July 6 - UFT Contract Vote Count in the Catacombs and Retiree Court case rally at Thomas Paine Park

Join me at the UFT contract vote count Thursday - 

• Rushed UFT Contract Ratification Process Leads to Integrity Questions

 
Join www.nycretirees.org for help make a donation and subscribe to their newsletter

 

July 5

 

Tomorrow, July 6, two events are taking place related to the UFT.

 

Resisting Mulgrewcare: Party time outside the retiree law suit

The deadline for opting out of the Medicare Advantage Plan was extended to July 10 - let's see if the judge has anything to say about that, given that some doctors are not even aware of it and people don't have the info they need. My immediate sense is there are a hell of a lot of people willing to waive their benefits - in some cases ten grand - to stay in Medicare -- the city benefits by not havign to pay -- I'm not letting them get away with that so I will not be opting out.

Thomas Paine Park is an appropriate spot for meeting up in an era of UFT/Unity leadership of increasing suppression of democracy in the face of attacks on critical voices.

So 90 degrees won't stop us boomers - actually, I'm a pre-boomer, having breathed the same air as FDR for the first month of my life. I will also be going to.....

 

The UFT contract vote  is also tomorrow and members have a right to observe -- I'm intending to go if I can find out where it is - I have attended contract vote counts as an observer a number of times in the past.

Do I expect the increasingly oppressive UFT leadership to toss obstacles in the way? I do. They see information as an enemy, to be attacked and they engage in the Trump tactic of shouting "fake" news.

The likely suspected places to observe are either at the American Arbitration Association at 120 Broadway, the UFT at 52 or some arbitrary subway catacombs. 

We pretty much expect the contract to pass but by how much is the issue.

And what about the snafus pointed out here:

Rushed UFT Contract Ratification Process Leads to Integrity Questions

Mistakes were made, never by the UFT leadership but by some gremlin. Maybe Chat AI. Did some packages mailed by schools get to the AAA or get lost? I'd like to see a list of schools that were returned and those that were not? 

Here is the letter sent by the 7 UFC Ex Bd members on June 27 - with as far as I know, no reply:

 

June 27, 2023

From: Ronnie Almonte batresalmonte@gmail.com Nick Bacon, bacon.nick.a@gmail.com
Ed Calamia gonzojour2002@aol.com
Alex Jallot alexjallot@gmail.com

Ibeth Mejia i.rosiomejia@gmail.com
Ilona Clara Nanay icnanay@gmail.com
Luli Rodriguez rodriguez.luli1@gmail.com

High School Representatives to the United Federation of Teachers Executive Board To: Hiro Kawahara

AAA Director of Elections, 120 Broadway 21st Fl, New York, NY, 10271 AAAelectionsdirector@adr.org

Cc: Ken Egger, AAA National Vice President of Elections, eggerk@adr.org
Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers mmulgrew@uft.org
Melinda Person, New York State United Teachers President, melinda.person@nysut.org Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers President, rweingarten@aft.org

You are no doubt aware of the challenges in the UFT contract ratification process regarding delays in ballots arriving at schools and challenges with return mailing labels for ballot packets.

Many chapters did not receive ballots until Thursday or Friday June 22nd or 23rd, resulting in rushed balloting on the last two days of school on the 26th and 27th and potentially affecting turnout.

Even more worrisome, the mailing labels sent out for the return of ballots from schools had to be corrected and re-sent three times, in successive emails on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, June 21st-23rd. The last email informed chapter leaders that some post office personnel were not accepting the new return labels and they instead had to be sent via a self-service kiosk (which is not available at all post office locations). We have received reports that this has resulted in difficulty in chapter leaders returning their ballot packets, and may have resulted in some packets not being received at all by AAA.

The integrity of the contract ratification process is of utmost importance to our members as it will determine the working conditions in schools and learning conditions for a million New York City school children for the next four years.

We would like to request that the AAA record and publish the number of ballots returned from each school chapter in each category (teacher, paraprofessional, secretary, guidance counselor, lab specialist). This would allow chapter leaders who mailed their ballots with the faulty labels to determine if their ballots actually arrived at the count, allowing the union to understand the scope and scale of the lost vote.

We hope that the actual impact on the vote of these problems will be minimal, but transparent and public accountability will be key in retaining the trust and confidence of our members in this process.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request. Please feel free to contact us at the email addresses listed above.

Sincerely
Ronnie Almonte, Nick Bacon, Ed Calamia, Alex Jallot, Ibeth Mejia, Ilona Nanay, Luli Rodriguez