Unity Gives Itself a Raise – With New Action Support

Updated Tues, Oct. 16, 9pm

New Action joined in with Unity at Monday's UFT Exec. Bd. meeting in voting the same raise for UFT staff as teachers receive. The vote was unanimous with the 8 New Action Ex Bd members going along for the ride. The entire process took about 15 seconds. Now all Unity hacks can make mid 6 figure salaries to go along with their double pensions.

Last time Jeff and James put up a fierce fight. No more fights, with the rubber stamp New Action joining in on the Unity follies. Giving people employed by the union these raises gives them a vested interest in pushing for contracts that will feather their nests as opposed to fighting for better working conditions like reducing class size or eliminating potty patrol.

The desperation with which they fought for the 2005 contract certainly reinforces this view. Especially since they make so much higher salaries than rank and file teachers, so their percentage increase makes the gap between the UFT hierarchy and the members grow. Add the fact that they make up almost the entire Exec. Bd and dominate the Delegate Assembly, and you have a prescription for the disaster that has hit the NYC teaching corps.

Read NYC Educator's report on the election of Leo Casey as High School VP, defeating the token New Action candidate Jonathan Halabi, who actually puts out some good ideas for union reform on his blog, but is silent when it comes to open advocacy at Delegate Assemblies and Executive Board meetings. Reminds me of how the UFT puts out a report on high stakes testing and does nothing about it.

By joining with the non-critical New Action instead of trying to build a real opposition, reformers like Halabi make a choice to accept crumbs from the union leadership rather then help build a true movement for change.

Leo Casey Redux
Speaking of Casey's election as HS VP (which he coveted in 2002 when he was passed over)

Ed Notes reported in the Fall 2002 edition (the first 16 page tabloid we printed):

(NOTE: How New Action leader Mike Shulman was screwed back then but seems to have figured out how to worm his way into UFT officialdom - the ole "If you can't beat 'em" ploy.)

Fall 2002
New HS VP leads to sighs of relief in UFT High Schools
Frank Volpicella’s promotion from Brooklyn HS district rep to the Academic HS VP, despite the sham election at the Sept. 9 Exec Bd. meeting (he won 75-5 over New Action James Eterno despite the fact that the NA/PAC slate won the majority of votes of high school teachers in the last election) has led a number of union observers to breathe a sigh of relief that the ever popular Leo Casey was passed over for the job. Casey, who had been Randi Weingarten’s chapter leader during her 10 minutes of teaching at Clara Barton HS, is currently a UFT full time field rep. doing research into the extent of mouse droppings at union headquarters. Rumor is he won’t get the HS VP position until he has finished counting all the turds at 260 Park Ave. South.


High School VP Election Exposes Lack of Democracy in UFT

fall 2002

When John Soldini retired as Vice President of the Academic High Schools, the UFT Executive Board held an election on Sept. 9 to choose his replacement. Brooklyn HS District Rep. Frank Volpicella was the Unity nominated candidate (which means he was hand chosen by Randi Weingarten.) James Eterno was supported by New Action and PAC. When the votes were counted, Volpicella won by a count of 75-5. With such an overwhelming victory you’d get the impression that the sentiment of high school teachers would be overwhelmingly for Volpicella. You’d be wrong. If a popular election was held in the high schools, Eterno would win by a significant margin.

In the last UFT election in the spring of 2001 HS teachers voted for the NA/PAC slate by a 54% margin. (The opposition also won the Academic HS vote in the ‘95, ‘97, ‘99, ‘01 election.) Yet NA/PAC only has 6 Executive Board seats. Unity owns the rest. Unity also controls the HS vice presidency even though their candidate loses the vote among HS teachers. How can this discrepancy be explained? Sit down boys and girls and let us regale you with:

THE BALLAD OF AT- LARGE VOTING

Prior to 1995, divisional vice presidents were elected only by their constituents. Elementary teachers voted for their veep. Junior High Schools voted for their veep. Ditto High Schools.

Thousands of academic HS teachers are disenfranchised
The opposition began to win HS Exec. Bd. seats back in the 80’s which culminated in Mike Shulman actually winning the HS Veep election in 1985 and becoming the first (and only) non-Unity member of the ruling Administrative committee (the Adcom). This so shocked Unity, they forced one of the UFT’s founding fathers George Altomare to retire for daring to lose. Unity’s new candidate John Soldini recaptured the Veep position in the next election. In 1991, Shulman narrowly lost to Soldini (by about 100 votes) while NA won all HS Exec. Bd. seats. The Unity braintrust cast about for a way to prevent this from happening again. The had their chance when they narrowly recaptured all the Exec. Bd. seats in the ‘93 election. They rammed through a constitutional amendment where the divisional vice presidents were elected by the entire membership rather than the members of their own division. This is known as at-large voting. Thus, retired teachers and paras and elementary teachers and Junior High Schools teachers and guidance counselors, etc., etc., get to vote for the academic HS Veep and Unity gets to keep a monopoly on the Adcom. (Follow all this? don’t worry, we’ll repeat it in future editions of Ed. Notes.)

That is how Eterno’s 5 votes (1 NA member has left teaching) out of 80 cast at the Exec. Bd. meeting on Sept. 9 is so misleading and so unfair to high school teachers. And this is one way Unity Caucus controls the entire machinery of the UFT.

If Gore really won, then Eterno really won
It’s pretty funny to hear Randi Weingarten often joke that Al Gore really won the presidential election. Well the next time she does, tell her that James Eterno also really won the election for HS Veep.

Running a union and maintaining control is simple:
When the opposition gets close to winning or actually wins, just change the rules.


Report from the AFT 2002 Convention: Anti-War Resolution Defeated

Leo Casey of the United Federation of Teachers countered: "If ever there was a just war, this war is just."

Reported by EIA's Mike Antonucci

A group of delegates led by the contingent from the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York attempted to substitute its anti-war Resolution 46 for the moderately pro-war Resolution 49 submitted by the AFT Executive Council. Though the AFT leadership was outmaneuvered at the microphones by the anti-war group, the substitute motion was rejected and Resolution 49 was approved by about a three-fourths vote.
The adopted Resolution 49 offers support for the war on terrorism, with appropriate caveats about civil liberties and the use of force. The biggest complaint of the anti-war crowd was this sentence: "We support the use of the wide range of powers at the country's disposal to eradicate this threat to our people, our liberty and our children's future." Tania Kappner of Oakland argued that this was a "blank check for Bush" to conduct all future wars.

But Leo Casey of the United Federation of Teachers countered: "If ever there was a just war, this war is just."

(Ed. Note: Leo Casey is the UFT’s foreign policy director.)