Video of the Rally at Tweed, Part 1

Update:

"This is union-busting of the WORST kind. It came from union management."
- Under Assault (see more and links below)


The UFT didn't show at 4:30. Or at 5. Or at 5:30.

So they held a rally on their own. You know something? It looked like they were having a much better time than the people who went to the information session at 52 Broadway, which is where I was in an attempt to get some video. (I'll be putting up my commentary of my adventures in the world of Unity Caucusville in the next day or two.) John Powers was the MC and lots of real people got to speak. Most of the people who have been active in the critical wing of the UFT seem to have been there --- parteeee. When Randi and crew arrived around 6, she was heckled. The gang from Unity was practically out numbered. Some of us continued the party in a cafe up the block after the rally.



Twenty six minutes of raw footage, thanks to David B.

Also, see a brief slideshow of the rally with part of Marjorie's speech.


UPDATE:
People who think the ATR agreement was a win for the UFT are missing a point about why many principals, especially those with little ed background, don't want to hire experienced teachers who can see through the bull of the ed jargon and just might tell the emperor he has no clothes. There is enough insecurity around to make them prefer a newbie who they know won't have the knowledge to look askance at some of the programs they are putting in.

I would bet a lot less ATRs get jobs than people think. After a year, watch the DOE and press go after those who didn't and the howl to drive them out of the system will resound. Thus, in some ways this is a long-term investment by the DOE and why I don't consider this a win for the UFT.

These thought are echoed by Pissed Off who confronted Unity Caucus suits at her school who were telling the teachers how good they had it.

I asked the union lackey about ATRs. He said, they just got a great deal from the DOE. Smart principals will hire them in a minute. I reminded him of the fact that principals do not like experienced teachers, that they don't like teachers that think and have minds of their owns. Years ago, principals hid vacancies whenever they could. No one wanted a veteran teacher who would not jump when told to. He said smart principals did not think like that. I said the smart ones were few and far between. He just kept talking about the one smart principal he used to work for.

Under Assault tells us about

Four kinds of tenure, but who's counting

For those who think Weingarten's ATR agreement with the DoE on the tenure issue has helped the profession much, think again.

UA goes on to talk about the rally.

Oh, yes. Did I tell you that Weingarten sabotaged her own rally yesterday? Well, it really wasn't her rally, because it's obvious she collaborated with Klein to diminish seniority rights. This rally was forced upon her when the Delegate Assembly voted for it some weeks ago. She must not have gotten her signals out to her Unity people quickly enough to stifle it, so it got voted in by accident and she had to go along with it.

She begged the organizers to call it off. Didn't work.

She scheduled an "informational" meeting for ATRs at the UFT HQ a half hour before the rally was supposed to start — two subway stops away, mind you.

She had people at the City Hall station telling people making their way to the rally to go down to the UFT instead.

And she served them wine and cheese down there, when — for solidarity's sake — they should have really been at Tweed.

And of course she kept the meeting running for a couple of hours, so there was no way anyone was going to get to Tweed to hear the enraged protests going on over there.

This is union-busting of the WORST kind. It came from union management.