UFT Elections 2022 - Norm takes a deep dive into #UFTelections2022

Look for further election analysis in my appearance on Noah Teachey's PD Podcast coming soon. Quick takeaways:

• Unity got slammed, losing votes in all divisions compared to the past.
• I thought newbie UFCers who actually thought we would win would be crushed - instead many were excited and already talking about 2025.
  
• UFC didn't pick up what Unity dropped (except possibly in retirees and a little bit in high schools), just about matching the 2016 oppo numbers. Beware of those calling this a great victory. At this rate of growth I will be 121 when the oppo wins in 2046.
  
• UFC gained from 2019 oppo disaster and restored a sense of an opposition, getting the most votes the oppo has ever gotten, winning the high schools with 55% and almost winning the middle schools with 44% and closing the gap in elementary and winning 33% overall, the closest in a long time.  Despite the gains, UFC did not get out the vote as well as I expected. I began the campaign thinking we could win all three teaching divisions. While we did get 44% of the teacher vote, that is due mostly to Unity's failure to bring out its vote, not due to UFC getting a big turnout - matching 2016 is still status quo - as iw winning the 7 HS Ex Bd as we did in 2016. Let's say UFC could win in 2025 or 2028 -- with these numbers? I'm not sure there is enough of a union underneath to deliver.
  
• Possibly the biggest achievement of the 2022 election may be the very existence of a United for Change broad coalition. While formed as a temporary vehicle for this election, there are signs UFC will continue in some form while giving each caucus space to develop. The 7 electeds represent all the groups and the candidates have pledged to continue working together. I love that they come from MORE, Solidarity, New Action, ICE - but also they are broad-minded to see outside their own caucus. Preliminaty meetings indicate excitement at working together.
• Is spending enormous time and money flooding teacher mail boxes with lit - for both Unity and oppo - really worth it. Also - we thought social media would bring out votes -- it didn't. Few will agree with me on these points but I will continue to stand by them. The numbers prove it.
  
• Read my pre-election comments posted July 2021: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2021/07/uft-elections-part1-historical-analysis.html

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Tuesday night I made my third appearance on Noah Teachey's PD Podcast. I could spend hours talking to Noah - and I did - I think I wore him out and he was about to nod off. I talked his ear off with my analysis of the UFT election. When he releases the podcast in a week or so, it will echo many of the things I say here - but with my heavy Brooklyn accent. When I let Noah talk he asked excellent questions. I will post a link when it is ready.

 

My info is coming from the work of Jonathan Halabi on his blog. Here are his last few posts.

• UFT Election Turnout: Some Observations May 15, 2022

• UFT Election Turnout: Four Charts May 15, 2022

• Analyzing UFT Election Results: My Data May 14, 2022

Turnout: It's not just apathy 

Jon goes deep into turnout questions. I hear people in oppo say the biggest issue is apathy about the union. I don't agree - it's apathy about the union elections and general cynicism about elections and caucuses. Many refuse to vote consciously - they don't think it will make a difference.

Then there are the numbers of people who wanted to vote and didn't get ballots plus the number of late ballots that came in. See below at the end of this article for an example from a guy who wanted to vote UFC.

Below are his charts for functional, retiree, elem, ms and hs, with numbers going back to 2004. You have to be UFT election freaks like us to dig into these numbers.

Let's go division by division. I suggest some reforms along the way.

 

Retirees - massive turnout - over 27K - the UFT is weakened with well over half the total votes come from the no longer working, Unity is strengthened. Lesson retiree impact on elections.

UFC got almost 8K, just short of 30%, which is the highest total by far in a general UFT election. Most attribute that vote to Mulgrewcare, but I don't see it that way. In last year's RTC election we also got 30% and Mulgrewcare was just being announced. I assumed we would go up to 35% or more. this year. But Unity was helped by the plan not being implemented due to the court case and Mulgrew tried to run away from it -- and in some ways was successful. Imagine of the opt-outers were paying $200 a month on Jan 1? It seems even Unity people who were unhappy came home. In the over 3K new votes this time, my guess is UFC and Unity split them with an edge to Unity -- which is sort of good but disappointing as I had hoped we would get a bigger chunk. Unity went all out organizing retiree chapters all over the nation -- all dominated by Unity retirees. 

 

I don't see us moving much beyond the 30% in the future and may in fact see a slippage. Unless Mulgrewcare is implemented. Watch outcomes in the RTC election in 2024 as Retiree Advocate remains active in the RTC chapter and as a crucial part of UFC.

 

Since only 50K voted overall and retirees had 27k of that - leaving in service total at 23k - it is clearer than ever that the entire UFT is under the thumb of the rigidly controlled  RTC chapter. We need drastic reform. I would lower the threshold for retiree votes from 23.5K to a sliding scale where retiree votes cannot count for more than 25% of voting totals. Some say they should not count at all but at this time that is going too far. A sliding scale could work but I would give them two ex bd and a possible ADCom VP for retirees. They are still an important component of the UFT and while they should not be able to control the entire election, we should recognize their worth, especially since I am one and have nothing better to do in life than UFT politics.

 

Functional - worst turnout, drop for Unity, 32% for UFC. 

 

It's hard to figure out this division which also included retirees - which is so weird  and makes it impossible for oppo to win these 19 Ex bd seats.  Also included is the massive mumber of Dist 75 people. Makes no sense. Teachers should vote in their division, not functional. We need to press for this reform.

 

Another major reform would be to separate out and report on each funct chapter and pull out retirees and give them and each functional their own ex bd seats.  Ie. - Guidance, secretaries, social workers, OT/PT etc each get an es bd seat based on their division vote. Unity doesn't want this - let's push for this reform, even if we have to expand the Ex bd.

UFC did about the same as MORE/NA/Sol did in 2016. We had hoped to make inroads due to the OT/PT chapter and some key social workers running. I think we missed an opportunity with secretaries -- I spoke to many on my distribution routes and they have a lot of complaints. One thing I thought of but too late -- have UFC people talk to their own school secretaries and other functionals in their own buildings and try to build a network. I hear that there are union organizing trainings people go through. They seem to leave out such fundamentals as talking to people at this level. UFC still got 32%, a record, due to the big drop in Unity votes.

 

Elementary - UFC had a shot but it was long

I began the campaign thinking we could win this even though the gap from 2016 was massive --5K vote difference. Unity got 7K and we got 2.5k in 2016. I was hoping Unity would look like 2013 with 5K and we could double our 2016 with a strong campaign. 

It didn't happen and we missed a big opportunity as Unity dropped under 5k and we didn't even match 2016. I thought UFC had more outreach in elementary but if we did the GOTV didn't work. I got indications early on with the lack of contention in UFC by the caucuses for Elem Ex bd positions that there was not a sense of winning and when we struggled with petitions early on in that division, I pretty much gave up on winning this division.

34K elem ballots were sent out -- a lot of places to mine in the future. The oppos has a lot of work to do in elementary school. My suggestion: Choose a few key districts where UFC people have decent elem numbers and expand their networks with a local outreach program. Otherwise 2025 will be the same.

 

Middle school - Close but no cigar - Unity failure, but UFC makes no progress

We have election violations complaints but not enough to claim we lost due to those. I know there were schools where we could have/should have flushed out enough votes to win.

We thought we could win this and aimed our leafleting campaign at middle schools and literally got nothing more than we got in 2016. We barely cracked 900 votes in the entire MS division which has almost 11K. Unity totals were also abysmal --1200. We had 4 great Ex Bd candidates and it is a real shame we couldn't come up with 300 votes. I hear the biggest celebration inside Unity was that Daniel Alicea would not be on the Ex Bd -- after having voted for Unity in 2019, he became a leader of UFC and some in Unity seem to despise deserters. Unity isn't happy with HS winner Nick Bacon, still technically an elected Unity from 2019.

High Schools -- 55% for UFC waa big - I was hoping for 60%.

Ok - I'm a tough grader. Unity got slammed - under 2K - and they really wanted to win this one and there was great disappointment inside the fortress because HSVP Janelle Hinds is popular and people see this as a defeat for her personally. 

Remember, her opponent Jonathan Halabi got 600 more HS votes than she did and pre-1994 he would be on the adcom - as her 2016 opponent James Eterno who got more HS votes than her would have been hten. (Unity changed the rules after Shulman won in 1985 to at large.) 

Considered in the running as a Mulgrew successor, her fans at 52 and beyond were supposedly devastated by this loss. What were they thinking? Unity has fundamentally lost the high schools for almost 4 decades. If we had lost this time, UFC would have very little future. 

I'm adding this point to original post: Unity recruited candidates for HS seats with intention of winning: they chose big school CL or former CLs. They were turned down by some people they asked. Jonathan and I estimated they would bring in some votes. They didn't. Does that reflect Unity failure? Did their own schools come out for them but few others? Or did their own colleagues reject Unity?

Still -- over 21k high school ballots mailed, we have loads of people in the HS and we end up with 2500 votes? We won but UFC people shouldn't risk dislocating their shoulders by too much patting themselves on the backs. Instead, figure out how to get 3-4K in future elections for HS to make up shorfalls in other divisions for a real shot at winning it all. 

A major satisfaction is the election of Nick Bacon who ran with Unity and won for AFT in 2019. He was recruited by his Dist Rep. Imagine the egg on face. Unity seems to hate Nick almost as much as Daniel Alicea. Both of them were keys to bringing UFC together. While we see a number of former oppo people on the UFT Ex Bd with Unity, we now have our own reverse example in Nick -- maybe the first time we've seem an ex bd person go from Unity to oppo.

More from Jonathan

UFT Election Turnout: Four Charts

Let’s dive into the UFT election results. Let’s start with turnout. (For the beginning of the analysis, click here)

Votes Cast tells us more than Turnout Percentage

UFT Election Turnout: Some Observations

 

How many ballots were never received? How many came in late and weren't counted? Will we ever know?

 

Hi Norm, I just received my UFT ballot today [May 13] ,what should I do?  I asked for a replacement at 5:30 pm on the day of the deadline [April 25]  to ask for a replacement ballot. I was told it was too late but they sent me a ballot anyway.  Thanks Bill 

Let's see -- He asks for a ballot a half hour after deadline and receives it 19 days later. When did AAA send it out? Why?

UFT Election 2022 is officially over: Norms Numbers - The Big If - Retiree Turnout

Monday, May 9, 8 AM  - The UFT election just officially ended. The vote count begins tomorrow at 8 AM. I intend to be there for the entire time.

And how about that party coming up win or lose. Celebrate the coalition and working together.

So this is my last chance to make a few predictions without having people call me a defeatist. I'm going to take a shot at making some educated guesses.One thing to note - newbies in UFT elections are always amazingly optimistic, while old timers are much more realistic. But we are warned not to share our true views so as not to discourage people. But with the election over, I can let loose.

I'm usually pretty good at predicting outcomes based on past history but this year things are different for a number of reasons, which I delved into in my 3 part "Why is this election different series:

• How UFT Election2022 is different? Reasons #5 Unit...
• How is UFT Election2022 different? - Reasons #3 Mu...
• How is UFT Election2022 different? Reason #1 UFC g...

Of course  the Winner is..... the garbage can caucus - people who throw the ballot in the garbage consciously or unconsciously  since non-voters will be an overwhelming majority. There's a new wrinkle this year I had never realized - enormous numbers of people who never got a ballot and never even realized there was an election going on. 

If turnout is as usual, look for a bigger win than expected for Unity. Less than in previous years, but in the 70% range. In 2016 Unity got about 40K votes and oppo got around 13k. That's a pretty big gap to close if turnout is the same.

The retiree vote is the focus of attention: 60k mailed out (How many actually got to people?) 2016 turnout 37%

The major hope for UFC has been that the 85% pro-Unity retiree vote won't hold this time due to MulgrewCare. But the question is how deep do Unity losses go? 

In order to look at potentials, we must start with a base and we use 2016 (2019 with 4 caucuses running was anomaly). In 2016 we had MORE/NA vs Unity as slate vs slate, with Solidarity not attaining slate status, but still in the race. Note the low turnout numbers, especially in the in-service divisions.

As you can see in the chart below from 2016 (thanks to Jon Halabi),  24,500 retirees voted and with the 23.5 max limit, each vote counted for .95ish.  Unity got 20K and oppo 4k. Unity got just over 20K from the entire working corps. So 50% of their vote was retirees.

So let's look at the possibilities in the retiree vote. In last year's retiree chapter election, just as the news of MulgrewCare was breaking, Retiree Advocate (RA) for just short of 7K (30%) and Unity got around 16K, compared to 2016, some serious slippage but way short of being a major difference maker in this election. There's too much ground to make up in the working divisions.  Turnout in 2016 was 37% so there's a chance for over 40%.

A key is turnout since anything above 24K will lean hard to UFC due to MulgrewCare. So retiree returns are a key. 

Ballots not received or put aside

I had been fairly optimistic of an increase in the 27-30K range, but in the past few days grew a bit discouraged.

I found that out last night when I called a former colleague to wish her a happy birthday and asked if she voted and she said "for what?" She never got a ballot. Now if there electronic voting like we requested, she still would have had time to vote before the Monday 8AM deadline.

I had the same issue with a retiree I met the other day who did have her ballot but thought she had time to mail it until Monday. Two lost votes for UFC. Unity sure knows what it is doing when it comes to vote suppression. My former colleague who is not union political said on tonight's call: They (Unity) sound like Republicans.

So let's call it an uptick in retiree vote output and let's add some Unity pissed off over MulgrewCare voting for UFC. Don't forget that Unity Caucus is massive, with retiree outposts all over the country pushing their propaganda. I'd bet one third of retirees have links to Unity. But if that 30% vote last year is a base, we have to see some expansion. Just how much above 30%? If it's 40% of retiree votes and say 26K vote, that gives UFC over 10K and Unity 16K, still too big a difference to make up. If it broke 14k Unity and 12K UFC, then it gets interesting. But in the real world it has to be bigger than 2016. Say 40-45%? That gets interesting.

The High School Vote: 22K mailed out, 7 ex bd seats at stake: 2016 turnout 20%

This is where UFC has its best chance. Unity has not won the high schools on its own since 1993 (they lost in 1991 and in 1985 too). They only won in 2007,10, 13 with New Action help. HS wins used to be as high as 3400 when the oppo was very strong in the then big schools, especially in Manhattan. But the big school breakup has helped drive down union interest, though that didn't help Unity much.

In 2016, when NAC switched sides, MORE/NA won with 2275. Add over 100 for Solidarity and we start with a base of 2,400. Unity got under 2100. So, starting with these numbers as a base, turnout is again the issue. If HS turnout is the same, it is a horse race, with UFC slightly favored. 

Unity ran a hard HS campaign

But this time Unity campaigned harder in the high schools than it has in 20 years. In the past they seemed content to give the hs to the oppo - 7% of the ex bd looks a little democratic - very little while 100% of the ex bd for Unity looks Russia like. But this time they want to stamp out the opposition or at least divide it. In 2016 a key block of votes came from Francis Lewis HS where I was involved in a GOTV campaign. With Arthur's switch to Unity, that will pull votes away from UFC in that large HS. Swap 100 votes and the election is even.

UFC also ran hard HS but did they GOTV?

But counter to that is that UFC also ran a hard HS campaign with a lot more people in a lot of high schools running in the election. The key is how well they did in getting the people in their own schools to vote. For me this is the great mystery. 

At times UFC people seemed more enamored of social media than the in school door to door GOTV. And don't forget that with the spring break and the limited time to get replacement ballots, the GOTV is up in the air. UFC HS people did go out and leaflet other schools, which I don't count on making as much a difference as rousing your own building. 

I really have no feel for how the GOTV went. If we win by a hair -- that is status quo - the usual election. If we win big - over 55%- that is a sign. Usually 5k HS vote. If it goes to 7K or above that is good for UFC. If 6K HS people vote, that would be a win for UFC. Maybe a bigger win than expected. If 5K it's 50-50. If god forbid it turns into a big win for Unity - say 55% -- then I leave this election scratching my head and retiree immediately from UFT politics.

If we lose the HS it is a bomb for UFC and I don't know if the coalition survives. After all that work and win nothing? People may just go back to their own caucuses, a win for Unity.  

Does turnout hit 30% or even 25?? That would be a potential big win for UFC, but could also reflect Unity increased turnout. 

Prediction based on word of mouth - narrow win for UFC besed on precedent and larger force in the hs. But low turnout would be a condemnation of election tactics.

One more note. HSVP Janella Hinds is popular but she can also get less votes than the UFC HS people out of the hs -- she would win due to non hs votes. Does it hurt her if UFC wins the HS? She is considered a strong contender for next UFT president, is popular with many high school teachers -- but they are not the majority of the union. See below for my comments on elem vp Karen Alford -- who by the way I was on a committee with back in 1999 when Randi set up a charter school committee under the chair of then Elem VP Michelle Bodden - than also a rumored Randi successor who disappeared into the UFT charter school with Mulgrew taking the role --- Randi's biggest mistake - among many.

Middle Schools - What is possible? 11k ballots out. 4 Ex bd seats, 2016 turnout 24%

These are only grades 6-8 schools and 4 Ex Bd seats on the line. 

Some people thought the middle schools were winnable this time. We certainly made it a point to flyer as many large MS as possible -- but as I've said, flyering has much less impact than having a person on site and I didn't see enough UFC middle school people to close the gap.

In 2016 Unity got only 1650 - 61% and oppo got only 860 for MORE/NA and almost 200 for Solidarity. If turnout goes up to 30%, can the oppo close the gap? It's a 600 vote difference so with big turnout is closeable.
Definitely Unity is favored here but I would expect a closer election - maybe 55% for Unity? If UFC gets in the 50-50 range, that ie an echo of 1991, the only time the oppo won both hs and ms.

Elemantary: 36k ballots, 26% return in 2016

I started this election telling people we could win the elementary schools if we formed a strong committee and worked target districts where we have strength. 

It didn't happen and there is not only no chance to win, but a potential big blowout for Unity. I saw some fire in the eyes in a few elementary people but mostly a flicker.

However, hope springs eternal. I was a proud elementary school teacher and often hear high school oppo people disparaging remarks - even some people wanted to break the high schools out of the union. But the turnout in elem was considerably higher than high schools.

Look at the 2016 numbers. Unity had over 7K votes - 74%. MORE/NA 2300 and Solidarity 200. That's a serious gap and my hopes were to close that down to a reasonable number that could be bridged in the next election. Unity CL and their district reps driving them dominate elementary - I'd bet every single mail box got a leaflet. Most didn't get UFC so have no concept there is a UFC. 

But let's play the output game. What if it goes over 30%? Increased output is better for UFC but with the relative weakness in elementary schools I'm not so sure.

Start with a Unity base of 7k and an oppo base of 2500. 5K would be a doubling and a victory of sorts for UFC if Unity stays at 7K or falls below. A drop to 5k for them would be a sign that despite no campaigning, the impact of Covid and the UFT response had a big effect. Plus other failures on the part of Unity.

One note - Elem VP Karen Alford is my pick for succeeding Mulgrew is the overall election goes bad for him -- like under 60%. And a big number in elementary schools looks good for her.

Functionals: 60K ballots, 2016 turnout 16%, Unity 75%

This is always a big win for Unity - and includes retirees who are counted separately. So this report is without the retiree vote ---

In 2016 Unity got about 7600 and the oppo about 2500, a major gap along the lines of elementary schools.

But a few things have happened in the functiomas. OT/PT elected oppos people. I hear social workers are pissed. Every secretary I met is unhappy. Paras are the big nut for Unity and their leader Shelvy Young is a dynamo - in fact if Unity were smart, she would be a great replacement for Mulgrew. Sooner rather than later.

Will returns go up? Even 20% would be a big move. 25% would close the gap. But I don't think UFC ran very much of an effective campaign aimed at functionals. Look for the usual big win for Unity - I'd take 65% for UFC as a win.

Summary

If we lose the HS it is a bomb for UFC and I don't know if the coalition survives. After all that work and win nothing? People may just go back to their own groups to avoid all the angst of building coalition consensus. 

A HS win would give UFC 7 Ex Bd with reps from all the groups. They'd have to work together. A long-shot win in MS would be massive with 11 dynamo Ex bd members and a base to build for the next election.

Unity Caucus Election Violation at IS 44M as Unity Chapter leader mistreats UFC Retiree

Here is another example of an abusive Unity Chapter leader mistreating a UFT retiree, as if MulgrewCare was not enough mistreatment of retirees by Unity Caucus. I reported on the PS 107K story:

• Dear UFT Member of PS 107K - How Did The UFC Fliers Disappear? The Chapter Leader Did it

The chapter leader of IS 44M was even more over the top, violating numerous chancellor regs and UFT election rules -- and also happens to be a prominent Unity candidate. Just a few photos of her work at the school - with Unity posters all over the place.

Given that her actions could spark on investigation over these violations we are not using her name in this report.

The report is from retiree Sheila Zukowsky of Retiree Advocate, who has been active in UFT elections for the first time -- yes, due to MulgrewCare - as she explains in the excellent podcast with Noah on his excellent PD podcasts. It is a great listen:

I was interviewed regarding my aborted attempt to flyer the IS44M building for the podcast  "Professional Development: The New York City Teacher Podcast".

This is the link if you care to listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmcTvxDHdU&list=PLxHXlMQexW5zerKJGi0jIh8zmMX6AlJnU&index=43

 

 

 

Here is Sheila's written report which will be incorporated into the general election complaint being filed by United for Change.

 

I entered the former IS 44 M building at 100 W 77 St, Manhattan, at about 2 pm on April 14, 2022 in order to distribute informational  flyers to UFT members working in the building for the UFT election ending on May 9, 2022.

When I entered the building, I saw each of the 3 doors in the vestibule all had Unity flyers on every one, plus two in the lobby: one on a pillar, and one on the the security guard's plexiglass partition facing the public,  which was the first thing I saw when I  walked through the vestibule doors intro the lobby of the building. 

I was startled by the display of electioneering materials that were prohibited by the Chancellor's Regulations which was apparently going on with the blessing of the administrations of the 2 separate schools that occupied the building. The posting of these materials were in clear violation of Chancellor's Regulation D-130, which specifically states in Section I. B. 3. that material supporting candidates or slates may not be posted or displayed in a school building except on union bulletin boards in areas closed to students.

I told the security guard who I was and why I was there,  She called one of the two schools, which was apparently MS 245 and spoke to someone looking to receive permission for me to enter. I was told to wait and someone would see to me shortly. A woman arrived in the lobby of the school who did not introduced herself as from M245 as as having been "pulled out of class" but did not introduce herself further. I assumed I introduced myself and stated what my business at the school was. I presumed my interlocutor was the principal, an assistant principal, or someone else involved in the management of the school.

She was polite and calm but nevertheless was persistent in arguing  with me about my right to distribute election flyers at the school. She repeatedly told me that I could not be there on "Department of Education time" although I explained that according to the Chancellor's Regulation D-130 I.C.3., this prohibition was relevant to DOE personnel only, and that I was not a DOE employee. Nevertheless, she continued to make the same argument over and over, until I offered to show her the Chancellor's Regulation in question as well as other documents affirming my right to distribute literature. At that moment, she relented, which indicated to me that she had been aware all along that she knew I had the right to be there but was attempting to wear me down in the hope that I would go away.   At that moment, she consented to allow me to distribute the literate but she said she would have to "watch me" while I was doing it.

It was only in getting to the 4th floor, where the school's office was located, that I found out she was not a school administrator at all but the school's chapter leader. I found this out when I asked her if the  schools' administrators approved of the  posting UFT electioneering material in the public areas of the school, as I knew it was in violation of the Chancellor's Regs, and that the school principals were supposed to enforce this prohibition, according to D-130, Section I, B., 7.

At that moment, I realized I was not speaking to a school administrator, as she replied, "Well, if you had been paying attention, you would have noticed my picture on the flyer since I am a chapter leader in this building".

When we got to the office where the mailboxes were located, she stood there, in the tiny office, watching me as I placed flyers in 3 mailboxes. Then she announced that she had to be at an assembly in 10 minutes, and insisted that I leave and give the flyers to the school secretary, who was sitting nearby, for distribution. 

Therefore the Chapter Leader again committed a violation of the Chancellor's Regs by asking the secretary to distribute the literature during Department of Education time, which, as a DOE employee, she was prohibited from doing.   

When I asked the secretary if that was ok, she just shrugged. It seemed to me that the secretary did not know or did not want to admit to me whether or not she should be taking orders from the Chapter Leader, especially orders which would have her violate the Chancellor's Regulations.

In all, I feel that during the episode described above, the following Chancellor's Regs in D-130, Section I, B were violated by the Chapter Leader and indeed, the school's principal:

1. The use of any Department of Education school during school/business hours by any person, group, organization, committee, etc., on behalf of, or for the benefit of any elected official, candidate, candidates, slate of candidates or political organization/committee is prohibited.

3.  No material supporting any candidate, candidates, slate of candidates or political organization/committee may be distributed, posted, or displayed in any school building except as noted in Section I.B.4 below:

 

4. Staff mailboxes and union bulletin boards in schools and district and central headquarters offices are to be used for the following purposes only:

(2) by the union for the dissemination of union-related materials. Toward that end, the union may:

a. Place materials advocating the election of a candidate, candidates, slate of candidates or political organization/committee in staff mailboxes.

b. Post materials advocating the election of a candidate, candidates, slate of candidates or political organization/committee on union bulletin boards located in areas closed to students.

7. The principal is responsible for ensuring that unauthorized material is not posted, distributed or displayed.

I would like this violation to be corrected.

Thank you,

Sheila Zukowsky

UFT Retiree Advocate Caucus

 

UFT/Unity Election2022 Scams: Voter Suppression disenfranchises members, Unity Backs E4E 6 Candidate WECU Scam with two full pages in NY Teacher in attempt to draw votes from UFC

The 2-page WECU spread is a violation of the terms of the election as laid out at the first committee meeting. We (the election committee) approved written documents with a vote. The documents state:

"Slates- Each caucus gets two facing pages...." "Independent candidate ads are 4.5 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall."

"Slate Voting- A minimum of 40 candidates for officer and executive board is required for a slate designation."

Who decided to change the rules that we approved as an election committee? It is really underhanded to unilaterally change the terms of the election at this point.

I've often maintained that if you scratch you will find E4E/WECU and Unity align on many issues. 

I should have gotten 5 other guys named Norm and run a NORM Caucus slate and get two full pages in the NY Teacher.  Damn, I missed my chance. But E4E/WECU did exactly that and Unity helped them - and ignored election committee rules.

"In my small school at least 5 people didn't get a ballot." - A CL

The confusion about getting ballot replacements is another Unity scam to suppress the vote as the deadline was 5 PM yesterday. Unity using AAA excuse about mail delivery is a phony vote suppression scheme. See Election BallotUFT/Unity Sqeezes People Into Tight Deadline

#UFTElection2022 - Unity doesn't want Turnout, Tur... 

ICEUFT Blog: UNITY'S VOTER SUPPRESSION CONTINUES - The Unity dominated UFT Election Committee rejected electronic voting or in-school balloting early in the election process for this year's UFT election. This is despite the fact that the Union uses electronic voting for SBO and Chapter Leader and Delegate elections. In addition, the UFT uses in-school balloting for contract votes.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Call them the Unity Caucus scams of the 2022 UFT elections. 

Faux ballot replacement deadline

I wrote about the massive use of people who work for the UFT being paid by our dues using their positions to promote Unity. UFT Election 2022: Unity Caucus Theft of Service .... Example: Teacher goes for pension consulation and receives a Unity flyer from the consultant.  

And of course the faux deadline imposed supposedly by the AAA over the deadline for getting replacement ballots. I'm going to demand we get access to AAA lists of whose ballots were actually received by AAA. I'd bet thousands have been disenfranchised. A UFC rep went into a school to stuff boxes yesterday and spoke with the secretary who had not received a ballot. This was 3 PM. She told her to call me and get the number before 5 PM but I never heard from her. AAA is allowing people to get ballots in person at 120 Broadway on April 28, 29. Sure, tell her to go down from Washington Hts. The more I look over the years, the more I see AAA working as employees of UFT/Unity. After all, if UFC wins who knows? They may hire a different firm for future elections. 

More from Eterno at the ICE blog: Mulgrew as Mitch McConnel

In the latest round of UFT voter suppression, Unity again acts like the Republican Party which tries to make it more difficult to vote in state and national elections. For Unity, it wants to make it harder to vote in this UFT election. To add to the cumbersome mail-in ballot process, Unity today rejected a request from one of its candidates to delay the date when members can get a ballot if they had not yet received one by April 25. This came up tonight at the Executive Board when Mike Schirtzer asked about an extension to request a ballot. Ballots are not due back in the mail at the American Arbitration Association until May 9, 2022. Today is April 25 so that leaves two weeks to get a piece of mail from the AAA to a member's home and back if they have not received a ballot yet or if they were given an incorrect ballot or threw it out by accident. Is that enough time? Let's go to the numbers provided by the United States Postal Service: The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics showing the average time to deliver a mailpiece across the postal network continues is 2.7 days.

How did the UFT do in the past on this issue? In 2016 a member could call for a ballot up to one week before the ballots were going to be counted. This is what we wrote in 2016 at election time on May 17 when ballots were due on May 25 to be counted May 26:

Tomorrow is the last day to call AAA at 1 800 529-5218 to get a duplicate ballot.

The UFT gave you up until one week before the election deadline in 2016 to request a ballot if you didn't get one but this year they need two weeks. That makes no sense as we have already shown the Postal service numbers.

There is only one possible explanation for the UFT making the deadline two weeks before ballots are counted to call for a ballot: Voter Suppression. 

In my view, the UFT feels a low turnout helps Unity Caucus, which is their major (really only) concern.

For those who want read the Unity party line, here is Mike Schirtzer's Question about the deadline from Executive Board tonight. This is from a report from Nick Bacon of New Action who sat in and took minutes:

On election: UFT election. Mulgrew refuses to answer, says any questions on election must be sent to Carl Cambria (Unity Election Committee Chair).

Carl comes up. Mike asks: why is it 2 weeks before deadline this year to get a ballot delivered if it wasn’t sent to your house this year? It was 1 week before the deadline last election. Not to mention there wasn’t the spring break issue last time. Members who just got back from vacation and were told they have to go in person to AAA to get ballots in person. Is there anything we can do to extend that deadline?

Carl Cambria: AAA can’t guarantee extending deadline will allow ballots to get back in time. What we have done is allow teachers to go to AAA in person this Thursday Friday between 9 and 5 and submit ballots in person. Post office isn’t working at the same pace as last year, which is why we landed where we landed.

Only the most committed of voters would go down to lower Manhattan (unless they work in that area) to get a ballot. Imagine if you live way out of town as a retiree. Forget about it. Blaming AAA or the Post Office for this is rather lame and statistically wrong as the USPS reports a close to 90% on-time record. Unity is engaging in flat-out voter suppression.

By the way -- this is why I want Mike Schirtzer on the Ex Bd even if he is running on the Unity line - if UFC doesn't win any seats we at least have Mike there to ask questions, the only one we can rely on. And if UFC wins a partial victory by winning the high schools, Mike will at the very least be a partial ally.

E4E/WECU Scam

Educators for Excellence, the corporate funded anti-union 5th column* in the UFT, creates a faux caucus called WECU (We Exemplify Corporate Unionism - my interpretation). 

They can't get the 40 people to run as a slate, so they come up with 6 candidates and get 100 signatures each to get on the ballot for Exec Bd at large positions. 

UFC on the  other hand has 400 candidates with an army of people going out to get signatures which takes weeks and weeks of work. So go open up the current editions of the NY Teacher and low and behold find that E4E - er WECU - gets two full pages equal to UFC.

I'm on the election committee and we drew lots for the two official slates' positioning in the NY Teacher ads. UFC drew second place in the ad positioning - meaning we get the last word. But in the NY Teacher it is WECU that gets the last word and UFC is in the middle. No consultation with the election committee but a unilateral decision by someone in the UFT/Unity hierarchy with the obvious intent of drawing votes away from UFC. 

Take this to the logical next step. In the next election I am running the NORM Caucus with 6 guys named Norm and get two pages in the NY Teacher. I also recruit 6 Bobs and 6 Mikes and 6 Jeans and we get 8 pages in the NY Teacher.  All we need is to get 100 signatures for each of our slates.

*A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine.

 

 As we catalogue a list of election missteps designed to favor Unity, this one will be near the top of the list.These are not stop the steal issues if we lose but an attempt to shine a light on the misdeeds - something I should have added to my list of "what's different this election." We are publicly calling them out.

 

How is UFT Election2022 different? - Reasons #3 MulgrewCare and Retiree Vote - #4 Mulgrew general unpopularity

Out of six politically uninvolved retirees I've spoken with over the past couple of weeks, all are voting UFC --- from a contact

Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot?  
How is this UFT election different from all other UFT elections?

Friday, April 21, 2022

Here is the second in my series on: How is this UFT election different? Reason #1 UFC growth, #2 Unity defections

 

Click the link above for part 1.  

• #1: The unique and inclusive United for Change coalition 
• #2: Unity Caucus people splitting ballots or outright voting UFC
  

#3 MulgrewCare and the Retiree vote - see opening comment and Afterburn

 

This may prove to be the biggy in this election. Why Mulgrew would choose to tamper with retiree health care when he had other options with an election coming up demonstrates his arrogance and poor judgement. While many in Unity buy the line, there are Unity retirees who don't. Even the roll-out was incompetent to the extreme, which Mulgrew actually admitted. And the zooms to explain it further were so locked down to avoid real questions, people saw right through it.

And then there was the mocking of the multi-union law suit people - and then they actually WON. After bragging about his wonderful plan, Mulgrew back-tracked and blamed the city.

 

Losing a significant batch of retirees is a danger sign. Usually Unity gets 85-88% of retiree votes and they vote in the highest numbers - in 2019 they were 53% of the entire vote. Unity has been around so long, a significant percentage of retirees are or were Unity and they are reminded to vote. We have no way to judge the extent of defections by Unity but there are anecdotals showing slippage.

In the current NY Teacher, Retiree chapter leader Tom Murphy makes a last ditch effort to 'splain MulgrewCare.

A year ago Retiree Advocate ran against Unity in the chapter election and got 30% of the vote -- just short of 7k while Unity got 16k. I think they got 18-19K in the last election, so some slippage. 

And that was just as the story about MulgrewCare was coming out -- we didn't even campaign on that issue, so there were signs of slippage. So we assume a much bigger turnout this year - I'm guessing 27K - and I'd think that those a lot of these votes will be anti-Mulgew. 

 

[The growth and actions of Retiree Advocate itself is a new election factor which I talked about in part 1.]

The retiree vote is capped at 23,500 - which means if 47K voted, each vote will count .5 With 30K voting -- you'll have to do the math to figure out how much each counts. In this case it is important to note that both sides may get our their base so it might be a wash -- and assume that there is still a firm Unity base - and the harder sell Unity campaign this time and retirees are a key target, so they might have turned the tide with people who don't get to see the other side.

 

Could Unity get the usual 85%? It would shock me if they did. But what about 75 or 70%? Even that seems high because it would mean the 30% base RA set last year wasn't holding. To me Unity retiree vote total should either stay the same or slip from last year. If UFC goes up 5% to 35% of the vote, some would see that as a victory of sorts. Not me. Only 5% after all the MulgrewCare stuff? Now if UFC hits 40% or more, things get very interesting.

 

Let's give Unity their16k - but if they lose much more under their 16k from last year and that goes to UFC we are in a race. 

 

On the conservative side give UFC 38-40%. That would be a jump of 3k from the 7K last year to 10K this year with Unity getting only 15K. Remember - anything over 23.5K begins to fractionalize the retiree vote so with increased turnout that goes to UFC the actual numbers are soft - not 1-1.

 

A 50-50 retiree split would make the odds of UFC winning much better than the 100-1 some insiders have been predicting. 

 

And one more impact of MulgrewCare -- people working in the schools are saying the healthcare story has reached working UFT members and they are upset. The UFC campaign has been out there on the issue in an effective way -- so that must also be factored into the vote coming out of schools -- which we will address in another part.

 

#4 Mulgrew unpopularity

I've been beating this horse a number of times. When Unity people are splitting the ballot it is only because of him. He is unpopular because of poor decisionmaking, circling the wagons inside the union and making even Unity stalwarts feeling left out. There is a pile of resentment and even the usual suspects in the schools are having a hard time showing enthusiasm. In previous elections every candidate poted a photo of themselves with Mulgrew. Now you see none. 

Anecdotally, some big high schools where Unity CL have either not campaigned or done it tepidly.

 

James Eterno reminded me today of the 2001 election, Randi's second, where she pushed Unity into an all out campaign. And she roused her base and got out the vote -- in the high schools Unity got 3000. But the problem was that New Action roused their base and got 3400. Those HS numbers haven't been approached since - we will handicap the HS in a post coming up. BTW - the day after the vote count Randi called Shulman to congratulate him and offer him a speaker slot at an upcoming UFT rally. She wooed the oppostion and won them over. She has fantastic political skills. Can anyone see Mulgrew coming close to an act like that? And don't forger it was Mulgrew who busted up the alliance with New Action that Randi had worked so hard to forge. Imagine if Mulgrew had held onto that alliance.

 

Mulgrew's political skills are weak and he has a total failure of imagination. 

 

His total squeeze on democracy has been noticed and activated a core of pissed off people. Randi had the skills of managing the membership that he just doesn't have. But then Randi's big mistake, among many, was choosing Mulgrew in the first place and making him king.

 

Someone checked Unity campaign material from 2019 and 2016. Alnost every candidate had a photo of them with Mulgrew. Go search this year and you won't see a sign of Mulgrew.

Check  SOUTH BRONX SCHOOL and Halabi ( JD2718) blogs for lots on Mulgrew.

Afterburn

A few anecdotes:

Out of six politically uninvolved retirees I've spoken with over the past couple of weeks, all are voting UFC. I'm not talking about friends I talk to all the time, or RA members, or people who we reach with our mailing lists. I'm talking about people who usually don't even vote or who unthinkingly check off Unity if they do vote. Here's the encouraging thing for me: Even though three of those people did not realize there was a union election going on, all six were aware of Mulgrewcare and jumped at the chance to vote UFC. One of them who usually doesn't vote, had already mailed her ballot a couple of hours before I spoke with her. She didn't need a sales pitch from me. She was pissed off at Mulgrewcare, saw the word "Change" and that's how she voted.

Here's another anecdote: On Friday afternoon I took a walk to my local post office to mail my ballot. On the way I ran into a neighborhood acquaintance, Larry, an eccentric old-timer, sitting on his front porch. We exchanged hellos, and as we did the distant memory popped into my mind that Larry is retired UFT. (I usually don't relate to him in that way; I just kind of know him from dog walking and from the occasional gigs he plays in local bars.) So I held up my ballot envelope, told him I was walking to the PO to mail it, and asked if he had received his ballot. He hadn't; he wasn't even aware there was an election. I gave him a briefing, and as has happened so many times in these random encounters, this was the first he'd heard about United for Change, but it wasn't the first time he'd heard about Mulgrewcare. He told me he recognized Mulgrewcare was a scam from the moment he'd heard about it and that he had immediately opted out back in September. Now, he was very upset that he hadn't received his ballot. We exchanged contact info and when I got home I sent him the info to request his ballot from AAA. He can't wait to vote for UFC (and I will definitely follow up).

The encouraging thing from these anecdotal examples is that the Medicare Dis-Advantage issue seems to have broken through to the general retiree population. I was worried for the longest time that we wouldn't cross that threshold and the issue would remain in the echo chamber of the politically aware. I'm also really glad that we went with United for Change as our name (which was not my first choice). As in the example above, she didn't need to hear my spiel; all she needed was knowledge of Mulgrewcare and to see the word "Change" on the ballot.

How is UFT Election2022 different? Reason #1 UFC growth, #2 Unity defections

Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh mikol haleilot?  
How is this UFT election different from all other UFT elections?

1. On all other UFT elections, the opposition was either fragmented or even when working together were not very coordinated. This year United for Change breaks new ground.

2. Unity caucus votes almost unanimously. In this election we hear of split ballots or voting outright for UFC.

April 20, 2022 

I was interviewed by a reporter a few weeks ago and forced to think more deeply about this election and how it was different to the point my brain began to smoke. I was in a cafe at the time and didn't take notes, so I forgot what I said but I felt it was a good analysis. Little by little  it has begun to come back to me, mostly during nightmares.

So here is my first in a series with reasons number 1 and 2 -- out of about 10. They are in no particular order in terms of impact on the election - just listing them as they come to me - after I cool down from the cold sweats.

How is this Election Different from previous elections - #1 and #2 (with many more to come in future posts).

#1: The unique and inclusive United for Change coalition

We've had examples of coalitions in the past. NAC in 1979 and beyond. Three and then two separare caucuses had success in 1985 and 1991 especially, but each of the groups acted somewhat independently (though 1979 was special).  Mid-90s led to the merger of TAC and New Directions to form New Action but many (like me) sat these elections out. PAC formed in the late 90s and ran with NA but that was expedient. In the early oughts New Action began to buddy with Unity and TJC became active and we saw the formation of ICE out of the Ed Notes core. Both of them ran in some forms of coalitions in the 04, 07, 10 elections -- but completely separately. Barely worked together - and when they united to form MORE, there was lingering tensions.

So what makes UFC different? After all, it is an alliance of people who didn't get along in the past and there have been predictions of implosion after the election. I will do my best to build on the alliances to keep things going. That people enjoyed working with others outside their caucus is a positive. I suggest a big victory party no matter the vote totals. Victory for the very existence of the coalition. A beach is available three blocks from my house. Even Unity peoplr can come.

A tremendous level of  collaboration through various committees on just about everything while the individual caucuses continued to operate. There were bumps in putting so many different groups together - competition, political maneuvering, etc. Lots of meetings (most of which I avoided). The initial decision that all must agree - consensus can be a bitch but I've always maintained that consensus takes a long time but works out for the best in the end. The process took forever and probably led to delays in the campaign. If this ever happens again, the working relationships will be smoother. But that all depends on election outcomes. (More on that at the end of this series.)

For the first time people who didn't know each other or worked together have been doing so and seeming to love doing it. Win or not, some of these relationships forged will outlast the election. Despite some rough times getting things coordinated, I'd rate this a success. Even the wild west of lit distribution has had some organization with a spreadsheet we consult to see which schools are leafleted. 

Example: Last week I was walking to the subway and passed two high schools across the sreet from each other. I called one of the people I've been working with in MORE and she immediately checked and gave me the thumbs up to do them. I've been working very closely with this particular person and I just met her two months ago.

The tremendous growth of MORE by ten times over the past two years provides an army of in school contacts. I met up with one woman on the corner of my building on her way to a local school and handed her leaflets. The level of activity in getting out the votes will be major and I have no way of knowing how deep that work goes, but there are some good signs. 

Solidarity under the incredible leadership of Lydia Howrilka has shown enormous staying power and growth in terms of outreach, something I learned during petitioning and distribution. 

New Action has recovered from the 2019 disaster. They have very experienced leadership and a massive list of supporters, mostly retirees but also renewed signs of people in schools. Rising star and former Unity Nick Bacon deciding to join as co-leader and renewal of the NA blog with brilliant posts has been a difference maker.

ICE has fundamentally as a group worked with the other groups rather thaneparately but provides a consistent web site and a core of people who know the game. The Eterno clan is a force. Some of the newer people have identified themselves as ICE/Solidarity. I view ICE as the non-caucus - open to all, including people associated with Unity. We want to talk about issues and eat - rice pudding when available. Post election we want to meet and talk and eat and talk.

Retiree Advocate as a force

A 25 year old group. What is different this year? Retiree Advocate has become active in the election for the first time and consists of New Action, former MOREs and ICE and independents who became active over MulgrewCare. We demonstrated before UFC was even formed that this type of grouping can work together and be effective.

A year and a half ago we decided to make a big push in the 2021 Retiree chapter elections, recruited 130 people to run and captured 30% of the vote, almost double from the past - and this was just as people were finding out about MulgrewCare. The leadership of RA's committed band of activists over decades, plus some great U1T retirees who had never been active in the UFT before has inspired the in-service people from the different groups to work together by supporting the battle against MulgrewCare last spring with actions at the Delegate Assembly that continued this past year as RA demonstrated out side every DA.

Of course MulgrewCare fiasco deserves a bullet of its own. Coming soon #3.

And then there is the Educators of NYC network under Daniel Alicea who has been a force. That he voted for Unity just 3 years ago and has moved so far so fast is a bad sign for the union leadership. Which leads me to #2.

#2: Unity Caucus people splitting ballots or outright voting UFC 

In this election we hear from a small, skewed sample from a small poll of 4 Unity members:

One is voting UFC, two are splitting ballots, and one is undecided. These being friends may not be typical Unity - but these are Unity members, not just supporters, some with a full-time UFT and others with part-time jobs.

Way back a year ago we were hearing that inside Unity there was dissatisfaction with Mulgrew's leadership. He had shrunk the inner circle and was making decisions with a tight crew - and many of those decisions were cringe worthy.

Along with Daniel Alicea moving to oppo, Is Nick Bacon move from Unity to New Action a harbinger? From what I hear, Unity are very bothered by him and Daniel. They like to poach oppos and don't like the reverse.

I hear anecdotes from people with Unity connections. Mulgrew seems to be the issue and other than hardcore Unity, Camille seems to be liked.  But too few to make me feel there will be enough significant defections due to anti- Mulgrew feelings to make a crucial difference - unless the vote is close. Not being an optimist I take these numbers with a grain of salt. But these stories are the first time I've heard over many election cycles.

There is a difference this time -- some Unity members are splitting the ballot or voting for UFC. Enough to lose them the election? NO. But when added to other items in a close race it could make a difference. Mulgrew is very unpopular. Inside the core of the Unity machine preservation is primary. But on the fringes? Who knows.  Mulgrew himself deserves his own bullet as a difference maker. I expect Janella Hinds, HS VP candidate, to get many more votes than Mulgrew.

Yes, Mulgrew himself and his unpopularity is a difference from previous elections.

 

Coming next: 

Number of people activated, MulgrewCare, Mulgrew himself

UFT Election 2022: Unity Caucus Theft of Service - District Reps are a Major culprit

UFT employees are paid with our dues. Using them in the election is theft of service. We have a right to attack. They retaliate when they attack UFC under the false accusations of theft of service during school time they are trying to foment a DOE investigation and are attacking the very members who pay dues.  

Sunday, April 17 --

First some good news from a source:

I have gotten a handful of surprising responses - 2 unity supporters voting our slate, 5 unity supporters who are splitting ballots. I have 7 retirees who have always voted unity voting the opposition for the first time.

Let's look at how the Unity machine cheats by using our dues to promote itself. District reps, fearing a UFC win which will make them run in an election, have been the biggest culprits. Fear of having to go back to the classroom if they lose if a motivating factor. 

• Have you ever heard of one Unity employee quiting to go back to teaching because they loved the classroom so much?

The other day I was stuffing mail boxes with United for Change literature and the chapter leader introduced himself as he was stuffing Unity literature. He is not a Unity member but a first year chapter leader -- "I have to do what I have to do," hse said somewhat apologetically. Why was he doing it then? Because he feels vulnerable and knows he will need the district rep who asked him to put the lit in the boxes. We had a nice conversation. He had spend his first year teaching under an awful legendary principal and knew and respected the chapter leader, whom I told him was running with UFC. I hope we get his vote even if he feels he has to pay fealty to his Unity DR.

Therein lies the major election corruption the UFT/Unity machine engages in during elections. Theft of service and misuse of the power dynamic. It is abuse of the system.

 

I'm not talking about Unity chapter leaders electioneering in their schools (though see the afterburn). UFC people are doing the same. hough there are a lot more Unity CLs than UFC. This gives them an advantage but it is up to the opposition to recruit enough people to counter that. These Unity people may be part-timers but that is not a factor as long as they are not doing electioneering on that time -- but who knows?

• One teacher reported going for a pension consultation and being emailed a Unity flyer by the consultant. A clear election violation.

The clearest violations are the use of full-time UFT employees through their power and influence to get the lit in every mailbox in the city. (Whether stuffing boxes is an effective vote getter is a subject for another time.) I find Unity leaflets in every school I go to.

Do non-Unity CLs feel obligated to stuff boxes? Hell yes. Many do. It is a blatant misuse of the power dynamic. In one district the DR called a chapter leader meeting and had a Unity CL hand out envelopes with Unity leaflets to every attendee with instructions to put them in the mailboxes.  At another DR sponsored Bronx event there were Unity leaflets on the tables. When a UFC person started to hand out leaflets the DR went ballistic and started screaming at her.

 

I also faced that dynamic when I became chapter leader with a hostile principal in 1994. The district rep was a nice guy who had been my chapter leader back in 1968. So we got along and even though I pushed back in many areas -- ie when he said he had to come to my school to sell the 1995 contract, I told him he couldn't have the entire meeting but we would debate.

The biggest impact of the Unity macbine using UFT resources may (if you believe lit helps) be felt in the elementary schools where most likely every single mailbox has been stuffed with Unity lit while UFC has not had enough resources to do the same. In every election there is a major gap in the elementary schools because the oppo is weakest. I think there are over 700 schools and Unity through it's District Reps has access to every one of them. 

Many elementary school teachers are not even aware of the election other than the Unity flyer they receive. If they open the ballot as opposed to putting it in the garbage can - and 75% do exactly that, they will see United for Change for the first time.

The voting totals in elementary schools will demonstrate the impact of campaigning in the schools. If UFC gets close to Unity totals that will teach us something - that the message got to peoeple through social media or word of mouth, But if the gap is as large as in the past the opposition starts reaching deeper into that division

---
Afterburn - When Unity Cls actively work to keep out oppo lit -

Good  morning—

On Friday, April 8, I visited XXXXXX elementary school to distribute election-related flyers in UFT members’ mailboxes. 

The school safety official who greeted me was very courteous. She explained she had to check with someone before allowing me to distribute the flyers. She spoke by phone with the school’s UFT representative who denied my request. 

I am including in this correspondence the fellow UFT member who originally advised me in this matter.

 UPDATE from FB:

As a 7yr CL through 2 elections, I can absolutely attest that what you write was my experience. In fact at the District CL meetings Unity nomination forms would be passed around without explanation, and nonchalantly asked to all sign. In addition the DR always demanded to attend a chapter meeting at election time, pure electioneering. Plus I'd get several super expensive mailings from Unity people [like Elementary VP] requesting that their informational flyers get distributed. Again pure electioneering on UFT dime. Often self indulgent swag would be included. UFT labeled plastic sandwich holders. Cheap UFT labeled water bottles.  UFT labeled key chains, etc...--  

Camille Eterno in The Chief -- Alford Speaks for UFT - A sign of Mulgrew's successor in case of election disaster for Unity?

I have faith in Camille Eterno running the UFT better than Mulgrew has. Insiders tell us he has even lost the confidence of many in Unity -- and even Unity retirees -- look at the opt out numbers -- 64k for all union retirees, probably many in the UFT. Will opt-outers who would have to pay almost $200 a month extra for what they were getting for free still vote Unity? A 50-50 split would be a win for United for Change. Word out of some Unity people is even they do not object to Camille as many know her. Look for more split ballots this time than usual.

In the past I discounted split ballots. But in a close election, individual rather than slate votes might push some people over. So Imagine a close election and say Camille gets a few hundred votes from split ballots and you can end up with a mixed AdCom and even a mixed Ex Bd. Actually that might be better for the union than winner take all. Or it could descend into the Republican vs Dem war where the Unity people try to sabotage Camille. Anyway, interesting thoughts for we wonks.

My other thoughts are that it is interesting that Elem VP Karen Alford is the UFT spokesperson here. I like Karen as to a lot of people. I met Karen on a charter school committee Randi formed in the late 90s chaired by then considered Randi successor and Elem VP Michelle Boden who a few years later disappeared to run the UFT charter school in favor of Mulgrew --- Randi's biggest mistake among many. Many of us really like Boden. The point I am making here is that bringing Alford into public light is a sign of possibly being considered as a Mulgrew successor - especially if this election is a disaster for Unity- and a disaster would mean UFC getting over 40% of the total vote and making serious inroads which would set them up for winning the next time and would necessitate Mulgrew's removal -- but in dictatorships even with disaster looming that is not all that easy. HSVP Janella Hinds right now is considered by some even in the opposition to be the most likely choice but maybe Karen is in the chase. More fun for us UFT wonks.

 

Teacher hopeful of turning the tide at the UFT

Queens teacher Camille Eterno, far right, part of the United For Change slate, is challenging the longtime president of the United Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, in balloting that begins the second week of April.

By CRYSTAL LEWIS clewis@thechiefleader.com

For veteran teacher Camille Eterno, safety concerns for her fellow educators during the coronavirus pandemic were what prompted her to run to become the United Federation of Teachers’s next leader.

“We’ve lost over 100 UFT members to the Covid virus,” said Eterno, who is challenging the UFT’s longtime president, Michael Mulgrew, in balloting next month. 

A six-decade streak

Eterno is running as part of the United For Change slate, a coalition of six dissident caucuses that formed last fall to pose a greater challenge to the Unity caucus, which has led the UFT since the early 1960s. The upstart slate faces an uphill battle: Mulgrew has served as UFT president since 2009, and easily won re-election to a fourth term in 2019 with 86 percent of the vote.

But during a recent phone interview, Eterno argued that this was the perfect chance to transform the UFT, which she believes is a “top-down” organization, into a member-run union. United For Change aims to reduce class sizes, improve pay and empower rank-and-file members. 

“The feedback we’ve gotten has been very positive. People are hungry for a change,” said Eterno, who started teaching in city public schools in 1996 and has served as a chapter leader and delegate for 18 years.

Mulgrew was said to be unavailable for comment, but Karen Alford, who has served as the UFT’s vice president for elementary schools since 2008 and is also running for re-election, said the union’s goal is to “make sure that our folks are treated as a union of professionals—that there is a fair wage so that when we walk into the classroom we can do the best job possible.”

'We Do The Work'

Unity’s campaign slogan centered on “doing the work.” Alford pointed to a number of achievements by the UFT, including an arbitration ruling earlier this year that provided members who were forced to work during the canceled spring break in 2020 with vacation days as compensation. 

She also highlighted safety standards negotiated between the city and the union to protect students and staff from Covid, including testing, contact tracing and protective equipment in every school building.

“We are a model for this country for what health and safety looks like for educators. Schools that had broken ventilation for 20 years now have working ventilation,” Alford said.

But those achievements are not enough, Eterno argued.

“I don’t think Mulgrew fought hard enough for health care for retirees, for raises that keep up with inflation, or to reduce class sizes. He’s too busy making concessions,” she said.

Against retiree health-care changes

She believed the end of the seniority transfer list in the union’s 2005 contract was one such concession, which then led to the creation of the controversial Absent Teacher Reserve. United For Change also sought to reverse the city’s plan to move municipal retirees’ health coverage to a Medicare Advantage plan. 

In early March, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled that the city must provide retirees with the option of keeping their current health insurance free of charge. Some retirees have expressed concerns that Medicare Advantage offered lesser benefits than traditional Medicare, or that it would be more costly.

UFT leadership supported the new program, but believed that it suffered from serious implementation problems. “We are still working to make sure that this is a plan that works for our members,” Alford said. “We want to make sure it is a plan that is cost-effective and takes care of their health needs. We don’t want a plan that feels like it’s being done to you.”

The slates also differ on the issue of mayoral control of schools. 

Eterno argued that mayoral control was responsible for many school closures, which then led to ballooning class sizes. Under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, nearly 200 low-performing schools were closed between 2002 and 2013.

'Mayoral Control A Disservice'

“Mayoral control has done a disservice to public school children. I don’t think Mulgrew will fight hard enough against mayoral control, he wants tweaks,” she said.

But Alford argued that instead of reverting oversight of schools back to local school boards, there could be other ways to improve mayoral control, such as giving more power to parents through the Panel for Educational Policy.

“As opposed to throwing the baby out with the bathwater, is there a way to put in some checks and balances?” she asked.

One issue they agree on, though, was encouraging more members to participate in the election. 

“Only 23 percent responded to mail-in ballots in 2019—so the vast majority of the UFT members are not participating,” Eterno explained. Although the UFC candidate called for electronic ballots in order to encourage members to vote, Alford said “a multi-partisan election committee” decided to retain mail ballots.

“We want everyone to fill out their ballots so they can be counted,” she said. 

Ballots will be mailed April 8

Alford has been challenged by UFC’s Tameka Solomon, while Annie Tan is seeking to defeat incumbent LeRoy Barr for secretary. UFC's Luli Rodriguez and treasurer Debra Penny are among the other candidates facing off.

Ballots will be sent out April 8, and will be counted on May 10 by the American Arbitration Association.

Eterno said that if she wins, she wants to empower members so they know what their rights are, especially those facing harassment and retaliation. 

“To people who aren’t sure which way to vote, I would say, ‘Look around you,’” she said. “I would ask them ‘Are you better off now than you were two or three years ago?’”