Unity Caucus, the UFT's ruling political party for over sixty years, is facing a challenge in the interim Paraprofessional Chapter Election from people who appear to be independent but also had some Unity supporters (see below).
Meet the candidates not endosed by Unity which means paras should vote for the indie group if they want to change the Union:
Ballots go out April 17. This is a mail in election for paras exclusively. Spread the word to paras you may know.
The following statement comes from the challengers. It shows this election is the old Unity patronage machine style unionism at work. Nothing changes in Unity but the names. Actually, they are getting worse.
You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out!
Due to Shelvy Abrams and Reggie Colvin retiring in September 2023, and after 17 years as 2nd Vice Chair, Hector Ruiz Jr has moved on to another position in the union, which left their positions open for election, a special election to fill these positions, and a few others, is now underway and ballots will be mailed out on April 17th. (It’s still a mystery to us why it took 8 months after those retirements were effective to hold this special election…or was it to let the interim people get their names out there for 8 months...aka let them campaign for 8 months)!!!
Marie Para was very interested in running for office and approached other paraprofessionals who felt the same way she did about speaking up for paras and had the desire to step up. Once she met with several paras, from many boroughs and districts, we had a very strong and diverse team. The first step was to get a full commitment from each who wished to run, and it was easy as each of us strongly felt paras need leaders who can make changes that need to be made.
We needed to get on the ballot and to do so one needed to collect signatures on a nominating petition. Each of the potential candidates provided all the personal information on their nominating petition and collected signatures for themself as well as for the other team members. We were all feeling good about the solidarity and unity within our team.
Then it happened! As the nominating petitions were being circulated, word was getting out who was on our team. We had one para who was a member of the Unity Caucus, who has strong feelings that change needs to happen and did not want to support the current Unity candidates. Well, that para was called into the district office and offered a union paid position, so he opted out of running with us.
Then it happened again! Another potential candidate we had, who was also “all in”, is a member of Unity and felt he needed to take a stand and run with us, and who we were proud to have him on our team, just a few days before the deadline to hand in the nomination petitions, he told us he was asked to “stand down” and not run with us.
Disappointed, yes, but also expected. This leaves me asking if Unity is more interested in Unity than its membership. These two Unity members are “insiders” and believe the paras need leaders that will speak up and not be part of the status quo. Its heartwarming to know they, and other Unity caucus members have told us, privately, that they will not support the Unity candidates and will cast a vote for us. At the end of the day, its just very simple, our team is all about improving and giving the paras a long overdue voice and respect in the union.
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