Despite splits in some opposition voices over the contract with some of my friends, I believe they are misguided in their support of a Unity Caucus controlled process. My colleagues at ICEUFT and MORE have dentailed their reasons in logical and detailed ways. I don’t need no stink’n facts and figures. I plain do not, not ever have, trusted Unity Caucus to negotiate a contract that I would have faith in. Not since, oh, maybe 1969. Thus I have voted against every single contract and would vote against this if I could (retirees can’t vote.) Fact is the current contract has not been enforced adequately and as Marion Swerdlow points out in detail on the MORE blog, much of the so-called protections are pure bullshit. James has been hitting them hard on the ICEUFT blog, with the latest raising questions on the health care givebacks.
The UFT leadership has been emboldened by the disarray in the opposition, much of it due to the faction currently running MORE. Unity has been on a recruiting binge and given that the opposition seems to have no real future, I can see how some people can be seduced by offers of influence as Unity sells a line of “we want to change in the age of Janus and want you to be part of the changes instead of wasting time in a dead-end opposition.”
You know what? As many former opposition people have discovered over the decades, Unity is also a dead end in terms of reforms.
I’m hoping that the rank and file sees through some of this stuff and votes NO but it is extremely unlikely. A 30% NO would be a victory. An 80-90% YES vote would be a disaster in terms of giving Unity a blank check and a very bleak outlook for anyone considering a run against Unity in the UFT elections in a few months.
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