....63,000 to 11,000 this year, the largest amount in the city by far.
UPDATE:
From NY 1: Weingarten said she's relieved the number of available spots is staying the same. "I'm actually surprised at Ed for talking about it that way," said Weingarten. "Ultimately what has happened here is there are 25,000 parking spots right now in the city of New York for school teachers and as of next week there will still be 25,000 parking spots for school teachers."
Weingarten's numbers don't match - and we need MORE spaces, not less.
The ICE blog has a post with a letter showing the extent of the UFT sell-out. Why did they drop the grievance when this is clearly a reduction in working conditions?
Will the UFT and DOE solidify it's collaboration on merit pay to teachers whose kids score high by giving those teachers preferences for the permits?
We once had a teacher who on the first day had her car stolen. Someone at a school she had been at saw the car go by with someone driving it. She quit the next day.
This is a real hit in working conditions for many. For teachers, especially in elementary schools who do a lot of schlepping from far away, this is a major hit. If I had to take public transportation, my trip would have taken an hour and a half instead of 35 minutes.
And how about the high crime areas? I can't count the number of batteries, radios, broken windows, one alternator, a distributor cap with wires, that I lost right down the block from the school. There's nothing like trying to teach while worrying whether you will lose part of your day's pay for a ticket or worse, have no car left.
Every school seems to be short of spots. Watch the promises to get more go up in smoke. At PS 84K there was a major shortage of spots and the administration and UFT rep worked very hard to free up a few more spots from the dreaded alternate side rules - why not clean before or after school? We finally won a few but some months later the signs were changed back. Let's say the bureaucracy at the Dept of Transportation was not exactly cooperative, if not outright disdainful of teacher parking problems.
But it's not punitive that teachers took the biggest hit by far said a Bloomberg spokesperson who was just thrilled with the way the UFT collaborated :
the teachers union has been "very reasonable...a pleasure to work with" on the placard issue. Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, had been prepared to go to court to block the reductions but said she was relieved that the number of spots remains the same. It's simply fewer placards. "This was at least a rational way of dealing with this," Weingarten said. The principals and a UFT rep at each school will determine who gets the placards. - Daily News.
More stories in the NYPost, NY Times.
What does Weingarten know about searching for a parking space? She has a chauffer driven SUV to transport her around the city.Her quote shows how little she really knows about members and their problems in the schools..
ReplyDeleteRandi is part of the new royalty in this country, consisting of politicians, high level bureaucrats and corporate executives. She left our low social/political status long ago. She never had a battery cut out of her car to be resold across the street. Randi never had a car stolen, an antenna snapped, or her hood jumped upon and nicely dented. She is not and never was one of us.
ReplyDeleteRandi is a richly endowed woman who can live very well for the rest of her career by selling piece by piece on her assets, that are her union members’ rights and dues. Bloomberg and Klein try everything to distress teachers as much as they can by adding a few days on the school calendar, and by taking away priliviges. Sooner or later, some teachers will be forced to reaign, retire or just disappear from the payroll., DoE has no trouble replacing them with younger, compliant, and much cheaper labor force. It is a win-win situation for UFT and DoE.
ReplyDeleteIt's just another attack on the working people of this city.
ReplyDeleteBefore the summer Bloomberg announced that the city would cut parking for all agencies by 20 percent. That has not happened. The number of available spots is unchanged,though that number correlates to the number of placards closer than before the agreement. The agreement gives the chapter leader decisive input as never before and there will be an appeals process in place and it leaves open the possibility of an increase in the number of spots in the future. Also, the city will issue at least 1,000 additional placrds for those of us who work in more than one school. Let's not create our own facts just to rile up people.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe people are shocked how Randi collaborated with Bloomberg in reducing teacher parking permits by 82% Then claims a win that actual parking spaces remain unchanged!
ReplyDeleteHer win's are always a loss for the classroom teacher. She is no Patrick Lynch.
I'm actually surprised at Ed for talking about it that way," said
ReplyDeleteWeingarten. "Ultimately what has happened here is there are 25,000 parking spots right now in the city of New York for school teachers and as of next week there will still be 25,000 parking spots for school teachers."
Her response and the city's intentionally misses the point. If everyone had permits like the way it always used to be whoever on a given day got to school early enough got the spots. Now it will be up to the administration to hand these out to whoever they choose as a "payoff". There is no end to the revisionism of Randi Weingarten and total captitulation to the mayor.
to anon 1:03:
ReplyDeleteDid we create the facts or did the press? Wow! They didn't cut them by 20% - they could have said 50% - what difference what they said they would do? So it's a victory that they DIDN'T cut them? Ya gotta be kidding.
Did we go from 63,000 permits to 11,000? That seems to be a fact. As pointed out, it was first come first serve in the morning and some teachers felt parking was so important they came early. The chapter leader? Again, ya gotta be kidding. Clearly you are not in a school. I used to say yes and the principal said no. Guess what? The union NEVER BACKED ME UP. Will the Cl consult from the rubber room?
Perhaps someone can explain why our school, with about forty DOE branded parking spaces has been issued three placards! This does seem to be a reduction, even if the UFT won't admit it.
ReplyDelete