Written and edited by Norm Scott:
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I hate linking to the Campbell Brown faux journalism site The74
but Mike Antonucci is one anti-union journalist who does a degree of honest, though biased reporting. (You will rarely read a positive report on a teacher union.) His report below is loaded with some
juicy info on the AFT - Mike covers the NEA more extensively.
I did some editing to focus on the AFT - if you must go read the entire article at the - ugh - 74.
Why are numbers of AFT members pertinent? A good chunk of UFT dues goes to the AFT, which is run by Randi Weingarten in the same vein as, oh say, your average dictatorship. But also once the national attacks come on the teacher unions, especially post-Friedrichs, these numbers will be a base point.
Mike after doing research has not found what happened to the drop in 69,000 AFT members over the past year.
When I started work on the article I thought I'd be able to determine
where AFT lost the members, but no affiliate reported losses of that
magnitude (except for WV). I think maybe they miscounted in 2015 and
corrected in 2016. But they'll never tell me.
Maybe given that we may see big drops in membership over the next few years as non-union charters and vouchers decimate public schools, they decided to adjust the numbers so the losses don't seem to come so fast?
Here are the key bullet extracts from Mike's piece with some appended Editorial Notes.
AFT routinely claims it has 1.6 million members.
AFT reached a record-high 1,613,448 members in 2015.
[L]ast year - 2016 - the union reported 1,544,143 members.
More than 600,000 working AFT members belong to merged NEA/AFT local and state affiliates. Though their dues and representation rights are split between NEA and AFT, both national unions count them as full members.
[Ed Note: So when you add up the NEA and AFT totals -- subtract 600,000].
Almost
41 percent of AFT’s members live and work in New York and so belong to
New York State United Teachers. But NYSUT reported a 13,000-member
increase in 2016.
I'll have my own comments on the Unity/Stronger Together talks, maybe later today or tomorrow. People ask me what ST brings to the table and I say - the mere act of running against Unity is an existential threat. All dictatorships see elections as a threat even if they expect to win by 90%. I guarantee that Putin is concerned that 10% votes against him. Randi won re-election in the AFT last summer with well over 90% of the vote. And we know that does not reflect reality.
357,000 AFT members are retirees, who pay no dues
330,000 AFT members are part-time employees. AFT’s 1.6 million members equate to a dues-paying equivalent of 854,000 full-time employed teachers.
[Ed Note - I questioned Mike on this point since we pay dues in the UFT though not sure if any of that goes to AFT- Also - 60,000 of the retirees are UFT. What about the nurses and home daycare workers and any other AFT members who are not teachers? And then in NYC there are over 40,000 UFT members who are not teachers per se -- social workers, paras, guidance -- functional chapters.In NYC the numbers of classroom teachers are less than 70,000 in a union of around 170,000.In the last contract around 106,000 people voted - over 90% - retirees didn't vote.In the election all UFT members could vote -- around 170,000.]
Mike replied:
AFT says, "Retiree Members are members for life and pay no dues during retirement." It's UFT alone that's charging you. NEA charges $30/year, which might help explain why they have fewer retired members than AFT even though they're twice the size. Nurses and other certificated employees pay the teacher rate. Full-time support workers pay about two-thirds of that. Part-timers pay according to whether they work 1/2 time, 1/4 time or 1/8 time. This is all just the AFT portion. Local dues vary greatly.
Here is most of Mike's analysis: Analysis: The Strange Disappearance of 69,000 AFT Members
"The Syracuse teachers union president says she was suspended after she uncovered a fellow officer’s inappropriate use of a computer during an audit.”
The Syracuse Teachers Association situation
is escalating. President Karen Fruscello apparently discovered another
union officer was routinely surfing for porn on an office computer.
The executive board, consisting entirely of members from an opposing
caucus, suspended Fruscello, reportedly for conducting an unauthorized
investigation, but has yet to take action against the unnamed porn
surfer.... Mike Antoucci at Intercepts/Educational Intelligence Agency....
There are some implications - possible for NYSUT - in the story currently playing out in Syracuse where the STA board removed the recently elected president, as reported by Mike Antonucci,
A NYSUT election is coming in April - remember that 3 years ago Stronger Together (ST) Caucus created a serious challenge to NY State Unity Caucus (which includes NYC Unity) and MORE was involved by running for 5 seats and Arthur Goldstein ran on the ST slate for NYSUT Ex VP against Andy Pallotta --- The Unity slate had the support of the big city 5 unions -- Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers and of course NYC. If there would be a break from some of the big 5 -- say Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, and ST could get close enough to create a serious challenge and Randi's control of he AFT, where NYSUT has one third of the membership, could be threatened.
So what's really going on in Syracuse and does the fact that an independent was elected as president without having the support of anyone on the Ex Bd in any way relate to the NYSUT election picture? According to Antonucci something about porn is involved -- now I know you all are going to keep reading.
Lesson 2: Historical record
I've always maintained that if one day MORE won power in the UFT and it was close, Unity would protest to the AFT that there were irregularities and the AFT would find an excuse to overturn the election. Back in 1985 when Michael Shulman of the NAC coalition of multiple caucuses (New Action emerged as one caucus in 1995) won the high school presidency, Unity wouldn't seat Shulman, protested to some agency and got another election 8 months later while Shulman had to sit and wait. Shulman got even more votes but his term of office was cut short, meetings were held without him once he took office. Unity dumped one of the major UFT founders, George Altomare for daring to lose to Shulman and mounted a campaign to make sure he lost in 1987, which he did.
The New Action coalition came back in force in the 1991 election, winning both the high and junior high Ex Bd seats -- 13 - the most ever for an opposition -- but won nothing in 1993, which gave Unity 100% of the EB -- and they immediately pushed through a constitution change to make all divisional VP elections at-large - which NYC Educator explains in today's post -- Downsides of Democracy.
What about Detroit and Steve Conn, anti-Randi who was elected while the Ex Bd was tied to the former pro-Randi president? Steve was removed as president. Rules called for a referendum which needed 2/3 to get him removed but came up short -- while still over 50%. They just ignored that rule and refused to re-seat him. This story was a big bone of contention at the AFT2016 convention, pretty much the only bone of contention given the union leaderships of Chicago and LA having a love affair with Randi.
Here are the EIA/Intercepts posts on the Syracuse story.
The lede in this story reads: “The Syracuse teachers union president says she was suspended after she uncovered a fellow officer’s inappropriate use of a computer during an audit.” That doesn’t make much sense, and the details aren’t very illuminating either. Another story tells us what the inappropriate use was. But make your way down to the 12th paragraph and you see:
Fruscello first took office in July. She defeated six-year president Kevin Ahern in an election. The rest of the elected board ran with Ahern as part of the “Professional Partners” caucus. Fruscello ran as an outsider determined to disrupt business as usual at the union.
I don’t know if Fruscello is a crusader for transparency or another Steve Conn, but a careful examination of the Syracuse Teachers Association bylaws shows the union’s executive board has no authority to “suspend” anyone, much less the president. It can recommend to the union’s representative assembly that the office be declared vacant if the president “has been grossly negligent.” It then takes a two-thirds vote of the RA to remove her. How long before AFT sends in the paratroopers to restore order?
* The Syracuse Teachers Association situation is escalating. President Karen Fruscello apparently discovered another union officer was routinely surfing for porn on an office computer. The executive board, consisting entirely of members from an opposing caucus, suspended Fruscello, reportedly for conducting an unauthorized investigation, but has yet to take action against the unnamed porn surfer. Yesterday, acting president Megan Root released this statement:
The Syracuse Teachers Association deeply regrets that what should have been an internally handled personnel issue has become a salacious matter for the public. It is always STA practice to handle personnel matters in a way that preserves our members’ confidentiality and right to privacy. The Association is disheartened that Karen Fruscello is so insistent in trying this issue through the press. Her statements and behavior do not serve the members or the Association and are regrettable. The Association needs to be able to conduct our investigations internally and privately to ensure that our members are given due process. Karen Fruscello’s actions are damaging, harassing, and interfere with the work of the Association.
The reference to due process is rich, considering the lack of due process for Fruscello’s suspension and the fact that STA’s bylaws do not authorize the actions the board has taken. The appeal to confidentiality and privacy is also a straw man, since the identity of the alleged perpetrator has not been disclosed.
More troubling is the complete lack of nuance and understanding about the political make-up of their membership. Although Hillary Clinton easily won New York (59% to 36.5%), nearly three million people in New York state voted for Donald Trump. Three million votes, to put this in perspective, is approximately equal to the winning Trump vote totals in Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, and Montana combined. Additionally, Donald Trump carried most counties outside of New York City.
I found this blog called Beloved American published Jan. 4 with an interesting piece on NYSUT. It takes the position that NYSUT should focus on bread and butter and less on social justice issues. I don't agree because our schools are affected by social justice issues.
But the blogger is right that there is a certain level of cluelessness as out national, state and city union leaders go screaming into the night -- Betsy DeVos is coming, Betsy DeVos is coming. Imagine if Trump announced he was pulling Betsy and replacing her with Arne Duncan - a massive cheer goes up.
At this year’s DNC, four major unions solidified some of the most concessionary tendencies within the labor movement... The
caucus break represents the culmination of a long, steady trend in
American trade unionism toward neoliberal unionism — a unionism that
espouses collaboration with corporations instead of conflict and upholds
free-market capitalism as reconcilable with labor’s interests..... Jacobin
Mike Schirtzer found this article which delves into the capitulation of our union on so much of the neo-liberal ed deform movement, among other issues.
...the breakaway caucus unions represent a new way of dealing
with these types of politicians, shifting from strategic alliances to
sycophantic servitude. In pledging allegiance to Clinton so immediately
and so fervently, the four breakaway unions appear to have lost the
ability to identify labor’s own interests and enemies.
The
NEA and AFT, for their part, have also continued to donate profusely to
Democrats (over $30 million in the 2012 election cycle alone) while
much of the party leads the charge of anti-union and
anti-public-education “reform.”
The
proliferation of this model of unionism would spell disaster for the
American labor movement. Our movement’s success depends on how widely
and how militantly we can organize workers to fight corporate power and
the 1 percent, not embrace them.
What I find funny about this piece is that it tries to make a case that this is a new thing when those of us in education know that our AFT/NYSUT/UFT capitulated to neo-liberalism a long time ago. Our union was founded almost 60 years ago on the basis of defending the essentials of capitalism even as it devolved into the essentials of free-market, non-regulatory, privatization of government services based neo-liberalism - as opposed to the FDR New Deal model neo-liberalism aims to destroy.
Also read in the DN: Richard Greenwald: How labor unions lost their way
NYSUT ... failed to inform the
membership about its findings in the
NYSUT
White Paper. (The following talking points are attached to make
the dissemination of this information easier.
Talking
Points). NYSUT’s lack of transparency
regarding this position paper with the members of the rank and file
serves only to keep membership in the dark thereby limiting
membership’s ability to push back against the state tests and their
onerous penalties, including but not limited to receivership. .... STCaucus
Follow this narrative and see how important it is to watch what our leaders do not what they say. They are burying a report that would help grow the anti-testing movement.
NYSUT White Paper
The Stronger Together Caucus is disseminating NYSUT’s
position paper opposing the current college and career readiness
benchmarks in New York State. The STCaucus is taking this action for
two reasons:
NYSUT was tasked, by a unanimous vote of its
delegates at the April 2015 NYSUT Representative Assembly, to produce
and disseminate this position paper.
At this time, NYSUT’s position paper is behind a
secure login on the NYSUT website which only allows delegates to
access, rather than making this important information available to all
members of the rank and file.
STCaucus understands that every teacher should
fully comprehend the inappropriate nature of these benchmarks and how
they continue to corrupt the testing experience for our students. For
more than a year, STCaucus Leadership has made this argument central
to the pushback against the inaccurate failing school/teacher
narrative. The data NYSED is utilizing to purport the benchmarking
myth is deeply flawed.
The following
timeline and linked documents will illuminate the importance of this
narrative.
The following STCaucus letter was sent to
Chancellor Tisch on December 22, 2014. This letter was produced in
response to the infamous Malatras’ letter dated December 18, 2014, in
which, Governor Cuomo outlined the education agenda that became law on
April 1, 2015.
On January 17, 2015, ST Caucus sent the following
letter to the NYSUT Officers and NYSUT Board of Directors because
there was no NYSUT response to the Malatras’ letter.
In response to NYSUT’s lack of pushback against the
Governor’s narrative about failing NYS schools and teachers, STCaucus
leadership brought the following Special Order of Business to the
April 2015 NYSUT Representative Assembly. This Special Order of
Business was passed unanimously on the floor of the RA.
Recently, NYSUT’s Research Department completed the
required report and did indeed send those findings to the Regents, as
the resolution required. NYSUT however failed to inform the
membership about its findings. The report is only accessible to NYSUT
delegates who have access to the secure login on the NYSUT website and
there has been no reference to the position paper in NYSUT’s
publications or on its public website. NYSUT’s lack of transparency
regarding this position paper with the members of the rank and file
serves only to keep membership in the dark thereby limiting
membership’s ability to push back against the state tests and their
onerous penalties, including but not limited to receivership.
We encourage all members to read the report for the
purpose of educating themselves, their colleagues and their community
members. Please use the report’s findings to inform your local school
boards, parents and local papers about the inappropriate benchmarks in
New York.
Chair: Beth Dimino—President, Port Jefferson Station Teachers'
Association Treasurer: Beth Chetney—President, Baldwinsville Teachers’
Association Secretary: Laura Spencer—President, Smithtown Teachers’
Association Membership Chair: Michele Bushey—President, Saranac Teachers’
Association Vice-Chairs representing NYS by region 1) Central NY/Southern Tier: Angelee Hargreaves—President, Port
Byron Teachers’ Association 2) Capital District: Megan DeLaRosa—President, Shenendehowa
Teachers’ Association 3) North Country: Nate Hathaway—President, Malone Federation of
Teachers 4) Tarrytown/Mid-Hudson: Mike Lillis—President, Lakeland
Federation of Teachers 5) Nassau/Suffolk: Kevin Coyne—President, Brentwood Teachers’
Association 6) NYC: Mike Schirtzer—UFT Delegate; MORE CAUCUS 7) Western NY (Buffalo): Joe Karb—President, Springville Faculty
Association 8) Western NY (Rochester): Orlando Benzan—President, Brockport
Teachers’ Association STCaucus
membership registration is now online
at https://stcaucus.nationbuilder.com/membership
Wait - they want to take the power from the fed ed dept (Obama/Duncan) and hand it over to the mostly right wing state anti-union governments? And even those not right wing might as well be - ahem - see one Andrew Cuomo.
Our great union leaders want you to forget how they sold the very ed laws they are not trashing. The major reason they want you to support the ESSA/ESEA - (the old act renamed) - is that it gets rid of aspects of NCLB and Race to the Top that our union leaders supported in the first place.
I would rename this as Every Child Succeeds or Off With the Heads of Teachers of those who don't succeed. And let's keep the definition of "succeed" a moving target so we can push out union teachers.
Our leaders at the time of NCLB in 2004 had their little stool at the table and urged passage of the act.
Ed Notes, (the hard copy) was on the case at that time:
Subject: No Child Left Behind- Ed Notes, March 2004 Reacting to Federal Guidelines, the state of Florida, which has been high-
lighted as a role model for student testing by the Bush Administrationʼs
Department of Education has released the following memo:
In response to President Bushʼs Federal No Child Left Behind Act, stu-
dents will have to pass it to be promoted to the next grade level. It will be
uniformly adopted by all the states, thus illuminating Florida to a glorious
front runner position in education, it will be called: the Federal Arithmetic
and Reading Test (FART).
All students who cannot pass a FART in the second grade will be retested
in grades 3-5 until such a time as they are capable of achieving a FART
score of 80%. If a student does not successfully FART by grade 5, that
student shall be placed in a separate English program, the Special Mastery
Elective for Learning language (SMELL).
If with this increased SMELL program the student cannot pass the required
FART, he or she can graduate to middle school by taking a one-semester
course in Comprehensive Reading and Arithmetic Preparation (CRAP).
If by age fourteen the student cannot FART, SMELL or CRAP, he will earn
his promotion in an intensive one-week seminar This is the Preparatory
Reading for Unprepared Nationally Exempted Students (PRUNES).
It is the opinion of the Florida Department of Public Instruction that an
intensive week of PRUNES will enable any student to FART, SMELL or
CRAP.
This revised provision of the student-testing component of the House Bill
110 should help clear the air.
And I published this piece by Greg Palast
NO CHILDʼS BEHIND LEFT: The New
Educational Eugenics In George
Bushʼs State of the Union by Greg Palast
Education Notes March/April 2004
Go ahead, George, and lie to me.
Lie to my dog. Lie to my sister.
But donʼt you ever lie to my kids.
Deep into your State of the Siege
lecture tonight, long after sensible
adults had turned off the tube or
kicked in the screen, you came after our children. “By passing the
No Child Left Behind Act,” you
said, “We are regularly testing every child ... and making sure they
have better options when schools
are not performing.”
You said it ... and then that little
tongue came out; that weird way
you stick your tongue out between
your lips like the little kid who
knows heʼs fibbing. Like a snake
licking a rat. I saw that snakey
tongue dart out and I thought, “He
knows.”
And what you know, Mr. Bush, is
this: youʼve ordered this testing to
hunt down, identify and target for
destruction the hopes of millions
of children you find too expensive,
too heavy a burden, to educate.
Hereʼs how No Child Left Behind
and your tests work in the classrooms of Houston and Chicago.
Millions of 8 year olds are given
lists of words and phrases. They
try to read. Then they are graded,
like USDA beef: some prime,
some OK, many failed.
Once the kids are stamped and
sorted, the parents of the marked
children ask for you to fill your
tantalizing promise, to “make sure
they have better options when
schools are not performing.”
But there is no “better option,”
is there, Mr. Bush? Whereʼs the
money for the better schools to
take in the kids getting crushed in
cash-poor districts? Whereʼs the
open door to the suburban campuses with the big green lawns for
the dark kids with the test-score
mark of Cain?
And if I bring up the race of the
kids with the low score, donʼt get
all snippy with me, telling me your
program is color blind. We know
the color of the kids left behind;
and itʼs not the color of the kids
you went to school with at Philips
Andover Academy.
You know and I know that the testing is a con. There is no “better
option” at the other end. The cash
went to end the inheritance tax,
that special program to give every
millionaireʼs son another million.
But youʼll tell me, you took tests
as a youth. I know you did. And
you scored on the Air Guard flight test 25 out of 100, one point above
too dumb to fly. But you zoomed
past the other would-be flyboys.
They were stamped, “Ready for
Ê»Nam.”
And you took a test to get into
Yale. And though your pet rock
scored a wee bit higher than you,
your grandpa on the Yale board
provided the “better option”
which got you in.
Here in New York City, your educational Taliban, led by Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
has issued an edict to test the
third-graders. Winnow out the
chaff - the kids stamped ʻfailedʼ
- and throw them back, exactly
where they started, to repeat the
same failed program another year.
The ugly little irony is this: the
core of No Child Left Behind is
that failing children will be left
behind another year. And another
year and another year.
You know and I know that this
is not an educational opportunity
program - because you offer no
opportunities, no hope, no plan,
no funding. Rather, it is the new
Republican social Darwinism,
educational eugenics: identify the
nationʼs loser-class early on. Trap
them, then train them cheap.
No Child Left Behind is of one
piece with the tax cuts for the
rich, the energy laws for the insid-
ers, the oil wars for the well-off.
Someone has to care for the privileged. No society can have winners without lots of losers - but
drug-free, functional and cheaply
maintained.
And so we have No Child Left Behind - to provide the new worker
drones that will clean the toilets
at the Yale Alumni Club, punch
the cash registers color-coded for
illiterates, and pamper the winner-
class on the higher floors of the
new economic order.
Greg Palast is author of, “The
Best Democracy Money Can
Buy,” which has returned this
week to the New York Times
bestseller list. View Palastʼs
writings for Harperʼs, The Guardian (UK) and BBC television at
www.GregPalast.com.
You can also see this article on-
line: http://www.gregpalast.com/
detail.cfm?artid=310&frm=eml
ED. NOTE: Teachers, parents and
academics have come together to
fight against the evil doer perpe-
trators of NCLB and the 3rd grade
retention policy. Join them!
In the spring Andrew Cuomo pushed through a school receivership law that allows the state to take control of "struggling" and "persistently struggling" schools and supersede the union contracts for teachers at those schools. This week NYSED Commissioner MaryEllen Elia gave the Buffalo schools superintendent the power to "circumvent" union contracts at five Buffalo schools. The Buffalo News reports the Buffalo Teachers Federation is planning to sue over the move and the lawsuit will have national implications......
Remember -- Elia is a Randi/Mulgrew pal -- she was one of their stars in their partnership with Bill Gates and her in Hillsborough at the AFT 2010 Seattle convention - I have video to prove it but am too lazy to dig it out -- which was put deep in debt and they chased Elia out on a rail - and Randi got her the gig here so she can negate teacher contracts. How perfect.
I pointed to the coming conflagration and this story dovetails perfectly. As for most NYC teachers and support staff being oblivious, when you have the major organs of communications controlled by the union who feed the members pablum and hide the real truth from them, what can you expect?
That is why my major focus in terms of MORE is creating methods of communication with the majority of working members to counter the Unity line. And the more votes MORE gets in the election the less MulGarten will sell us out - or be more careful about doing so. But more on that later.
The Buffalo Teacher Union will sue, but we know the courts are stacked against us.
Beth Dimino, president of Port Jefferson Station TU and a leader of the statewide opposition ST Caucus to Unity in her PJSTA piece said:
I am hoping the events in Buffalo are the impetus for mass organizing by
NYSUT or, at the very least, STCaucus. Without the rank and file
organizing at the general membership level New York’s teachers will
continue to be unprepared to take the collective action necessary to
defeat an agenda such as the one we face now.
I can hope too - but when you have Quisling leaders, hope only goes so far.
Click here to read the PJSTA’s resolution in opposition to receivership that the executive board passed last month.
Well it didn't take long for the forces of corporate ed reform to fire their first volley at B-Lo Public Schools. Fresh from burying Hillsborough County Florida's school system in a $20-$40 million dollar hole after a Faustian deal with Bill Gates, MaryEllen Elia has been subcontracted to do more damage on a much wider scale here in the Empire State. Isn't it interesting the way the ed reform class shuffles its muscle from place to place until they end up beetling over their base as Barbara Byrd Bennett did in Chicago. Looks like B3 is headed to the Stoney Lonesome. Curious to see if she gets paroled before Elia gets yet another brown parachute, this time from New York State.
UFT/Unity UberSlug Mulgrew among others actively working against WFP and colluding with other "labor" goon squads to date rape WFP into submission and capitulation ending in a disingenuous and hollow endorsement of Cuomo. High on our list of backstabbing "friends" there's AFT Empress for Life Randi Weingarten who glibly robocalled on behalf of Kathy Hochul and Cuomo doing her best lawyerly parsing of the betrayal claiming that she wasn't calling on behalf of Cuomo but just for Hochul. I am reminded of Bill Clinton in Lewinskean disgrace saying something to the effect of "define is." It didn't fly then and it didn't fly when Weingarten did it either. You robocalled for the Cuomo ticket Randi.
With the announcement of a joint MORE/New Action slate, it become feasible to take aim at filling all 750 slots even if they can't be won. (I wrote most of this before the announcement, so some of it is not up to date.)
Running for these Representative/Delegate positions allows UFT members to make a statement to the city, state and national union leadership that they are sick and tired of how these 750 Unity shock troops have been used on the state and national levels to make too many compromises with the ed deformers and have left rank and file
teachers in the lurch. The 750 Unity people elected in April 2016 will go to Minneapolis in July 2016 to runner stamp common core, teachers rated by test scores, annual testing, oppose opt out, and so on. By signing on to run with MORE/New Action you are saying NO. What do you have to do to run for AFT/NYSUT representative on the slate:
Get 100 UFT members to sign your petition.
A hundred signatures is needed on the petition to get on the ballot as an AFT/NYSUT representative to national and state conventions - we aim for 110 to cover doubles and possible eliminations. The process of getting signatures in the schools is a way to chat up the election. It is understood that it is not always easy to get 100 signatures in smaller schools. MORE and New Action will hold signing parties to help make up any shortfall. Petitions will be made available in January or February - and you will have 3 weeks to gather them.
Donate to the election campaign
You don't have to officially join MORE to run for AFT/NYSUT delegate though joining would give you voting rights in MORE for the next year. Even a small donation to the election cause is welcome.
Email me and I will send you the candidate info form to fill out. normsco@gmail.com
Fill it out and email it back to me which will count as your having signed it.
MORE does not accept cross endorsed candidates - meaning you cannot run on 2 different caucus lines.
Running for the AFT/NYSUT delegate doesn't preclude running for other positions like Executive Board or officers.
Background
There are 3 levels of positions being voted on in the triennial UFT elections.
Officers - 12
Executive Board - 89
AFT/NYSUT Reps - 750
People put way too much attention on the officers, especially the president. I prefer to focus on the least noticed and understood - the 750 delegate positions which rewards the Unity loyalists with all expense paid trips to state and national conventions. These 750 are the heart of the Unity machine that not only controls NYSUT and the AFT but also controls the districts and schools - people who function as arms of the Unity propaganda machine which has successfully - so far - convinced rank and file teachers that, yes, things are bad, but none of it are their fault - blame everyone but them. As the late Gene Prisco used to say -- the arrow is aimed right at them but they have a massive deflection machine.
I left this comment on the ICE blog in response to someone who focused on the need for a credible presidential candidate. Yes - we need a credible candidate for sure - and I am sure MORE, which has a wide choice of credible people, will choose one - nominations will opened at this Saturday's general meeting.
...it is not about a credible opponent but about building from the school levels up to challenge Unity every day, every month, every year, not every 3 years. As long as Unity has chapter leaders and other people in the majority of the schools without anyone to push back the elections every 3 years reflect that fact. Look at some of the school standing up to support Seattle - not very many but some signs that something is stirring at the rank and file level in schools where there are people to raise these points and engage in an active refutation of the distorted world Unity is selling where they are blameless.
Unless an opposition challenges these 750 mostly school based Unity at the school level, elections will continue the way they have been.
While I am less active in MORE as the younger gen with so much energy takes over, I have taken on the project to help organize as large a number of people running for these 750 seats as possible. I just don't count numbers but how many schools - some people have offered to sign up everyone in their school - and we can do that - but expanding the numbers of schools with at least someone running is a bigger goal.
We have found that where there are active people who talk up the election and why they are running, their colleagues do vote. That is the best way to get out the vote, not various election schemes like electronic voting or in school voting where the Unity machine could actually steal votes.
MORE doesn't necessarily expect to get the full complement of 750 filled but will make a serious attempt to get as many as possible.
What do you have to do if you win?
Don't worry - you can't win the way the UFT election process is run.
Let me say it out right. None of these these 750 positions can be won. Not even 1 out of the 750 even if a caucus gets 49.9% of the votes. In the UFT oligarchy it's winner take all.
So why bother to run for AFT/NYSUT delegates at all?
In the last 4 elections cycles I've been involved in - 04, 07, 10, 13 - the opposition groups I've been involved with - ICE and MORE - and TJC in joint slates - did not make a concerted effort to get people to run for these seats because the petitioning turned out to be a pain in the ass. In 1981 all the opposition parties joined together to actually fill the entire slate with about 800 people - the only time I remember that happening.
Now I think is the time to try it once again. Why? For me it has been attending some AFT and NYSUT conventions where I get to see the outcome of these 750 Unity Caucus people acting as a battering ram against people fighting for democratic unionism and for a progressive agenda for teacher unions that includes fighting full bore against ed deform.
So, if you decide to run with MORE/New Action you won't be going to Minneapolis in July 2016 on the 750 Unity Caucus gravy train - though you are welcome to join the MORE contingent that is paying its own way to be a presence and to support other locals battling the Unity machine. Or to 2016, 17, 18 NYSUT conventions - especially the 2017 at the NY Hilton where NY State version of Unity will use these 750 Unity BORGS to control the city, state and national union policy that has proved so harmful to rank and file teachers all over the nation.
More background
Some people confuse these 750 AFT/NYSUT positions with the delegates elected by each school to the monthly UFT Delegate Assembly. There is no relation at all, though if you go to the regular DA and to the AFT/NYSUT conventions you see the same Unity people and you get a deeper understanding of how these people are used to control every level of the union. They are Unity chapter leaders, district reps and also loads of Unity retirees. The Unity BORG machine in action.
In the past few elections, the opposition has pretty much ignored these positions. When ICE ran with TJC, the people running TJC put up only a few people. ICE people felt that getting a nice list of people would help in the election but in reality it had little if any impact. People were just told to sign up and they didn't have to do anything - we would get them the 100 signatures. So they often barely knew they were running for anything and were just names to fill in enough positions to make us look credible. Unity Winner-take-all disenfranchises Unity opponents
In a democratic union, MORE's percentage of the vote in the 2013 election would have given it a share of these 750 delegates. But the 5000 people who voted for MORE in the election get no representation at the AFT and NYSUT. And a good chunk of dues goes to AFT and NYSUT - taxation without representation. Anyone know where Unity keeps the tea?
MORE will be putting forth some proposals in the election to change how these representatives are elected to remove the "Unity is the sole option" process.
But I don't want to make a case for a simple proportional representation for caucuses like MORE. That leaves out too many people who are not involved in caucuses. I am for separating the 750 delegate election from the rest of the UFT general elections for Officers and Exec Board and get schools involved in choosing these candidates. Arthur Goldstein often points out that he is elected by 300 UFT members and doesn't get a voice at the state and national levels.
If you need motivation, here is the mock Apple 1984 video David Bellel and I made during the AFT2010 Seattle Bill Gates convention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYQzoDy_ocA
Bill Gates' appearance at the AFT Convention was cheered wildly by most of the delegates. But about 60 walked out and others held a silent protest inside. Here is a parody of the famous Apple intro to Mac at the 1984 Super Bowl, the only time it was ever shown.
The idea was hatched at Sunday night dinner in Seattle with George Schmidt and some CORE members. I am realizing that so many people have no idea of the significance and irony of that commercial, which was shown just once at the 1984 Super Bowl as an Apple ad to introduce the revolutionary Macintosh, which introduced the mouse and the graphical interface. It was also a political attack on the then dominant IBM, which has entered the personal computer field that Apple had invented in 1976/7. But with Microsoft capturing the operating system - in pre Windows days, which was copied from the MAC, it could also be seen as an attack on Gates 26 years ago. We made sure to add the complicit AFT/UFT - that's Randi in the background mocking the protesters leaving the hall to the cheers of Unity Caucus.
...but it will never happen with a union leadership that defends APPR, as Arthur Goldstein points out today: Leadership Defense of APPR Is Total Nonsense ."UFT leadership sold us this bill of goods."
I'm not big on going to court since I believe they are stacked against us - lawsuits are often a distraction from real organizing - and they cost a ton.
I guess my question of the day is - can the UFT/NYSUT be embarrassed into going to court? My guess is if there is enough demand what they will do is do a faux court case to deflect people from real action - they will gather names, etc and then strangle the case from backstage.
Why? Because as Arthur points out the UFT is in favor of APPR. You can surmise why they are but maybe that is not the important issue, though many of us suspect the links to ed deformers might the issue, the seat at the table and even money changing hands.
The exasperated New York Supreme Court judge, Roger McDonough, tried
to get Assistant Attorney General Galligan to answer his questions. He
was looking for clarity and instead got circuitous responses about bell
curves, “outliers” and adjustments. Fourth-grade teacher Sheri
Lederman’s VAM score of “ineffective” was on trial. The more Ms.
Galligan tried to defend the bell curve of growth scores as science, the
more the judge pushed back with common sense. It was clear that he did
his homework. He understood that the New York State Education
Department’s VAM system artificially set the percentage of “ineffective”
teachers at 7 percent. That arbitrary decision clearly troubled him.
“Doesn’t the bell curve make it subjective? There has to be failures,”
he asked. The defender of the curve said that she did not like the “failure” word. The judge quipped, “Ineffectives, how about that?” Those in attendance laughed.
I think the judge's reaction is a sign this case could be won. Which must scare the hell out of our union leaders.
PS 8X is joining Stronger Together---the forms, checks and the below cover letter was mailed to ST Caucus... Roseanne McCosh
What can you say about Roseanne, a former chapter leader and Unity Caucus member, and her colleagues? This is organizing 1.1 -- even the leading activists I know haven't been able to accomplish this - or even try.
Where will the ST dues money go? To
support delegates' attendance at the AFT 2016 convention in
Minneappolis and the NYSUT RA Assembly in New York City in 2017, when
the next NYSUT election will be held (many poor locals cannot afford to
cover the costs for their delegates).
If even a fifth of the schools in NYC did what PS 8 is doing, Unity would be toast. There is something blowing in the wind as some chapter leader elections returns where Unity people who defended the contract last year have lost to MORE or independent candidates.
Here is the letter sent from PS 8 in da Bronx.
May 21, 2015 Dear ST Caucus Leaders: Enclosed you will find sixty-one membership forms and checks from teachers who work at PS 8 in the Bronx. We are still collecting forms and money and will hopefully have some more to send as we continue to reach out to the staff in our school. Some teachers contributed more than the $10 membership fee. Use the money as you see fit. We are all members of the United Federation of Teachers and NYSUT. We thank you for your earnest support and your willingness to stand up for NY teachers despite the fact that Unity-Caucus-controlled NYSUT and UFT leadership are working against you. We are not blind to the failures of our union leadership. Nor are we blind to the fact that they willingly fail us in order to serve their self-interests. We serve no masters but we will support any caucus or group within our union(s) who are like minded. We are independent thinkers whose allegiance is to truth, fairness and transparency. We believe we do not have to hide behind children while fighting for our dignity. We reject the premise that the best interests of teachers are diametrically opposed to the best interests of the children we teach. We believe it is time to demand the respect we deserve and to challenge those who attack us with their lies, manipulation and obfuscation as well as challenge those within our own union(s) who have allowed for these continued attacks on their watch. We appreciate that a group of unsung heroes has our back, and we sincerely thank you for it. Yours in solidarity, Roseanne McCosh – PS 8 UFT Delegate and NYSUT Member Cynthia Pacelli – UFT Chapter Leader and NYSUT Member Lori Matta – UFT Delegate and NYSUT Member Cc: Michael Mulgrew – UFT President Karen Magee – NYSUT President
NYSUT has 600,000 members and is by far the largest component of the AFT's 1.5 million membership. NYSUT has always been a reliable Unity Caucus rubber stamp for NYC Unity Caucus, which has used its control of NYSUT Unity caucus to control the AFT and its Progressive Caucus version of Unity.
Thus the shakeup in NYSUT since Randi and Mulgrew pulled their Revile Slate knockdown of their former allies, Iannucci and crew. Their boy, Andy Pallotta has been like a bull in the chinashop, managing to alienate everyone he comes in contact with beyond the usual sycophants. And there is always good old Alan Lubin around to pull the strings.
The rocket rise of Stronger Together and Beth Dimino to the leadership of the first opposition to NYSUT Unity/Revile has the potential to be cataclysmic for the national teacher union - or not. I know ST first got together a year ago, I was still disappointed that it had zero presence at the AFT14 convention in LA. But after last week's RA, things are really looking up.
First - Beth and Brian St. Pierre reached out to MORE in the fall of 2013 and it was lucky for all of us that Mike Schirtzer was astute enough to get on the case and build a strong relationship with them. There were a whole bunch of MORE people who actually argued against getting involved -- I don't even know how to categorize their views - some kind of supposed analysis on organizing based on studying ancient, dusty tomes, which somehow haven't actually resulted in very successful organizing. But I'll leave that for another day.
Luckily, there are some rational MORE people like Lauren Cohen (see her video) and Jia Lee and Julie Cavanagh and James Eterno who jumped into the pool with Mike and Beth and Brian. They were joined by non-MORE Arthur Goldstein and shook up the NYSUT RA at the Hilton last year. James has a piece up on ICE today: JOIN STRONGER TOGETHER
It's only 10 bucks and sends a message to Unity if lots of NYC teachers join.
There is a reason ST reached out to MORE and elected Schirtzer to the steering committee. They want to build alliances between the state and NYC opposition to Unity. But they are not stopping there. They are also getting involved with the national groups MORE has been working with - United Caucuses of Rank and File Educators (UCORE). I have been attending various versions of UCORE meetings since 2009 and I'm still waiting for something to happen -- they will meet in Newark in July.
But if ST and UCORE actually do make an effort at the AFT`16 convention in Minneapolis, we may see some shaking of the tree when Unity tries its bully tactics. I'm basing my continued support for UCORE based on their willingness to organize for AFT16. (There are sticky issues here since CTU president Karen Lewis must be in Randi's Progressive Caucus in order to hold onto an AFT Exec Bd seat and that puts CORE Caucus, Karen's caucus in Chicago, and also a key component of UCORE, in somewhat of a bind as to how active they can be in opposing Progressive Caucus. Some even say that these kinds of entanglements make UCORE into a discussion group only. UCORE (still unnamed) was non-existent at AFT14 and in fact I believe there was some kow-towing to Unity at times.
I'm not going to parse Brian's piece right now as I have to run to Botanic Gardens for the final day of the plant sale. But there is so much meat there and lessons on how Unity functions on the local, state and national levels I will do a follow up examining how they will try to buy out and coopt ST to try to turn them into New Action, light. Like jobs or a stool at the table, anyone?
And here is the ST call to join:
Dear ST Caucus Members,
We
were thrilled with the support the caucus received at the NYSUT RA in
Buffalo. Over 500 delegates joined, 145 of which were local
presidents. Our inaugural caucus meeting was standing room only with
incredible enthusiasm and support for our resolutions and democratic
reform within NYSUT. Our bylaws and a slate of caucus officers were
approved.
While
our constitutional amendment proposals were defeated, we were able to
get the RA House of Delegates to pass three resolutions that address the
flawed nature of the standardized tests in New York State. The
resounding voices of the Delegates at the NYSUT RA in favor of these
issues will now compel NYSUT leadership to do the right thing for New
York's students and teachers by supporting the opt out movement!
As
we move forward, we will be revising the voting amendments dealing with
democratic reform within NYSUT for the RA next year. Please feel free
to reach out to caucus officers regarding any concerns you might have as
the year progresses. We truly want rank and file members to utilize
this avenue because it will help focus our positions and determine our
resolutions for the next RA.
ST
Caucus is open to any NYSUT Member in good standing, delegates and non
delegates alike. Please encourage every member in your local to join--a
membership form can be found here. T-Shirts in sizes M,L,XL,2X and 3X are still available for a $20 donation here.
We will continue to keep you informed of new developments. In the
meantime, please share information about the caucus with your local and
follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
In Solidarity,
Chair: Beth Dimino—President Port Jefferson Station Teachers' Association
Treasurer: Beth Chetney—President Baldwinsville Teachers’ Association
Secretary: Laura Spencer—President Smithtown Teachers’ Association
Membership Chair: Michele Bushey—PAC, Saranac Teachers’ Association
Vice-Chairs representing NYS by region
1) Central NY/Southern Tier: Angelee Hargreaves—President Port Byron Teachers’ Association
2) Capital District: Megan DeLaRosa—President Shenendehowa Teachers’ Association
3) North Country: Nate Hathaway—President Malone Federation of Teachers
4) Tarrytown/Mid-Hudson: Mike Lillis—President Lakeland Federation of Teachers
5) Nassau/Suffolk: Kevin Coyne—President Brentwood Teachers’ Association
6) NYC: Mike Schirtzer—UFT Delegate; MORE CAUCUS
7) Western NY (Buffalo): Joe Karb—President Springville Faculty Association
8) Western NY (Rochester): Orlando Benzan—President Brockport Teachers’ Association
Strong support for the resolutions from STCaucus (details later) even though Unity defeated all resos in committee but
shined a spotlight on how they control and opened some eyes and gaining ST more support.
Mike Schirtzer from MORE elected to rep NYC on ST steering, solidifying bonds between ST and MORE.
Look for the first serious opposition to Unity at the state level in 40 years to grow. The next election will be in spring 2017.
Arthur raises some essential questions regarding the continuous bad policy decisions being made by the union time and again.
....How many times do we need to fall on our asses before someone in leadership gets tired? How much inexcusable nonsense do working teachers need to experience before someone says enough? ...... when are we gonna learn from our mistakes? How many times are we gonna kowtow to people who hate us and everything we stand for just so they can crap all over us? I guess there's some logic to this, but my mind just can't get around it. Norm Scott regularly posts explanations, but even after he explains it I don't understand.
I'm apparently not able to articulate a clear explanation for the WHY behind the UFT's actions -- and let's make it clear, Unity Caucus, being the largest block in NYSUT and the AFT, controls both those organizations. So for those who try to make it seem Mulgrew is not Weingarten, that is just blowing smoke. All style and no substance in the difference.
Michael Fiorillo has a piece in the upcoming High School Voice newsletter on Unity control which we will try to get into as many high schools as possible (email me if you are willing to distribute.)
Chaz blog
The real problem is not just a small oligarchic leadership who sit in offices but the loyalists in Unity caucus who are actually in schools, many as chapter leaders, and still force feed the Unity line to the people they supposedly represent. Note the comments of people like Unity supporters Paula Washington and John Marvel on blog posts critical of the union as examples - loyalists rushing to rearrange the deck chairs.
You need to look at the institutions the union sets up and controls that extend their control into the schools.
If you attend one of the 50 district and functional chapter meetings which are aimed at chapter leaders, you will find a room dominated by Unity and controlled by the Unity person running the meeting. I know MORE CLs who feel there is little headway to be made with these people. In only one district I know of have MORE and other independent CLs been getting to a point of critical mass where their voices are being heard.
People focus way to much on the elections every 3 years. The really important elections take place this May and June for CLs.
[MORE chapter leader election workshops on March 14 at CUNY.]
Even if independents get elected, they are often pulled into the orbit of the union-employed District Rep and also union training weekends where they are shown the advantages of joining Unity - and many do right away. Then they are told the opposition is poison, radicals, crazies, etc. And they spread the word in their schools if someone asks about the opposition.
NYC Educator blog
One of our new people had a friend who basically knows nothing about the union with disparaging remarks about MORE, which astounded this person. Where did she get that from? It is the Unity Caucus rank and file who are fed the line and pass it on.
Co-opting the opposition is another tactic. They target certain people. They never give up on people other than people like Arthur, James Eterno, Jeff Kaufman and myself.
Many of the newer activists in MORE are being approached by union officials, if not outright offers to join "you will rise quickly in the union" but also more subtle -- we hear you, let's work together, join our working committees, etc. I call this "defanging" the opposition. Hey, it worked with New Action so effectively.
And for people who got involved with a group like MORE only recently, it can be heady stuff being approached with offers to give them a voice. Especially when Mulgrew himself is doing this - as Randi did with me for so many years - and yes, I admit fully to buying it for a long time. So I am not blaming them for being enticed. I can't tell you how many people who used to distribute Ed Notes from 1998-2003 ended up being co-opted into Unity -- I usually know that happened when they suddenly stopped saying hello to me at the DA -- though they are more friendly at AFT conventions in other cities.
Call them incompetent on policy but in this venture of control they are as good as it can get -- the Unity of Chicago was incompetent and that opened the way for CORE. Unity will make sure that never happens here.
Pogue made this excellent comment on Arthur's piece.
I don't believe leadership and Unity are out of touch, I believe they make decisions on fear... The fear that those at the top of our union leadership will lose their power, fear they will lose their double pensions, fear they will lose all the perks that come with keeping destructive policies the way they are. I imagine backdoor meetings with politicians and rich policymakers are made up of UFT leadership being told what's going to happen, then being assisted on formulating how Unity can make it seem like they are fighting back. Unionized marionette strings, if you will. I used to think leadership made honest mistakes, too many mistakes, one worse than the last, over the course of the past 15 years, have made it crystal clear they are collaborative and complicit in public education's problems. Leadership and Unity are not stupid, they are just scared.
I've been putting forward the Vichy-like-collaborationist theory for some time. I don't mean to compare them to Nazi sympathizers but with the kind of thinking that would get a significant group of probably decent people in France to think that a cooperating Vichy was better than the Resistance - which by the way was left wing -- and that is a story for another time given that ANY opposition will always have a left wing because, well, that is where activists and organizers are likely to come from.
One of the major tactics of Unity is the indoctrinate its people that the opposition are oddballs leftists to scare people who might venture into that camp. That MORE has been attracting a broader range of people is a threat to Unity and thus Unity woos them to try to winnow down the opposition to the extent they can be more easily branded.
What disturbs me is when our friends get all riled up when they hear some left rhetoric and end up, unwittingly, enforcing the Unity plan.
