One of the dumbest Unity lines of attack against United for Change Presidential Candidate Camille Eterno is that she doesn't have union experience. We found this video of Camille Johnson (we got married two months later and she became Camille Eterno), Jeff Kaufman, and me opposing the 2005 contract on Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Camille has been fighting the good union fight for decades.
Reporter Art McFarland focuses on the return to potty patrol and longer days in his report. Clearly, we can see here that Camille knows her stuff.
Enjoy this piece of UFT history. The opposition did get a 40% no vote against that despicable Contract. This report shows then-Chancellor Joel Klein kissing Randi. Oh, what UFT memories.
At the time, Michael Mulgrew was a rising star in the Unity hierarchy. He didn't have to teach much under this dreadful Contract as he was promoted to VP for Career and Technical High Schools in 2006.
The experienced Mulgrew who has been UFT President since 2009 has never once tried to undo the 2005 givebacks such as a longer day, potty, hall, cafeteria patrol, loss of the right to grieve material in the file, loss of seniority transfers, loss of SBO transfers, loss of preferred placement rights if a school was closed or reorganized that led to the explosion of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool and more. The UFT agreeing to weaken our rights had the impact of leaving more and more UFTers in fear for their jobs. This led directly to situations such as the Maspeth High School grade fraud scandal where the Principal passed just about everyone whether they showed up or not and the Principal is going to get away with it.
From Sue Edelman in the NY Post:
A Queens principal accused of using fraudulent schemes to boost his school’s graduation rate can never again work with city students — but will get a $1.8 million desk job, The Post has learned.
Further down Sue gives details:
Instead of trying to terminate Abdul-Mutakabbir, as city investigators recommended, the DOE settled the charges on Jan. 25 by fining him $12,000 – and barring him from working as a principal.
But under the sweetheart deal – which DOE officials kept hidden for months – the disgraced educator, now age 47, will sit in an office until he “irrevocably” retires on Nov. 30, 2029.
He will pocket his current $187,043 annual salary, and get all union-negotiated pay raises for principals. He will also enjoy paid vacations and holidays, plus full health and retirement benefits, which will cost at least $78,558 a year in addition. The total cost will come to more than $1.8 million.
City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who first called attention to Maspeth HS malfeasance after meeting with a group of whistleblower teachers three years ago, was outraged.
Before Joel Klein decimated our rights in 2005, UFTers were much better able to stand up to terrible principals. Michael Mulgrew never fought to restore our rights and dignity. Camille and United for Change will.
54 comments:
When you vote UfC, you are throwing away hundreds of years of collective experience at the UFT. Let’s take Mike Sill. He is the asst treasurer, but more than that, he runs the personnel department. Mike has a decade of experience learning the Byzantine rules of the DoE. If you have a problem with just about any aspect of your job from licensing to assignment to payroll, you name it, Mike is the guy you want to talk to. He knows all the players who pull the levers at the DoE. Are you going to replace him with Sally Beane White? She’s a great person and a fine teacher. But she has zero experience running a UFT department and will take years to develop the kind of expertise Mike has today. What sort of apprenticeship has Sally experienced? Who does she know? Even if she is quite brilliant, and I have no doubt she is very talented, it takes years to learn this stuff. Vote UNITY. Vote for expertise and experience.
If you vote UfC, that means replacing all the officers, not just Mulgrew. Do you think that you can simply walk into 52 Broadway and take over an officer’s job with absolutely no training and no apprenticeship? Do you think Leroy Barr came to the UFT two decades ago with all the talent he has today, as a speaker, organizer, problem solver? If UfC slate wins, Leroy gets replaced with Annie Tan, a very talented and intelligent teacher who has zero experience in being the Secretary of the UFT. When a member has a serious problem, one that simply defies resolution, the case goes to Leroy Barr. He knows everyone at the DoE. He has the knowledge of the system that comes from decades as chapter leader, PM staffer, Special Rep, director of staff and now Secretary. If you have that impossible problem, do you want to talk to Leroy Barr or Annie Tan? Vote UNITY.
Mike Sill is the Unity hack who brought you among other givebacks instructional lunch and he personally attacked Camille at the DA. There is no place for that. I am voting Sally Beane and United for Change and so should you.
We are voting out hundreds of years of collective experience selling us out by voting for Unity. Vote United for Change for a better union.
This is the first time I've seen this video, but it should have been playing all over social media for the past few months. I voted for Camille either way, but this is a perfect example of exactly what the combined hundreds of years of Unity got us with the 2005 contract.
James, how likely do you think it is that disciplinary action would be taken by the NYS Education Department if people were to contact them with Part 83 complaints against the desk job principal accompanied by your post and Sue Edelman’s various articles about the situation? DOE doesn’t award such golden parachutes to teachers, or do they?
www.nysed.gov/educator-integrity/moral-character-actions-part-83
In your opinion, would NYSED be more likely to take disciplinary action if such complaints were copied to Commissioner of Education Betty A. Rosa (Betty.Rosa@nysed.gov) and to Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs Daniel Morton-Bentley (Daniel.Morton-Bentley@nysed.gov)?
Attacked Camille? I don't remember that. I do recall him pointing out that Camille has been conspicuously absent from DA for the decade that Mike had been present. Never saw her before now all of a sudden, she's the big Kahuna. That's just truth. Not an attack.
Even Mulgrew stated meekly that Sill was making a personal attack but he didn't stop it.
12:05, How did LA and Chicago manage to change their leadership and put new people in to run those unions and then get better conditions? Both groups of dissidents were reelected. If we think like you, no incumbent could ever lose an election because the challenger by definition would not have experience in the job.
This union is desperate for new blood. Vote United for Change.
Another option is to pick and choose instead of selecting an entire slate.
Although mulgrew sucks, I am grateful that people who didn't take the shot, including myself, didn't stand to lose their pensions, like NYPD did.
Where does Camille stand on this issue?exemptions expire in june.
Art Macfarland guy is a legend, that is crazy how long ago that was. I voted for Camille, cannot stand Mulgrew. He doesn't deserve to be in office after killing so many and sucking on worst POS diblasio .
Camille can stop this crazy mandate talk, James stopped posting all his nonsense on how safe and effective these vaccines are. Let's get 2,000 teachers plus 500-600 school safety back into buildings.
https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CTUP-Graph-1.png
20 years you get guaranteed 40% pension, none of this 27% reduction if you don not hit 25 years (25/55 exception)
Wow, if we got your vote.
All these shills pumping for Unity. My former chapter leader, a do nothing in her cluster position, a do nothing at the UFT in her special rep position, was making $188,000 at the UFT in 2019. She’d sell her soul for that Unity money. Sign me that loyalty oath and I’ll do Mulgrew’s bidding anywhere.
It’s high time to end the patronage job set up that a Unity has going. Time to end Unity control of NYSUT because of their bought and paid for delegates. Unity uses dues money to put their gargantuan number of delegates up in a hotel for the weekend. Smaller districts can’t afford to do that for their delegates. The sheer number of Unity members gives the UFT more delegates than all of the other locals combined and that’s how they forced better administrators out of NYSUT to get their own puppets in.
Look at Tom Murphy, how long has that guy been lapping up the Unity bucks? Vinny Gaglione another one. Then there’s the UFT retiree FB page, Sue Pulice, throws anyone off who so much as asks a question about the Medicare Advantage plan that doesn’t tow the Unity line,
Follow the money folks,
Jeff in a tie- classic.
@1132am.... how does UNITY help teachers pushback against administrators who are bullies?
A point of information.
If Unity gets voted out, do all the people working at 52 Broadway lose their jobs. Like, will Mike Sill still be working at 52 Broadway if he is voted out? Or is it at the discretion of the leadership?
Those in elected positions are out if United for Change wins. Staff, it is up to New leadership who stays or goes.
Wow, Arthur is running scared...
http://nyceducator.com/2022/04/im-running-with-and-voting-for-unity.html#disqus_thread
Which positions are elected and which not?
April 18, 2022 10:38:00 PM
12 officers are elected. Something like special rep is appointed. District reps were elected until 2003. They would be again I do believe if United for Change wins.
So James Vasquez, Washington Sanchez, etc would be fired?then we would have inexperienced people in those critical positions.
In the April 2022 NEA Today an article on Addressing Burnout surveyed members and found that the highest priority of members is salaries and that we must priorities educator salaries first to deal with burnout.
Above hiring more teachers, above mental health, above hiring more support staff, above reducing digital/paper work, above reducing standardized testing . . .
In a pandemic, in a crisis of unprecedented proportions, teachers are most concerned with raising salaries.
Does anyone running at UFT get this? Does anyone in the Unified Opposition to Unity get this?
I doubt it.
With non-transient inflation running at a 40 year high and heading to a 50 year high, inflation that will not go away in a 24 month period, the UFT is still focused on the past, on what we did or didn't do in the past. We need to focus on our future.
For the first time our 7% TDA fixed is losing money. And we can't get a better return in any market option. Our Pensions are invested in the stock market and we can expect lower than average returns over the next decade.
Yet the bottom line seems the last priority of UFT and would-be-UFT. Why? Why, when the members care most about this issue is it ignored?
During the pandemic years Mulgrew and Unity bargained away work conditions and compensation. And they will continue to do this. Vote UFC.
7:06, It would be elections for District Reps if United for Change were to win.
James,
The fear about everyone at 52 Broadway being replaced is fear mongering and scare tactics.
If people are good at their job, they would stay AND if DRs actually help their members they would be re-elected.
For example, Mike Sill would still be at 52 Broadway but he would not be a Rep. Is that correct?
If they chose not to work with United for Change, how committed to, "doing the work" and unionism are they....
Somehow our country has been able to do this for a couple of years
The fear is putting in friends, ie inexperienced, just to clean house.Everyone I encountered at UFT headquaters was very helpful and patient. I just don't carefor mulgrew.
Curious:what about the lousy legal team they have for 3020a:will they be replaced?
Mind boggling how a rep who is on admin side, is nasty to members, etc is reelected.process not supervised and crooked.glad I no longer work therr.just sayin' about elections...must be fair, not rigged.
There wouldn't be change for the sake of cleaning house 12:19 but if one doesn't do a job well, there needs to accountability. That is how the real world works. Isn't it?
James is right it's not a coup, it would be an orderly transfer of power. Something that is actually in our Union constitution.
Something many unions and other elected bodies manage to do every couple of years without this much drama.
Fear mongering aside, there's an old saying, "to the victor go the spoils." Full time jobs at the UFT are highly prized, and Camille would be under tremendous pressure to clean house and bring in all the old stalwarts from the opposition caucuses that fought the good fight in the wilderness for so long. How are you going to reward those people? You can't just say, "thanks a lot but Mike Sill and Washington Sanchez are talented guys so they stay. James Vasquez and other DR's would face election, and probably win on name recognition and, in most cases, talent. Losers would lose, as they should. But, Washington is a special rep, hired by the President, and Camille is going to have a lot of hungry pups eager to suck at those teats. Don't kid yourself. The hired reps are going to be gone. Amy Arundell and the other borough reps, all gone. All the special reps like Donna Coppola in Staten Island, the member reps, you name it. Within a year, the turnover would be complete. Then, you'd see 5 years of very sketchy customer service while the learning curve is mastered.
It doesn't take 5 years to learn these
Special rep jobs. Cut out the nonsensical comments. See Chicago and LA for examples of big city teacher unions where dissidents defeated the Unity style leadership. Conditions must have improved as the insurgents as incumbents have won reelection in those cities several times.
I've been carrying water for one of the caucuses for ten years. I would expect a full time job as a reward for my sacrifice. I don't want to work with Unity hacks. Throw them all out. We'll do a better job.
Clean house from top to bottom. Not one Unity slug left.
So James, you admit it will be a house cleaning. Be honest. Camille will have to reward her cadres.
Hey Unity, every 4 to 8 years different teams take over the Executive Branch. We survive. I’m not pro UFC yet but inexperience isn’t the reason. Here’s a novel idea. Whoever wins hires the most capable people to run and staff UFT departments no matter their caucus. Revolutionary idea, right? Almost as if we’re part of the same union. I really hate Unity but for reasons I’ve stated in prior posts I can’t give UFC my thumbs up….yet. I still wish Camille luck. She seems like a good soul.
Omg. Sketchy customer service? Unity is desperado. We get less than sketchy service right fucking now from you Unity.
Here's an idea, maybe don't have a blood oath for a job requirement and not engage in nepotism and cronyism. Maybe then the UFT will be run by strong, committed members, not just suck ups and hangers on.
Oh and have the District Reps be elected by the actual members in their district
I called the UFT office to say I didn't get a ballot, but all I got was an answering machine and was told to leave my number, but nobody got back to me? Any easier way to get a ballot?
@353 pm...So be it.
@5:55pm. That is an excellent point therefore it will not be done.
My prediction stands... Unity 79% ufC 20%. You guys think Mulgrew is hated. He's actually very popular.
@1048am. A win doesn't necessarily mean Mulgrew is "actually very popular". Unfortunately too many people just don't vote. The votes will be counted and the majority wins. Period.
We gotta get out the vote. Ballots are sitting in member houses. Up to us to get people to vote United for Change!
Hey 10:48–DraftKings is listing Mulgrew as a 50 point favorite. Your prediction would make you a winner.
Saying Mulgrew will win by 50 points is just another tactic to discourage potential opposition voters from voting. Don't count your chickens before they hatch Unity supporters.
6:11 you have to contact the American Arbitration Association.when I get home, I will provide contact info.
Washington Sanchez are talented guys - you have to be joking. One of the major slugs and goons in the union. Sill has ruffled a few feathers but might have some qualities. Amy Arundel - is well respected by many. As borough rep - we never talk about how chosen. I would think from the top but with lots of consults from Dist Reps.
Unity is guaranteed one officer slot for sure - Ann Goldman who is running unopposed since they knocked our candidate off the ballot -- strict legal interpretation on their part but they could have made an exception due to exceptional circumstances but we were outvoted 8-5 because Unity puts 8 people on the election committee - of course they do. So they are sure of one of the 12 even if we win.
One thing I've noticed - a lot of UFC people actually like teaching and don't want a union job. I think thee is an idea of hiring part time organizers to work with chapters that are not functioning. Maybe beef up districts -- after school core of people in each district.
I am 6:16
This is for 6:11 and anyone missing a ballot.1800-218-5524
Ulerios@adr.org
YOU NEED TO DO THIS BY TOMORROW at 5pm.idk if you can walk in at 120 Broadway, 21st floor.
Norm, you still have a hard on for Washington since someone trolled you using his name. He's a good guy and helps a lot of people.
This contract is why I don’t understand why some people revere Weingarten. I’m not a mulgrew fan, but weingarten was a worse leader in my mind.
Who thought Camille 's CNN appearance was a good idea?
It was such a politically arrogant move.
4:02 - Would you by chance be referring to the CNN interview where she agreed with mandates? You poor thing. Have yourself another drink.
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