Well, we knew that over time the end of elections a decade ago, with people retiring (many of the older DRs who were appointed by Randi after 2002 had been elected so still had some loyalty to the chapter leaders) many in the new crop don't feel they owe the chapter leaders anything.
Unrest from below: Received from one school:
What do you do when a certain Queens District Rep gets too cozy with the principals?I take the position that MORE will be build one brick - and one school at time. This is coming not from the usual activists inside the UFT beltway, and the MORE these come, the MORE MORE will grow. That's how I measure growth, not by vote counts every 3 years but by what is happening underneath. But if MORE doesn't provide whatever support it can to these schools (which currently it not much) it will come to seem as distant as the leadership. MORE is in the early days of developing a structure but to do this bottom up requires some analysis and thinking it through.
Teachers in this DR's district are completely FED UP with this DR:
- misinforming chapter leaders and members
- discouraging any grievances from being filed
- telling chapter leaders principals can "do whatever they want"
- having inappropriate friendships with principals and superintendents
- not being trusted by members
- only being in it for the perks
- not addressing complaints on principals
- misrepresenting the contract
If this school and district become a MORE outpost that would be a breakthrough in an historic Unity support area. That takes putting some organizational effort into this but it is not always clear to me how to go about this. Right now MORE is still basically centralized but must figure this stuff out. I am just too old to get into the kind of effort this will take but I hope the younger gen of activists are capable of doing this.
40 comments:
Norm is now targeting an anonymous District Rep with here say. Come on Norm, surely you remember that letters to file can't contain nonsense like this. Typical crap from Norm the MOREon.
This describes my district rep except mine is from the Bronx
Great Post true to the core.
Unity hacks must be getting nervous. Keep up the good work Norm!! Unity leadership only interested in ONE THING - keeping their jobs so they don't have to return to the classroom and be subjected to the same abuse as everyone else.
GO M.O.R.E.!!!
I just want to say here that I also disapprove of "here say." Frankly, I'm not altogether fond of there say either.
This is the new vision for positive alternative leadership: yellow journalism, smear tactics, hearsay. This is how MORE plans to defend UFT members? Before you say I'm a Unity hack trying to paint your personal views as expressed on Ednotes as MORE positions, look at the three anonymous comments at 1231, 304 and 340 - three MORE people agreeing with you that this is a great way to go, accusing people with no proof. Isn't this what you have been complaining DOE does to UFT members to get them removed from the classroom? A consortium of disgruntled people with no experience and no plans and lacking the fortitude to substantiate extremely serious charges - that is who UFT members should vote into office to protect their rights and improve their working conditions?
@Anonymous 5:08
Unity has done WRONG by their momebers. Plain and simple. I can't find one single member who is happy with the current UFT leadership, including our district rep as well.
Time has come for new leadership. Mulgrew/Unity continue to sell us out. I have no idea why Unity people think their members are satisfied with them. Most teachers are miserable in their schools. What has Unity done about it?
District Reps and Chapter Leaders seem to be ready to lie to members about their rights. Does this sound like a UNION to you?? Why does UFT continue to collect dues if they won't or CAN'T do anything for their members??
Only a matter of time before Unity will be history. Members have wised up. Think Chicago.
lol,..No, we should reelect the Deputy Chancellor in charge of employee benefits!!
Only with a Unity hack can strength and commitment to members be viewed as suspect. You people are living in the sixties and are yesterday's news....like the supporters of Metternich; you're all for the status quo and you have no idea why. Laughable, really; if you weren't turning my union into a laughing stock along with you.
It seems clear that your tactic for attacking the Unity party is to keep throwing jello on the Unity wall until maybe something will stick. It is also obvious that all of your wild allegations are designed only to fulfill your grandiose dreams of power. You are using middle school cafeteria politics in a very serious arena where people's livelihoods are at stake.
You must realize, though, that when you throw this kind of irresponsible rhetoric out in public, you put everyone at risk.
Nice job playing into Bloomberg's plan of divide and conquer.
Cut the crap talk. Understand that not everyone buys your brand of bullpucky.
Unity needs to be called out for what it is...
Unity is CORRUPT. Members have HAD it with the lies and the sellouts. Unity deserves to go down in flames. Let the leadership go back to the classroom and be subjected to the same bs as the rest of us.
We're tired of seeing UFT "leaders" collecting 6 figures while they look the other way while members' careers are being destroyed one by one. You call that a union?
It's time for a change. Not ONE member is happy with Unity. Not one. Unity is very good at making sure members are not informed so it's possible to see teachers vote against their interest.
There is a definite change since the last election. Members want to see new leadership.
The Queens District Rep meetings are noted for the extra tub of grease next to the bagels.
Did some Unity hack actually refer to me as a "journalist"? So sad. Shows the kind of poor judgement that has led this union down the beaten path.
This comment was retrieved from the spam folder and I'm posting it for an anon commenter:
Hey Norm,
These slugs are going nuts. You know the problem? They all think these comments about the district rep are about them. There irony is that by NOT naming the district rep you are protecting him or her. So many Queens district reps are known to be losers and the Queens borough office used to be the worst until the Bronx took that title from them. Keep them coming. And Unity guys, how about putting yourselves up for election by the chapter leaders in your district? Do you think you could win?
Wow, you are, to use your own words, "quite a wordsmith". What you are doing here is definitely not journalism. If you were a journalist, you would publish the name of the DR your source, and any other evidence that substantiates your allegations. If you were truly interested in righting a wrong here, you would take the appropriate steps to report the misconduct. If what you are saying is true, you would be doing every UFT member a service by doing so. Why don't you do it?
Someone comments on the legitimacy of your claims and asks you to substantiate them with evidence. You reply by bringing up the 1960's, Prince Metternich and insulting people. That is truly laughable.
What about chapter leaders who socialize with the principal? There's plenty of that going around, too!
Norm,
So let's get what the Unity slug above is saying. Tell us the name of the teacher who is exposing the district rep and the cozy relationships with the principals so we can make sure the principal shuts this person up by threatening this teacher with a u rating which we know the teacher will never be able to challenge. Wow. You are right. Vichy.
Norm is a muckraker and never pretended to be anything else. You guys getting your underwear all twisted in a knot is a sign norm is on to something. Otherwise you wouldn't be wasting your time monitoring a blog you claim not to respect. It is clear you have a stake in all this and must be working for the union. The average teacher couldn't give a shit about you or Norm.
Unity is nervous. As well they should be. If Unity had done right by their members, they would have had nothing to worry about.
Only thing they want is to HOLD ON TO POWER and do whatever it takes to keep that power including doing what the mayor wants. Long as they're sitting in their offices in high paid jobs, all is well. No matter the people that PAY THEIR SALARIES and rely on them to help them are thrown under the bus.
And I agree with the anon commenter - Queens Uft office is awful!
The head of the Queens office was known for supporting principals against teachers. She had Randi pull an article in the NY Teacher that went after the principal of John Adams High School with the comment "it would ruin her career." Jim Callaghan was the reporter and wrote about that. A FOIL request asking for the UFT Rep records led to the UFT hiring the FOILER at over 50grand a year to shut her up.
Queens borough rep supports principals?????? How much does that borough rep make?
Washington Sanchez is a Unity hack who makes a bee line for the principals office the second he enters a school. His job is not to support the chapter but, to resolve a complaint or grievance before it goes to the Queens UFT. He is an appeaser and has no spine a perfect fit for Ms Frieser the Randi person controlling the Queems UFT office. Members in the new schools created by the Bloomberg /Klein DOE probably have no idea how to file or their right to file a grievance. Someone should FOIL ( if allowable) the Queens UFT to see how many grievances were filed since Frieser and the likes of Washington Sanchez have been screwing the members. MORE should make in roads this next election.
You're a twit. Have you ever experienced how autocorrect changes what you type? Or, do you just feel superior pointing mistakes out? Regardless, you didn't counter or write anything of substance.
Yup, Unity hacks reeeaaaalllllyy nervous. Or is just the QUEENS Unity hacks that are nervous? Hmmmmm?
Members in the OLD schools don't know about filing complaints and grievances either. My DR - also in Queens - (posssibly under the direction of Ms Frieser?) is telling members they cant file grievances either. Whats going on?
Why am I paying dues?
Yep, people are really nervous because of your generic, non informative posts. Keep telling yourself you're doing a good job. Loser.
Who's cooler you or the person above who points out grammar and spelling mistakes? Both losers.
If the posts are so noninformative, why do you keep reading them?
Ignorance is my enemy. It's about calling BS on all the nonsense on this blog. Got it, dolt?
What's going on? Easy, you're posting lies and being full of shit.
What the stugots here fail to acknowledge is that there must be some sort of relationship between labor and management. Not every issue is worthy of war. Further, a certain degree of being cordial aids in resolving issues.
Only ones who are full of shit are the UFT "leaders". Members are TIRED of being lied to and abused.
NOT "HERE SAY", but "hearsay"-U rating for that person!!
Do you feel superior pointing that out? Just another MOREon, huh?
Unity/mulgrew has sold membership out. Did they think members wouldnt notice? Dont know about MORE but I definitely wont be voting for unity
No, I do not feel superior at all. Just know that the guy who wrote that post is the real moron. Bet ALL of those folks that you refer to as "MOREons" would have spelled it correctly!!
Listen, this guy may act like an a-hole and is either lying about not working for the union (I offer him a cash bonus of $100 if he can prove he does not earn anything from the UFT) or misleading us about being a real teacher --- just talk to most real teachers who feel under assault and you know this is not indicative of someone in the average school or he teaches in a very good place where the principal is nice or he sucks up and the path the UFT has led us down has not affected him -- or there is no charter beating path through his classroom --- but let's not jump on people for simple mistakes. I see some of the smartest people I know make basic errors - the same ones - repeatedly which means they don't understand the use of its, it's, their, there, etc. The problem? People are no longer being taught these skills. So when it comes to these issues we should lay off. I can't tell you how often I get emails from people privately telling me to go back in and correct simple errors in ed notes.
Well since you're too spineless to put a name to your gas it's hard to say if you're the Avon lady or a WTFA edutourist you dodgy wee piece a shite. And maybe in one of those hundred classes you hand out worksheets to you might explain that slander is a verball ejaculation while written contumely is known as libel. Great teacher you. Fucking dumbass. Keep hiding behind your barricades with the rest of the bottom feeding hacks. Anonymouse.
What's with the innuendos and vague generalizations? If there's a DR, in Queens or elsewhere, who is guilty of the reprehensible behavior you detail, then name him or her. Otherwise, you're just as full of bs as the discredited Joe McCarthy with his non-existent list of government traitors.
Psst, did you hear, there's an educational blogger who spreads negative rumors about people he doesn't like without supplying any concrete details? I won't tell you who he is, or what his motives might be, you'll just have to guess.
You must be using the same polling firm Rove was when he assured Republicans that Romney would win in a landslide. Come back after Mulgrew and the Unity team have an overwhelmingly, decisive win, then you can continue on about what the members want.
I would like to know who I am supposed to contact, or file a complaint with, if a UFT Representative deliberately misrepresented me, when I was at the Department of Education; causing my LODI to be denied the very next day?
I revealed this information to several UFT Representatives, and nothing has been done about it. I am
extremely upset about being misrepresented. Moreover, this situation has caused me hardship. In
addition I do not know who to trust, because the representatives that I have disclosed this information to, completely ignored what happened to me. Furthermore, a few of the UFT representatives that I have revealed this information to, said, “I do not want to hear the complaint because “that” UFT Representative is my colleague.”
Please inform me of what I should do. I do not feel safe because I was blatantly misrepresented by a UFT representative, that I thought I could trust. I do not know who to trust because the UFT Representatives
who are supposed to protect me, are ignoring what their colleague wrongfully did to me.
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