Jillian Jorgensen has been nominated for a NY Emmy. My kids and I were on what I believe was her first story when she took over the education beat at NY1.
It seems like a million years ago when we were fighting to get Monday, December 23, 2019 added to Christmas vacation. The calendar that year was an unforced UFT error. At least we won that one.
Congratulations!
Does anyone have any information on the superindents? Feel free to comment.
New York Times Education Pitchbot@GreyLadiesNYC produces excellent parody on Twitter by poking fun at the awful education coverage that is in the real NY Times.
Here is their satirical farewell message for the school year from the Mayor and Chancellor:
Gotta agree with Sarah Allen whose reaction to the farewell parody message is all too real.
This is in the UFT Chapter Leader Update:
Efforts begin to rein in health care costs
The Municipal Labor Committee, the umbrella group of nearly 100 municipal labor unions including the UFT, negotiates the health care benefits of all city workers. The top priority of the MLC and the UFT is to maintain high-quality, premium-free health care for all city workers even as costs increase year after year. The city, with the MLC’s support, issued a request for information on June 16 to let the health care industry know that the city is seeking a 10% decrease in health care costs without sacrificing any of its employees’ existing benefits. This process has been successfully used many times over the years to preserve our excellent health care without raising the out-of-pocket cost for individual members. In fact, the city and the MLC have saved more than $10 billion over the years by aggressively using our buying power to save money on health care. As health care costs continue to rise, it’s more important than ever to find cost-saving measures so we can preserve premium-free health care for all our members.
Right now teachers are by contract entitled to a choice of premium free health plans as we pointed out last week. Michael Mulgrew and the MLC appear to be in a giveback mood here for this round of collective bargaining. It looks like Mulgrewcare might eventually be coming to active people. Only a judge stopped a healthcare plan that would have denied a choice of free plans for retirees. We called the inferior plan Mulgrewcare.
Here is the schedule for the Administrative Committee (12 officers), Executive Board, and Delegate Assembly for 2022-23. You have a constitutional right to attend Executive Board meetings.
District Council 37 is a large city union that has around 100,000 members. They have been without a contract since May 2021. According to this piece in Labor Press, "Negotiations with the city have not yet started" for a new contract. The state of our unions has sunk so low that the city can go over a year without even opening negotiations for a new agreement with DC37. Municipal worker unions in NYC have so little power so the city can basically ignore us.
DC 37 held a rally on June 16 at Foley Square. Several hundred members showed up according to the Labor Press article. What are they looking for in terms of a raise?
“We’re not getting the raises that make a difference. Everything is going up but our paychecks,” DC 37 president Shaun D. Francois told LaborPress before the rally.
Francois, head of DC 37’s Local 372, which represents school employees such as health aides, lunchroom workers, and crossing guards, says that what his members are paid would be a good salary in Georgia, but not in a city where studio apartments cost $2,000 a month. It would take $30 an hour for a two-person household to have a decent standard of living here, he continued.
“Are we going to get that? No.” he said. “We’re going to get the best we can and the most we can.”
The best we can probably means the 2%- 3% the city is setting aside for salary increases for government employees in this year's budget. They concede that they are not going to get raises for their members so they can have a decent standard of living.
For anyone who thinks the DC 37 negotiations will not impact UFT members because we are separate unions who bargain individually with the city, think again and then again. Long-time readers know that city contracts are based on pattern bargaining. One municipal union settles on a contract with the city and whatever salary increase they get sets a pattern and then other unions receive basically the same increase that follows the pattern. Pattern bargaining has been upheld by arbitration panels many times.
Two weak unions usually set the pattern for all NYC government workers: DC 37 or the UFT.
If the best DC 37 can do is to pull out several hundred of its 100,000 members for a rally, it is obvious they and then the UFT too will have virtually no leverage at the bargaining table and will be at the mercy of Mayor Adams. Whether or not the members on the UFT Negotiating Committee bargain openly or behind closed doors is rather irrelevant if DC 37 will soon set the pattern for our contract that Michael Mulgrew will happily adhere to.
I personally would rather use the British worker approach of threatening industrial action and then striking if necessary. The latest workers to vote to strike are the British Airways ground staff at Heathrow Airport.
The GMB union said 95% of BA staff at Heathrow airport who voted backed strike action after BA failed to roll back a 10% pay cut imposed during the pandemic. Around 700 workers had been balloted, of whom 80% voted.
95% yes vote and an 80% turnout. What was the turnout of active teachers in our recent UFT election? Around 20%.
Activism matters, ladies and gentlemen. Anonymous comments won't cut it.
Labor's main weapon is the strike or at least the credible threat to withhold labor. England is seeing a national rail strike this week. This is from ABC News:
LONDON -- Britain faces the second of three national railway strikes Thursday after new negotiations between union and employers ended in deadlock.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union accused the government of “wrecking” Wednesday’s talks and said the 24-hour walkout by 40,000 cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers and station staff would go ahead as planned. The union's action this week is Britain's biggest and most disruptive railway strike for 30 years.
Rail infrastructure company Network Rail said it was “disappointed that the RMT have again chosen to walk away from negotiations. We remain available for talks, day or night.”
The union held a daylong strike on Tuesday that brought the U.K. rail network to a crawl, with only a fifth of passenger services running. Another walkout is planned for Saturday.
The dispute centers on pay, working conditions and job security as Britain’s train companies aim to cut costs and staffing after two years in which emergency government funding kept them afloat.
The strike pits the union against 13 privately owned train-operating companies and the government-owned National Rail. While Britain's Conservative government insists it is not involved in the dispute, the union notes that it plays a major role in the heavily regulated industry.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has put blame for the strike squarely on the union.
The railway union's leader, General Secretary Mick Lynch, said the government had “wrecked these negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw their letter threatening redundancy for 2,900 of our members.”
The final paragraph of this piece is very interesting to me:
Unions have told the country to brace for more as workers face the worst cost-of-living squeeze in more than a generation. Lawyers are planning a walkout, and unions representing teachers and postal workers both plan to consult their members about possible actions.
You can read more in the Guardian.
Also, look at OpenDemocracy.net:
We could talk for hours about the causes of this, but the simplest is that, in the negotiation over who gets the wealth we all produce with our work, bosses and owners are getting more and more, and workers are getting less and less. And the simple reason for that is that fewer and fewer of us are members of trade unions, and fewer and fewer of us are organised enough to go on strike.
It looks like the teachers could be next up for industrial action in the UK:
This is from The Guardian:
Leaders of the country’s largest teaching union say they will ballot their members on strike action later this year unless the government agrees to an “inflation-plus” pay rise.
The joint general secretaries of the National Education Union (NEU) said in a letter to the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, that they would campaign in favour of industrial action if the government persisted in its current plan for a 3% pay increase for most teachers in England, after the latest figures showed the consumer price index rising 9.1% last month.
“You must respond to the new economic reality of double-digit inflation and the threat this poses to teacher living standards. We call on you to commit to an inflation-plus increase for all teachers,” the letter stated.
3% increases aren't going to cut it with UK teacher unions. 2-3% is basically what NY public sector workers are being budgeted for.
Maybe some of that labor militancy will cross the Atlantic from the UK.
It looks like the city stooped to misleading a judge on retiree healthcare. Ace NY Post reporter Sue Edelman along with Richard Calder obtained a smoking gun and published it on Saturday.
City lawyers lied to a state judge in a “shameful” bid to cheat them out of health insurance benefits, according to a retired group of firefighters, cops, teachers and other public servants.
The lawyers have argued in court filings and before a Manhattan Supreme Court judge that NYC retirees must accept a new, privately administered plan or pay $191.57 monthly to maintain current coverage.
However, The Post obtained a Feb 16, 2016 letter from Stephen Louis, a top city Law Department attorney, to then-Labor Commissioner Robert Linn which appears to confirm the city is required by law to pay for all retiree health plans up to a price cap.
“They misled the court,” fumed Marianne Pizzitola, who heads the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, when shown the letter, calling it “shameful.”
Louis wrote that the Administrative Code requires the city to pay for any plan “up to the full cost of the health care package offered” by NYC.
Assistant Corporation Counsel William Fraenkel told Judge Lyle Frank on Feb. 28 that making every plan premium-free would “run contrary” to the law.
The city lost the case but is appealing. Of course, the city denies that they misled the judge but look at the language of the letter that is published in its entirety in the Post. Here is the key part:
Similarly, the Council committee report explaining local law 120 singled out payment for the "entire cost" of a "health insurance plan" but did not prescribe the components of any plan.
The important words are "any plan" as I read the letter. It is kind of obvious that it means more than one plan. Look up the definitions of the word "any" if you want to. These two definitions from Webster seem to fit appropriately:
a: unmeasured or unlimited in amount, number, or extent
any quantity you desire
b: appreciably large or extended
could not endure it any length of time
We can even go to the thesaurus for synonyms:
Synonyms & Antonyms of any
being one of a group
any person who comes in the store today is eligible for the discount
Synonyms for any
each, every
The dictionary pretty much shows that the city is supposed to pay for multiple plans, not just one. That is also what it calls for in the UFT Contract in Article 3G1 which has this title:
Choice of Health Plans
Then, look at the contractual language:
The Board agrees to arrange for, and make available to each day school teacher, a choice of health and hosptial insurance coverage from among designated plans and the Board agrees to pay the full cost of such coverage.
State law covers public school teacher retirees too.
While there is no guarantee that retirees in the state have the same coverage as active employees, the state Legislature prohibits school districts and BOCES from unilaterally diminishing retiree health insurance coverage unless a similar reduction is negotiated for active employees.
You see why the city wants to diminish active employee health benefits, not only retirees. We have been trying to ring the alarm bell that inferior Mulgrewcare is coming to all of us unless all of us collectively say no.
Michael Mulgrew, the rest of the Unity UFT leadership who just go along, the Municipal Labor Committee, and many of the establishment Democratic and Republican politicians are not our friends on healthcare. The pressure has to come from rank and file city employees that there needs to be a line drawn in the sand on healthcare. We will not accept more cuts to benefits or increased costs to employees or retirees.
Maryann Pizzitola is working on behalf of municipal retirees across many job titles. Go to the website to learn more about the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees.
Sue Edelman and Melissa Klein have an article in the Post on grade inflatiin/fraud under Principal Namita Dwarka at Bryant High School.
One of the complaints:
One teacher said the 11th-hour requests [to pass undeserving students] started during his first semester at the school five years ago. “I was asked to provide passing grades for a marking period I had not taught, for many students who I had never even seen.”
“Last spring, I was reprimanded for not giving a passing grade to a student who had missed almost 100 days of class and had done no work,” the educator said.
Our friend Georgia is featured in the Post piece:
Georgia Lignou, Bryant’s UFT Chapter Leader, wrote an open letter to principal Namita Dwarka last week, saying she had fielded “numerous” complaints from teachers about the pressure to pass lagging students.
“Teachers are asked to ‘provide support,'” she said in the letter, obtained by The Post. That means that the students can get a few last-ditch assignments and pass “with much less work than what the teacher required in class.”
We do not feel that a student who was absent for most of the year and has failed previous marking periods can possibly achieve mastery at this time of the year,” Lignou wrote.
Teachers are “intimidated by the tone” of emails they receive from higher-ups, she added.
“What they hear is ‘We want you to pass this student,’ and they do” to avoid run-ins with the assistant principals who supervise them. “They do promote students who should not have been promoted,” Lignou wrote.
Seat time requirements, absent extraordinary circumstances in which work must be submitted that is basically the same as what the class has done, could help solve this problem.
It won't happen as it would cause graduation rates to fall. Grade fraud/inflation leading to far too many virtually meaningless diplomas being handed out is one of the consequences of mayoral control of the NYC schools.
How about a federal solution?
Grade fraud is systemic,” said City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens), who sparked investigations of Maspeth HS after hearing from whistleblower teachers. “It’s inherent in many schools, and everybody in the DOE administration looks the other way because it’s in their best interest.
“But they’re cheating our children out of a good education. Don’t show up in class? You pass. Everybody passes, and grades are meaningless. I think we need a federal monitor to come in and take over because nobody’s overseeing anything.”
For those hoping this will bring down Principal Dwarka, The Post spoke to a DOE spokesperson who said: “We take any allegation of misconduct seriously and we will look into this.”
Nobody is going to hold their breath waiting for justice but at least Georgia and her colleagues are trying. The people who hide behind anonymous comments here are not helping. Have some courage. I would not recommend fighting alone usually but a small group can make a big difference.
Integrity matters.
This is from New York Focus:
New York City is seeking to replace the main health insurance plan that it provides to its employees with a new, lower-cost option, documents obtained by New York Focus reveal. The shift is currently only a possibility under consideration, but if it goes through, roughly 750,000 employees, retirees and dependents will have their current insurance switched to an as-yet undetermined plan.
One goal of the potential replacement is to cut costs “by at least 10%” without compromising the quality of care or forcing city workers to pay more out of pocket, the documents say.
The plan that currently covers most city employees and their dependents, GHI Emblem Health, began covering municipal workers under the administration of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1940s.
On Thursday, the city’s Office of Labor Relations will begin accepting submissions from health insurance companies outlining plans to replace GHI EmblemHealth. The “target effective date” of a new plan is Jan. 1, 2024.
The Municipal Labor Committee, a group representing most of the city’s local government unions, is supporting the move. In an email to union leaders reviewed by New York Focus, Ellen Medwid, executive secretary of the Municipal Labor Committee, said that the city’s request for information from insurance companies “will allow both the MLC and the City to become better educated as to possibilities to ensure quality care at a hopefully reduced cost.”
We should all be concerned.
The annual city budget passed with only 6 dissenting City Councilmembers. 44 voted in favor. There are big budget cuts this year to individual public schools.
Figuring there might be a political price to pay, both Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams released statements on the cuts in education (see below).
My guess is that Mayor Adams is not too concerned about Council Education Committee or Oversight Committee hearings. The City Council has little say on the schools in the mayoral control era. The cuts are totally unnecessary and both Adamses know it.
Update: NY 1's Jillian Jorgensen explains why these are real cuts to schools on Twitter (please read tweets from the bottom-up):
.jpeg)
First, the Mayor's statement:
Now, the Council Speaker and friends:
Statement from Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph, and Oversight and Investigations Committee Chair Gale Brewer on School Budgets in Fiscal Year 2023
In response to school budgets released last week with significant changes due to lost federal funding and declining enrollment in public schools, Speaker Adrienne Adams, Education Committee Chair Rita Joseph, and Oversight and Investigations Chair Gale Brewer released the following statement.
“Our students are our top priority. That is why we are committing to bringing the full weight of the Council to ensure critical gaps left by lost federal funding and school-specific enrollment are filled when the numbers are updated in September.
“The change in school budgets released last week is the result of one-time federal stimulus funds running out, causing the City to return to its existing school budget formula that it had suspended because of thesethese pandemic-related federal funds. As the number of students in our public schools declined by 120,000 students, the impact on some schools became deeply concerning. While schools with increased enrollment received proposed school budgets with funding increases due to the formula, other schools received lower proposed budgets without the stop-gap of federal funding that could lead to the loss of important services. Our focus must be on equity, ensuring schools and students who have historically been underserved are prioritized.
“This Council will be pursuing every avenue available to address this issue of lost federal funding. First, the City has already allocated over $700 million more in city funds for schools within this budget compared to the current fiscal year. Second, we will work at the local level with Council Members to better understand the specific impacts on individual schools in their districts. Third, the Council will hold a joint oversight hearing with the Committee on Oversight & Investigations and the Committee on Education to identify and scrutinize every dollar of federal stimulus received or expected to be received by our city that could fill certain gaps of lost federal funding for our schools. And fourth, we will push the Department of Education to prioritize funding within its more than $30 billion budget to meet the specific needs identified for individual schools, shifting money from bloated areas of its central operations to classrooms and student supports.
Our students must be our priority, and we will leave no stone unturned to protect them by ensuring we work with our education stakeholders, scrutinize every federal dollar, and push for Mayor Adams and the Department of Education to fulfill its promise to the students and families that rely on our school system.”
BACKGROUND:
Investing in Education and Youth
In the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, the Council secured major investments in education and youth programs, in addition to the more than $700 million increase in city funds committed to public schools.
This is a rally scheduled by the Cross-union reiree Organizing Committee (CROC).
There is a budget deal between the Mayor and the City Council. Some details that may be of interest from Gotham Gazette:
Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on Friday announced their first budget agreement, a $101 billion spending deal for the 2023 fiscal year beginning July 1, reflecting an increase of about $2.3 billion over the budget that was adopted in June of last year.
School budget cuts are included:
The mayor conceded to several Council demands for new or additional funding in certain areas while moving ahead on some of his priorities that the Council opposed, like cuts to school budgets based on dropping student enrollment...
Further down:
Asked about those cuts -- which amount to roughly $215 million in the coming fiscal year -- at Friday’s budget agreement announcement, the mayor described them as necessary right-sizing. “We're not cutting, we are adjusting the amount based on the student population,” he said, though they will be felt by individual schools as budget cuts.
The mayor also pointed to the recent state approval of an extension of mayoral control of city schools that he was granted for two years, which came with mandates to reduce class sizes by 2027. The Adams administration is estimating that it will cost the city about $20 billion in capital funds and $500 million in expense funding, though those numbers have yet to be vetted and the mayor’s pushback against the new mandates has been refuted by state lawmakers, especially Senator John Liu, the chair of the Senate’s New York City Education Committee, who has pointed to additional state education aid on its way to the city.
There are higher than expected tax revenues coming in so the city was able to increase reserves to record levels:
Given the city’s strong fiscal position, both the mayor and the Council were able to invest in a variety of priorities and there were few fights to be had. The mayor conceded to several Council demands for new or additional funding in certain areas while moving ahead on some of his priorities that the Council opposed, like cuts to school budgets based on dropping student enrollment, and the Council beat back the mayor’s push for more funding at the NYPD and Department of Correction.
Record level Wall Street profits boosted the city’s personal income tax collections, with the city forecasting $3 billion in additional revenue for the current fiscal year and $1.5 billion more in the 2023 fiscal year compared to revenue predictions from April when the executive budget was released. The budget reflects $2.7 billion in savings across the current and next fiscal year, and projects another $4 billion in savings through fiscal year 2026.
With additional revenue, the mayor and Council added another $750 million each to the city’s rainy day fund and the Retiree Health Benefits Trust fund, and $500 million to the general reserves. Those additions bring city reserves to $8.3 billion, with $1.9 billion total in the rainy day fund, $4.5 billion in the RHBT, $1.6 billion in the general reserve, and $250 million in the capital stabilization reserve.
That's $8.3 billion in reserve if you missed it.
As for labor reserves:
The budget deal also sets aside an additional $3 billion over the course of four years in the labor reserve, bringing it to $4.7 billion as the city moves to negotiating expired labor contracts for the municipal workforce that are likely to prove costly.
According to the Citizens Budget Commission official we cited the other day, "Raises totaling 3% annually for city employees would cost about $1.5 billion in the first year, increasing to $4.3 billion in the third year."
This is a four-year total in the labor reserve.
I think we should look at Governor Hochul's budgeting for the state Civil Service Employees Association raises, which although not at all binding on NYC, puts us in the neighborhood where Mayor Adams is going on municipal contracts. This is from the Albany Times Union:
Workers in the union are proposed a five-year deal from April 2021 to March 2026. It includes 2 percent raises the first two years and then 3 percent annual raises the final three years of the tentative contract.
That's not going to be anywhere near keeping up with the 8.6% U.S. annual inflation rate announced today but at least we now have the information on what the city is budgeting for raises and what the state is planning for its workers.
For those who think we would be better off under the Republicans, Senator Rick Scott has a plan to privatize much of government operations if the Republicans win back power.
My plan is for the UFT and AFT to be an organized force like the unions are in the United Kingdom. This is from the BBC:
Thousands of railway workers will walk out in a three-day national strike later this month which threatens major summer travel disruption across the UK.
The RMT Union said it will "shut down" the country's railway network on 21, 23 and 25 June after talks over pay and redundancies fell through.
But the Transport Secretary accused RMT of "jumping the gun" and said strikes could put off people using trains.
The action is being dubbed the "biggest rail strike in modern history".
More than 40,000 staff from Network Rail and 13 train operators are expected to take part.
On the first day of the planned strike on 21 June, London Underground RMT workers plan to walk out in a separate dispute over pensions and job losses, taking the total number of staff - along those from with Network Rail and the train companies - to more than 50,000.
Does the public support their right to strike? A poll on ITV's Good Morning Britain:
This is after 12 years of Conservative Party rule.
Okay, I am officially dreaming again thinking that unions could have that kind of pull here but a credible threat of a job action is the only way workers will come close to keeping up with the cost of living.
The United for Change Election Committee members have put in 32 election complaints regarding the recent UFT election. When we add in supporting documentation, it totals 74 pages worth of complaints and supporting details. With only a few exceptions, the complaints were written by Christina Gavin, a school librarian who spent countless hours doing research and finding documentation to support the UFC claims that this was an unfair process from start to finish favoring the Unity Caucus.
The complaints will go to UFT Secretary-Staff Director-Chair of Unity Caucus Leroy Barr (it has to start at the local union level). Anyone who expects a fair response from the UFT is not dealing with reality. Leroy will be the defense attorney and the judge; the Unity-dominated Executive Board who are mostly on the Union's payroll is the jury. The AFT is the next step on the ladder (probably not much hope for any justice there either) and then the Federal Department of Labor where hopefully there will be a fair process. There is a real debate going on as to whether they are impartial.
Norm has coverage of the complaints over at EdNotes.
I had a role in writing a couple of these complaints, particularly the Delegate Assembly being turned into Unity Caucus campaign rallies. Christina ended up being frustrated with me because I was rushing her to be timely with this action as the election is fading from memory. She wanted to be thorough and I think she succeeded while still managing to be timely. We thank her for her efforts.
United For Change Election Complaints
Complaint 1- Unity candidates used personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to communicate with members to campaign for Unity Caucus in violation of UFT election rules.
Complaint 2-UFT employees used official UFT Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to campaign for Unity Caucus in violation of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, As Amended [LMRDA].
Complaint 3-Unity caucus used union resources for electioneering.
Complaint 4-Unity caucus used UFT officer headshots produced at the union's expense from the UFT's website in campaign materials.
Complaint 5-The UFT President/Unity caucus candidate sent a letter on UFT letterhead to all Chapter Leaders praising the current UFT Treasurer/Unity caucus candidate and encouraging Chapter Leaders to have members take action on the candidate’s behalf.
Complaint 6-Certain UFT Representatives combined union and caucus election business by entering school buildings on union work time and using union meetings and e-mails for distribution of Unity caucus campaign literature.
Complaint 7-While on union work time, [a] union District Representative prevented and attempted to prevent United for Change candidates from distributing campaign literature in violation of the LMRDA, while permitting Unity caucus candidates to distribute campaign literature.
Complaint 8-Members of the United for Change coalition were denied access to school mailboxes at thirty-nine (39) schools to distribute campaign literature in violation of the LMRDA, Chancellor’s Regulations D-130 § I. B. 4. a., the Policy for Union Visitor Posting of Election Fliers published in Principal’s Digest on December 7, 2021, and the January 18, 2001 Memorandum from the Office of Labor Relations & Collective Bargaining.
Complaint 9-[Certain] Chapter Leaders engaged in inappropriate campaign activities in support of Unity caucus.
Complaint 10-[Certain] Chapter Leaders engaged in inappropriate campaign activities against the United for Change coalition.
Complaint 11-[Certain] District Representatives engaged in electioneering in support of Unity caucus on union time in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 12-[Certain] UFT employees/Unity caucus representatives on the UFT Election Committee used union resources for caucus business throughout the election in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 13-[A] Unity caucus candidate intentionally filed a false election complaint against a United for Change candidate.
Complaint 14-[A] District Representative/Unity caucus candidate intentionally filed a false election complaint against a United for Change candidate.
Complaint 15-UFT Secretary, Election Chair, and General Counsel failed to adequately and appropriately investigate election complaints, reported “findings” contrary to all facts, and refused to rescind their false accusations against a UFC candidate.
Complaint 16-The UFT Secretary, Election Chair and General Counsel refused to provide a copy of the original April 11 Report and Recommendation related to a false election complaint against a United for Change candidate despite repeated requests, providing instead a falsified post-dated document.
Complaint 17-[The] UFT General Counsel has behaved inappropriately towards candidates, in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 18-The UFT President/Unity caucus candidate Michael Mulgrew engaged in electioneering in support of Unity caucus using union resources while on union time in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 19-UFT Unity officers engaged in electioneering in support of Unity caucus using union resources while on union time in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 20-Other members of the Unity caucus and the caucus itself engaged in electioneering in support of Unity caucus using union resources in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 21-UFT repeatedly violated the LMRDA during the Delegate Assembly.
Complaint 22-The UFT has not clearly outlined campaign literature distribution procedures from the outset of the election, in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 23-The UFT inappropriately allocated campaign advertising space in The New York Teacher union newspaper in violation of the terms of the election as voted upon and accepted by the UFT Election Committee.
Complaint 24-The UFT has used the union newspaper to promote Unity caucus candidates in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 25-The UFT’s internal Election Committee is not impartial and presents significant conflicts of interest.
Complaint 26-The UFT’s internal election complaint process is not impartial and presents significant conflicts of interest.
Complaint 27-The UFT has not established a written internal election complaint process.
Complaint 28-The UFT has not established bylaws, in violation of the LMRDA.
Complaint 29-The UFT has not clearly established election rules from the outset of the election.
Complaint 30-The UFT artificially shortened the time frame in which members could request replacement ballots from the American Arbitration Association.
Complaint 31-The UFT made inadequate arrangements for observers during the ballot count.
Complaint 32-Throughout the election, the UFT's actions have violated the LMRDA:
➢ Ignoring the rights of candidates guaranteed by federal law.
➢ Failing to timely advise all candidates of the campaign rules and any changes which become necessary.
➢ Failing to take corrective action promptly if one candidate is given an improper advantage over other candidates.
For those who would like to read the details, we will post them soon.
The document below I was informed goes back to the final days of the Michael Bloomberg administration. Look closely and you will see the city has achieved some of their goals and I fully expect they will be looking for more cuts now.
The unions in the Municipal Labor Committee look like city partners, not adversaries, as the city and unions slowly erode our benefits even though the last decade has seen some of the best financial times in NYC history.
As this is a contract year, expect them to try to cut more.
I got on a little late.
President's Report:
When I got on the call, President Michael Mulgrew was giving a review of the 2021-2022 school year. He talked about the rise of omicron and the change of mayoral administrations. He then mentioned the Albert Shanker Scholarship Award ceremony that was held last night. It was the first time in three years it was live. We do undergraduate and graduate. scholarships.
National
Gun control and national elections are a big deal. Some important cases going before the Supreme Court. This is a busy weekend with the massive gun control rally with a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. There is a book giveaway event in the Rockaways, we are honoring our secretaries, there will be a large contingent at Puerto Rican Day Parade. There is a Soapbox Derby in Brooklyn that was started by a teacher in Staten Island. The teacher who started it was Pat Lockhart.
State Legislature Session
The mayor is not happy. We got some things done. Before mayoral control, mayors didn't want to fund school system and they would blame the Board of Education. It is legally still the Board of Education. Mayors would have to fund system after mayoral control was passed. Assembly and Senate had two bills. They eventually agreed to fixed one-year terms for PEP members. We don't want 23 people on the PEP panel but the new additions are parents which is good. Have attended many PEP meetings. Closing school meetings went until 4:00 am. Now mayor can't fire people who don't vote the way he wants. Also in Albany, mandatory overtime for nurses is a big win for them.
We got the class size legislation passed. What you did last spring was the foundation for this. Every elected official at the state level who represents NYC knew about it. Lobbying elected officials and it was an ugly fight. Because we built the foundation last spring, we were able to move passed the shenanigans. City said there wasn't space. We showed 90% of schools have space already and more will have it with construction. It will be an investment for the next five years. The city had no plan for the additional $1.3 billion annually that they got from the state. Lower class sizes will cost $200 million a year for five years. What would we rather spend the extra foundation aid on: lower class sizes or more contracts for DOE projects? Give us a few weeks and we can find $1 billion from the DOE.
We do costing all the time. We had the documents. We used city's own numbers to show they can do this. City is full of crap. Their costing documents had a price for increasing ventilation for every student. We believe the DOE made up a crazy number. We believe they were just lying with numbers. We had documents to get to Legislators. Thanks to Senator John Liu for leading this fight. He agreed this was a funded mandate. Robert Jackson jumped in to squash the city's arguments. The final vote was 59-4 in the Senate. In the Assembly, it was 147-2. This will get up to the Governor's office in July. These votes are veto-proof. Nothing is ever done until it's done. Got back from Germany two weeks ago.
City
Go to UFT.org/budget. Go on there for Chapter Leaders as we have the projected cut for your particular school. We will tweet and work with City Council to make sure we protect our schools. 350 people looking at their phones. Popular schools will not have students thrown out. We will give those schools exemptions from lower class sizes. We would never hurt these schools. They can have a plan for the future. Tweeting for budgets.
Preliminary budget in March. The city can adjust when the state budget comes out. State budget is April1, city is July 1. We put out a reaction to the city's preliminary budget calling for $375 million in cuts. State budget came in $1.3 billion over what the city projected because of the increase in foundation aid. DOE didn't adjust when extra state money came in. We also have the extra billions in federal funding. We have had a drop in enrollment in the last ten years and a significant enrollment decline in the last five years. We are down to 820,000. DOE funds per pupil. We used to fund by units. If 3 students need a specialty class, that is not funded in the per pupil formula. We could do a hybrid formula. Principals are apoplectic unless they are in a school that has had an increase in enrollment which has happened. We should be planning for September. The new administration walked into a COVID wave. We don't want to fight on this.
We worked together on DOE on dyslexia screening. We worked together on the calendar. We need to prepare for notice of excess letters which do not mean you are fired, but might you not have a position in your current school. We want a plan in place. We want to tell parents we have a plan. We want people to have confidence in the schools. This chaos is the worst thing that could be happening in June. We will work with the City Council to make sure there are no cuts to the schools. This is the worst mistake the city could be making. Our work is not done for the year. Find your school budget at UFT/budgets. Budget cuts are all over the place. We need to start working with City Council folks. Many who we helped get into office. Councilmembers are hearing about cuts. DOE support networks are telling principals to maximize class sizes and excess people. We have one more fight for this year. Asks Delegates if they are ready for this? One last thing.
SBO's going out with the calendar done.
Global test out of distributive scoring. It is a per session posting. We wasted tens of millions of dollars on distributive scoring. Once a truck with exams got lost in Connecticut. That is the DOE at their best. This administration is giving this a shot.
Universal literacy coaches: new administration understands the value of universal literacy coaches and are going to try to make this happen.
PD tomorrow and on the 28th. Many fights still going on. Thanks Mary Vacarro and district reps. Superintendents are supposed to solve this. We got hundreds of school leaders enlightened on what can be done remotely from home.
New Congressional and State Senate maps: If an endorsed candidate is in a district that hasn't changed, we don't have to reopen the process. We have two endorsed candidates in certain seats. New districts have no endorsed candidates. We have an interview process. This district is a new congressional seats. Six people came in for interviews. Six we have previously endorsed.
We take great pride in the pride. Conferences at UFT Headquarters. Danny Dromm Scholarship. He was the first openly gay City Councilmember.
Staff Director's Report:
Saturday book distribution event. School Secretary luncheon. March for gun control going from Brooklyn Bridge to Zaccotti Park. Negotiating Committee meeting June 15. LGBTQ weekend, parade is June 26. UFT benefit on October 10 for Disaster Relief Fund. Sending money to Ukraine for teachers doing heroic work. Thank you for doing the work of the union.
Mulgrew returns to say the resolution on Asian Americans getting done one day after it passed.
Question Period:
Question: D22 person asks: Why are we doing Acadiance testing in grades K-2? It is extra, repetitive paperwork. Testing kids who can read and asking them what letter it is.
Mulgrew Answer: Testphobia is growing. Who is the idiot who thinks this is a good idea? We have had these conversations. Chancellor talking to D75 folks on the last day of school. Some of this is based on Principal's APPR's and Quality Reviews. This is the same thing three times in a row. Dyslexia screening is not just about dyslexia and that is why we support proper screening. Policies have to be about common sense and not the needs of the bureaucracy.
Question: D75 CL says that D75 and 79 not included in funding, is there a list so we can see what is being spent?
Answer: D75 enrollment not as great as others. We've asked and we will figure it out. We have always had a hard time figuring out how D75 allocates funding. You can't have transparency if they can't explain the budget.
Question: Dyslexia training, all the teachers have to register and many are being waitlisted. Why is this coming so late?
Answer: Email went out earlier. It is a two-hour training. We will help with access if you get us information. We don't have issues with Mayor on this. If we screen every child k-2 this year, then next year we only have to do K.
Question: Safety question, teachers have to figure out how many kids can fit in a closet and how can I barricade a classroom door. What is happening from intruders getting into the front door into schools?
Answer: We met yesterday with a bunch of people from NYPD along with David Banks' brother Phillip who is a deputy mayor. A camera outside the front door and a buzzer. We had to talk about us not being guards. We know in middle and high schools kids open doors for others. We were told every school has been trained on a soft lockdown (only two raise their hands that it's been done). New person Mark Rampasaud who did the Covid Building Response Team is in charge of safety. We are all afraid we are going to have an incident in NY. Was in charge of safety before becoming President. 5-8 texts a day on safety incidents where it used to be one per week. There is a severe violence problem. We have to figure this out. We don't have campuses; by and large our schools are right up against the street. Pilot with 50 schools. We have to do something for the entire system.
Motion Period:
Motion from Exec Bd to extend this year's hybrid DA's for 2022-23 and to make that the first item on the agenda.
746 Yes to 24 No on the phone; Live it is 166 Yes to 12 Non live so that is a combined 96% yes.
VP Janella Hinds moves to change the agenda items DA rules, LGBTQ, Ukraine, Women's Herstory
606 Yes to 50 No 163 Yes to (I didn't get the No votes but overall it was 92% Yes.
Motion to discontinue Apeture (DESSA test) three year contract with a 43-question test and reallocate the funding for this month.
632 Yes to 28 No on phone; Live 155 Yes to 14 No 95 % in favor.
Special Orders of Business
Hybrid DA, Exec Bd member says it was difficult to start but we have seen a huge increase in DA participation. Many Delegates have child care issues so they were able to attend on the phone. This will bring us together.
Matt Driscoll amendment: Full rights for people on the phone including presenting resolution.
Someone speaks against it on grouds that we don't have the technology.
Nick Bacon speaks in favor of the amendment. People on the phone want to present resolutions and amendments because those on the phone don't have full rights and they deserve full rights.
Janella Hinds speaks in opposition: Technology doesn't allow for business to be done and giving full rights should not be afforded at this time. We have to ensure that it is only DA members. Another Unity Exec Bd member says you can't guarantee internet working. We are not there yet with the technology to make amendments and points of order on the phone. Another exec bd member calls the question on all matters before the house.
437 vote yes to close debate to 87 on the phone and it was 150 to 15 to close debate live.
360 Yes to 267 No on the phone on the amendment but live it is unknown but Mulgrew announces it is 384 Yes to 388 No in totality. Mulgrew comes back to say we have to be able to verify that the person online is who they say they are.
The original resolution vote is 634 Yes to 38 No; 187-18 Live.
LGBTQ support resolution motivated by Mike Sill. Pat Crispino follows talking about her long history on this subject and how we don't want to go back. Another two speak in favor and then the question is called.
547 Yes to 30 No on the phone; 153 Yes to 3 No live on closing debate.
149 Yes to 6 No live; 541-56 No on the phone.
Ukraine support against the Russian invasion was motivated by a middle school exec bd member. Nobody wants to debate but Mulgrew still calls the question.
Motion to close debate passes 576 to 24.
Yes 541 to No 38 on the phone; 146 Yes to 3 No live.
Mulgrew thanks everyone and says we have work still to do to protect the schools.
This is on Twitter:
The UFT also tweeted out that Mayor Adams has made no cuts to the central Department of Education bureaucracy.
Why again did the State Legislature just vote to extend mayoral control?
It is clear from the proposed school budget cuts Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks are releasing that the City-DOE have no intention of complying with the new lower class size bill that passed the Assembly 150-0 and the Senate 59-4. Whether Governor Hochul signs it or not is mostly irrelevant to the City-DOE. The DOE has ignored inconvenient laws they don't like (see special Ed mandates) for years but the Legislature keeps renewing mayoral control.
Is another lawsuit coming? We can wait another 15 years to settle it like we waited for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit to be adjudicated. Unfortunately, that settlement has still not been fully implemented and it is now 30 years since the case was filed.
Where is the UFT action plan to stop the cuts? It better be released quickly.
How about making sure those lower class size limits that could be in state law are in our contract now that funding is being provided?
Update:
Adams has no popular mandate on the schools as results from this NY 1 Sienna College poll show.
I understand that we can't read too much into one poll but if school budgets are slashed those poll numbers won't be rising, only the class size numbers will go up.
Update 2:
Link to UFT school budget page.
This is an excerpt from an email sent by Aviation Chapter Leader Ibeth Mejia to the rank and file at her school.
6th Period Pay Grievance:
As many of you know, Aviation High School is involved in a major grievance on pay for teaching an extra class. For many years the administration has been shortchanging teachers in non-shortage areas, including many shop teachers, by paying teachers in non-shortage areas a lower coverage rate ($45.38 per period) instead of the contractually mandated special per session rate now at over $7,200 per semester. While doing research on this topic, we found out that Circular 6R says that from 1998-99 and thereafter the Board of Education has mandated that non-shortage area teachers should be paid at the special per session rate if they teach an extra class. Teachers at Aviation and other schools have been ripped off for over 20 years when they were paid the coverage rate.
We showed this document to a representative at the UFT Grievance Department and then one of our members was about to win an arbitration to get paid the special per session rate. However, the UFT pulled the grievance and said they would go to a different arbitrator to make this case a citywide precedent.** At that point, something happened and now this seems to be only about Aviation again. We have been told if we win the school will no longer be able to afford its fifth-year program and we could lose it. The DOE, including our administration, claims they don't have the funds to pay the rate required by the contract so the UFT wants us to cut a deal for some compromise rate between the special per session and coverage rate. We find this to be insulting.
We cannot accept that if teachers are paid according to what the contract and a Board of Education document mandate that our school and our students will lose the world-renowned Aviation 5th year program. The city-DOE needs to fund us adequately so we can be paid at the contractually mandated rate if they want our teachers to teach extra classes.
I have met with the Shop Department. A consensus has emerged that we should fight for the pay we are contractually entitled to for the work we do while retaining our fifth year program.
I am happy to answer questions if any of the academic UFTers want to join this battle. The contract matters. It is why you elected me as Chapter Leader.
For the record, Principal Steve Jackson stated the following in an email: "As principal of Aviation High School, I would never let the fifth year program be eliminated."
ICEUFT Blog unsolicited advice to the principal:
Sir, don't try to save money on the backs of your teachers. Pay them what they are contractually entitled to and move on.*
Here is a link to Circular 6R.
This is the part of page 8 that the Chapter Leader referred to:
.png)
For those who are thinking that Article 7-A(10)j is no longer in the Contract, it is still there. It is now Article 7A6d (same wording; also corresponding Article 7B8d is there for middle schools).
d. Provided that these periods are used to supplement, not supplant the current school program, and subject to the specific provisions regarding it, secondary teachers may use this time for a sixth teaching period compensated in accordance with Article 7O of the Agreement (Shortage License Areas). The chapter’s concurrence to ensure that this is truly supplemental is necessary.
This is as close to an open and shut case as you can get. It should be a citywide grievance for all teachers in non-shortage areas who teach an extra class. The language is clear in the Contract and Circular 6R. Randi didn't give this one away in 2005. Remember, the nonprecedential case was pulled to set a citywide precedent. Non-shortage area teachers should always get the special per session pay rate, not the lower coverage rate if they teach an extra class. Coverages should only be used for absent teachers, not semester-long classes.
There are only two possible ways the UFT could lose this case:
1-The arbitrator is irrational.
2-The UFT is in the tank with the Department of Education.
My fear, of course, since we know the players, is obviously number 2. For those who are thinking why not just hire more shop teachers as this impacts around 20 shop teachers and a few other academic teachers too at one school, shop might not be a shortage area in certain schools but finding FAA-certified people to teach in an FAA-approved program is not easy. Regardless, C6R and the Contract say the DOE has to pay the higher rate.
If Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams would risk this program because they don't want to pay shop teachers what they are contractually entitled to, then they need to stop their rhetoric about how they support Career and Technical Education.
If the UFT can't win this one so that anyone in a non-shortage area gets paid the proper rate for teaching an extra class, then they once again show they are really not a labor union (unless I am missing something which I wish you Unity folks would tell me how this is more complicated than I am seeing).
*Full disclosure: I worked as an ATR at Aviation for two months in 2014. The administration, including Jackson who was an AP back then, was good to me. I have seen way worse.
**A UFT official reported on Thursday that it was the DOE, not the UFT, that wanted this grievance pulled for precedential purposes. We asked for Unity to correct us. This is what they sent to the Chapter. The Chapter Leader stands by the original email as she wrote what she was told by two UFT officials.
For UFT election turnout nuts, we have put together the numbers based on what we received in 2016 compared to 2022. We think we got it right for a basic apples-to-apples comparison.
UFT District
2016 2022
Retirees 25,618 27,451
00 279 900
01 293 353
02 395 518
03 311 346
04 337 432
05 288 265
06 464 427
07 564 241
08 597 336
09 582 416
10 865 626
11 798 531
12 486 255
13 197 219
14 368 293
15 700 659
16 275 163
17 310 242
18 446 271
19 513 323
20 1292 795
21 756 470
22 853 504
23 242 131
24 1621 967
25 765 770
26 576 615
27 663 632
28 492 425
29 660 399
30 806 684
31 1636 1224
32 241 248
71 MHS 683 740
72 BXHS 594 1032
73 Bk HS 729 667
75 2464 2363
76 BESIS 984 892
77 QHS 1712 1530
79 371 439
84 47 37
88 29 12
Total 52,902 50,897
Over 193,000 ballots were mailed out in the 2022 UFT election.
Some of the changes in the increases and decreases in the Bronx might be explained by high schools that were in the community districts in 2016 now being placed back in the high school district. If not, then there was a huge increase in the turnout in the high schools and a big drop in the districts.
Some districts are much bigger than others so these raw numbers don't tell that much except to compare with 2016 to see where participation in the election increased, decreased, or remained relatively steady.
For example, District 24 is traditionally a Unity stronghold. The turnout was way down this year compared to 2016. That lends credence to the Jonathan Halabi theory that Unity and the opposition are fishing in different ponds for votes. 654 fewer votes were cast in 2022 compared to 2016 in D24. I would make an educated guess that most of those who didn't vote were former Unity voters who threw the ballot out. They didn't know the opposition well enough to vote for us but they knew they don't like Mulgrew. Add in turnover and you have newer UFTers not interested in the process. The result is lower participation in the election.
This was in the NY Post:
A bill to shrink class sizes in New York City schools has passed the state legislature — despite strong opposition from Mayor Eric Adams, who is expected to maintain accountability over the school system for the next two years.
The legislation, tied up with an extension of mayoral control during negotiations, limits the number of students per classroom over a phase-in period of five years.
It passed both the state Senate and state Assembly Thursday and into Friday. If signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, kindergarten through third grade classes would be capped at 20 students; fourth through eighth grade at 23 students; and high school at 25 students.
“When we say small class sizes, I don’t even know if that’s the right term,” said State Sen. John Liu, who chairs the Committee on New York City Education, on the senate floor. “Because the plan — this legislation — calls for class sizes that are closer to the national norm, even closer to the rest of the state.”
“The class sizes in the city of New York are substantially larger than the rest of the state and the rest of the country,” he added.
The lower class sizes will phase in over five years and there are plenty of exceptions. Class Size Matters Executive Director Leonie Haimson applauded the passing of the lower class size bill by the Legislature but she also commented on the exceptions:
The legislation includes exceptions for space restrictions or over-enrollment in school buildings — though the capital budget must demonstrate attempts to resolve those problems. It also creates carveouts in the cases of certified teacher shortages and “severe economic distress.”
Haimson told The Post she was concerned about the Adams administration and exemptions, vowing to “work to make sure that he doesn’t falsely claim that the city can’t afford this.”
Senator Liu claimed this is not an unfunded mandate since the state is providing extra funding as a result of the settlement of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity suit.
On mayoral control, a bill was passed for a two-year extension where the Panel for Educational Policy will be expanded from 15 to 23 with the mayor getting 13 members to appoint for fixed one-year terms.
“Today we have a bill that I don’t think anybody would say it’s perfect,” said Liu.
The mayor “will retain a tremendous amount of control over New York City public schools,” he added. “At the same time, we’ve heard our constituents, we’ve heard the parents of New York City school kids. And we’re making the system more responsive to them.”
There was a piece today in the New York Post on declining suspensions that has quotes from United For Change candidate Kathy Perez and two Unity chapter leaders along with other teachers, a union head for the Safety Agents and parents.
First some facts on the decreasing number of suspensions in NYC schools:
BAD APPLES
Fall reports (September-December) for students suspended by principals and district superintendents have plummeted:
2017: 14,502
2018: 12,461
2019: 9,997
2020: N/A (remote learning)
2021: 8,369
United for Change executive board candidate Kathy Perez is quoted:
“Right now, with the way the discipline code is, it’s basically, ‘Stop doing that or else we’ll ask you again,” said Queens teacher Kathy Perez. “The kids know that there are no consequences.”
Kids who want to learn, the vast majority, get cheated.
Now the Unity chapter leaders:
Adam Bergstein, a United Federation of Teachers chapter leader at Forest Hills High School, who started a petition two months ago to push for more discipline in city schools signed by more than 560 people, says administrators’ hands are tied.
“If you start suspending more kids, you’re going to be called on the carpet,” he said. “Schools that should be suspending children are leery because they don’t want to then have to defend their suspension to the DOE.”
Further down:
Restorative justice is “well intentioned,” said Cardozo High School teacher Dino Sferrazza, a UFT chapter leader, “but they’re aren’t enough restorative justice teams — social workers, guidance counselors — and then you have kids who repeatedly get into trouble and nothing gets done.”
Restorative justice doesn’t work with “the persistent offender, with the violent offender, with the kid that you’ve tried other things,” Sferrazza said. “But everyone’s afraid of suspending kids because you’re back to, ‘Your numbers are up, your numbers for particular kids are up, for Hispanic, black and brown kids, are up.’ They don’t want that heat.
“The argument was made that that’s what it was — suspending kids based on what they look like. I will tell you my experience, that was never the case,” he added.
In the end, students who follow the rules often lose out on instructional time — or lose their way altogether, worried teachers said.
“They don’t see the benefits of following the rules and being decent,” the Brooklyn educator bemoaned, recalling a kid who told her, ‘I’m really just done with school.'”
We have a bipartisan agreement on the need to improve school safety. The safety agents union leader is quoted in the piece but not Michael Mulgrew or anyone from the UFT's top leadership.
