Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
The views expressed by our individual authors are their own and may not reflect the views of the EONYC community. Just as we may not all agree with the editorial views expressed as the collective Educators of NYC community.
UFT
Executive Board high school members will share a rank and file vision
for a better UFT contract. Learn more about the new proposed tentative
agreement -- its perks and its drawbacks.
At
this important meeting, you’ll learn more about the newly proposed
tentative contract. Our panel will also share a rank and file vision and
in-classroom perspectives from union members, like you, fighting for a
better contract.
There
is a lot to talk about. In 2018, major healthcare givebacks were not
fully disclosed. Simply put, we can’t afford to be fooled again. It’s
why we all need to really look at what is at stake.
We’ll
discuss the perks found this 2023 tentative agreement but also the
major drawbacks, such as — the lasting impact of sub-inflation raises,
implicit major healthcare givebacks, low wages for paraprofessionals and
occupational & physical therapists, more micromanagement, no clear
plan for virtual schools & much, much more.
So, what happens if we vote this TA down for a better contract? Join us to find out.
If Mulgrew is serious about class size implementation and
enforcement, he’d support a class size guarantee in our next contract.
The United For Change coalition is calling for one as part of their BIG 5
contract demands. -- Educators of NYC
Sunday, May 21, 2023
United for Change (UFC) is pointing to 5 big must haves in the upcoming contract: Fair pay, Healthcare, Class size, Working conditions, and a host of other issues.
The UFT leadership is anxious to wrap up the contract by hook or crook before the end of the school year - so they can focus on screwing retirees on healthcare when their move to Aetna takes effect on Sept. 1.
But rest assured, changes are coming to working teachers on healthcare AFTER they vote on the contract. Unity is selling the idea we can't negotiate on healthcare but Mulgrew can through the MLC. The UFT constitution calls for a vote on all contracts but Unity has been violating this constantly.
There is another big rally on healthcare at city hall this Wednesday at noon. I will be there.
That is why we need to keep circulating our petition calling for a vote on healthcare.
I will have a follow-up piece on the gaslighting from the faux 500 Unity Caucus dominated negotiating committees (bet on their voting to ratify even if there's dog shit on the contract) and the upcoming "let's call an emergency DA, give people 10 minutes to read the contract and vote, then a big push to threaten the rank and file with dire consequences if they vote no" campaign.
We have already seen Unity attacks and scare tactics about a NO vote. Remember the NO vote in the 1995 contract which originally raised max years from 20 to 25 years, the main reason people voted it down? Sandra Feldman said we must be smoking something if we think we will get something better. Yet we did -- knocked down the max to 22 years, still a loss and a giveback but not as much. Even in the 1975 strike which Shanker lost for us, he still claimed that by striking instead of losing 15k jobs we only lost 13k. Wowser! The OT/PT unit turned down the last UFT contract and won some improvement in the follow-up. So there is a history of winning a better deal by turning down the first one.
In 2005 ICE and TJC (New Action was then aligned with Unity) led a NO vote and almost pulled it off with 40%. That contract still haunts us today as it killed a lot of seniority protections and opened the doors for Bloomberg to closed schools and created the ATR situation with no guaranteed regular jobs. The rank and file were aware and rose up to a great extent but just not enough. If they could have re-voted two years late that contract would have lost.
Now for the last 50-something years until I retired and could not vote, I always voted NO because there was no improvement in class size. The union would not even negotiate it. But the UFT claimed the big lobbying "victory" on a recent law on class size and I was yelling at my colleagues on the negotiating committee to demand class size be included because the contract protects us against fudging with the law and even reversals when there is a budget crunch.
So lo and behold I wasn't surprised to see this from our esteemed mis-leader:
"Meeting
the new class size standards is going to require a real plan -- and so
far, the DOE hasn't managed to create one. This document is missing a
strategy for
implementation and a targeted proposal for where and when new seats
should be built. The state passed the small class size law and increased
funding to New York City public schools to pay for it. We will work
with the state to make sure the New York City Department
of Education fulfills its obligations and complies with this law" -
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers
Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters eviscerated the Adams/Banks administration, which opposed the class size law and is working actively to gut it.
On Friday, DOE posted what is purported to be their draft five- year
class size reduction plan, in accordance with the new state law. As I
was quoted in the Daily News, “It’s a big nothing burger. There is no plan. They’re hoping
just to coast on enrollment decline until it’s too late to do anything
real.”
There is nothing in the plan about providing more space
or staffing to lower class size, or capping enrollment at very
overcrowded schools. There is nothing about creating space by using
more creative strategies, e.g. by possibly moving more PreK seats out of
elementary schools to CBOs which have thousands of empty seats. There
is nothing at all about how the benchmarks will be achieved in the out
years, especially given how DOE intends to continue cutting school
budgets and has proposed to slash the capital plan by $2.3 billion and
22,000 seats. In fact, there is not a single mention in the proposed
Feb. amendment to the capital plan, released six months after the
Governor signed the class size bill into law, that even mentions the
mandate to lower class size.
I will keep saying this - Class size has not been lowered in the contract for over 50 years -- codify the state law.
Now the UFT is calling for rallies this week on Thursday and UFC is supporting these rallies even though some of us see them as staged to give the impression that they can influence the contract -- like Adams will be influenced. OK. I'll go along. Some cynics think there is already an agreement and the UFT is staging events and holding off to squeeze the issue into the final two weeks of June to try to circumvent a No vote campaign. I'm shocked, just shocked -- (Yes I watched Casablanca again last night for the 100th time.).
The United for Change coalition (New Action, Retiree Advocate, MORE, Solidarity, ICE, EONYC) began meeting again with the pressure of the new contract and has produced a fabulous leaflet which we handed out at the DA last Wednesday.
While the UFT leaders "sell" the 3% pattern --- I even heard at a recent ex bd meeting the chief negotiator say we need to keep fighting for that pattern since we haven't attained it yet. As a social security recipient I'm getting 8%. It pays to be old. Did you notice the wins of other teacher unions? How about Oakland? Sam Seder interviewsVilma Serrano of the Oakland Education Association (OEA). The contract includes a historic raise for all full-time teachers and stipends for specialty educators and staff.
Daniel Alicea of Educators of NYC has been the architect of the campaign, showing his many talents.
And HS Ex Bd member Nick Bacon has been on the case. Let me point out that two years ago Nick was in Unity and Daniel was looking to work with Unity (both voted for Unity in 2019). These are not the usual oppo suspects (like me). It says something about the waning of internal power and influence of Unity. Daniel and Nick make a dynamic duo.
UFT: Let’s Fight for the Contract We Deserve
With the first tentative agreement likely to be presented within the next few weeks, every last action matters. Reposted from the New Action blog at https://newaction.org
On Wednesday, May 24th, our union will hold what islikely to bethe UFT’s final organizing action for the 2023 contract. Members will assemble at five sites (one in each borough) to rally for a fair agreement. I am hopeful that attendance will be good – not just by staffers, but by regular rank-and-file teachers, paras, and related professionals. And yes, I plan to attend, and have encouraged members of my chapter to attend. I encourage you to attend too.
Sure, I have some reservations about whether the specifics of this event are good enough to get us the contract we deserve. I think it’s a mistake that our union’s leadership is so committed tokeeping working teachers from having the right to strike. I think that their over-reliance on bureaucratic ‘Taylor Law’ tactics underminesthe potency of our organizing. And, I worry that if UFT leadership is relying on the threat ofPERBrather than the culmination of good organizing (i.e. the viable ‘strike’ threat), the City has little reason to react to the limited organizing it does see.
But strike threat or not, the more of us that show up to contract actions, the more of a reason the City has to listen to us. So, I’m showing up. I’m showing up, because, like it or not, this is the official organizing we have. It’s what we’ve put our entire union’s dues, staff efforts, and volunteer work into producing.
Here is a copy and paste for those wanting to share with their staffs.
OUR BIG 5 UFT CONTRACT DEMANDS – OR WE MUST VOTE ‘NO’! We need a truly fair contract that we, our families and school communities can live and thrive on. Anything less - means we must vote ‘NO”! Take the BIG 5 pledge: http://big5.unitedforchange.vote
DEMANDS WHY? 1 FAIR PAY WITH RAISES WE DESERVE AND PAY PARITY - We demand raises for all UFT members that match or outpace the skyrocketing cost of living in the NYC area. Paraprofessionals should be paid a living wage. Occupational therapists and physical therapists, with entry level masters or doctoral requirements, should have pay parity with other educator titles. We should be close to top pay much earlier in our careers. We live in one of the most expensive cities in the world and inflation has hit us hard here. With numbers at 6% and cost of living at 9%, none of us can afford 3 or 3.5% raises. Some of our titles are being hit particularly hard. Paraprofessionals, for instance, form the backbone of our schools. They have some of the most physically demanding jobs, but are not paid a living wage. They deserve pay that reflects the reality of their hard work. There are also some titles that make less than UFT-represented positions with comparable labor/education requirements. Occupational therapists’ and physical therapists’ salaries top out at $81K while other titles with similar degree requirements top out near $120K. They deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. We all do!
2 PREMIUM-FREE, QUALITY HEALTHCARE - We demand that our choice and quality of existing healthcare plans be expanded and improved - not diminished or replaced with inferior options. If significant changes are proposed, they must be fully disclosed to us and put to a vote by members. Voting on such collective bargaining items is our right. (See healthcare referendum petition: http://hcpetition.educators.nyc) Our healthcare, and the healthcare for our families, should not be leveraged in salary negotiations. Healthcare is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining that to our detriment has been greatly diminished, especially in the last 2 contracts - 2014 & 2018. In 2018, the City and Mulgrew agreed to “cost savings" of $600 million dollars every year, in perpetuity. Since then, retirees have been forced into an inferior privatized Medicare Advantage plan. In-service members have seen increases in co-pays, dental, eye and mental health care deteriorate, and our entire plans are about to be changed. This was done without member consent. Changes were not fully disclosed at the time of contract votes. Let us have informed votes on significant changes.
3 SMALLER CLASS SIZE GUARANTEE - We demand that new NYS class size caps for grades K-12 be contractually guaranteed. We need enforceable mechanisms to ensure that the City follows the new law. The newly passed state law that sets lower class size caps must be fully implemented by 2028. However, the City is already balking at implementing the law and not fully funding schools or capital building investments to this end. Also, there are at least four existing loopholes in the law that will result in the lack of enforcement of the new caps. Our existing contractual class size caps are over 50 years old. We have a golden opportunity to codify the new law contractually. Putting the new class size limits into our contract adds needed teeth to a law that otherwise might go unenforced. Give us the ability to grieve oversized classes, so that our students get the small class sizes they deserve.
4 REAL TEACHER AUTONOMY, ALONG WITH REDUCED CASELOADS We demand an end to micromanaged professional periods and unproductive PDs. Teachers are the best judge of how to use our non-teaching time. Let us decide how to use it. The caseloads of IEP teachers, related service and guidance counselors must be contractually capped. Day after day, teachers are pulled to work meaningless C6 assignments that have nothing to do with their instruction. What could be an extra period to plan, assess, and collaborate, becomes yet another moment of meetings and paperwork. Every Monday, this is compounded in long ‘professional development’ periods that take over an hour of our time for meetings no one needs. As a result, teachers end up doing much of their work at home, which eats into their personal and family lives. The same can be said for IEP teachers, counselors, and related service providers, whose uncapped caseloads force them to bring their work home. Give us our time back. Cap caseloads and eliminate unnecessary meetings/C6 assignments.
5 IMPROVEMENTS TO TENURE, EVALUATIONS, PAID FAMILY LEAVE AND TIER 6 PENSIONS - Tenure and pensions are under attack. Evaluations are out of control. Paid family leave is insufficient. The City must agree contractually to lobby the State for reforms and changes. We’ve made agreements like this in the past, and they’ve worked. It’s due time we do so again. The Danielson rubric has been weaponized against us, instead of being supportive. Tenure is being denied for 8 or 9 years, leaving new teachers without due process and forcing them to leave the system. Under Tier 6, teachers will need to be teaching nearly 40 years to retire! We should have 25/55 offered to this tier. Paid family leave for most New Yorkers is 12 weeks. Educators deserve the same. Union leadership has chosen to tell us a half truth when it comes to these issues. We’ve been told that we can’t negotiate these issues because they are linked to state laws and other regulations. Nonetheless, they fail to tell us that we can, indeed, get the City to commit to lobbying the state to make or approve needed changes. In some cases, the City itself can make the changes. We’ve successfully done so in previous contracts.
Watch the interview Sam did with Vilma Serrano, the Oakland Teacher.
What does the success of the resistance to Mulgrewcare have to do with closing the Executive Board to non Ex Bd UFT members?
Everything. The more people know, the less they will believe the bullshit.
The cruelest cut of all - No dinner for me at Ex Bd
Before I begin, once I learned of the closed session I decided not to go, though I was going to ask Leroy Barr if I could just eat and run. My wife had to deal with my dinner, unexpectedly -- she had spent the day prepping for tomorrow's Mah Jong game at our house. We had Japanese food takeout with Saki -- and I never get Saki at UFT Ex Bd meetings. So a win win tonight. But tomorrow I have to get out of here or go crazy listening to 5 hours of tiles clacking.
Monday, Nov. 7 Tonight's UFT Executive Board meeting, which constitutionally is supposed to be open to all UFT members, was turned into an Exec Session using the excuse of a leaked audio of a question and answer on the Mulgrewcare fiasco at the Oct. 24 meeting as an excuse. Recordings of meetings are not allowed as per Leroy Barr's instructions at the first ex bd meeting. The problem is that Barr has not made that same announcement at every meeting and there were obviously lots of new people at the last hybrid meeting and someone assumed it was OK to share some of the questions asked about healthcare and the lame responses.
Oh, the tragedy. Unity is acting like the NSA -- but why expect a normal reaction from an authoritarian leadership that at the last meeting ended a 60 year tradition and limited the question period. The closer the flames get the more restrictive dictatorships become --- this is a constant historical truth. Expect more restrictions to follow, but at some point these regimes come to an end as more and more people get burned.
While I believe all UFT members should have access to Ex Bd meetings - there must be a cast of thousands just pining to hear these stimulating meetings, I can agree that it is wrong to use audio of sensitive issues best left behind closed doors. I have maintained that anyone who speaks and wants to record themselves and share it that should be allowed. I spoke for 3 minutes at the last meeting and probably should have recorded myself because I think I did a good job on exposing the health care issue.
But context, context, context. I could understand it we broke the cone of silence on contracts (which I also oppose but go along with to keep Unity slugs happy.)
Why they are going ballistic at this leak of a question and answer on healthcare? The leaked recording exposed the lame/lying response by union officials on health care.
Ineptness is the mother of censorship.
Mic drop.
Eterno goes into more detail:
The last Executive Board meeting audio was released to Marianne Pizzitola, President of the NYC Organization of Public Sector Retirees,
who is standing up to Unity arguably better than anyone in the 62-year
history of this union. Marianne is not a UFT member, however, she is a
union supporter. She is an FDNY-EMS retiree who is part of DC 37,
another government employee union in NYC.
Many of my colleagues
in the opposition in the UFT are not happy that Marianne is out there
exposing the UFT and Municipal Labor Committee by playing audio of
meetings that have been leaked. Under most circumstances, I would agree
that she has no business monitoring the UFT but the UFT as one of the
biggest MLC unions has a big say on healthcare and our leadership
doesn't fight fair as most of you here know full well.
Tonight, 11-7-22, we are being told that it may be an executive
session for the UFT executive board meeting. We have not been told why
or been given any notice. This means that no observers will be allowed.
We will try to present some regular non-session business tonight
including the bottom two resos. Otherwise, we will be unable to present
minutes tonight.
Resolution on Abusive Administrators
Whereas, hundreds of DOE administrators have been flagged by UFT
members as abusive for creating toxic workplaces, taking liberties with
the contract, and/or targeting teacher unionists.
Whereas, abusive principals can destroy the careers of both tenured
and probationary teachers, and in the case of probationary teachers, can
do so for “any or no reason.”
Whereas, UFT Leadership does not have the power to hire, fire, or
discipline administrators, but does have the power to act on our behalf
by petitioning the State for increased legal protections, negotiating
with the City for increased contractual protections, addressing the
Chancellor during consultation on behalf of affected chapters, and, if
necessary, by organizing the broader membership in solidarity.
Whereas, for several years, the UFT had a multi-caucus committee
dealing with principals in need of improvement (PINI), only to
needlessly disband it in 2016 without any ‘successor’ program.
Whereas, as a result, the UFT has no dedicated formal mechanism for
identifying and pressing for the removal, transfer, or remediation of
abusive administrators.
Whereas, a lack of systematic response by UFT to abusive
administrators damages member morale, and signals to problematic
administrators that they are immune from consequences.
Whereas, in the wake of the Janus decision, failure to address
abusive administrators can lead our members to lose faith in the union,
putting our local at risk.
Resolved, that the UFT will work to amend State law to give
probationary teachers more protections so that teachers and other staff
are not subjected to arbitrary and capricious actions, and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will work to increase protections and
resources against workplace bullying of our members by principals,
drawing on recent legislation such as Senate Bill S3395A: the New York
State Healthy Workplace Bill. And be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will work in negotiations to strengthen the
UFT contract to afford more protections for both probationary and
tenured UFT members, and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will highlight the problems of abusive
administrators, through membership involvement, various forms of social
media, publications, etc., and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will employ a multifaceted campaign to end the
reign of terror of abusive administrators. This campaign will include
the many tools and approaches that have previously been passed at
Delegate Assemblies including: taking all legal remedies, establishing
“swat teams” to go into schools with a history of abuse, assigning key
UFT personnel to monitor and regularly visit said schools, organizing
campaigns within and outside these schools to modify the behavior of
abusive administrators and if necessary to remove them from their
schools. And be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will re-establish a multi-caucus Principals in
Need of Improvement (PINI) committee to oversee this process.
Interim Resolution to Address the Rising Cost of Health Care
Whereas health costs have continued to rise, and
Whereas, the Municipal Labor Committee, including our own United
Federation of Teachers (UFT), agreed to find over $600 million in
savings to the City in exchange for past salary increases, and
Whereas, the Mayor and the Municipal Labor Committee(of which the
United Federation of Teachers is one of the largest parts) proposed a
plan to move retirees to a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, and
Whereas the proposal to move retirees to Medicare Advantage has
caused extreme consternation and anxiety for the 250,000 NYC public
service retirees (including UFT retirees) potentially affected due to
fears that “cost savings” would be accomplished by reducing access to
providers and procedures, and overall diminishing the quality and
quantity of health care they would receive, and
Whereas 65,000 retirees were so concerned they opted out of the new plan, and
Whereas, Judge Lyle Frank ruled on March 2, 2022 that the plan
could not go forward as presented, as it violated the City’s
Administrative Code 12-126, and
Whereas the Mayor and the Municipal Labor Committee agreed to
lobby the city council to amend the City’s Administrative Code 12-126 to
allow their Medicare Advantage plan to go forward, and
Whereas the proposed amendment to the Code would eliminate the
current benchmark, opening the door to changes that could hurt both
in-service and retired members, and
Whereas changing the Code would empower the city to push to
downgrade healthcare quality and access in future negotiations,
potentially increasing the financial burden and health risk for the
city’s entire workforce, which is two-thirds people of color and earn
incomes on average much lower than most UFT members, and
Whereas the MLC as representative of over 100 municipal unions
should advocate for better funding for health care that does not cause
union members, including UFT in-service members and retirees, grave
concerns, and
Whereas the UFT and New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) have a
long track record of supporting budget fairness in New York City and
New York State, such as NYSUT’s recent #FundOurFutureNY campaign.
Therefore, be it Resolved, that the UFT now stands in opposition
to revising Administrative Code 12-126, and urges the MLC to follow
suit, and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT in collaboration with NYSUT will look for
fair funding sources to help the City meet its health care obligations
to its employees and retired employees without reducing the quality or
quantity of medical service, and
Be it further resolved that the UFT consider sources including,
but not limited to: a progressive income tax for those with incomes
over $5 million; restoration of the Stock Transfer Tax which could gain
over to $12 billion of income to the state, or tax on the wealth of
billionaires, or closing the carried interest loophole, or a
pied-Ã -terre tax on luxury second homes in New York City, or
implementing an inheritance tax on the highest 1% of inheritances, or
repealing the corporate profit tax breaks implemented by President Trump
within New York State and restoring pre-2017 percentages, or
eliminating rebates for taxes on stock buybacks, or repealing tax
exemptions on luxury goods such as private planes and yachts, or
eliminate city property tax breaks for real estate billionaires and
Be it further resolved that the UFT
will take the lead urging the MLC to wage a full-scale campaign to push
the City and/or State to institute or restore these revenue sources,
which could be used to secure the continued stability of our members’
and retiree’s healthcare.
The UFC Committee alleges that the UFT has violated the LMRDA with a range of conduct
relating to the conduct of the Delegate Assembly, the UFT’s representative legislative body.
These allegations are broadly divided into three categories: (a) alleged violations of Roberts
Rules; (b) procedural inadequacy; and (c) procedural changes made in conjunction with the
election... UFT Election Complaint #21
For decades some Unity Caucus people have been telling us how Unity and the leadership prepped for Delegate Assemblies through what they call their "Speakers Bureau". People get assigned roles. They even rehearse. They held two
rehearsals for a recent DA so Mulgrew could get it right. Mulgrew even has seating plans. People are set up to ask certain questions that allow Mulgrew to expand on
his already way too long opening report. They have designated plants to
speak on leadership backed resos and people known as "call the
question" plants to end debates. One former Unity told me a clue is when Leroy Barr removes his glasses. Which makes this report Leroy gave at the Oct. 3 Ex Bd hilarious:
UFT President Michael Mulgrew does not determine who is called on based on caucus
affiliation...Concerning the allegation that no delegate not affiliated with the UC has been permitted to
present a resolution and no UFC candidate member has been recognized during the new motion
period of the Delegate Assembly, this is false. While the UFT does not track caucus affiliation
for attendees or speakers at Delegate Assemblies, UFT rejection of UFC Complaint #21 - LOL
While I don't expect the Department of Labor or the AFT to rule against
the UFT on the way they run the Delegate Assembly, we need to keep
pointing their behavior. Last year's - a UFT election year - the
behavior by Unity was the worst as Mulgrew shut out voices of the
opposition at last years' DAs after the opposition had won or came close
on some resos.
Unity shuts out opposition voices by controlling the
10 minute New Motion period by inserting its own motions and making it
look like they are random.
Ex Bd UFC member Nick Bacon exposed the continuing behavior in his report on the Oct. DA:
No time for opposition:
Mulgrew called on one
opposition member all night – H.S. executive board member, Ilona Nanay
(MORE), who asked a good question (and got a bad answer) on changes to
the city council administrative code. It was no accident that Mulgrew
called on a known opposition member during the question period, but not
during the new motions period. During a question period, it’s easy for
Mulgrew to regain control of the room. He can spend lots of time
answering a short question, and making it clear that his perspective is
the right perspective.
During a new motion, opposition has far more
space to convince the audience. Mulgrew knows that, so we haven’t been
called on since last November, 2021 to raise one (and that’s when I was
technically still a member of his Unity caucus). It’s also worth noting
how obvious it was that Mulgrew knew who he was picking in advance. One
of the people he called on, Maggie Joyce, is someone he calls on
frequently to raise new motions. She is a familiar Unity face to him,
often present at UFT functions. Another of the people he called on was
raising a motion he noted before it was even raised (on migrant
children).
Nick points out how Unity prevented UFC from presenting a strong healthcare reso to protect the members (rejected in a strict party vote at the UFT Ex Bd - Oct. 3:
Our healthcare reso didn’t stand a chance. We didn’t even get to the business of motions on 10/12’s agenda. We
lost all that to the most brainwashing filibuster Mulgrew has ever
given. I’ll give my same advice again – if you want to see diverse union
perspectives, come to executive board meetings where you have any
chance of actually seeing them.
Unity put two "message" resos on the agenda - on immigrants and support for Iranian women - and watch them attack us for calling them out on this as an attack on the substance of the resos - not true - they could have been added as special business and not taken away from the normal 10 minute new motions.
This tactic is intentional and happens time and again when they are threatened with a strong oppo reso and we will raise this tactic with the Department of Labor, though I don't think they will get what we are talking about.
Leadership sponsored resos are presented to the Ex bd and then put on the regular agenda of the DA. The ten minute time had been used by the opposition for decades to raise new motions. So especially since Mulgrew took over the UFT, Unity has coopted this time period to raise "late" resos, often handed out unlabeled as to sponsors. Now I understand that stuff may come up last minute -- so my suggestion is to allow them to do this but not count it against the 10 minutes. And if Mulgrew doesn't filibuster for an hour this would be easy.
Adding to the hilarity are the examples they cite of calling on UFC candidates at times before UFC even existed. The funniest was this:
At the November 17, 2021 Delegate Assembly, eventual UFC Executive Board
candidate Nick Bacon made a motion regarding potential health care plan changes,
which was voted on and defeated;
Nick, who did not become a candidate for UFC until January 2022, pointed out at the Exec Board meeting he was still in Unity in November 2021. In fact, my guess is that Nick was turned off to Unity due to their behavior at the DA. In fact, over the past 25 years, a number of people who were neutral delegates were pissed off enough at the DA to move toward the opposition.
And on this one from the UFT report:
At the November 17, 2021 Delegate Assembly, eventual UFC Executive Board
candidate and member of the Educators of NYC (EONYC) caucus Daniel Alicea had a
motion listed on the agenda as a special order of business, regarding the UFT’s position
towards mayoral control of New York City public schools, which Mr. Alicea withdrew
from consideration;
Daniel, who a year before the election was still fairly neutral about Unity - in fact he voted for Unity in the 2019 election - tried to get a mayoral control reso on the agenda in the spring of 2021 but found himself thwarted at every turn and withdrew his reso after its relevance had expired. That they used this example at a time when UFC did not exist and Daniel was not associated with the opposition - yet - makes their response even more of a farce.
In my opinion the thwarting of his attempt to get a discussion going on mayoral control at the DA was what helped open his eyes. When Daniel raised the point that many of the speakers at DAs are UFT employees on the payroll Unity went ballistic on him - he became public enemy #1.
Below is the complete section of the UFT report:
Complaint #21 – The Allegations Do Not Demonstrate Violations Of The LMRDA
