Big Win for NYC High School Teachers with 6th period exposes 25 year Unity Caucus failure to act - 25 years of malpractice by nature of union bureaucrats/

The DOE claimed the UFT was basically permitting the DOE to ignore the Contract for over 20 years which made the grievance completely untimely now since the UFT never challenged the Department of Education's policy of improperly paying coverage pay rather than the higher sixth-period rate. The DOE reasoned that the they had established a policy that the Union had accepted.

Jeff said...

So the uft should be applauded? The teachers should've had this in the first place. Why the big fight? Why the years of not complying? This is the definition of "It's better than nothng."

James has a great story on the ICE blog about a big win for teachers. But looking into it makes your head spin. I'm sure the UFT will blast this a big win - actually the entire story makes the leadership look pathetic - 

UFT WINS ARBITRATION AFFIRMING RIGHT OF NON-SHORTAGE AREA TEACHERS TO GET SIXTH PERIOD PAY INSTEAD OF LOWER COVERAGE PAY FOR TEACHING A SIXTH CLASS

Aviation High School shop teachers standing up for special per session sixth-period pay of $7,278 per semester  for teaching an extra class each day instead of settling for cut-rate coverage pay of $45.38 per class multiplied by 85 days for a semester which comes to $3,857.30. The math clearly shows that many teachers have been getting cheated out of over $3,400 per semester because principals refuse to follow the contractual rules and pay teachers what they are entitled to for teaching a sixth class in secondary schools. We believed it was a no-brainer grievance as the right to receive sixth-period teaching pay for agreeing to teach a sixth class in secondary schools has been in the Contract since 1998, whether it was for a shortage area or non-shortage area class.

http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2022/07/uft-wins-arbitration-affirming-right-of.html 

Yankee fan Ibeth

Mets fan James - enjoy your (temp) wins

There's a lot of back story on this, some of which I can't talk about. If I did your head would explode. We are giving UFT/Unity HSVP credit for testifying on behalf of the teachers. There's irony in that her testimony helped seal the case because the DOE argued that they should win because the UFT leadership. let this violation go on for so long. OK, let's call it a win for all.

My guess is the arbitrator probably knew the Union was aware of what was up but the DOE was so blatantly wrong in cheating teachers out of their proper pay that she was willing to suspend disbelief a bit.

But let's give UFT VP Janella Hinds some credit:

The arbitrator may have been persuaded the UFT was right because of the testimony of UFT Academic High School Vice President Janella Hinds. Janella's involvement hinted to the arbitrator that this was an important case for the Union. Janella testified to Arbitrator Biren on what the difference is between Article 7N (Coverages) and 7O (teaching a sixth class for a special higher per session rate). She gave details on how coverages are for an emergency absence but the sixth class provision is for the entire semester so the teacher becomes the teacher of record for the class and so he/she plans the lessons, teaches the classes, and assesses the pupils while in a coverage the teacher only teaches a lesson left to them by the regular teacher for an emergency for the day.

Janella has struck many in the oppo as someone who can be worked with.

The story starts many years ago when a new teacher, Ibeth Mejia, taught at Jamaica HS with an awesome chapter leader named James Eterno. 

Principals, however, have wrongfully used the coverage provision to cheat teachers by paying the coverage rate instead of the higher special per session rate. At Aviation High School, principals were shortchanging teachers in shop for over 20 years.

The situation changed this year because of the election of my former Jamaica High School and Middle College High School colleague Ibeth Mejia as Chapter Leader at Aviation. Ibeth knew we didn't stand for anything like ripping off teachers at Jamaica. She asked me to help with this and we did research that the UFT had been ignoring for years. We also publicized this issue in several of our blog postings to highlight how teachers were being cheated out of money when they took on an extra class in a non-shortage area. Ibeth was persistent in pressuring the UFT Grievance Department on this case and encouraging others similarly situated to file grievances.

As Jamaica was being closed down, their teachers were cast asunder all over the city, Ibeth included. When it came turn for James to be put in the ATR pool, he landed at Ibeth's new school and became a rock for the teachers there as the old principal left and abuses began. Ibeth left to go to Aviation, an old Unity dominated trade school. Ibeth ran and won for chapter leader and immediately show she wouldn't take crap from the admin. 

Now the UFT leadership will claim they will fight for people when they take the lead. But do you wonder why Unity couldn't get even one of their chapter leaders to do what Ibeth did over a 25 year period? Sorry, but my judgement is that they were in cahoots with the DOE to save money on the backs of the teachers and there even may be a smoking gun out there to prove that. Call it malpractice by nature of union bureaucrats.

Now here's the best part: Ibeth Mejia was just elected on the United for Change slate to the UFT HS ex bd.

I had a batch of tickets to an upcoming Yankee game and I was able to pass a few to Ibeth for her family to go. It's minimal, but she is the spirit of unionism we need. She's a rabid Yankee fan as I am while James is a Mets fan. No one is perfect.