- The DOE has set up DOE legal to advise principals on how to chop up their teaching corps.
- The UFT has set up gotz.
- Teachers full well know that the union doesn't have their backs if they stick their necks out.
- 75% of NYC teachers are women and many are victims of abuse by principals - I'm not talking sexual, but bullying, though I bet a lot more sexual harassment goes on than is recognized.
Duhhhh!
The UFT/Unity Caucus leadership just can't understand why so many teachers are too fearful to stand up to their all-powerful principals - an expansion of power granted to them under Bloomberg unopposed by the union leadership.
In the article I wrote for Another View in the UFT , I compared these put downs of the real fear so many teachers feel every day to the putdowns of women who feared to come forward for so many years. The same mechanism of the effect of so much power in the hands of bosses and people in control of one's career is operating. And let's not forget that 75% of NYC teachers are women, thus doubling the stakes for them, though of course men are also affected.
So for the leadership to take the attitude that they not take the lead in opposing principal power openly, but only work behind the scenes using the excuse that teachers must act and organize in the school first is not only lame but inexcusable in these times.
It doesn't seem to occur to them that their job is to take the lead when chapters are disorganized and under assault.
4 comments:
The only reason why I will PROBABLY stay in the UFT is that we have legal representation for 3020a hearings. However, the UFT needs to have a lawyer "hotline" just like the CSA has the legal "hotline". If CSA knew we could contact a legal rep at any time, it would put the CSA on notice that they would not be able to mess with us like they do now.
Young female teachers are sexually harassed by students.
A UFT official asks why members don't speak up to defend themselves against abusive principals?
That's a hot one, sort of like a police officer who smirks a boys-will-be-boys smirk at woman suffering domestic abuse, and then asks why they don't defend stand up for themselves.
This union mis-leadership clearly identifies more with management than it does with the members who pay their generous salaries and double pensions, is hopelessly rotten, and has got to go.
I tend to agree. Why don't they stand up? Maybe they are afraid of having a 3020a hearing tossed at them where the union will meekly give the appearance of support but let them get thrown under the bus? And even if they win, they will be relegated to the ATR pool.
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