Please play this segment from The Majority Report to every UFTer you know.
The Chicago mayoral election between Brandon Johnson and Paul in some ways came down to teachers union vs police union. Guess who won? Johnson, who was backed by the teachers!
There is more to it than teachers vs cops but it was a close election and Johnson does not win for sure without the CTU.
The analysis from Emma Vigeland and her guest Alex Pareene on today's Majority Report should be played over and over to NYC teachers who feel powerless. We can be just as powerful as the CTU. We just have to remember we are a union and stand up for ourselves collectively.
Emma said it perfectly: "Can you imagine if New York City had a teachers' union as powerful as Chicago? Wouldn't that be awesome?"
I can imagine it and it would be awesome!
We can start to take control by signing and spreading our petition to get a vote on significant healthcare changes. If 10% put in writing that we want a member referendum, the UFT Constitution requires it. We are over 5,000 already. We can get there if everyone gets involved.
We can also show up at City Hall on Tuesday to protect retiree and active City worker healthcare.
I got lots of signatures and I'm supporting this initiative, hopeful that it may be a unifying cause. That said, we have to be realistic about UFT. We are not and never will be like CTU. Ours is a weak union, weakened by state law, by history, by hundreds of factors that don't work in our favor, many of these factors either don't exist in Chicago or are advantages there while disadvantages here. In NYC the teachers are in a very poor position to negotiate. Our only real hope is that things get very bad and we organize a strike. This is unlikely. We had a chance back when Mulgrew actually dared use the word, yes, he said he would strike, but quickly re-worded his threat as a job action, no, no, not even an action but only a bluster. The truth is, the UFT is not a union, has no organization skills and members are not going to get any kind of wild cat going anytime soon. So, we have to do what we can and this effort on healthcare has legs.
ReplyDeleteOur new contract deal is baked, all the ingredients are in the cake.
The negotiations and the Mulgrew blather are mere bread and circuses.
The UFT is an ANTI-union. There is little we can do to change that now.
Members will not even vote. They will sign on to a bonus and take another cut in real wages.
So it goes.
I was an early supporter of CORE even before they took power in the CTU in 2010 and the reason they could take power was how incredibly weak was the Unity like leadership they replaced. The old leadership had a split in their caucus and thus two version ran in the 2010 election plus two other caucuses and CORE was the 5th. They finished 2nd and there was a runoff and they got the backing of all the other groups, one of which was led by a former CTU president who by the way endoresed Vallas over Brandon - and she won the 2001 election on an anti-Vallas campaign -- lots of irony here.
ReplyDeleteUTLA and CTU have more democratic structures than the total control Unity has had for 60 years.
Plus I admit failures of the oppo here to make enough inroads -- and I don't let myself off the hook, having been involved in founding 3 caucuses (CSW, ICE, MORE), one advocacy group (GEM) and even tried going independent with Ed Notes.
Will never happen because NYC has the Taylor law.
ReplyDeleteHiring bonus for D.C. police officers bumped up from $20,000 to $25,000
ReplyDeletehttps://trib.al/J9zg2DK
Taylor penalties worse for union than members -- two for one hurts but can be handled.
ReplyDeleteAnd when there's a strike, they often have to offer makeup days so that often takes care of half the loss.
ReplyDeleteI've signed the letter along with 10 relatives. I also sent it to many colleagues. Let's go!!!
ReplyDelete