Unity is clearly shaken by our alliance of opposition groups. Check out the District Rep for District 25 making up a story online and on Facebook wrongfully charging longtime dissident leader Norm Scott with being a scab. ...If a Unity District Rep who is an employee of the UFT is making up nonsense about opposition leaders right after United for Change just announced a joint slate, you know they will do and say anything to keep their power, their jobs that pay close to and over $200,000 per year, and their double pensions. It's not about supporting members; it's about their perks. The lies will probably get worse as election season gets closer... ICEUFT Blog
Sorry about the bullshit that some UFT reps spout out. They are an embarrassment to many in the UFT.... Unity Caucus member
Word is out that after the Oct. DA announcement of opposition groups working together and the announcement of United for Change at before the Nov. 17 DA, Unity held high powered pow wows and went into DEFCON mode, ordering all its highly paid officials to head out to the schools to defend their failed policies, something the opposition is praying for since most of these people don't have any real answers to the rot pervading the 60 year Unity Caucus.
There are even whispers that some Unity people are very unhappy with Mulgrew and would welcome someone else to run for President in this year's election. My guess is they are just whispers from a few, though we do hear some Unity retirees are not very happy over the healthcare mess Mulgrew has made.
But Unity trolls and hacks were also turned loose to attack voices of opposition. Thus,
Lamar Hughes has left a new comment on your post "DA UPDATE: Class Size Amendment Passes Over Unity Oppo, Mulgrew ballistic over retirees listening outside, UFT/Unity Staffers on payroll challenged":Report seemed a little childish. Just tell the story. Keep the snide comments to yourself.
You don’t hear anyone coming up with nicknames for Norm after he crossed the picket line in 1968.
Oh, y’all didn’t know??? Norm Scott crossed the picket line in 1968.
Hmmm. A highly paid union employee, District 25 (Queens) Lamar Hughes, someone I've never met and
wouldn't know if I fell over him.
It's not easy to get into other people's heads and examining what goes on in the brains of highly paid UFT officials is like untangling dried out spaghetti. Apparently Lamar was offended by my mocking his fellow high paid district 7 rep colleague Bill Woodruff for his increasingly boorish behavior when I referred to him as "Ruff Ruff".
[When Ruff Ruff goes into schools in his district, some light barking will be appropriate. Or when he speaks at DA, some ruff ruffs from delegates to cheer him on.]
Poor Lamar Hughes - he called me a - SCAB - except it's entirely untrue, but nothing new for Unity Caucus hacks who always assumed everyone opposed to Unity Caucus in the late 60s crossed the 1968 picket lines.
As I wrote yesterday, UFT/Unity in DEFCON Mode and no holds barred. Word is they are doing desperate oppo research to dig up some dirt on Educators of NYC organizer Daniel Alicea who has become a prominent voice in the opposition despite having voted for Unity in 2019 --- Unity has to be worried that he is not the only defector.
The problem for Lamar and the truth is that I was not an activist until late 1970 when I began to hang out with some people who did cross the line and even opened up closed schools during the 68 strike -- guilt by association, I guess.
My worst transgression in the 68 strike was still living with mommy and daddy and not really needing the 98 bucks a week take home pay. Not did I have any political ideology to make me go in to teach as a second year ATR assigned to the same school the principal let me go from just a few months before. I was actually overjoyed there was a strike so I could spend some time on the picket line before were told to go home around 11 because there were no teachers going in. I don't even remember kids going in - I think the principal closed down the school as being unsafe - the 68 strike was also a hidden strike by supervisors, who were the most threatened by community control.
I stopped going pretty soon and then a colleague asked me to teach middle school with her at a church for 3 hours a day at 20 bucks a day -- two more than I was taking home from the DOE. I think that gig ended after a few weeks. Then it was back to basketball and golf. So when the strike ended - crap - back to hell - and a longer day too and working xmas vacation at double pay - except I had booked a trip to Florida I couldn't cancel. At that point I intended to complete my two year commitment to teaching by June 1969 and go back to grad school. But fate intervened - in February 1969 I volunteered to take over a class vacated by the only teacher who had actually taught during the strike (he was sent to another school) and fell in love with the kids - it was like a lifetime flu.
I recognized the Lamar Hughes attack from the 70s when Unity hacks often attacked oppo people as scabs. I was at the AFT 1975 (pre-75 strike) convention with two buddies who had crossed the line in 68 handing out The Case Against Shanker when I was called a scab by a top union official and yelled back that I had never crossed a UFT picket line - she actually stopped in surprise and we had a chat. So I'm imagining that there is still a culture in Unity about oppo people having crossed the lines.
Camille Eterno claims every conversation I have begins with a noun, verb, followed by a discussion of the '68 strike. So thanks Lamar, for giving me a chance to bring up my favorite subject.
In the early 70s I began to learn about their reasons for crossing the line and many of them made sense. But I always argued that even if you opposed the strike, it might have been more fruitful over time to honor the strike while fighting against the people in the Unity leadership who perpetrated the strike. And over the years I further learned that there were some muddy waters on both sides, with anti-union forces pushing their version of community control which had to weaken the UFT in its very concept.
I've been in study groups on UFT history discussing the 68 strike and when I debated Leo Casey on the Leonie Haimson/Daniel Alicea hosted WBAI Talk Out of School, we did touch on the 68 strike. (Norm Scott and Shanker Inst Head Leo Casey - Insid...)
Fact is the 68 strike does not fit into the normal category of strikes - like the other two I participated in 67 and 75. Most UFTers are not informed about the complexities, the preface and the after effects. The UFT claims it was about illegal firings - which were actually illegal transfers and seniority issues. What is the usual response of a union? Grievances, courts, etc, not a 3 month strike. Even Randi wouldn't defend the strike, especially when she killed seniority and created the ATRs.
There are so many more violations going on today, but we don't hear the Lamar Hughes types in Unity calling for a strike, but offering instead a whimper.
http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2021/11/united-for-change-in-chief-unity.html
UNITED FOR CHANGE IN THE CHIEF; UNITY DISTRICT REP REACTS BY LYING ABOUT OPPOSITION LEADER
NYCDOENUTS
http://nycdoenuts.blogspot.com/2021/11/verbal-attacks-by-paid-union-employees.html
Unity is clearly shaken by our alliance of opposition groups. Check out the District Rep for District 25 making up a story online and on Facebook wrongfully charging longtime dissident leader Norm Scott with being a scab.
If a Unity District Rep who is an employee of the UFT is making up nonsense about opposition leaders right after United for Change just announced a joint slate, you know they will do and say anything to keep their power, their jobs that pay close to and over $200,000 per year, and their double pensions. It's not about supporting members; it's about their perks. The lies will probably get worse as election season gets closer.
I think Lamar acted on his own. There has never been an organized Unity response to the blogs. No support for him and no attempt to change the conversation. I don't think Unity is at Defcon anything. They're just ignoring you.
ReplyDeleteYou must be out of the loop. Insiders telling tales.
DeleteWhere's your evidence? You have two comments and they're from me. James has almost no Unity traffic at all. If Unity is panicked, they're not letting on.
ReplyDeleteEvidence of Unity panic? Insiders. You think unity doesn’t leak?
DeleteAs a Unity member I can confirm Unity leadership is absolutely 100% panicking right now.
ReplyDeleteI'm on UFT staff. All I heard was the usual election year pablum from Leroy. No different from any other election year. Sorry to disappoint.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you're not important enough to be in the loop
DeleteWhoever said there is no panicking has missed a few key meetings. Keep turning up the heat.
DeleteOof. Touche' I am a small fry. But panic would filter down, so I don't think that's accurate. Though the opposition does have some advantages this year. Depends on how bad your Presidential candidate is. Or how good
ReplyDeleteWhen we think about strategy facing unity we should think back to the way the Gompers era AFL worked. William z Foster has written a number of very important books about organizing and being sabotaged by the AF of l. The tactics are known and the counter tactics are known as well. We have a world to win
ReplyDelete