Has Amy been a caterpillar waiting to burst out into a butterfly who will reform the UFT and allow it to reach its potential?
| Amy flanked by Steve Swieciki and Leah Lin, all tossed out of Unity. Steve and Lia are chapter leaders in a high school and elementary school respectively. Steve and Lia are running for VPs of their respective divisions. |
I ask people who question the Amy Arundell candidacy which candidate do they think is best equipped to run the UFT and even the anti-Amy people pause - and admit she knows the inside and out of the UFT machinery and would be in a position to handle it -- but also to know best what needs to remain in place and what needs reform. I'm not one of those people who want to toss the baby with the bathwater.
But then they ask - but what if she's new boss same as the old boss? What if she is gaslighting you all? Even her most ardent critics admit she is super smart. One told me she is smarter than all of us and she still holds the same ideas and would keep the Unity machine intact, only with her in charge.
Well I certainly have faced down with Amy over the years and she is a touch cookie to argue with. She is one tough cookie in many ways and after getting to know her a bit over the past few months I see she has leadership skills that have been thwarted inside the Unity machine. When we see so many in the union, even oppo people, be like marshmallows who complain about being harmed because someone spoke to them in a loud voice and who melt at the slightest heat, one refrain I hear is "What will they do if they have to negotiate a contract with the awful and often nasty people at the DOE?"
So I want feisty and even nasty - when its directed at the right places.
One tough cookie is fine for me.
But if Amy resists calls for change and turning the UFT into an organizing model union, my response is we first try to pressure her and if we see stalling, we kick her out.
And we have had no better chance of kicking out a union president we don't like than now due to the weakening of Unity caucus. I do not want to see any caucus be dominant again - even an oppo one. I like checks and balances. The ABC adcom is designed to have people on there who will never be a rubber stamp. The same with the ABC executive board slate. We have long and short time pains in the ass on there -- no rubber stamps with this crowd.
What worries me about caucuses choosing the candidates is that these are often loyalists who will be rubber stamps if they win.
If you examine the caucus led slates they are loaded with caucus loyalists. ABC is different. Many of us are just meeting each other -- it is an eclectic collection of people, some who have been in caucuses and either left or were purged for daring to disagree. Want to talk about new boss, same as the old boss? I've seen dangerous Unity-like tendencies including censorship and attempts to ice out those who don't go along with the majority.
Believe me, if Amy strays she will hear it from me and others. ABC is not a "loyal to Amy" group.
But it says something when you get attacks from both Unity and the other groups running against Unity. You must be doing something right. Not only Amy, but ABC has come under attack from all angles. Makes us feel good about our organizing efforts. And it is all about organizing. ABC did not go into this thinking, "Let's win and then organize."
No, ABC went into this to use the election process as an organizing tool -- one difference from the caucus models which use their caucuses to organize, which one would hope they are doing all the time instead of just for elections. The issue I have with that model is that it has not bore many results. Now you might say look at RA winning --- well they had a boost from Marianne. And the fix Para Pay victory was not from a caucus but independent actions, which is why FPP is with ABC. The caucus model means a steering committee choosing the candidates in closed meetings. While ABC has been also holding closed meetings, those meetings have opened up to new voices as they expressed interest.
Here is Amy's statement.
A BETTER CONTRACT - UFT MEMBERS
AMY ARUNDELL: Why I Am Running for UFT President
Amy shares her story. Together we will build our collective power to deliver A BETTER CONTRACT with the City of New York and A BETTER social contract with union leadership.
Never, during all this time, did I imagine that I would be in this position: running for UFT President. The culture of the UFT has long been one where leadership handpicks their successors, deciding who they believe should be the next to carry the mantle, and for years, I played by those rules, trusting that this process served the best interests of our members and that the best, brightest, and most committed to our work as a union would rise to positions of leadership.
Times have changed, our school system has evolved, and our union must
evolve as well. More and more members are expressing deep
dissatisfaction with the direction of our union. Decisions are being
made that I can no longer stand behind. It has become increasingly
difficult to look my fellow members in the eye and tell them that what’s
happening is good for them because it isn’t. These decisions are not
the result of listening to members and then gathering our experts and
specialists and making decisions consistent with union values, and the
interests of the members and their students. More often than not, the
most important decisions are made by only a few, behind closed doors.
The recent election losses in the retiree and paraprofessional chapter elections were not a result of flashy slate names or strategic maneuvering, they were a direct response to the growing frustration among our members. The message is clear, the status quo is failing us.
Our union should be the beacon of fairness, inclusion, and strength. Instead, we have reached a point where sexism, harassment, and bullying have tainted our internal culture. Morale is at an all-time low. I’ve been around long enough to remember when we could come together, debate and discuss issues openly, and leave the room knowing we had made the best decision for our members and the union as a whole. Those spaces and that culture no longer exist under the current leadership. I’ve tried, others have tried but today, questioning decisions can end careers, and there are far too many examples of this reality. I refuse to silence my own principles and beliefs to campaign for anyone who perpetuates this type of leadership and these union values.
My candidacy is not about serving any particular caucus or ideology, it is about serving our members in the way they deserve and that furthers the cause of public education. Now that I have been ‘expelled’ from my former caucus, I stand as the only candidate who is beholden to no faction. My allegiance is to the educators, teachers, paraprofessionals, school-related professionals and retirees who make our union strong and to the students who we are all responsible for educating.
These values are not the only thing that make me the right person to serve as UFT president in this critical moment; I am qualified, experienced, and connected. I have served in a variety of roles, both as an educator in schools and as a union representative.
In my first year of teaching, I remember celebrating when the union negotiated that our lesson plans were no longer required to be collected. It changed my professional life. I was a chapter leader when the SBO process became a source of leverage for my chapter to have a voice in how our school was organized. I was a teacher center specialist in a school when the first 100 minutes were added to the school day and I was tasked with making those minutes as relevant and helpful to our school community as possible, despite our membership’s obvious unease with the additional time.
As a UFT staffer, I implemented the 2005 contract. I supported pedagogues in the ATR pool and advocated for them. I provided support to members in using the new transfer system. I educated people about the power of the SBO process and how to interpret school budgets. I helped hundreds of people with leaves and staffing issues. I am very proud of that work. I was part of the negotiating team on evaluation, and learned a lot about what members want and what others think is best for them. I tried to help members see the power in what we negotiated, and also acknowledged that what we negotiated did not achieve our goals. I was the union point person for the creation of teacher leader roles, and visited the many schools that implemented these roles. I was inspired to see what teachers can do when given the opportunity. I know many schools that have benefited from those roles.
Then, I became the Queens Borough Representative and learned how out of touch our central UFT representatives could be. Hundreds of people invited me into their lives and their schools, and we made amazing things happen. It was by far the role I loved the most and it allowed me to connect to members and students in deep, new, and meaningful ways.
I have a vision for our union. A union that is strategic about building power, that prioritizes members and their students above DOE management or city government desires. We build power by organizing and being connected to members above all else. That is why the leadership of ABC will fight tirelessly with our members for better working conditions, fair salary increases, and an end to the reckless practice of surrendering our healthcare benefits in exchange for inadequate compensation increases.
It’s time to reclaim our union. It’s time to have leadership that listens, respects, and truly advocates for its members, not one that demands blind loyalty and is deaf to their core needs. Together, we can restore integrity, transparency, and strength to the UFT. I ask for your support, not just for me, but for the future of our union and the dignity of its members and the future of the students we serve.
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