Friday, January 21, 2022

UFT FORCING HAND WRITTEN PETITION SIGNATURES IN A PANDEMIC SHOWS THEY STILL DON'T CARE ABOUT MEMBER LIVES

The leaders of the UFT from Unity Caucus proved in 2020 that they care more about member dues than member lives when they put out a memo, leaked to the Daily News, advising against a sickout at the height of the pandemic. At the time, there was no vaccine and COVID was spreading everywhere with NYC at the epicenter.

This is from the Daily News piece on a sickout planned for March 16, 2020:

But UFT officials are privately warning members against that move, arguing it could be interpreted as a violation of state labor law, according to a message reviewed by the Daily News.

UFT officials told union representatives Saturday to "advise against" a planned call out on Monday.

“A coordinated sick-out will be interpreted by the DOE as an organized effort in violation of the Taylor Law and the Triborough Law,” union officials wrote its leaders.

“They will perceive it as a labor action and strike. Each participant is subject to a fine of two days’ pay for every missed day and arrest. However, even worse, the UFT will suffer greatly with fines and penalties. Please advise against.”

The UFT told the truth when they declared that their dues were more important than member lives.

The Union has managed to send out their "safety last" message again in January of 2022. This time it involves UFT election petitioning. 

The UFT Constitution calls for 100 signatures from UFT members to be nominated for the Executive Board or Convention Delegate positions and 900 for an Officer. It does not say that the signatures cannot be electronic. The United for Change members of the Election Committee asked for electronic signatures at the height of the Omicron stage of the pandemic. Unity's representatives (the Mulgrew majority) said NO.

The results: This is a comment from Solidarity's Quinn Zannoni who is a Chapter Leader who was at Wednesday's Delegate Assembly:

Quinn Zannoni said...
6:17 -- Where was United For Change? Down on the 1st floor in the UFT Welcome Center organizing their petition drive to run for office. Unity is forcing the opposition caucus to amass hundreds of paper petitions in-person during a pandemic -- refusing the option of remote signatures -- just to be obstructionist. They know we'll get them signed regardless, they would just prefer to get us sick in the process.

The UFT is well aware that retirees, many in their 70s and 80s, lead the petition drives. Sending them out to collect hand written signatures in a pandemic shows again the Unity leaders do not care about the health of their members. Mulgrew-Unity are not fit to represent anyone.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I started collecting hand signed signatures at my school this morning. Unity is making this hard for UFC because they are genuinely afraid of of the upcoming election. If Unity really believed in "Unity" they would allow different caucuses to collect signatures digitally. As you mentioned, it does not matter because UFC will still get all the hand singed signatures needed to get on the ballot.

Anonymous said...

James "UFT doesn't care about your safety"

James "Pay dues to the UFT even though they don't care about about your safety"

Anonymous said...

Certainly sounds like great potential leader.
With comments like this Unity will win by a huge majority.
James, please edit out these unprofessional rantings

unknown said...

What are we petitioning about again? It's a really dramatic take to say they they don't care about your health and want you to get sick.

James Eterno said...

We are petitioning to get on the ballot for the UFT Election. It could all be done electronically.

Anonymous said...

"Conservatively, I get at least three to five calls a week of teachers in tears, saying 'I'm done, I can't do this anymore,"

President Glenda Guzman Macal.

We're seeing burnout like this across the state. Something has to give.

Anonymous said...

Handwritten petitions? Is that the law in 2022? because electronic petitions are quickly used to remove a Michigan Judge that shamed and threatened a Michigan immigrant with jail time over an unkept lawn—and to get a 21 year old removed from St Francis College for using anti-Semitic language and spitting on Jewish children in Marine Park, Brooklyn.

Anonymous said...

It is voter suppression. Unity is good at getting low turnouts. With a high turnout, they probably lose.

Anonymous said...

Unity operates very much like the Republican party they say they oppose.

waitingforsupport said...

@11:14 am... you left out the rest of the statement which goes a little like this "Let's vote UNITY out and vote in people who plan to look out for the members best interests ". Vote Vote Vote. Don't sit and complain. Vote and encourage others to do the same. Mercy

ed notes online said...

at 10:30 Wednesday, I, 5 weeks away from my 77th birthday, met my 82 year old colleague whose partner tested positive the day before - lucky he tested negative -- at 52 Broadway to start working on the petitions to get them ready to be picked up later that afternoon and evening. We were joined by 8 of our colleagues in the Retiree Advocate to fill out, run to the printers to make multiple copies and collate everything and then hand them out to people stopping by and then go over to a signing event from 6-7 PM. And the next day I took crowded buses in the rain to deliver a pack of petitions to a high school before their union meeting where almost everyone signed. I've been hiding in my house for two years. And I'm sure these two days were the riskiest I've faced. And I told my wife to sue if I die. But I will smile in the graveyard at seeing Unity sweat. And if they lose, I will rise from the dead.

Anonymous said...

Who knows what Mulgrew and his Unity hacks understand about the real world?

Miles said...

Well if we learned anything we've learned that vaccine mandates work right? Yeah right. So the leadership of a natural born dumbass like DiBasio who compounds his stupidity by toking on a bong every night has gotten NYC to a point where we are the laughingstock of the entire country. And this so called UFT leader Mulgrew, who sat on the mayor's lap every misstep of the way,has led NYC teachers to a dark place. The country views New Yorkers as fear riddled children. And NYC teachers as cowards who only have their own selfish interests at heart. I'm embarrassed to be a part of it all.

Educat said...

Well said Miles. Stark contrast from where we were 20 years ago after 9/11. New Yorkers were respected for their bravery. We didn't shut the schools and hide under the bed. We returned within a few days and went about our business. I think we were all proud to be New Yorkers at that time.

Anonymous said...

9:11
Terrorism is not contagious.

Anonymous said...

educat. should we have? or does it just show yet again this State will choose money over people?

Anonymous said...

Am I missing something? If the jab does not prevent transmission, why are vaccinated people who are close contacts to a covid cases not required to quarantine?
The Uk discards mandates, Canada makes more mandates, now what can we expect here? Besides lies, cover-ups,stupidity,and the delusion that we are all fooled and stupid?just curious.