Thursday, April 25, 2013

UFT Elections, 4:30PM: Elementary Schools and Functionals

Only division left is Retirees in about half an hour but I'm leaving for the victory party while Ellen, Joan and James hold the fort.

This may be the only division we lose to New Action. We were running last on some quick looks in this category -- we estimate New Action with about 10+% of the retiree vote and MORE with about 6-7%. Actually, this may be the beginning of some minor erosion of Unity but we have to check the finals vs past elections.

Elem total slate 6870  Non slate 297 to be counted.

MORE - 1140
NA 534
Unity 5111

In 2010:
Total: 7761
ICE/TJC - 703
NA - 978

2013 Functionals (non teachers)   Ballots Returned: 7704   Ballots Counted: 7113
MORE: 951                   NEW ACTION: 754                UNITY: 5167



Keys are in comparing results for ICE/TJC and MORE over past few elections.
Unity dropped in functionals by over 2000 votes while MORE gained 200 but still did not top ICE/TJC 2004/07 totals. NA dropped by over 300.
This is slate votes only with 500 split ballots.

Only elem and retirees to go.
We're aiming to come in with more total votes than New Action and then use their 10 seats on the bd while we have none as a democratic battering ram.

Here is James' report on the ICE blog before we had the elem results.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

FIRST ELECTION RESULTS SHOW MORE MAKES SUBSTANTIAL GAINS OVER ICE-TJC NUMBERS FROM 2010

We have initial slate only numbers for the high schools and the middle schools in the UFT election and although Unity and New Action will hold onto their monopoly on power, the new Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) established itself as the main opposition group in the secondary schools by a wide margin.

Here are the slate numbers for the 2013 and 2010 elections in the secondary schools.

2013  Hi;gh Schools   Ballots Returned: 3808   Votes Counted: 3595    
MORE: 1430 (40%)   NEW ACTION: 452 (13%)       UNITY: 1592 (45%)

The remainder are people who split their ballot. 

2010 High Schools    Votes Counted: 5203
MORE: 1369                 NEW ACTION: 774               UNITY: 2595

2013 Middle Schools   Ballots Returned: 1879      Votes Counted: 17886
ICE-TJC: 398                NEW ACTION: 161                   UNITY:1185

The remainder are people who split their ballot.

2010 Middle Schools: Slate Votes Counted: 2881
ICE-TJC: 248                NEW ACTION: 421                UNITY: 1981   

2013 Functionals (non teachers)   Ballots Returned: 7704   Ballots Counted: 7113
MORE: 951                   NEW ACTION: 754                UNITY: 5167

The remainder are people who split their ballot.    


We still have not heard from the traditional Unity strongholds of the Elementary Schools and the retirees so Unity will easily win but with much lower totals than in 2010.

Something is wrong with the UFT electoral system when New Action gets only 13% of the high school votes but wins half of the UFT Executive Board seats for the high schools while MORE's 40% will get MORE no representation on the Executive Board.

It is obvious that a clear majority of the high school teachers who vote do not want a Unity monopoly on power.  Had this been a traditional two party UFT election, there would be truly independent opposition representation (no Unity cross endorsement needed).

Two other stories emerge at first glance.  First, the turnout was pitiful as only 43,138 ballots are being counted.  More significantly, 22,462 of those votes are from retirees.  That constitutes 52% of the voters. I would question if having retirees as the majority of the electorate is healthy for the union.

In addition, Mulgrew's vote will more than likely drop in a major way compared to 2010 among active UFT members.  It appears many members did not vote for the opposition but they certainly didn't vote for the incumbent.  For the next election, those members need to be persuaded to vote.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As long as Unity is in power, it's time for members to find a way to stop paying dues.