James has some comparisons to 2014 at the ICE blog:
There were 89,083 total votes cast this year compared to 90,459 in 2014. That's 1,376 fewer voters. In terms of teachers, there were 61,708 votes cast in 2018 compared to 64,232 in 2014. I can't explain that 2,524 drop in numbers for teachers.Obviously a key vote came in the OT/PT chapter with only 36% approving the contract.
Very significant is the 86% teacher vote. Yes, 8600 voted NO in spite of enormous pressure and speed in the process, but 53,000 teachers voted YES. James points to 2500 less teachers voting than last time.
James points to the total NO vote as roughly 12,000.
Let me point out that in the 2016 UFT elections MORE/NA received 10,600 votes. Add the Portelos 1400 and we get about 1200 total in 2016.
What this tells me is that there is a floating 12,000 people in the UFT who are skeptical or opposed to Unity. That number has ranged between 9 and 12,000 over the past decades.
James thinks if the opposition had been in more schools the vote would have been higher.
But that is the point. Why isn't the opposition in more schools? And why has the number of opposition people and schools remained fairly constant over decades?
Here's how I'm beginning to look at it.
There aren't more opposition and therefore a greater vote because being an active part of the opposition doesn't and hasn't appealed to many people beyond this floating core. And I do not see any prospects for this to change in the near future. In fact I think it may shrink, given the opposition is at its weakest point in a very long time.
The staff nurses and (a Unity person told me also the audiologists) didn't vote no on the contract that the OT/PTs rejected. Interesting how the titles get lumped together on a single contract even though that contract gives them different benefits and conditions.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a mystery to me, as an OT supervisor, what I get out of being part of the OT/PT/Nurse supervisors chapter. I believe most of our tiny chapter voted yes on this contract (it;s not perfect but we;ve been around long enough to remember when we worked till 4 PM, worked 12 months, etc) and yet....we're now potentially trapped in the therapists; chapter's no vote.
DeleteTeachers are a highly conformist group of people who seek stability in their lives. They want regular pay checks, benefits and pensions. The 12,000 teachers floating around from one opposition organization to another are the free thinkers. They have the intellectual capacity for analysis of social and political issues. They have well developed speaking and writing skills. The chances that more teachers will exit the herd of sheep are minimal. They busy themselves leaping from one "innovative" educational initiative to the next and will continue to do so.
ReplyDeleteAmen! Roseanne McCosh PS 8X (one of the non-sheep)
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