What this means I believe is that the UFT members have no say or vote but correct me if I am wrong. Randi says AFT members overwhelmingly support the privatization of the nation's public school system. Randi does mention the Obama ed policies of the Obama/Duncan disastrous policies for the nation's teachers, students and parents. She claims Obama has supported workers' rights – by cheering the firing of all those teachers in Central Falls?
Now, is there really a choice here? I guess it was hopeless to expect that holding an endorsement hostage would work. But I know one thing ---- I ain't getting up early on a Sunday morning to travel to Allentown PA to spend a day working for Obama this year. And I bet a hell of a lot of teachers won't be doing the same either.
Dear Norman,
This morning the AFT executive council voted to endorse the candidacy of Barack Obama for president in 2012. Watch this message from AFT President Randi Weingarten on the endorsement.
Education, jobs and the economy continue to be the top issues confronting our members and the country. When President Obama took office, he inherited an economy on the verge of collapse. Over the past three years, he has proposed and fought for legislation—despite an implacable Congress—that has worked to stabilize the economy, save jobs and prevent cuts to vital services that Americans depend on.
Watch why AFT endorses Obama!
See where the candidates stand on issues that matter to our members by visiting AFT’s new 2012 Election website.
The Republican candidates are promoting a view of America that differs greatly from those concerned about economic and educational fairness. These candidates seek to repeal healthcare legislation. They have supported efforts to strip workers of collective bargaining and a voice in the workplace by jamming through so-called “right to work for less” legislation, as we saw in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere. And they support tax plans that don’t ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.
These are not minor differences. Re-electing Barack Obama will move our country forward in a direction that is fundamentally different from that of any of the contenders still in the running for the Republican nomination.
Watch President Weingarten’s video on the recent endorsement here.
This does not mean that we agree with every decision the president and his administration have made, particularly those education policies that place more emphasis on competition and measurements than on promoting what frontline professionals and parents know will improve teaching and learning in our classrooms. We recognize there is still work to be done. When we have disagreed with the Obama administration, the AFT has made that known, and we will continue to do so.
We hope you will join us in supporting the re-election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. Together, we can work to restore a strong middle class and a strong economy, and ensure that everyone has a fair shot at achieving the American dream.
For up-to-date information on the 2012 election, be sure to visit the AFT 2012 Election website and check out its Members Only section.
In unity,
John Ost
AFT Political Director
Total nonsense. I really want to rip up my AFT membership card after reading this. Randi sold out the UFT and now she is supporting Obama who will sell out current as well as future teachers. Get big business out of education!
ReplyDeleteTHe country will soon hear how Weingarten, Uft boss DAve Hickey, UFT Staff Directors Ellie Engler, Garry Sprung, LeRoy Barr and New York Teacher editor Deidre McFadyen sabotaged the Obama campaign in 2008. I was suspended for two days without pay- no due process- for sending a pro-Obama article to about 100 UFT officials on an email list. Let's not forget that Weingarten and Mulgrew would not allow the MEMBERS to vote on Obama during the 2008 election-one of the major turning points in America's history! Weingarten refused to allow the members to vote on Carl McCall, Bill Thompson, Freddy Ferrer. (anyone see a racial pattern here?) Her choice for mayor in 2001- her good buddy Alan Hevesi -is now in jail.
ReplyDeleteOn all choices, they left it up to their Unity- controlled Delegate Assembly, even though their own internal polling showed that Obama had overwhelming support.
Let's hear Weingarten and McFadyen defend it under oath.
-Jim Callaghan.
more tomorrow.
As usual, Callaghan has it right. This is the real story about how Weingarten f........ed Obama. Weingarten shoved Hillary down our throats without a membership vote. As we have since found out, Weingarten lusted after Hillary's-----Senate seat with Bloomberg's support.
ReplyDeleteShe lied to the Times saying she never requested an interview with Governor Paterson, until Paterson ratted her out and said she made a call asking to be appointed. Then she 'fessed up.
THat is the real reason why we didnt get the contract that Bloomberg supposedly promised us in 2009 so we would take a walk in the mayoral race and mayoral control.
As for McFadyen, everyone who works with her knows she is horror show. A backbiting social climber who treats her staff like dirt. They despise her. When I was a D.R., we could get some stories written with Weingarten's approval.
McFadyen was hired -according to what Weingarten told us- to "get tough" with the New York Teacher staff. Imagine that? A union leader hires an unqualified person to ride herd on writers? She is a mean-spirited person, a lousy editor with zero management skills and the staff there told me she brooded all day, rarely talked to the writers and had no interest in the in the schools or how our teachers were being abused every day. Like Weingarten and Mulgrew, she said the ATR's and rubber roomers deserved to be fired!
McFadyen turned the newspaper into a happy talk piece of garbage, full of advertising. She is a disgrace to the labor movement.
I agree with what is said here. However, if Hillary were elected, would the ed deform movement be as strong as it is now? Let me be clear: I don't like either political party (perhaps "hate" is a better word), but Hillary would have ben better on education. Race to the Top???
ReplyDelete