It has been somewhat quiet on the "Cuomo must go" front the last few days but calls for him to resign continue and the Assembly impeachment inquiry has begun. Noticeably absent on the calls for Cuomo to quit are the public employee unions in New York. One notable exception is the TWU, a union that previously was a robust supporter of the governor. They have at least spoken out.
From the Chief Leader:
In March 2019, Transport Workers Union of America President John Samuelsen called Andrew Cuomo 'the best Governor for the trade-union movement ever.' A few months later, though, their relationship derailed after Mr. Cuomo implied that a huge jump in overtime at New York City Transit was the result of worker fraud, prompting anger from transit workers and their union leadership. That's why it wasn't surprising when Mr. Samuelsen, musing on the sexual-harassment probe ordered by the State Attorney General, said 'if the investigation by Tish James reveals that the Governor has engaged in wrongdoing, then the Governor should pay the price.'
UFT head Michael Mulgrew and AFT President Randi Weingarten have an opinion on just about everything but not much on Cuomo's scandals. This is part of an AFT September 2019 statement on former President Donald Trump's impeachment before he was impeached for the first time. Note Randi doesn't hold back:
Donald Trump has undermined the rule of law, threatened our national security, and held in contempt the very institutions on which our republic was built, most notably in his use of presidential power to pressure a foreign government to investigate a potential political opponent. He must be held accountable. No one is above the law.
Here is part of yet another statement from Randi on the day the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump the first time:
Today will go down in history. Congress has defended American democracy against a president who knows no bounds.
Yet, there is a strange Union quiet concerning New York's governor who knows no bounds from a union of mostly females. The Union's lack of public empathy for the women who accused the governor is coming from the national, state, and city unions.
I have one question: Why the deafening silence from our union leaders on Cuomo?
When it comes to the UFT, we have to wonder if the fact that our political director Cassie Prugh used to work for Cuomo is playing a role in advising our President to hush up. The last two UFT political directors, Paul Egan and Tom Murphy, were teachers who moved up the Unity Caucus ranks. Cassie has a very different background.
From her LinkedIn page:
Experience
Her ties to Cuomo go back over a decade. Could her background possibly have something to do with the Union's almost complete silence on Cuomo?
It would be greatly appreciated if one of our readers who is a UFT delegate or chapter leader could ask at Wednesday's Delegate Assembly about the UFT silence on Cuomo and lack of support for the women who are accusing him of sexual harassment. It might be the right call but we have a right to know why the UFT, NYSUT, and AFT are not commenting on a governor who is no friend of teachers or women who work for him.
Randi is a left wing hack.
ReplyDeleteCuomo is hardly left wing.
DeleteCuomo shcwomo. We got bigger fish to fry that worrying about him. (You know, like how we are gonna pack in a ton of new students in a few weeks, how kids are gonna all eat in the same classroom, etc)
ReplyDeleteThe UFT will say that they are not sure about Cuomo's future and that Cuomo might be around for the rest of his third term and perhaps a 4th term.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that Cuomo is a bully, the UFT are complete, pathetic cowards and Cuomo and Mulgrew and Cuomo have a share d interest in screwing the rank and file members out of benefits such as spring break pay, more pension tiers such as Tier 6 etc etc..
Remember, requiring teachers to work on spring break was a Cuomo initiative.
Mulgrew is a Cuomo-sexual since he is a me too sex harasser at work (school).
And the uft...
ReplyDeleteSooooo, I walked into my school and noticed 12 teachers called out. Nothing normal about that at all. By lunch i find out 7/12 have COVID, schools going to shut down right? It’s 2:00pm & now I realize half of the teachers on my floor are out. At 2:15 9/12 od the teachers are confirmed to have COVID yet my school isn’t shutting down .. Am I wrong for freaking out with going to work tomorrow?
I’m very to myself however it’s the “ all the cases were on the other side of my floor” for me
Be safe 8:19. Stay home and call the media.
ReplyDeleteRandi and Mulgrew have been and still are big Cuomo supporters. That was easy.
ReplyDeleteThe question is not why are they still backing the wolf but why have they backed him over the years?
Cuomo ran against public unions, Cuomo hates the public school teachers, Cuomo hates public education.
Well, you brought it up this time, James. The answer is dues.
And, Cuomo, Randi, and Mulgrew are not Left anything but Right wing, they are republicans who pretend to be democrats. Anyone who knows even a bit of NY politics knows this; how did the Republicans control the NY Senate? Cuomo and the IDC.
The democratic agenda has been blocked by Cuomo and the IDC and that agenda, irrespective of your personal politics, is the agenda of public educators.
So why would the Unions make deals with the wolf?
Because they hate us too.
And reading this blog it seems there is a lot of self-hating educators in the union who are stupid enough to think that the Unions are Left Wing Nut Zealots that need to be destroyed by Cuomo and his pseudo-union partners.
8:32, the same media who have been trying to character assassinate the teachers this past year.
ReplyDeleteThe gold standard.
ReplyDeleteKids don't get sick.
The safest place to be.
272 NYC school buildings closed tomorrow, 3/24.
31 new 1-day closures (total 46)
40 new 10-day closures (total 226)
110 new classroom closures (total 973)
145 more cases, 96 students/49 staff
We are a scam operation. What % of students learn?
ReplyDeleteNo self hate, 8:35. Hate the left. And it doesn't have to be Cuomo who destroys you. Anyone will do.
ReplyDeleteCuomo is not the left by any stretch of the imagination.
DeleteNor is de Blasio.
DeleteAre the unions keeping it quiet until he signs off on an ERI, and then they'll turn up the heat?
ReplyDeleteYour right James, Cuomo isn't the left, the left has moved radically left leaving Andrew behind. JFK Would be a republican today. Truman would be a republican today, maybe even FDR would be a republican today, ok maybe not FDR.
ReplyDeleteTruman who wanted national health insurance would not be a Republican.
ReplyDelete"To many Americans, healthcare is considered a human right. In fact, Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States, said, “I put it to you, is it un-American to visit the sick, aid the afflicted or comfort the dying? I thought that was simple Christianity.” Harry Truman would carry on the legacy of FDR in trying to provide American men, women, children and elderly with national healthcare."
To pay for it,
"Truman’s plan was that all Americans would pay a certain amount in fees and taxes each month to cover the new healthcare program’s costs."
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/challenge-national-healthcare
Sounds like Bernie Sanders. 9:38, I hope you are not a social studies teacher but if you are that you study Truman a little more closely. Want to talk Marshall plan now also?
There is no Left in America. Sanders doesn't qualify, nor does Warren, any member of the US Senate, any member of the democratic party.
ReplyDeleteEven Noam Chomsky, the most important and distinguished intellectual of those who would call themselves members of the Left, is not a Lefty; he supported Biden as the only viable alternative to the fascist dictatorship of Trump.
The continuum of Left to Right, Liberal to Conservative, and in education, progressive to traditional is useless; it's a lazy method from demonizing those one disagrees with and avoiding serious thought and discussion.
Shelley Noam is indeed a leftist. He is an anarchist. He is a deeply incorrect leftist on the issue you raised though. Correct on Warren and Sanders though. One is a spruced up neo liberal and the other a social democrat, or new deal liberal if one prefers. This country is so far to the right, that anything slightly left of conservative capitalism is seen, and promoted, as left wing. Clown country.
DeleteYeah James old harry might have mentioned health care a few times but he was a politician, politicians say anything. social studies teacher for 26 yrs. yeah Americans have no problem spending their money on wants but refuse to spend money on needs. why should they when the democrats will give them everything for free and have the federal reserve just print more money or borrow it from china.
ReplyDeleteA wise man once said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"
what are many of the kids we teach going to do for our country???
Ask/Demand More Things For The Government?
Be A Productive Member Of Society?
Let Me Know James, We All Know How Self Righteous You Can Be
@10:51am...
DeleteJames is self righteous? What are you?
Any word on the Early Retirement Incentive? It seemed to have been gaining some momentum until the scandal broke involving Gov. Cuomo. I believe a decision has to be made soon as the state budget is due on April 1st.
ReplyDeleteAny word in spring break 2020? Still waiting for arbitration to open? When will it open?
ReplyDeleteERI? Why would there be an ERI? NYS is flush with cash right now, especially the schools. The real problems will come in 2-3 years from now, right when I’m ready to retire! 😂😂😂
ReplyDeleteWhat are people talking about when they complain that the USA is in debt to China?
ReplyDeleteObviously, they are just repeating political talking points. There is no economist in the world who believes this bullshit. It's a combination of our protestant work ethic puritanical culture: debt is a sin and, and for so long, the phony talk show mantra for the republican liars (Paul Ryan and Larry Kudlow & Co.)
If a nation can borrow money, cheap, at 0-1% in its own currency, and that currency happens to be the reserve country of the world, with no serious rival, it would be foolish not to. The argument only gains strength when the country is the USA, a country not dependent on trade for its enormous economic vitality and dynamism. China and the USA have a very good partnership. They have tons of excess dollars, they have to hold tons of dollars, and so, they buy our securities, still the safest sovereign in the world and the largest and most liquid. We get to pay them an interest rate that is often, depending on the duration of the security, negative. Moreover, the USA is lifting the world out of depression with unprecedent government spending and soon infrastructure investment. Yes, the world should kiss our asses for doing almost all of the work here as the other rich nations in the world have done little or nothing. Of course we will benefit most, but the capital flow from China to the US via dollars is not bad, but very good. Yes, we do need to be concerned about debt, deficits, and trade imbalances, but contrary to what your social studies teacher preaches in class, debt is not only necessary, but good, and under certain conditions better than good and we are in such conditions now.
But even when we were prospering under Trump, when the economy was growing, after a tax cut and stimulus plan, the debt was a positive not a negative.
Think of this way:
Save your money and buy a house or give the bank a mortgage at 2%
Take the mortgage now and save money for something else.
Inflation is up and going up, the Fed wants and will get 2% inflation come hell or high water.
Debtors prosper from inflation.
And the inflation here is under our control. As we inflate the Chinese will see diminishing returns and the US will pay off the debt with inflated dollars.
Bad deal for the Chinese? yes, but it's the only deal around.
Shelley The US is the cause of third world poverty. It picked up the Imperialist work of the British Empire. They should not be kissing our asses. They should be tossing our military and our officials out on their asses.
Deletehttps://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/3/24/22348023/nyc-universal-preschool-3k
ReplyDeleteMoney! Money! Money! But none for you!!!
But we get 1% raises retro deferred for 12 years and work spring break for free.
DeleteWhere is our spring break pay now?
ReplyDeleteThird world? My goodness, do teachers still use this antiquated term to describe the geo-poetics and economics of the world? Sounds like something from a bad textbook circa 1970.
ReplyDeleteThere are many causes of global poverty. To blame global poverty on the USA is to ignore its many real causes and what is being done to eradicate it.
The chief cause of global poverty is poor productivity and no nation has done more than the USA to increase productivity in the global economy.
Shelley. Poor productivity or, in other words, the theft of natural resources, of land, and of democratically elected leaders by US Imperialism and its agencies (CIA NED..) from third world countries. That good ol American language. Or under developed, developing, if we prefer the new euphemisms for war torn and post colonial. The US has controlled productivity through multinationals. It uses sanctions and embargoes to cripple the productivity of other nations. In these areas, yes, no nation has done more.
DeleteChomsky supported Biden's election. That disqualifies him as a member of the true left, a very small group of bit commentators these days. But you get my meaning. Yes, there is no Left left in America. Even the fledgling so-called New New Left is conservative on most issues that matter to people.
ReplyDeleteShelley strikes me as one of those people who thinks she is much smarter than all of us, but is she?
ReplyDeleteEarlier she said, "Inflation is up and going up, the Fed wants and will get 2% inflation come hell or high water."
But what did fed chair Jerome Powell say in front of Congress yesterday?
When questioned about the possibility of inflationary pressures, Powell said on Tuesday: "We’ve been living in a world of strong disinflationary pressures for the past quarter century. We don't think a one-time surge in spending leading to temporary price increases would disrupt that."
While he acknowledged that "bottlenecks" in the global supply chain could lead to some "upward pressure on prices," he said any inflation would be not be sustained and that the Fed would not make any adjustments — such as hiking interest rates — until there is “data-driven” evidence.
Ain't gonna be much inflation while labor is basically dead in this country.
210. Zero need for personal attacks on other contributors.
DeleteChomsky isn't left? Please spare me the purity test Mr Engles.
ReplyDeleteYour ad hominem answers your question about how smart you think you are.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Powell. Inflation is experiencing a burst here and until employment is well past full employment we will not be able to stay close to the 2% target. But Yellen and Powell plan to run the economy hot and that will get us past 2% inflation as the employment picture improves.
My point was that inflation helps those in debt not creditors, so the US is on the better side of the trade with China and not the other way around.
The poster here was parroting the talking points of the republican party. In serious economics this is the recently debunked Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff.
It is very debatable if we are heading into an inflationary period.
ReplyDeleteBitching about Cuomo and/or the economy is not going solve our problems here in the classrooms. We have a ton of shit to deal with between now and September.
ReplyDelete342 class analysis of why we consistently find ourselves in these power struggles would help the long game though
DeleteDon't worry, we have the gold standard, while mulgrew is safe at home...
ReplyDeleteOne thing is certain: Variants are present in all five boroughs and we’re actively tracking them to learn as much as we can.
This virus is adapting and we need to redouble our efforts to stop #COVID19 in its tracks.
thanks for he question waiting for support
ReplyDeletejust an average guy ( can I still refer to myself as a guy these days) drinking vino , trying to pay my bills , support my country and distract people from the reality that I'm an old white guy. Also thankful that John Lewis and Elijah Cummings are out of congress. (sorry they had to pass on to the other side to finally leave)
decades in congress making certain groups less self reliant and more dependent on the government. great job fella's. can I still say fella's? I crack my self up sometimes. God Bless
Thanks for your reply shelly. still trying to understand that more debt is good/positive
@4:35 pm
ReplyDeleteGot it. You're self righteous.
Being self righteous doesn't make 435 wrong. One can be right and self righteous simultaneously.
ReplyDelete@435 pm james can be right and self righteous according to
ReplyDelete6:07 am who wrote: "one can be right and self righteous simultaneously".
So there you go lol
Thank you for the question- Why aren't unions speaking up about Cuomo's misdeeds? As a retired state teacher, I'm disgusted that PEF, my union, which is under the AFT has not at least condemned sexual harassment in the workplace. I'm not sure if the state worker accusers were in PEF (they might have been M/C), however, they were state workers. Also, PEF, who's membership is overwhelmingly nurses, should put out some type of statement about the nursing home scandal. The last PEF president was a fighter. When I heard the current one at a conference talk about a union conference in Europe that Randi arranged for him to attend, I suspected that he was being manipulated.
ReplyDeleteCuomo has not been good to state workers, Anyone who stands too close to him, or doesn't condemn at least the actions, is foolish.
To 4:35, Your last couple of comments are way over the top and aren't getting through.
ReplyDeleteof course not James , why would you let it through, people can call trump and republicans names all the time . you alway were a liberal tool. even when I met you at Jamaica high school. and you once called yourself a social studies teacher , funny you had the nerve to hope I wasn't a social studies teacher. As a teacher I always believed it wasn't my place to censor but to listen to everyones opinion especially the ones I didn't agree with, disliked and thought weren't fair. those opinion I listened to the most, I might have learned something. you don't know what over the top is, please explain what was over the top. id put my knowledge of history over yours any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteliberals run the state, our state sucks
liberals run the city our city sucks
liberals run the Doe, the doe more than sucks
and I saved the best for last
liberals run the UFt and the uft sucks respond to that your self righteous fool
Insult me all you like and cite Republican talking points all you want but the personal attacks on other commenters and blatant racism go over the top.
ReplyDeleteThere is a difference between a liberal and a neoLiberal. I call out both sides.
Wishing you a great evening.
How do Anon2323 and TJL get published who are clearly to my right politically? I don't discriminate against Trump supporters. Keep it professional and not overly personal.
ReplyDeletethanks James, have good night also
ReplyDeleteno republican talking points, just a freedom loving American exercising my right to free speech while we still have it. good try spinning it James
blatant racism?
come on now, are you really going to play the race card? I thought you were better than that, guess I was wrong.
calling out the democrats for supporting policies that are making certain groups more dependent on the government is now racists?
exposing the false white supremacy narrative is now racist?
give me a break
we all know liberal cities and communities have suffered because of the democrats and the people living in those areas deserve better.than more government programs that make them even more dependent and less self reliant . we see it every day in our schools. why work hard the government we take care of us, what get good grades the teachers will just pass us etc.....
who would of thought that he great James would play the race card, the democrats do it all the time too shut people up and control the narrative and discourage people from voicing their opinion
you are still a good guy but come on James the race card? please
if proposing a different way to help our most deserving citizens is racist than we are screwed but I'm willing to listen to your opinions you should be willing to listen to other opinions on what's going on also
Keep it on the up and up, I print it. If I have doubts, I ask Camille or Norm.
ReplyDeleteIf you email us, we can discuss objectionable lines 10:50. Also, I have no problem with historical debate. Look at the back and forth with Bronx ATR and me on Churchill with me defending Churchill.
ReplyDeleteI do think you try to be fair James but your warnings only occur when someone on the right crosses a line. You have an inherent bias that interferes with your judgement and causes you to censor comments you label as insults and racist from one side but not the other. You recently closed comments with the last poster saying tell the whites to back off our subset of Asians. This was a reaction to the Atlanta shootings. The gunman said they were a sexual temptation but the race narrative is still repeated. If anti-white hate speech is permissible, then it’s also permissible for me to ask all Muslims to stop killing white people in Colorado supermarkets and NYC skyscrapers and for all black people to refrain from planning on a grocery store murder spree like Rico Marley of Atlanta. But I’m not going to ask all blacks or all Muslims anything so stupid because unlike the left I don’t judge every living soul by their skin tone or religion.
ReplyDelete