Chance of Losing? Just don't hold an election: Randi Weingarten Ally Follows Course in DC

Typhoid Randi

[Washington DC teacher union president] George Parker REFUSED to provide the necessary information so that the elections committee could proceed with union elections. Now that's a way for Parker to stay in office.

Now if you New York teachers think this doesn't apply to you - after all Mulgrew, one of the 12 most effective labor leaders, [according to City Hall News] - won 91% of the vote because he talked like he was effective - the same type of shenanigans will take place if there is ever a contested election here. After all, Randi Weingarten is involved on Parker's side. She was quick to have the AFT intervene over a relatively minor issue on the constitution of the election committee, using that as an excuse to postpone the elections to give her pal Michelle Rhee time to get a vote on a new contract before Parker opponent Nathan Saunders could win an election and use his pulpit to campaign against the contract.

Randi won that round but then there was this pesky thing called an election that was SUPPOSED to still take place. A pro Saunders slate was elected to the NEW election committee.

Randi and Parker have to engage in these tactics because they don't have their own pet phony opposition like New Action to endorse the incumbent (like New Action has done in here in 3 straight elections and will continue to do forever) and create a distraction for the members. But I'll write more about how NYC differs from other cities in a future post.

See Candi's Peterson's Post:

No WTU Elections For You: If President George Parker Has Anything To Do With It

Now with the Chicago runoff between the Unity-like UPC and the chief opposition, CORE due to take place this Friday, observers are keeping an eye out for the kinds of procedural games the AFT (which has a full-time staffer assigned to work with the UPC) and the UPC might play. I would bet that they already have a procedural protest planned and all written up and ready to go just in case CORE, which ran a dead heat with the UPC in round 1 and has been endorsed by the caucus leaders of the next two finishers, might win on Friday. In round one over 30 ballot boxes were not picked up by the AAA and instead delivered by UPC staff people. This is Chicago. So CORE might have done even better.

Guess where such a protest goes? Why to Randi at the AFT. In 2004, the AFT clearly supported the UPC even though there were some serious doubts. So if there is a protest of Friday's election by the UPC people will be watching what the AFT does very carefully. Since CORE has a real base, unlike so many opposition parties which are heads with no bodies - see NYC for example - and if the election is stolen watch for a massive explosion in Chicago.

The election also has some impact on the AFT convention in Seattle on July 7-11. If CORE wins and sends 150 delegates - I know this pales in comparison to the Unity 800 - but if they start linking up with delegates opposed to Randi's taking the AFT down the ed deform road, there will be national implications.

But of course the real national implications for a CORE win would be for the Obama/Duncan program. Coming right from the belly of the ed deform beast of 16 years of mayoral control, having a group consisting of a lot of young, activist teachers take power would shake the tree. CORE has stood up over it's two plus years of existence against school closings and battled the charter school influx which has reduced the number of Chicago teacher union members from around 34,000 to 28,000. CORE stands firmly against the Race to the Top crap that the AFT is dishing out to help get laws changed.

Note how the press and the blogs have ignored this story. Anti-union "reporters" like Mike Antonucci who will expose a union leader for sneezing without using a handkerchief, seems to have forgotten where Chicago is despite the lovely reminders I send him.

And Alexander Russo, who writes the TWIE blog (which I don't read regularly but have not seen any reports on the Chicago election) along with the District 299 blog about Chicago education even though he lives in Brooklyn, also has precious little about the election on that blog. Living in Brooklyn must make it tough to cover. He should read George Schmidt's Substance so he would know what's going on. And all of you should too to see what the Unity-like UPC is willing to pull to hold onto power, with the support I might add of the Chicago power structure and behind the scenes, the AFT.

And here in NYC? We seem to be at least 3-5 years behind, but if you watch what Mulgrew has done in the two plus months since his 91% victory, you can see what is coming.

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About the graphic:
The other day, Michael Fiorillo branded Randi Weingarten "Typhoid Randi" for spreading toxicity through union compliance with the ed deform agenda. Just a few words to David Bellel and "Voila!"