will go further? Really? Tell me when and how. And why was this never been done before?
I'm sure MM is scared to death. What happens when you are ignored?
James, you are calling for the **Restoration* of democracy when you know full well, that irrespective of the conditions or mediums used to conduct meetings, democracy can not be restored because a restoration of democracy implies that how the UFT conducted meeting prior to the pandemic and thus prior to the use of medium was democratic. In other words, you can't restore a democratic procedure that neve existed. There is nothing to restore.
Once again, the reform efforts only perpetuate the status quo. What will change if Unity agrees to the demands of your letter? Not much. They should simply agree to make the changes you demand. And go on with business as usual.
I hope this letter gets things moving in the right direction for rank and file UFT members. Remote Danielson/ any remote observation should be voted on by dues paying members.
8:49, did your chapter earn an award for this behavior? Ha ha ha ha
Mulgrew and the UFT remind me of the autocracy of Donald Trump and his sycophants.
Thanks James for always stepping up to the plate. If all of us could commit to doing one positive thing towards change we would make a difference. The problem is that no one has any idea how. All avenues and points of egress have been closed by the UFT= Unity = Mulgrew/deBlasio = Randi. The only way is difficult - to form a new union, at least at the high school level. I don’t ever see it being done. And don’t forget there’s a lot of people who really appreciate what the UFT has done in allowing them to work remote all this time. It has saved many careers of those that would’ve had to retire early. So there is something positive to be said after all. Is it enough? Perhaps.
James would you please perhaps in a future post also elaborate on the various ways that Mulgrew (and before, Randi) stifles non-Unity resolutions and motions, controls who speaks, etc.?
Great job here trying to stop Unity using the pandemic as an excuse to further its totalitarian rule.
"We read Robert's Rules of Order on electronic meetings after a UFT Solidarity motion against Remote Danielson was ignored."
Ignored in December, discarded & removed from the UFT website that the motion even existed (link in email from LeRoy for that one meeting goes to UFT frontpage; whereas other DA links for such motions are still valid); and vanished in January's DA...
When will you realize you have no chance to change this?
2:34 - I'm sure a few said the same thing in 1765, 1767, 1773,1776, 1863, 1866, 1870, 1920, 1965, ... but here we are today...
Nothing changes when you do nothing.
DistRep Ellen Driesden has done the same with meetings she hosted.
Truth is, I don’t think there’s EVER a good way to or method to evaluate a teacher. No matter what.
TeachNY , Why are you even here ? You are like a rain cloud on a sunny day. Just agree that the prospect of teacher evaluation both remote and in person is ridiculous during a pandemic.
I really don’t get anything you stand for. Are you a DOE shill ?
Stop it already.
Ok 255. When it changes, ill start paying dues again. Im not too worried.
The more Mulgrew opens his mouth the more I hate his guts. The town next to where I live has a union that holding a "Wear Black Clothing Week" and "Teach to the Contract Week". They are trying to prevent their district from opening up to full time learning. However, the town is not having it and thus, that union is organizing all of their members to wear black clothing AND ONLY TEACH TO THE CONTRACT! That means no after school phone calls, texts, or emails to parents. Teachers are going to show up one minute before school starts and leave exactly at the time they are allowed to leave. Can you imagine Mulgrew organizing something like this for our elementary and D75 teachers? Hell, he has not even asked us if we feel safe in our schools.
TeachNY is a DOE shill, an internet troll and a provocateur.
Its comments are sociopathic. It might even be a trolling bot.
James, will there be a post of the minutes from the UFT Solidarity meeting from earlier?
can you give me the rule about pay if you have a permanent 6th class?
That’s what I said. I don’t think there is ever a good way or time to evaluate a teacher.
A student showed up for the first time today with 3 days left in the term. Excuse, he was tired. What is Solidarity doing about grade fraud? he is passing every class but mine.
A good way or time to evaluate a teacher starts with an experienced, dedicated, competent, moral, evaluator. By experienced, I mean experienced with a minimum of 10 - 20 years as a competent, dedicated and moral teacher and preferably experienced teaching different grades or levels of a course.
Considering the majority of administrators in the NYC DOE lack the experience in the classroom, have no understanding or care of teaching and learning, are incompetent and immoral, the evaluation is nothing but a check off list used as part of the NYC DOE sham.
7:33 I think it's currently 7,066 per semester
Shortage Area Rate
https://www.uft.org/your-rights/salary/doe-and-city-salary-schedules/session-diem-and-other-rates-salary-schedules
7:33: It depends on when you took the 6th class. If you agreed to do it before the school year started, you would get pro rata which is 1/5th pay of your salary added to your current salary. If you agreed to do it during the school year, you would get paid as a coverage which is basically 3/4 of an hour of per session per class you teach. This is because pro rata pay has to be worked into the budget before the school year begins.
The term hasn't started yet and I've been assigned 6 classes for the spring term.
That is the term, not the school year, so you'll be paid as a coverage. Check with your UFT rep.
No way there should be any evaluations and ifffff somehow this imbecile agrees it should be an S OR an NX. No teacher should get an ineffective rating this school year.
Everyone keeps praying and thinking we are getting spring break pay haha, its been 10 plus years and still have not received full retro!!!
ADD 7 CAR days to everyone's bank. Women need it more than they know especially when if they get pregnant. Not many people here have more than my 115.
Also one more thing about pro rata. You have to be working beyond your contractual time in order to be paid pro rata. For example, if you teach periods 1-8 and teach a class period 9, that would be pro rata. Same as if you are a 2-9 teacher and you teach period 1. Giving up your professional period to teach a class is just a coverage.
If you teach a sixth class during the regular day for the term (not just a daily coverage for an absent teacher), you are entitled to the special per session rate of pay. This in the contract in Atricle 7O. It is also covered in Circular 6R.
40 years old, 170 in car
It is a 6th teaching period in my license for the entire term. I am scheduled for 6 teaching periods everyday. The contract seems to say about $7k. I assume $7k is for the entire year? Do I have to do anything or does my principal just put it in?
Ask principal, secretaey who does payroll, and then chapter leader and district rep if school is not helpful. The pay in contract is for term.
It is 7k. Not bad.
A lot of time spent trying to address getting a resolution through the maze of lack of democracy in the UFT and when you do then what? We passed resos that looked good on paper in the past and the union does nothing to enforce them. Maybe too much time and energy spend but then again what else is there to do?
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