Saturday, December 14, 2024

'A Better Contract' Pushes Forward for a Member-Led UFT

I admit that at times I've been a skeptic, but when almost 300 registered and 230 showed -wow! And what an interesting presentation and discussion. People seem to think this is all about the upcoming UFT election. The next contract is where a battle will take place. This is not only about the election, but about organizing the unorganized. Sign up for something.

This is basic organizing 101.

'A Better Contract' Pushes Forward for a Member-Led UFT

ABC continues to set the pace for the 2025 UFT Election race and transformative changes. ABC champions a better contract with the City of New York and a better social contract with union leadership.

UFT Members

Dec 14

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Happy Weekend, UFT!

Thank you to all who attended The ABCs of Pay — Let’s Talk About Pay UFT Member Assembly this past Tuesday. Your time, insights, questions and thoughtful contributions made the discussion both engaging and productive. Together, we’re building the foundation for a union that puts members’ priorities like pay, dignity, and working conditions first.

As we discussed during the meeting, improving pay and working conditions requires collective action and a bold strategy that reflects the needs of our members.

Our union president, Michael Mulgrew, recently acknowledged the challenges of pay equity, citing pattern bargaining as a barrier to addressing inequitable pay disparities for paraprofessionals.

While pattern bargaining has been a defining strategy under the current leadership, it is not the only approach to fix para pay and secure a living wage.

A more creative and assertive bargaining strategy, along with an action-ready membership, can challenge the status quo, ensuring that all members receive the compensation and respect they deserve. This reinforces the importance for new union leadership that listens to members and explores all options to secure a fair contract.

Our discussion on Tuesday showed that simply by coming together, we are already making an impact. The issues we raised are now being addressed. This demonstrates the power of collective action and the effectiveness of amplifying our voices.

We’re excited to keep this momentum going!

Here’s how you can stay involved:

Join us at upcoming UFT Member Assemblies: Mark your calendar for January 7, 2025. RSVP, here.

Join a Working Group: We currently have working groups centered around: Organizing, High School, Elementary, District 75, Paras, and social media. Some will be meeting next week, already! See the dates and times, below.

To get started, go to: join.uftmembers.org

Spread the Word: Encourage your colleagues to join our movement and attend the next meeting. Check out our LinkTree for ways to share our message.

Join our Slate of Candidates: Want to join this historic movement for member-led transformative change? We are actively seeking prospective candidates to run for UFT executive board, AFT and NYSUT delegate positions. To connect with us, go to: slate.uftmembers.org

Here are our upcoming ABC Working Group meetings:

ALL District 75 UFT Members and All UFT Paraprofessionals Citywide

Tue, 12/17 at 7 PM
Register here

High School Division

Wed, 12/18 at 7 PM
Register here

Organizing Committee

Wed, 12/18 at 7 PM
Register here

** We are scheduling meetings for retirees, elementary and middle school and other functional titles, very shortly. We will keep you updated.

ABC (A Better Contract) is dedicated to building a union where every member feels valued, heard, and empowered. We are union proud and union strong. We are non-partisan and we are not affiliated with the establishment union caucuses that are often too self-agendized.

With your support we can continue to challenge the status quo, win the upcoming 2025 Union leadership election, and bring about the change we need.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to get more involved, don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can create a stronger, more equitable future.

Finally, please take a moment to check out our landing page to see how you can get involved: http://uftmembers.org

Stay updated with us at: http://abettercontract.org

Download, share and print a flyer to post at your school/work site: flyer.uftmembers.org

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

Arthur Goldstein, Vice Chair of Retiree Teachers Chapter (RTC)
agoldstein@uftmembers.org

Chad Hamilton, P.S. K231 Chapter Leader
chadhamilton231@gmail.com

Steve Swieciki, Lehman High School Chapter Leader
uft.swieciki@gmail.com

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Comment

Restack

2 comments:

John Q. Teacher said...: I think these groups running against Unity underestimate how non-informed most teachers in NYC are when it comes to Union politics. If there are more that 2 groups running against, Unity, Unity will win. 99% of teachers know Mulgrew and they either like him or hate him. Those who do not like Mulgrew will want to vote for the group(s) that are running against him. Having one group running against Unity would be the easiest way to inform folks who to vote for. You tell these teachers, "Oh, you don't like Mulgrew, then vote for these guys". If there are more than one group running against Mulgrew, folks will get confused and the opposition votes will be spread out over the two or more other groups that run against Unity.; Sunday, December 15, 2024 at 12:47:00 PM EST
ed notes online said...: Good points. Two slates would be confusing but on the other hand a real deep campaign that reaches at least part of the 99% could make a dent. Then there is the two slate idea with a lot of candidates running on both slates but each slate runs its unique campaign to the audience they can reach. What is dividing people are some very different ideas on how to run an elections with the legacy groups wanting to follow past scripts which have been failures; Sunday, December 15, 2024 at 1:27:00 PM EST

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Extended

Saturday, December 14, 2024