We’re excited to announce that we’re launching *ABC - A Better Contract*, an election slate of independent-thinking members committed to improving quality of life for all UFT members, their families, and our students.
UFT ELECTIONS
Are you UFT? Get your friends in the know! A grass roots movement of UFT members are getting ready to run a slate for 2025 UFT Citywide elections committed to better pay! Healthcare! Pension/Retiree Benefits! Sign up today here! They are also on "X" formerly known as Twitter. ... Marianne Pizitola,
Well, the announcement just as the Delegate Assembly was starting, certainly caught me and everyone else by surprise. Shock and Awe for some.
It's not like I haven't been meeting with this group, but I'm part of an outer ring where I chip in with advice, which is mostly ignored.
I was not in favor of the ABC name - I wanted Make Union Great Again - MUGA.
I told you they don't listen to me. Thank goodness.
I felt some kind of announcement should have taken place two months ago since this group of independents and some caucus people have been meeting since early August. When I saw the announcement, at first I wasn't sure it was the right moment. But when I saw Marianne Pizzitola shared the news with her network, it dawned on me that this was a BOLD move I haven't seen from the oppo in at least a decade. Maybe 2 or 3 decades.
The attempt to appeal outside the usual circle of caucus politics and reach potential independents who often eschew both Unity and the oppo groups, is a bold move and it has some of the usual suspects upset. But we get to that another time.
I don't like stealth and thing meetings for elections taking place behind closed doors is not healthy for a democratic campaign. There are other groups that are meeting behind closed doors and I see this as a healthy move intended to get people beyond the usual oppo suspects involved. Already I see some new faces and others have been in contact with me through my network that seem interested.
What makes this group different is that there are some Unity and ex-Unity involved as you can see below with Paul Egan, Chad Hamilton and Steve Swieciki. Seventeen year teacher Katie Anskat is new to UFT politics, but in very short order has assumed a major and quite impressive role. The goal has been to attract people like her and this announcement, unlike oppo in past elections which met behind closed door, decided on a platform, candidates and campaign and sprang it all on the rest of the union, the other goal is to get more people involved in the entire process to get some new thinking. A draft platform based on the survey results will probably be offered soon for comment. As to candidates, there are none yet, so come on board.
Other differences, ABC is not about being a caucus over the long term but a group running for the 2025 UFT election and then will disband. So no caucus building but only election building.
I will have a lot more to say in coming posts. But tomorrow I'm busy with the second RTC meeting of the year, which I helped plan and the rest of the week is chemo. So follow-ups may be delayed. Oh, and btw, I saw Rent at the Rockaway Theatre Company twice this weekend and am going back next Sunday. Not many tickets left:
November 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30 @ 8PM
November 17, 24, 30 Dec 1 @ 2 PM
Here is the ABC announcement:
A Better Contract - A UFT Movement Powered by All of Us
A grassroots movement of UFT members to run new slate for the 2025 UFT citywide elections committed to better pay, healthcare, pension/retiree benefits and working conditions.
Good afternoon.
We’re part of the group that published the Our Union Our Voice survey in August and more recently the petitions opposing mandated scripted programs disguised as curriculum and strongly supporting electronic voting in our union elections.
Last month, we also organized and facilitated the first-ever Member Assembly meeting for UFT members, with our next meeting planned for December.
The response has been overwhelming — nearly 1,200 members surveyed, over 1,600 petitions signatures collected, and 150+ in attendance for the first Member Assembly — *and we have heard you*.
Based on your feedback, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching *ABC - A Better Contract*, an election slate of independent-thinking members committed to improving quality of life for all UFT members, their families, and our students.
Our slate will broadly focus on four core commitments:
Making better pay that you deserve a top priority and protecting and improving healthcare and pension/retirement benefits
Demonstrably improving working conditions and regaining and protecting freedom to make decisions as a professional
Building a stronger, more responsive union that is member-driven
Supporting and defending public education from any and all attempts at privatization and reduced funding
We’ll be posting our full platform and much more in the days ahead.
In the meantime, we’re putting out the call for any and all UFT members — both in-service and retirees — who want to make transformative change happen in the DOE and UFT.
Please take a moment to check out our landing page to see how you can get involved:
Stay updated at:
And follow us at:
In solidarity,
Katie Anskat, Queens Metropolitan HS Delegate
katieharten@gmail.com
Paul Egan, PS/MS 194 Chapter Leader
Egan10980@gmail.com
Chad Hamilton P.S. K231 Chapter Leader
chadhamilton231@gmail.com
Steve Swieciki, Lehman High School Chapter Leader
uft.swieciki@gmail.com
18 comments:
Do you think that ABC has enough folks to comb the schools for signatures to get on the Election Ballot? I hope so!
This is confusing. Are the people listed at the end running on the slate?
Hey John Q - i handled petitions last time and i don't envision problems even though my health may keep me off that project. Go sign up to help
no one is running on the slate until there's a public zoom to talk about it. but i assume they will be considered.
Same concern. Who are the people behind the curtain? Very odd to not reveal who they are.
Wait. Didn't they just reveal some of the people? You want a list? Fact is there are people jumping on regularly. Call it a list in formation. And why don't you join in if you want to know. Sign up at the site and become part of the movement.
What’s the last election MORE has ever won?
They’ve have lost hundreds of members in the last few years as a niche, boutique caucus.
Read the room.
Their caucus, rightly so or not, is tied to antisemitism, indoctrination of students and radical extremism. Conservative teachers won’t vote for them. Centrists and traditional liberal Democrats won’t vote for them. Jewish teachers and most retirees won’t either.
Their messaging doesn’t even appeal, or translates to, recruiting working paraprofessionals to their ranks because of their saviorism.
This last presidential election shows no appetite for their identity-only ideology or messaging.
The better question is how can anyone win tied directly to the MORE caucus brand?
I don't think it's possible to win anything without a united opposition... Your slanders against more have not convinced Me... Love them or hate them when the dinner served everybody's gotta be at the table we're all family
Name a slander.
your whole statement is slanderous, speculative and based on dangerous half-truths
MORE knows these statements express some realities and perceptions held by the membership at large. If not, they'd run on a slate being true to their ideological litmus tests and pet positions in their election platform. They'll water it all down to assuage the many.
But forward facing they will never do this because they know that would mean NEVER being elected. Despite this, they'd force these positions on the rest of us, if elected, while they don't even feel their opposition allies hold their purist values and struggle just to organize with them.
And still the overwhelming majority MORE leadership and activists don't even reflect the students they teach, nor the working paraprofessionals in our union.
We all see past the parade of virtue signaling and saviorism.
So much of this last comment is true. I was in MORE for a time and the self-righteous attitude was overwhelming. The day to day interests of the members often took second place. And count the number of schools so many hop to, often schools with "easier" students and don't get to put down school and community roots for a group that talks so much about community. Many abandon schools with students with the most needs because they are difficult to teach in. No saviorism there.
‘Woke’ colonialism is still colonialism. The inability to speak to the issues of the working poor, working class and middle class, is in plain sight.
We see you.
Why are so many MORE types not even originally from NYC? Why do so many leave the teaching profession after a few years ? Why do they transfer from school to school to school?
Something’s wrong. And it’s not all attributable to “the system”.
you've still not convinced me, but you have gotten nastier... What you're saying sounds a lot like the Democrat "better to lose with Clinton than win with Bernie" strategy from 2016 and it's probably gonna end in exactly the same place... God bless
Bernie had class-based non-identity politics that had a chance of winning compared to the very opposite positions of a caucus that is how many years old and no closer to winning an election. The current winning strategy is to hang on the coatails of the retirees which won by focusing on one issue and allying with a group that reaches cops and the broad-based working class from both the left and right. Mention a cop in your world and you get stoned.
I'm not the only one making these comments. I'm not the nastier one. I also spent a short time in MORE and saw some of the same things. The people are very nice and decent and dedicated teachers.
funny if you ask the retirees they might not say that...
Don't assume retirees are a monolith. There are left, right and center retirees.
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