Newark Contract: Weingarten is a Serial Pusher of Bad Contracts

The NTU leadership and Weingarten ought to be ashamed they're pushing this piece of shit contract onto Newark teachers, but they're incapable of that emotion. They're too busy sucking up to the corporatocracy as they collect their six figure salaries and benefits and sell working teachers down the river with these "innovative" contracts Weingarten and the education reformers/corporatocracy love so much. It's time to rid the AFT and the locals of these corporate shills and bring in leadership that defends public schools and teachers from the horrors of corporate education reform. ----Reality-Based Educator

When the Baltimore Teachers Union was initially faced with a merit pay proposal in 2010, they turned it down. But after Randi Weingarten and the AFT went there to convince the Baltimore teachers that this was a good contract, a second vote passed merit pay and the contract provisions. Since then, the number of unsatisfactory evaluations (ineffective) shot up throughout the city, in some schools as high as 60%. Let’s not repeat these same errors.  ---NEW Caucus analysis of contract

The Weingarten tactic she and Unity Caucus used here in NYC in pushing the 2005 contract of saying the only alternative is to strike is being used hot and heavy in Newark, as Jersey Jazzman chronicles in this letter (A Newark Teacher Speaks) from a Newark teacher:

From every account I heard, however, our rep told those who were there that if we don't vote for this proposal, the only thing left will be to strike - with no income, no benefits, etc.  Now several people who were firm NO votes are concerned.  They are waffling.

JJ has many articles on the contract but does not take an out and out stand against it trying to lean over backwards to give Weingarten a break:

I also appreciate the work AFT president Randi Weingarten and Newark Teachers Union president Joe Del Grosso did to get this deal done. I am a union guy - I am on your team.

But this is not helpful :

“This is not a merit pay system,” said Weingarten. “This is a full compensation system where the work you do and the compensation you have are tied in together.” She said the new contract is “aligning the evaluation system with experience” while offering “significantly higher salaries for teachers all throughout their experience. … When you have all of those components, that’s a professional compensation system." [emphasis mine]

I'm sorry, but there's just no way you can call this anything but a "merit pay system." From the NTU's own joint statement with NPS:

I wouldn't use the terms "not helpful" here. How about "Vichy, backstabbing swine?" 

Leave it to Reality-Based Educator to lay it on 

Newark Teachers Hammer Union Leaders Over Sell-Out Contract

A lot of people met Del Grosso and the union leadership tonight and it doesn't sound like too many of them are happy with this sell-out contract.

We'll have to see how the vote goes, but if tonight is any indication, Randi Weingarten and the rest of the corporate shills at the AFT and the NTU might have some trouble getting this "piece of garbage that will divide the union" passed.

And that's of course exactly what this contract is meant to do - divide teachers, pit school staffs against each other, pit young against old, pit other teachers in New Jersey against teachers in Newark if they agree to this contract and merit pay comes to other towns and municipalities.

The NTU leadership and Weingarten ought to be ashamed they're pushing this piece of shit contract onto Newark teachers, but they're incapable of that emotion.

They're too busy sucking up to the corporatocracy as they collect their six figure salaries and benefits and sell working teachers down the river with these "innovative" contracts Weingarten and the education reformers/corporatocracy love so much.

It's time to rid the AFT and the locals of these corporate shills and bring in leadership that defends public schools and teachers from the horrors of corporate education reform.

And of course out brothers and sisters in the NEW Caucus which we in MORE relate to. Here is their latest analysis of the contract. I imagine they will play a similar role ICE and TJC played in the 2005 contract battle here in NYC where we did help turn out almost 40% to vote NO despite the Unity machine going out full force.

Here is what NEW sent out:

Weingarten Negotiates Another Sell-Out in Newark, NEW Caucus Says "VOTE NO"

From David Bellel c. 2009 - Obviously needs updating

If Randi were involved as she would have been with the old CTU leadership she would have them jump at the money and never mention class size again. Only one city was smart enough to keep Randi away from contract negotiations: Chicago. Did you notice how the Chicago teachers TURNED DOWN the offered bribe of more pay without setting conditions? --Ed Notes

Keep them voting till they get it right. Where Weingarten treads, catastrophe follows. ---Michael Fiorillo comment on Newark Contract at Perdido Street School

It's true - she's done more damage to public school education and teachers than a lot of ed deformers. Mayoral control, merit pay, the TDR's, "fair funding" for schools that gives incentives for administrators to get rid of veteran teachers, buying into the "Bad Teacher" frame - the list goes on, but those are some of the major catastrophes brought about by Weingarten and her merry minions. Newark teachers would be wise to reject this contract, not only for their own good, but for the good of all teachers in NJ. ---reality-based educator reply to Fiorillo

I hope you got to read my post on Saturday: Weingarten Praises Newark Merit Pay Scheme: NEW Caucus Calls for NO Vote.
And if you're a photoshop person and want to take a shot at updating the poster, go ahead. (Obviously Chicago should be removed. )

Only one city was smart enough to keep Randi away from contract negotiations: Chicago. Did you notice how they TURNED DOWN the offered bribe of more pay without setting conditions? If Randi were involved as she would have been with the old CTU leadership she would have them jump at the money and never mention class size again.

Randi uses the old bait and switch
Bribe teachers with enough money to get them to give it all away. Randi perfected this in NYC in the 2005 contract so Bloomberg could brag about the enormous raises he gave teachers right as Randi was giving him the tools to go after teachers making the most money. She followed this act in Washington DC with Michelle Rhee, then Baltimore and Detroit. There's a whole list of dominoes.

The great blogger, Jersey Jazzman commented in this post (It's NOT Just Newark's Contract)

When Christie went on TV a while ago, bad-mouthing teachers and their unions, no representative of NJEA was invited to give a response. The only teachers union representative present was Randi Weingarten of AFT. Again, I have nothing but respect for Randi, who I think does a fine job representing teacher concerns in the media. But let's be honest: Chris Christie has a different relationship with AFT than he does with NJEA. To all my friends and readers in AFT, understand this is not a criticism of you; it's simply a truth.

Reality-Based Educator and others commented that Christie WANTED Weingarten involved and he got what he wanted. 

RBE at Perdido has a great post today touching on the Weingarten history of nation-wide sell-outs following her act here in New York.

Randi Weingarten - the reform-friendly labor leader beloved by Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and DFER Joe Williams - is the union leader who helped negotiate both versions of the Baltimore contract and worked very hard to get that second one passed. Where is Randi standing up for the 60% of Baltimore teachers getting "u-rated" and put on the list to be fired? I'll tell you where she is - she's nowhere to be found in Baltimore and is rather lurking around in New Jersey where she's doing the reformers' work on this Newark contract.

Read his entire piece here.

NYC Educator also hit the nail on the head

Teacher Union Prez Auditions for NY Post Editorial Board

Here is an excerpt:

Joseph Del Grosso, head of the Newark Teachers Union, is endorsing a new contract that entails merit pay, value-added measures, and which is "secretive about financial details," though we know it hinges on $100 mill in Facebook bucks, which we don't know to be renewable.

Del Grosso is portrayed in the article as someone who's moved from a young firebrand to someone with a completely different position-- heroic by the writer's highly uninformed point of view, but questionable at best by mine. More disturbing, perhaps, is this quote:

“The teachers who come in early and stay late, and take the job seriously, are offended by the teachers who don’t,” he says. “They are the silent majority, and I think they will overwhelmingly vote for a contract that involves them in their own destiny.”

Can you imagine the things these offended teachers must be saying?

That damn Ms. Smith, always going home to look after her baby!

I hate Mr. White. Who the hell does he think he is, running to his second job at the carwash at 2:30 every day?

A member of NEW Caucus (sister to MORE and CORE) came to our Chicago Lessons session on Saturday and asked for help in publicizing their fight against this contract. They spent a whole day taking apart the contract. I posted it at Norm's Notes: What Newark Teachers Can Expect From Their New Contract.

Here is the latest email they sent out with some links I added:

The fight in Newark has just gotten sharper as the Newark Teachers Union and Newark Public Schools finally agreed on how best to sell out teachers and students.  Between the local leadership and national AFT leadership (Weingarten has been negotiating "for us" for a year now), years of hard fought gains are being taken away.  The Newark Education Workers Caucus (NEW Caucus) has been working hard over the last few days organizing angry teachers to vote no and begin organizing against this attack.  So has the AFT - calling teachers over the weekend and scaring them into voting for the contract.  While many are infuriated at this contract and are now aware that the local and national union leadership doesn't represent their interests, what we do between now and October 29th (the vote) will determine whether or not we create a fighting caucus that could give political leadership and move many teachers to the left to fight back or allow teachers to become cynical and accept this horrible deal.  

Attached:

1. Current contract proposal (just use your reader to rotate it)- email normsco@gmail.com

2. The NEW Caucus evaluation of it (we locked ourselves in a room for 7 1/2 hours yesterday putting this together - still a work in progress)

[I posted this at Norms Notes: Newark: What This PROPOSED Contract Means For Education Workers and Students].

3. Our October issue of NEW VIEWS - [SEE MY POST FROM SATURDAY- Weingarten Praises Newark Merit Pay Scheme: NEW Caucus Calls for NO Vote]

and here is our old contract 2009-2010 http://www.ntuaft.com/2009-2010_Teacher-Clerk_Contract.pdf

This tuesday, the union will have a general membership meeting where they will "highlight" the contract and try to talk members into voting for it.  If anyone is in the New York/New Jersey region this Tuesday and would like to help us distribute literature to the membership, please join us at New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) at 3pm (starts at 4).  If anyone needs directions, you can email me at almoussab@gmail.com or newarkeducationworkerscaucus@gmail.com.  I will try to provide updates as this struggle continues.

Weingarten Praises Newark Merit Pay Scheme: NEW Caucus Calls for NO Vote

Newark Public Schools and the Newark Teachers Union have reached a tentative deal that includes a universal salary scale linking teacher bonuses to classroom performance — making the district the first in New Jersey to implement a merit-pay program ....HufPo

“This agreement is a win for students, a win for teachers and a win for Newark," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement Thursday. "It recognizes the quality of educators’ work, values their experience and training, ensures they have a say in decisions affecting teaching and learning in their schools, and makes teacher retention a priority by, among other things, adjusting salaries to allow teachers to earn more money earlier in their careers." -- HufPo

Remember the days when Randi used to claim that only school-wide and not individual merit pay would be acceptable? After the Chicago story of resistance here is another sellout. Given the national situation I'm still surprised that Randi would be so openly supportive of a situation so contrary to Chicago. But on the other side, an upper level Chicago union leader made the case for Randi by saying, "What can she do when the local leadership is weak or sucks other than support the best deal she could? In our case with strong leadership she has been OK." I don't buy it.

See: Jersey Jazzman

Questions Newark Teachers MUST Ask About Their Contract

This came across on Facebook:

Katie Stafford StromHave to share my friend and Newark super-teacher Leah Z Owens's status from last night: "Dear Cami, I forfeit the $12K bonus I'm going to earn (no ego) so that the money can go toward hiring another history teacher at Central High so my colleague doesn't have to have 38 students in his class. Thanks in advance, Leah"

 

This contract is the beginning of the end of the salary structure. We know how this drill will end. Most salaries will in the long run go down as the highest paid teachers will be rated poorly, then fired and replaced with shorter-term newbies while a few will get merit pay.

Teachers rated “effective” or “highly effective” under a new evaluation system will be eligible for annual bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $12,500, according to a NTU statement Thursday. The new contract also includes $31 million in “retroactive pay” divided among all union members to compensate for the two years since the current deal expired on July 1, 2010. The new agreement will be in effect until June 30, 2015.

The $31 million is short term bribe money to get the teachers to vote YES but they will pay many times over if they accept these relative crumbs.

New Caucus [facebook]

Vote NO! to merit pay! Vote NO! to the privatization of public education. This contract has the purpose of pushing out veteran teachers and oiling up the revolving door of TFAers! How can the NTU agree to no difference in pay for teachers who have earned MASTER'S and PHDs?? —

Here is some info from the Newark Education Workers (NEW) Caucus, which appears to be a sister-type group to MORE and CORE. I wish MORE had a monthly hard copy newsletter like the one below. Maybe soon.  I have a copy of the contract -- email me at normsco@gmail.com if interested.

Let your voice be heard!

Come together to discuss the POSSIBLE new contract, 

and help decide if NEW Caucus should support a slate for NTU leadership this spring!

  Wednesday, October 24, the NEW Caucus is holding a MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING. 

FLYER ATTACHED!

Wednesday, October 24, 4:30-6:30

American History High School

Cafetorium

74 Montgomery Street

Attached is the October Issue of NEW VIEWS

Articles on the Chicago Teachers Strike and Banks Profiting from Charter Schools! [SEE BELOW]

And, oh, one last thing...

Attached is the proposed Contract!  

Read and digest... [EMAIL ME]

In Solidarity,

Newark Education Workers Caucus

(NEW Caucus)

NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus.com

862-367-9211 

Facebook.com/NEWCaucus Twitter.com/NEWCaucus

Google Calendar: NewarkEducationWorkersCaucus@gmail.com