I have heard over the last few days that Mulgrew's Unity Caucus supporters are accusing United for Change of overpromising. Unity says the steady hand of Michael Mulgrew is a better alternative in the April election. With Mulgrew, you know he will agree to more concessions on healthcare and subpar salary increases. In addition, you can safely bet that UFT member working conditions will continue to deteriorate.
Camille knows she can start moving the ball in the right direction but to truly improve conditions for UFTers, she will need everyone's help. She hinted in a speech what it will take to improve working conditions. This is a major part of what she said:
My name is Camille Eterno and I am running to be the next president of this once great union. I have been an ELA teacher in NY since 1996. I have been a UFT chapter leader or delegate for 18 years. I have had to witness at close range this once militant Union that was not afraid to shut down the city through collective job actions deteriorate into a pathetic organization where President Michael Mulgrew couldn't even keep his members from being sent into unsafe buildings at the worst stage of the pandemic. In March of 2020, many of us became sick and scores of UFT members died from COVID-19 in part because of Mulgrew's inaction.. It is the members and student safety first if I am elected President and United for Change is running the Union.
On day one of a Camille Eterno presidency, if there is a school that is deemed unsafe for any reason by our Union experts including our people working within a particular school building, not the paid shills at the Department of Education, I will go to that school myself or have one of the other officers outside the building. We will be screaming as loud as we can to parents, UFT members and students that the UFT experts have deemed this school building to be unsafe and we recommend you do not go inside. If it is deemed unsafe by our people in the middle of the day, we will advocate that we all leave immediately! I don’t give a damn about the anti-strike provisions of the Taylor Law that President Mulgrew is so afraid of. Our lives matter more!
Those anti-strike provisions that include loss of two days pay for every day a member is out on strike in 2011 were ruled to be a human rights violation by a United Nations agency called the International Labor Organization. You won’t hear Michael Mulgrew complaining that this New York State law violates our fundamental human right to organize but any politician who wants a dime of UFT political contributions or help from our phone banks must agree to support repealing this inhumane provision of NYS law when United for Change is in power.
Whether I am the president or Annie Tan (candidate for UFT Secretary) or Luli Rodriguez (UFC Treasurer candidate) or anyone else is, it won’t mean a thing if we cannot inspire the rank and file that it is in their interest to become active participants in their Union. Unions derive their power from the ability of the rank and file to take action collectively. You see there are 180,000 of us in the UFT. Our goal on July 1 when you elect the United for Change coalition into office is to organize that 180,000 strong force into a united collective that is ready to fight for what we believe in.
I am not going to make any promises that I alone can deliver a raise that keeps up with inflation or that we can lower class sizes to numbers that the Department of Education agreed to in settling a lawsuit for class-size limits of 20 in grades k-3, 22 in grades 4-8 and 25 for the high schools. I can’t by myself reduce guidance and other UFT title caseloads either or win us a fair evaluation system or make the schools as safe as they can possibly be. I can’t stop the healthcare cuts for active people and Medicare privatization for retirees by myself either. I can’t do anything alone but all of us together can draw a line in the sand and say no more concessions and then we can win back everything that Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew and their Unity Caucus followers have given away since I became involved in this Union.
8 comments:
No response from Mulgrew on debate. We need to share this fact with the rank and file as well as the press. Mulgrew is hiding from his own members!
A flyer is needed!!!!
I, personally at my school, can make copies and put them in everyone's mailbox.
Yes! Downloadable flyers that we can print and place in mailboxes!
Fliers are online now?!
Mildew is a punk. I will be very surprised if he has the cojones to debate . If a debate were to take place she woUld make mincemeat out of him. He isn’t intelligent or articulate. I sincerely hope that he is stupid enough to enter into a debate. It will be enjoyable to see him getting his just desserts. Cut to ribbons.
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Unity will not, if history is our guide, get us subpar raises, but will give yet another real wage cut, as Mulgrew also concession bargains away our best health care benefits, our contractual supports, and our power to improve our working conditions.
We can not even dream of any real wage gains if Mulgrew is elected president. Inflation, posted today at 7.9%, and will be even higher in the next two years. Adams will not keep rents as low as De Blasio and even those who don't rent or live in NYC will see much higher housing costs. Plus, energy costs and utility costs, day care, education, travel, health care and food costs will rise at rates we've not seen since the 1970s. You don't have to be a an economist to know that wage increases below inflation are actually wage cuts. And this is what Mulgrew and Unity get us.
More important, and more insidious, are the losses we can expect in work conditions and contractual supports. Unit has shown its true colors during the pandemic as they, with the city, took full advantage of the crisis to weaken our contractual supports. Ironically, it was the CSA that stood up to fight the power of the City, but in the end, of course, as they lost their battle, we were the biggest losers.
We must send a message to Mulgrew and to Unity.
Get out the Vote. You never know, we may win and dump Unity, and even if we don't we may make some progress.
You go Shelly
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