ABC is following up on its successful zoom organizing events with a
meet the candidates event this Tuesday at 7PM. Last Tuesday over 100
people attended the elementary school zoom focused on issues
specifically related to that oft neglected division.
Today's piece by Arthur delves into some detail on how ABC would
run the union. It is an important piece and here are a few excerpts.
- ABC knows union power comes from members. It’s imperative we work toward member empowerment. We’re in this together. We stand together, we fight together, and we win together. Our first message is for Michael Mulgrew:
We don’t work for union leaders—union leaders work for us.
- When ABC wins, we will no longer use our citywide union power as a vehicle to demean health insurance. Moving backward will no longer be a priority for the United Federation of Teachers (let alone something we seek to drag our brother and sister unionists into). As far as we’re concerned, organizing to make things worse is anti-union.
- When members call UFT, they don’t want to press buttons and hope to get connected to someone. Nor do they want to be on hold for 20 minutes. ABC believes it’s our job to be responsive to member needs. Like you, we hate hearing, “Your call is important to us,” particularly when a non-response indicates otherwise. When you call UFT, you will speak to a living, breathing person, not a pre-recorded, computer-driven robot.
- ABC will actively support legislation that retains the health care members have been promised in retirement. There are currently bills to protect retirees in both city and state legislatures. We will not only lobby for their passage, but we will also support the organizations that brought them. We will do the same for legislation that protects in service members.
- When ABC wins, UFT boots on the ground will mean members actually showing up to work for and demand what we want and need. These days, it amounts to a dozen paid staffers showing up here or there. Years of Unity indifference to members have resulted in years of member indifference to union. That won’t happen immediately, but needs to change.
- For really important issues, like money and health care, we will show up en masse and let people know who we are and what we demand. We will grow our union into the activist organization we need to be. Again, when papers talk of the “powerful teachers union,” it needs to mean something.
- We will use union resources, including COPE, union lawyers, and UFT boots on the ground to support our causes.
The caucus model has failed us, and continues to fail us.
- Unity has misled and betrayed us for years. They do this as though it’s their birthright, and barely bother to hide it anymore. They think they own our union hall, and if anyone else finds their way in, they build literal walls around them.
- We’ve had 60 years of minority rule and outlandish palace intrigue. ABC has a better vision.
- We are not a caucus, and will not demand loyalty to caucus. We represent UFT members, not some pre-determined philosophy that may or may not be representative. Member voice will guide us as we move forward.
- We are not indulging in some last-gasp attempt to rationalize our existence. We are not a stalking horse for some mysterious, arcane philosophy. We don’t require an elite and self-indulgent steering committee controlling everything and everyone. We formed our platform by surveying members, and we’ll continue doing that as we move forward.
- As UFT members, we’re looking to wake up the sleeping giant that is our great union, the United Federation of Teachers. That means empowerment and inclusion, not lip service and ignoring those who elected and worked with us.
Read the entire piece
No comments:
Post a Comment