If you are anywhere near a radio, smart phone, or computer today at 1:00 PM, please tune in or log on to WBAI for Talk out of School. Middle school teacher Daniel Alicea will be hosting. It should be compelling radio.
Update: You can listen to the archive version here.
Our seven winning High School Executive Board candidates will be on. Daniel will also feature our Academic High School VP candidate Jonathan Halabi, who got the most high school teacher votes, but didn't win because Unity tilts the playing field in their favor for the election.
Norm Scott goes into some detail on our Magnificent 7 Executive Board reps who will be taking office soon.
12 comments:
I predicted a 79% win for Unity, so I was way off. Congratulations to UFC for running a strong campaign and good luck to the 7 Exec Board members. I'm not sure any of the conclusions drawn are valid, though. Jonathon on his site blithely states that Mulgrew is the most hated UFT president ever. But where does he get that data? Since the vast majority of UFT members don't vote, what conclusion should we draw about them? I think a valid conclusion is that they are satisfied and would vote if they were not. Just as more unhappy customers comment on Yelp than happy ones, thus skewing the overall picture, I think the election drew upon the dissatisfied. So, the conclusion that one-third of the UFT membership is unhappy with Mulgrew is not supportable. The vast majority of retirees too, did not vote. The ones that did are the ones most unhappy. In the absence of any polling, conclusions are very hard to support. But, the opposition picked up a lot of points over previous elections and deserves credit. That is a valid statement.
1/3 voted for the other guy but the membership is satisfied with Mulgrew? Those that didn’t vote believe the elections are fixed and their vote is irrelevant.
12:19... do you have one scintilla of evidence to support your statement? No you don't.
There should be some standard for honesty. The anonymous commenter at 9:58 falsely claims I wrote: "Mulgrew is the most hated UFT president ever"
In fact, "Michael Mulgrew is the least popular UFT president, well ever." I wrote that.
The commenter shifted the language to change the tone in a way I would not. In fact I cannot recall the last time I called a person "hated." But the wording was too close too what I wrote to have been inadvertent. That was dishonest.
Jonathan
As to Mulgrew's unpopularity, there is plenty that makes that obvious. Anonymous commenter at 9:58 just isn't looking.
Numbers:
1) Mulgrew received fewer in-service votes than any Unity candidate for president, ever.
2) Mulgrew received a lower percent of the vote - no more than 66% - than any Unity president in memory. Soldini says there were some close elections in the 1960s. Maybe back then.
Behavior
3) Unity kept Mulgrew off most of their election material. He was hard to find during the campaign. They kept him off their facebook page.
4) Unity canceled at least one event where he was scheduled to show up. Imagine him missing a photo op?
Observation
5) I actively campaigned. I spoke to a few hundred people - opposition, Unity, apathetic. I spoke to colleagues, friends, relatives, random teachers. I spoke to acquaintances from years ago, to people I recently met. Even among people who voted for him, I didn't encounter many fans.
Jonathan
9:58, Jonathan's blog called Mulgrew least popular, not most hated, which is supported by his getting the lowest percentage vote for a presidential candidate in UFT history. Jonathan, and many other opposition people (myself included) are also much more concerned about the massive garbage can vote than you suggest here, and Jonathan writes a bit about this in his blog too. I disagree with you that this nonvoting implies support. It implies apathy. That kind of apathy indicates a glaring problem with our union democracy that we absolutely must address.
Thank you for correcting the record, Jonathan.
Is it true that there is this non-spoken rule that UFT members are supposed to always vote in the incumbent and that chapter leaders have to sign an oath of loyalty to the present UFT president that he/she will vote for the sitting union president? Can someone clarify? Sounds like Communist doctrine to me.
The Unity Caucus membership obligations (loyalty oath) bind Unity members to support caucus positions in public and union forums.
9:58 here. It was careless of me to put "most hated" rather than "least popular." I did it from memory and I guess I assumed the worst. Sorry about that. Jonathan cites numbers, behavior and observation. I can't argue with the numbers. Not sure about behavior. Do you think Unity did polling that showed Mulgrew was unpopular, or did they just assume it based upon gut feeling. Your observations might be accurate in the big picture or there might be some confirmation bias there. After all, a lot of people know who you are and generally sense your feelings. Overall, you've generally convinced me, but I still say that conclusions are being drawn too easily without great evidence.
8;15.... there is no truth to your statement. The election is held with secret ballot and people can vote however they like. Some chapter leaders and others are Unity caucus members and they have agreed to support the Unity line. The opposition always talks about a "loyalty oath" as if it's done with hooded robes in a torch-lit dungeon. There's plenty of straying and nobody gets tossed out. Lastly, many chapter leaders are not Unity members.
Oh it’s evidence you want, 1:59? Ask 9:58.
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