Showing posts with label UFT contract teach-in PEP Rally. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UFT contract teach-in PEP Rally. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2023

UFT Contract Update Yin-Yang - Jan. 29 EONYC 7PM PEP Rally, UFT Rally Monday Outside Whitney Museum - Reality Bites

The UFT Culminating January Contract Teach-in offensive takes place Monday with a rousing press conference outside the Whitney Museum at 11:30. (See press advisory below) with a preliminary pep rally sponsored by Educators of NYC, zooming tonight at 7. And you can still get on board:  UFT CONTRACT TEACH-IN PEP RALLY

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29TH @ 7 PM
A ZOOM ONLINE FORUM EVENT
 CLICK HERE TO RSVP

There has been debates in the alternate non-Unity Caucus universe over this UFT initiative and I have an entire blog post just about ready to go diving deeper into it. Some have been supportive as the UFT leadership finally doing some basic organizing around the contract. 

Others have been more skeptical, seeing the Teach-In as a show and tell event.

I'm somewhere in the middle, hearing from all sides. Unity crowd very excited, Oppos people not so much. But these are the activists on both sides. I offered the leadership some love last week: Fighting for a Fair Contract

Getting readings from the rank and file, the fact that so many people signed up for the UFT training is a sign of widespread interest.

And the interest in tonight's PEP rally has also been heavy with possibly 200 people expected, with an all-star panel of people representing all wings of United for Change - and as Nick Bacon has pointed out (Understanding the ‘Politics’ of the UFT’s Progressive Opposition), UFC is not monolithic, so expect the kind of debate you won't often hear at UFT events. UFT high level officials have been invited but as of this posting have not responded. But we may see a surprise stand-in presenting their side of things.

I'd like to see some history of previous contracts discussed: the 1995 voted down the first time, the major giveback 2005 contract, the 2014 and 2018 healthcare givebacks. Do you see a pattern here? I think there will be a discussion of whether a vote NO means a strike (which the leadership will try to tell people.).


The Agenda

Monday, January 23, 2023

UFT Contract Teach-In Jan. 30 - Showing leadership some love, Revisiting Jan. 9 Ex Bd and Jan. 18 DA

 


 A Key takeaway from recent UFT Ex Bd and DA:

When Carl Cambria raised the idea to bring contract discussions to the schools at the Jan. 9 Ex Bd meeting, many of us in the opposition cheered, even the skeptics - like me. I liked working with Carl who chaired the UFT election committee last year, so let's give him some love for this imitative.

So I was proud to be part of the crew that discussed the issue and decided to show the leadership some support for a change by holding a pep rally for the next day's activities Sunday night, Jan. 29 where a range of issues related to the contract will be discussed. A great panel is being put together with lots of ideas for how to make the next day's teach-in more meaningful. Mike Schirtzer, an Ex Bd member who ran on the Unity slate in 2019 and 2022, is on board. There might even be input from some people in the leadership. Kumbaya!

Monday, Jan. 23, 2023

Jan. is always an intense month with the highlight being my wife's birthday coming up in a few days. My deceased dad and her deceased mom and her young cousin all fell in the same week - some of the family is gathering at a steak restaurant/butcher in New Jersey this week where we go to the counter to pick out our own steaks. Luckily they don't have live cows to choose from. Jeez, time flies. Daylight is getting longer and I can see March around the corner - and my 78th birthday. 

I wanted to write about the Jan. 9 Exec Bd meeting (Who actually needs time to read a contract anyways? – Executive Board Meeting, 1-9-2023) where some significant events occurred and here we are with another Ex Bd meeting tonight. And I also haven't written about the Jan. 18 Del Assembly, (Mulgrew to Members: Prepare for Premiums – Analyzing the 1-18-2023 Delegate Assembly), which I missed due to a cold.There are too many threads to deal with which you can see if you clicked the links above, so let's focus on the contract teach-in. 

Nick has a related contract item at New Action: