Friday, October 01, 2021

UFT TO ENDORSE ERIC ADAMS FOR MAYOR

We learned tonight that the UFT is planning to endorse Eric Adams for mayor. The Executive Board will vote on rubber stamp the endorsement Monday evening. That's right, we are now going to back the same Eric Adams that the UFT warned not to rank among our top five candidates before the Democratic primary in June. This is what President Michael Mulgrew declared as part of a statement before the June Democratic primary:

 “Both Andrew Yang and Eric Adams are supported by hedge fund billionaires and people who don’t care about equity and who don’t have the best interests of New York City’s children at heart,” Mulgrew said in a statement.

In the spring, President Mulgrew told us in great detail how dangerous Andrew Yang and Adams were. This is from my notes on Mulgrew's report at the May Town Hall.

During Bloomberg years, constant attacks on our Union. Closing schools and pushing students with greater needs kids into schools they wanted to close. That was some of the nastiest fights we have ever had. The accountability system was designed to say someone is a loser. If a teacher takes a child who was 3 grades behind and moved him up a level, that is a phenomenal success but schools that had kids at grade level were looking better. Rubber rooms, assaults against us. Person who ran Bloomberg's things was Andrew Tusk. He is running Andrew Yang's campaign. The group that he worked with was Students First. That is a pro-charter school organization. Students First is running independent expenditures for Eric Adams. They are probably working together (Yang and Adams and Students First). Not trying to promote conspiracy theories but this is a fact. We closed and opened in September after having a greater loss than any other system. We figured everything out with safety, livelihood and profession. Now we have another challenge. Students First want us to go away. They will go to large lengths to make us go away. 

But now, apparently, Adams has done a 180-degree turnaround. He is now a man of the people who gets his money from small donors, cares about equity, loves public schools, loathes charter schools, denounces Students First, and has the best interests of New York City's children at heart. Yeah, right.

No UFT, Adams hasn't changed. You want evidence: Who is Adams leaning on for advice and money? Michael Bloomberg.*

This is from a September 27, 2021 NY Times piece:

In the lead-up to and aftermath of the New York City mayoral primary, Eric Adams and his team sought guidance from current and past city leaders — first, to help craft his successful bid for the Democratic nomination, and then to prepare for a likely transition to the mayoralty.

But Mr. Adams has recently come to lean on one person in particular: Michael R. Bloomberg.

In mid-September, Mr. Bloomberg released a video endorsement of Mr. Adams for mayor. The next day, at a business conference featuring various of Mr. Bloomberg’s fellow billionaires, Mr. Adams declared, “New York will no longer be anti-business.”

Two days later, Mr. Bloomberg hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Adams on the roof of the East 78th Street headquarters of Bloomberg Philanthropies, featuring dozens of guests, several of them financial sector executives.

There is a real alternative to backing Adams.

The best action here for the UFT would be to stay neutral in the mayor's race and put all of our money and energy into ending mayoral control which sunsets next June at the state level and has to be renewed by the State Legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul. We should be preparing our members for a necessary fight that we can win in Albany to take away the mayor's power over the schools. Instead, we are going to be backing the corporate-charter friendly Adams. The UFT will endorse just about anyone with a (D) after their name, even if they were working with Students First to make us "go away" as Mulgrew stated. Why is this man still representing misrpresenting us?


*The NY Times article was not in the original posting.

28 comments:

  1. I agree that they should endorse anyone with a D after their name when the other option is someone like Curtis Sliwa.

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  2. The Democrats take us for granted and treat us like shit.

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  3. THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS! ( FOR CURTIS SLIWA) SINCE EVERYTHING THE UFT TOUCHES TURNS TO SHIT. AS MAYOR MIKE SAID, THE UFT ENDORSEMENT IS THE KISS OF DEATH. IF I WERE ADAMS, I WOULD REJECT THE ENDORSEMENT AS POLISH HEX BY MULGREW IN FAVOR OF SLIWA, A FELLOW POLE.
    MULGREW WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING AT THE NEXT TOWNHALL BUT HERE THE QUICK SUMMARY: BASICALLY, MULGREW AGREED TO ENDORSE ADAMS TO SAVE THE UNION FROM CHARTER SCHOOL CAP RISE. THERE WAS A BACKROOM DEAL. SLIWA WILL BE THE NEXT MAYOR, BECAUSE THE ALL POWERFUL UFT WILLED IT SO... THE MOA WILL STATE: THAT SLIWA CAN CALL THE uft - THE UNION OF FAILED TEACHERS FOR THE NEXT 4 YEARS... MULGREW ALSO AGREED TO NEGATIVE RAISES FOR THE NEXT 6 YEARS AND 1 PERCENT RAISES THEREAFTER UNTIL 2027. THERE WERE GIVEBACKS ON THE HEALTHFRONT: FORCED FLU SHOT/COVID/ SHINGLES VACCINATIONS AND AN END TO SUMMER VACATION - 10 OBSERVATIONS PER YEAR FOR TENURED TEACHERS AND AND 5 FOR UNVACCINATED PROBATIONERS. ENJOY MULGREW WHILE HE IS STILL HERE AS HE IS GOING TO TAKE LEAVE OF ABSENCE WITH PAY TO HELP DE BLASIO RUN FOR GOV.

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    1. I never read ALL CAPS. Sign of a juvenile. I made an exception this once and sure enough, .. You're a child.

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  4. I met Curtis Sliwa last week at the San Genaro Feast. I asked if he would be be a friend to the teachers of NYC. He straight up told me that he believes in getting rid of the bloat at the DOE. If I lived in NYC, I would vote for him. Most members of the NYPD are not endorsing Adams. That says a lot if you ask me. Oh yeah, Adams is pushing for year round schooling.

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    1. Very true, the DOE central staff has a lot of FAT. Thanks to Carranza.

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  5. Please keep the Ds in place. They make babysitting, and automatic passing grades with pretty good teacher salaries possible.

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  6. CCP James backs the worst mayor ever twice. I give a pass to people voting Bush or Obama first term, the second time you are a proven moron.

    When will you learn whatever a D does here turns to hell. You will see the consequences again, such a fool.

    Could name thousand things Biden has done that would be 24/7 news if Trump did a smidgen of it. All focused on is the Jab Jab Jab.

    Stephen Colbert must be your hero!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSkFyNVtNh8

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  7. As schools get ravaged...

    "It is an assumption that it’s okay to get infected and get mild and moderate disease, as long as you don’t wind up in the hospital and die. I have to be honest: I reject that,” Anthony Fauci says. #TAF21 http://on.theatln.tc/gpTrpQp

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  8. 9:01 That only works on the spineless. Teachers with integrity and strength of character don't automatically pass students and know how to manage their class. It does take a lot of work and it's not for the weak. Something you know nothing about.

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  9. If NY is a liberal town, filled with liberal teachers, and liberal parents, and liberal everything, why should Sliwa be the Mayor? Is the Proud Boys consultant that he paid $11,000 to going to offer advice on how to run the city too? Want Red Hat wearing representatives? Move to a red state.

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  10. I really wish the left would have focused on health care. Medicare For All is something most Americans want but most Americans want nothing to do with the left anymore because of their ideology that divides Americans by race, gender and gay/queer/straight identity. Whoever is pulling the strings on the left knows exactly what they are doing. Divide us on issues we will never agree on instead of uniting us on healthcare. This of course also makes the Republican establishment happy.

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    1. The string pullers have been at work for centuries. It's great that more people are now aware that there is an agenda at play. However it's not a left agenda or right agenda. It's an agenda to maintain the status quo i.e. keeping the wealthy, wealthy and the working class fighting about race, etc. Both the left and right have tools to fight the battle for the wealthy. Unfortunately there are people who continue to stay tethered to their party and fight for that party. The 2 parties in this country do not care about working class folks. Why be a tool for either party? Hasn't Covid-19 taught us anything? As for issues "we will never agree on", if anyone doesn't agree with humans demanding and fighting for themselves, then just step aside. Just because I am fighting for my myself doesn't mean I'm fighting against you.

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  11. 9:20, You are misinformed. I tried to speak against the UFT de Blasio endorsement in 2017 but was stopped by Leroy Barr.

    http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2017/02/why-i-do-not-support-uft-de-blasio.html?m=0

    Some of what was on this blog back then:

    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.


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  12. LOL. James asks why, but endorses paying those same people. Oh, i forgot, wait for the vote count next April.

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  13. I heard that the teachers who filed appeals for getting their waiver for a vaccine denied, will stay on payroll until 10/22 while they are waiting for their appeals to be reviewed. They basically just got 3 weeks paid vacation for free.

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    1. Only if it hasn't been denied already..which many have already.

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  14. This is great news for Curtis Sliwa.

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  15. As far as de Blasio is concerned his promises and his record have been A Tale of Two de Blasio's.

    The first tall tale is what de Blasio promised for NY City public schools.

    The second tale is what he actually delivered.

    The last eight years have been a Tale of Two de Blasio's

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  16. 7:46 i might be mistaken...i thought if they were in process for exemption, they report to the school...

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  17. The UFT sat didn't endorse during Dinkins' second mayoral run even after Dinkins gave teachers a big raise. Giuliani won and said he wanted to blow up the Board of Ed (pre 9/11).

    During Bloomberg's 3rd run (where he spent over 100 million to get elected) UFT sat out. Bloomberg treated teachers to a terrible contract.

    Whether the union is in or sits out they lose.

    I think you're right. The union needs to focus its resources on issues that relate to working conditions. After that is settled, then they can play politics with our dues.

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  18. NY Post will also support Adams over Sliwa . In addition, voter turnout will be smaller than the past few mayoral elections—but nonetheless-
    Adams will win with at least 60% of the city vote. Of course Sliwa will have his numbers in Staten Italy.

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  19. I think the race for NYC mayor has already been decided. Regardless of the turnout, Adams will be declared the winner.

    I agree that the UFT should not endorse either candidate. I was surprised to hear that the NYPD did not endorse Adams. That alone is enough for me to vote for Sliwa.

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  20. LOL @ "I was surprised to hear that the NYPD did not endorse Adams. That alone is enough for me to vote for Sliwa."

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  21. 10:21 agree Adams will be same old same old lawless nyc.

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  22. Adams can kiss election goodbye. Anyone UFT endorses always loses.

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