The Victory of Parental Leave - Where UFT Members pay for the benefit

City must be broke again? No, they have surpluses as far as the eye can see ($8 billion) but UFT the membership will pay the price once again.... Eterno on the ICEUFT blog

This never would have happened if not for  you guys -- a Unity Caucus member on the way into the Del Ass.

I'm not sure what he meant by "you guys."

Did he mean the MORE caucus which has been pushing to go beyond parental leave by calling for family leave?

Or did he mean the work of now ex-MORE -- the purged Mike Schirtzer who upon reading about Emily James' 80,000 parental leave signatures contacted her and invited her to an Ex Bd meeting to make her case -- she didn't even know the UFT had an Ex Bd -- and that was the only time Mulgrew stayed around to hear what someone had to say and he immediately took Emily under his wing and worked with her and escalated things.

I'll vote for the latter. And super congrats to Emily James for taking the initiative and putting the pressure on the union to get even this much. Read Emily's piece on the Daily News -- she is one powerhouse.

Emily James shared an update on Michael Mulgrew: Help NYC Teachers Fight for Paid Maternity Leave Check it out and leave a comment:

Petition Update Victory! We Did It! Today, Paid parental leave for UFT members became a reality! Thank you, everyone, for all of your support! All of you did this!! This is a truly amazing day for NYC teachers. Read full update

So the big story today is the UFT's victory in winning paid parental leave. Not family leave -- taking care of elderly parents for instance. While this is being won in many plaw

I want in the deal. Anyone want to have my baby?

I am trying not to rain on anyone's parade because I think this is a good thing. But make no mistake about it -- UFT members are paying for it with the extension of their contract by 73 days, which then drops the yearly raises "won" by the UFT/Unity leadership in the 2014 retro-pay contract to

At last night's Skinny Awards in my speech I talked about my early years of teaching - a time when we won demands and didn't end up paying for them. But I guess times are different. Now people pay for things by extending contracts -- a neat trick -- in this case 73 days of a salary freeze --- think of the next contract and if late there would be retro - or would have been back to Nov -- now any retro in future contracts is back to Nov plus 73 days.

OK. Maybe not a biggie for most people but still -- there is something about paying for stuff this way to irks me.

On the other hand we can put out all kinds of suggestions.

How many days of a contract extension to guarantee there's toilet paper in teacher bathrooms?
Just think of the possibilities.
Pay out of your CAR to have your class size reduced.
The DOE can be like the airlines.
Want a bigger desk or a classroom or paper? Give on some CAR.
System wide -- 20 in a class for a 20 year contract extension (which equals a pay freeze.)
Maybe people can negotiate individual extensions with their principals for, say, better classes or a better schedule or lunch hour.

The possibilities are endless and exciting.

James, Mike and I were texting late morning and afternoon as we got word before the announcement. James then worked up the numbers and while not thinking this is a catastrophe he breaks through the spin while Unity apologists spin on their tops.

ICEUFT Blog

MULGREW-MAYOR AGREE TO 6 WEEKS PAID PARENTAL LEAVE PAID BY ALL OF US -

• The cost will be paid for, not by the city, but by all active UFT members. We will achieve the savings by extending the present contract by another 73 days.

Therefore, the current contract raises are now 10% total salary increases for a total of 7 years and 3 months and 13 days (we already extended a month to pay retro for 2009-2014 retirees). The average raise for the present contract is now down to 1.37% per year. Mulgrew set the worst pattern ever and it only continues to get worse. That is not a misprint.

Any increase in the next contract will be delayed until mid February 2019 so you now have almost 30% of a year of another 0% increase. Remember, the contract originally ended in October 2018.

City must be broke again? No, they have surpluses as far as the eye can see ($8 billion) but UFT the membership will pay the price once again.

Quinn Zannoni commented ...

At the DA tonight, Mulgrew said two things that don't make any sense to me.

1: "No loss of raises." Obviously, the benefit to the City of extending the contract is to delay raises, effectively reducing our pay during the next fiscal year.

Turns out that 73 is exactly .2% of 365.

Let's assume an average DOE salary of 80,000. (Is there a more accurate figure? I can't find average DOE salary online.)

For a 1% raise, that's a .2% reduction. On average, that's $160 per member.
For a 2% raise, that's a .4% reduction. On average, that's $320 per member.
And a 3% raise, that's a .6% reduction. On average, that's $480 per member.

2: The more confusing part, he says, "We're not getting fleeced, we are paying exactly what the benefit costs." Without contract negotiations still ongoing, we can't possibly know what kind of raises we are delaying, and so we can't know the cost of this agreement. As you can see above, the difference between a 1% and a 3% raise is triple! The only thing that makes sense to me is that the DOE and the UFT secretly agreed that no matter what raises are negotiated over the course of the contract, the very first raise in the contract will be an agreed upon amount.

Video: Parental/Family Leave – MORE Holds Rally, UFT Officials Join in

So it was surprising to see the official UFT banner and Mel Aaronson join the rally and march. Mel who began teaching 10 years before me in 1957 -- he could have been my JHS teacher -- had more stamina than me. Most of the participants were too young to even think of asking Mel a pension question.

Yes, it was freezing and my fingers barely could press the RECORD button. But a dozen MOREs warmed up at the Dark Horse afterwards - that gin and tonic took the chill off. And major kudos to Rosy Clark, the point person for MORE on the rally whose strength and leadership was a major factor. I can't tell you how impressed I am when people take responsibility and do it competently. I bet Rosy is a great teacher.

Below is the video followed by an article we have in our new edition of Another View, being released this Weds at the DA. Also a link to a NY1 clip on the rally. NY1 has done 2 stories based on actions by MORE in the past week.



https://vimeo.com/254231831

Parental/Family Leave – MORE Holds Rally, UFT Officials Join in

Emily James Took Action on Paid Parental Leave and Shook the Tree

After New York City teachers push for paid family leave, union takes up the fight... Chalkbeat

Who cannot love what Emily James has accomplished with her over 80,000 signatures on her parental leave petition? She forced the UFT leadership to take notice. How this came about is worth sharing. Last year a MORE member had a baby and when she found out about the conditions for new mothers she began a petition with MORE and others which garnered 3000 signatures. MORE decided to take up the issue and did - for a short time - and then went on to the myriad of other issues that arise.

That Emily was able to get so many signatures on her own, even without taking the Labor Notes training, "Secrets of a Successful Organizer" which so many MORE people rave about (I have taken it a few times and remain a skeptic), opened up a few eyes.

Mike Schirtzer, MORE's UFT Ex Bd member, got in touch with Emily and asked if she wanted to raise it before the leadership at an Ex Bd meeting. She said she had no idea there was such a thing as an Ex Bd and that regular people could go speak there.

She agreed and since the press was talking to her, reports appeared in Politico and on Chalkbeat the morning of the meeting. Arrangements were made for some of us to meet up with Emily before the meeting to lay out the landscape. We told her not to expect Mulgrew to be there as he doesn't waste is precious time coming to the first 10 minutes to hear regular members' concerns.

But lo and behold, there was Mulgrew to listen to Emily and meet with her. And stay in touch with her and get her involved in the UFT effort to move the ball on this issue. In the meantime some people in MORE tried to get Emily to come to a MORE meeting where the parental control issue would be a MORE campaign. She as also contacted by another caucus. She declined. Some of us in MORE feel Mike did the job MORE can do of getting Emily a forum and then laid back. But this incident does show the value of having MORE and New Action people on the Ex Bd even if only 7 out of 100.

All this is pretty funny since Emily doesn't need tiny caucuses that showed they couldn't deliver on this issue before she did her thing and now she at least has the caucus in power on the case, even if we don't trust them to really deliver on this. But at least she is still in the game.

One of our fave reporters, former teacher Lindsay Christ has a report on NY1, as does Chalkbeat.

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2017/11/06/petition-launched-to-give-teachers-paid-parental-leave

After New York City teachers push for paid family leave, union takes up the fight

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2017/11/06/after-new-york-city-teachers-push-for-paid-family-leave-union-takes-up-the-fight/

Emily James, Parental Leave in Daily News, Contacts 80,000 Supporters, Day of Action Planned for International Woman's Day

Emily James and Susan Hibdon

Emily James

New York, NY

OCT 22, 2017 — Please read and share with all your co-workers. We made this happen together!

Over 80,000 of you signed our petition to calling on on UFT President Mulgrew to fight for this.

Pres. Mulgrew had been in contact with city officials, but this needs to happen now!

Everyday that goes by is another parent having to use their days, and not getting paid after they run out.

We are planning a DAY OF ACTION for March 8th, which is international women's day. It is a really great chance to get a large group of people together to support paid family leave for UFT members.

If you have ideas or would just like to join in, please contact us at Fight4NYCDOEPaidLeave@gmail.com.

The more help we have, the better our chances for an actual change.

You guys are amazing.

Emily James and her 80,000 supporters have been a revelation. When she appeared the UFT executive board meeting a few weeks ago with her colleague Susan Hibdon, which was reported in the mainstream press at Politico  - as we reported here - What Emily James Said to Mulgrew at the UFT Ex Bd on Parental Care -  she got a response from Mulgrew who seems to be trying to jump on the bandwagon. MORE also wanted to jump on the Emily bandwagon and add the 3000 signatures they gathered last year -- every little bit helps. Emily has proven she is doing fine as is that even though she is not a long-term activist - she has been featured in the press at Chalkbeat, NY1's Lindsay Christ (a former teacher and one of the best ed reporters in the city) also interviewed her (sorry I don't have all links.)

James Eterno has a comprehensive piece on the

ICEUFT Blog:  HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER EMILY JAMES MAKES THE CASE FOR PAID MATERNITY LEAVE

Her original petition is here -

Emily and family (photo by Norm Scott)

Her op ed appeared in the Sunday Daily News. (Reprinted below the break.) 
Emily has send an email to the petition signers asking for those who want to do more than sign the petition to get in touch at this email: Fight4NYCDOEPaidLeave@gmail.com


 Daily News op ed:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/brand-new-mothers-forced-back-class-article-1.3577399

UFT ExBd: Susan Hibdon Calls Out Union Leaderhip on Parental Leave

My message to you tonight has two parts: One, our union needs to get serious about paid parental leave. Two, our union needs to actively seek out our input, AND to be transparent.... We know it’s complicated, we know it takes sacrifice. We are willing to give something up. I’m not having any more kids, but I’m willing to give up. ..... Not surprised UFT doesn’t know how important it is. UFT has never asked. Didn’t even know these meetings happened until last week.  My union doesn’t know what my interests are. We want three things.

• We want this on agenda at next meeting.
• We want it on website so members know.
• We need to know what members want. UFT should survey. I’ve never seen one.

We feel like there’s little effort. Maybe you’re doing something, but we don’t know what. Coming back in two weeks to check....... Susan Hibdon

As a follow-up to the Emily James post (What Emily James Said to Mulgrew at the UFT Ex Bd on Parental Care), here is her colleague Susan Hibdon. J

ust a note re: the comparison to parking permits. Fact is since Bloomberg tampered with the parking permit issue, this is a very important issue to a lot of  people, and possibly more so for people with children -- more of them probably live further away and need to take their cars and when there is no parking it is a nightmare. I'm heading down to the UFT's first chapter leader meeting of the year, where we might hear more on this issue.

Emily and Susan

Susan Hebdon
Emily and I, like many, many others in the DOE, have complained for years about our utter lack of parental leave. We have spoken to our UFT rep, we have written letters, we have sent emails, and we’ve never gotten a meaningful response. What finally set us off and prompted us to start a petition was the UFT’s announcement last spring that it had negotiated a deal with the city so that all teachers would now be able to receive...parking permits. Our initial response was, how our union so tone-deaf and out of touch that they think parking permits are what we want? Clearly, all of our attempts to communicate had not been effective. Not knowing about the existence of these executive board meetings, or any other way to get our message to the ears of the UFT, Emily started the petition that night.

My message to you tonight has two parts: One, our union needs to get serious about paid parental leave. Two, our union needs to actively seek out our input, AND to be transparent.

On the first point: We NEED paid parental leave for all employees who become parents, whether through birth or adoption. The UFT has had years to negotiate a deal with the city, and the Mayor is clearly willing to find a solution; our union needs to step up and make a deal. With every day that you wait around for a better deal, another mother who is still physically recovering from birth is forced back to work after six weeks; another father who wants to be involved in family life is forced back to work after three days, no matter how many CAR days he has saved up; another adoptive parent who has barely even met his or her child is forced back to work after only three days. Waiting for a better deal is a bad deal for all of us.

We know this is a complicated issue, but it is also a solvable one. Many other school systems with fewer resources than the NYC DOE have found ways to offer parental leave (Look at Prince George’s County, MD, or California). Not only is it possible to solve it, it’s necessary. About 76% of DOE teachers are women, and about half of those are under 40. That’s a lot of potential babies. Some might argue that the proportion of teachers who are women in child-bearing years makes the problem more difficult to solve, but it also means that the problem is more important to solve and that the UFT's members are more willing to work with the city to find a solution. We know it won't be free, we know we'll have to give something, and we are willing to do that because this is so important.

On the second point: I’m not necessarily surprised that the UFT doesn’t know how important this issue is to its members, or that the UFT doesn’t know that its members are willing to make sacrifices to make paid parental leave a reality. How would you know? You’ve never asked. I’ve never gotten a survey from the UFT. I didn’t know that these board meetings existed until last week, because the UFT doesn’t publicize them. My union--which is supposed to represent me--which exists to represent my interests--has no idea what my interests are. Not only that, I don’t see any sign that my union is trying to find out what my interests are.

At your next executive board meeting, the issue of paid parental leave needs to be an agenda item. In fact, it needs to be the only agenda item. That meeting, like every executive board meeting in the future, needs to be publicly announced on the UFT’s online calendar of events so that members know they can attend and have their voices heard. And the UFT needs to actively seek to know what its members want, what our priorities are, and what we are willing to give.

You can see that we are frustrated--partially with this seemingly endless battle for parental leave, and partially with a lack of effort on the part of our union. Maybe you’re doing something for us, but we’re not seeing it.

If you haven't started yet, watch the must see PBS Ken Burns series on Vietnam --- amazing how similar to today's times. Nixon can make Trump look normal.

Also I was thinking -- I am more and more satisfied that I voted for Hillary instead of 3rd party every day despite my many anti-Hillary feelings. I am less and less willing to fall in the left line that she would be only marginally better. I wonder when the day comes that Bernie people who voted for Trump smack themselves in the head and say "What have I done?"

What Emily James Said to Mulgrew at the UFT Ex Bd on Parental Care

This should not be a thing! It should not be a choice for women to be excellent teachers to the students of NYC or to be mothers for their own children. ..... We pay you our dues dutifully month after month, year after year. You are the only voice we have. We are here in numbers, 80,000 strong, demanding in the most polite way we know how,  that you stop ignoring us, that you help us begin this fight, and don’t stop fighting for us until we make the situation right.  ... Emily James

Call Emily James wonder woman for flushing Mulgrew into the glare of the 10 minute pre-meeting open mic where classroom

Emily and family at Ex Bd

teachers often share their voices. Mulgrew makes sure to miss this part of the meeting  - in fact most of the rest of the meeting other than his own report. I imagine it was the publicity in the press - and Emily's 80,000 petition sigs garnered over a few months.

Mulgrew made a  statement declaring that the city wants a pound of flesh for getting this leave and he will not sell us down the river. I excerpted from Arthur's notes and you can read them at the end of this posting.

Emily and Susan

Her colleague, Susan Hibdon, a mother of three, joined Emily and also made a strong statement calling the UFT leadership on accountability. I'll publish Susan's comments in the next post. Note that neither Emily nor Susan plan on having more children - so this is not for them but for others to follow.

Emily Giles - Why was UFT left behind on parental leave?

Mulgrew bases the power of the union on the status of his partnership with de Blasio's administration, rather than on the ability to mobilize the rank and file. The priority of the union leadership, then, is to maintain that relationship at all costs, even when it means jeopardizing the interests of the membership....
......UFT members do not have paid maternity leave—they have the right to take their own sick days. Birth mothers can take six to eight weeks of post-partum leave depending on whether the birth is vaginal or by cesarean section. Those weeks of leave are only paid, though, if the mother has enough stored sick days. If she doesn't, she has to borrow from upcoming years...
....activists in the UFT see parental leave as a right that should be fought for....MORE sees the campaign as an opportunity to organize the rank and file, and build a fight for parental rights with no concessions or givebacks....
..... This is in contrast to UFT President Michael Mulgrew's approach to negotiation, summed up in his statement...
....While it is certainly true that the UFT leadership has tried for years to interest the city in expanding parental benefits, it hasn’t lifted a finger to actually organize a fight for those benefits. In fact, in recent member updates, Mulgrew has done the opposite--strategically lowering member expectations by laying out the number of givebacks that city workers accepted in exchange for their parental leave
.....MORE Candidate for Exec Board at Large,  Emily Giles, http://socialistworker.org/2016/02/22/uft-left-behind-on-parental-leave

Wasn't there a time when unions did not trade away give backs? I mean how did we win any contract when we had nothing to give back? Remember how Unity sold tried to tell us that asking for retro up front would bankrupt the city?

Harry Lirtzman reminds us:

The best jobs creation numbers in NYC history.  More evidence about how we were swindled by all the poor-mouthing during the contract negotiations and the complicity of our leadership.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20160304/BLOGS01/160309937

Watch how Unity hacks leave comments that we should not look to the past but the future.

Emily Giles lays bare the bankrupt Unity Caucus strategy of low expectations and selling trade-offs as a negotiating tactic by focusing on the issue of parental leave, which should be a right as it is in every civilized nation, as an example.

Emily Giles, a new mom (among a gaggle of MORE new moms), did a wonderful presentation at last Sunday's MORE meeting summarizing the awful parental leave situation in this city and in the nation and especially how bad it is in our own teacher union. I tried to take some notes.

• Bargaining relationship between UFT and DOE. Give back for gain.
• Majority of teachers are women. Many are mothers.
• On one of most important issues to them they get nothing from union dues.
• Have a rally at the DOE with moms bringing babies.
• This is not just about mothers but parents. What about the fathers? What about being given enough space to actually be able to take care of new-born babies? What if the baby gets sick? How do parents deal with that with sick days used up?

Well, anyway, Emily's presentation was so deep I gave up and asked her if she has written about this. And so she has at the Socialist Worker. Emily is a member of the ISO and brings that organization's particular analysis of how our union operates to this piece.

Why was UFT left behind on parental leave?

Emily Giles, a New York City teacher and member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators in the teachers' union, reports on a campaign brewing among the base.

http://socialistworker.org/2016/02/22/uft-left-behind-on-parental-leave

February 22, 2016

 
Members of a New York City teachers' union rank-and-file caucus rally against testing (Movement of Rank and File Educators)
 
ON DECEMBER 22, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio granted paid parental leave to approximately 20,000 non-unionized city workers. The mayor's executive order covers six weeks of paid leave at 100 percent salary for parents who have or adopt a child or take one into foster care.

This left members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)--the majority of whom are women--wondering why they don't have the same.

De Blasio's six weeks of paid leave for new parents is a step forward, though it is still paltry and illustrates the dismal state of what's on offer for working-class people in the U.S. But even this qualified victory did not cover the vast number of unionized city workers—transit, teachers, maintenance, postal workers and more.
The mayor made clear that the city is ready to re-open contracts and negotiate paid leave for unionized workers, leaving the ball in the court of unions.

In the case of the UFT, what the union leadership has done since exemplifies its approach to unionism. Rather than take advantage of a clear opening, organize the union’s base and push for parental leave for all UFT members, UFT leaders have taken a wait-and-see approach, cautioning members that any new benefits would inevitably mean concessions.

Activists on the ground have a different strategy. Rosie Frascella, a UFT member and soon-to-be parent, started a Change.org petition calling for the same rights granted to non-unionized workers to be extended to unionized workers. And, says the petition, parental rights should be granted with no givebacks and no concessions.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE CALL for parental leave immediately resonated with UFT members because the current benefit, if it can even be called that, is so deplorable. Within two weeks, the petition had almost 2,000 signatures.

UFT members do not have paid maternity leave—they have the right to take their own sick days. Birth mothers can take six to eight weeks of post-partum leave depending on whether the birth is vaginal or by cesarean section. Those weeks of leave are only paid, though, if the mother has enough stored sick days. If she doesn't, she has to borrow from upcoming years.

Borrowing days means that new mothers often return to work in the negative for sick time. For most union members, it takes years to accrue 30 or more saved sick days. UFT members in their first years of work are certain to need to borrow time against the future or take time off unpaid. And the many pregnant women who require time off before the birth of their child have to dip into their paid sick days before time with their baby even begins.

The UFT considers pregnancy, birth and post-partum recovery and bonding time as a sickness or medical emergency. This "benefit" of being allowed to take one's own sick days is extended only to birth mothers—fathers, partners, adoptive and foster parents are not included.

To add insult to injury, and despite a requirement in the Affordable Care Act for employers to cover breast pumps for new mothers, UFT members' insurance coverage does not include breast pumps or lactation consultation. Not only are new mothers sent back to work after only six weeks of bonding time with their newborns, they are not granted the simple benefit of a breast pump.

In a workforce that is overwhelmingly female and dedicated to caring for children by definition, these maternity "rights" are shameful and don't deserve the name.

The U.S. is one of only four nations in the world that fails to guarantee the right to paid maternity leave.

Private-sector companies like Google, Netflix and even New York's infamous Goldman Sachs bank have caught on and now offer employees parental leave almost on par with countries like Sweden. But sadly, the lack of parental rights for the vast majority of public-sector workers nationwide means that workers who need the benefit the most don't have it. New parents are put in a position of choosing between paying for basic life costs and taking time off to build essential bonds with their child.

New York City does have a recent example of a public-sector union that won parental rights. The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) represents professors, adjuncts, lecturers and other staff at CUNY schools. Under leadership of the New Caucus, the PSC won eight weeks of paid parental leave for all full-time instructional staff in their 2007 contract.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
LIKE THOSE in the PSC, activists in the UFT see parental leave as a right that should be fought for. Frascella's online petition was the first step in what has become an organizing campaign for the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), a caucus within the UFT. MORE sees the campaign as an opportunity to organize the rank and file, and build a fight for parental rights with no concessions or givebacks.

This is in contrast to UFT President Michael Mulgrew's approach to negotiation, summed up in his statement, "We have been trying for years to interest various city administrations in expanding parental leave, and finally we have a willing partner on an issue that is very important to us. We look forward to negotiating with the administration for an appropriate way to extend and expand parental benefits for our members."

The quote makes clear that Mulgrew bases the power of the union on the status of his partnership with de Blasio's administration, rather than on the ability to mobilize the rank and file. The priority of the union leadership, then, is to maintain that relationship at all costs, even when it means jeopardizing the interests of the membership.

While it is certainly true that the UFT leadership has tried for years to interest the city in expanding parental benefits, it hasn’t lifted a finger to actually organize a fight for those benefits. In fact, in recent member updates, Mulgrew has done the opposite--strategically lowering member expectations by laying out the number of givebacks that city workers accepted in exchange for their parental leave.

The UFT may have dodged a bullet with the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which likely headed off a conservative decision in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case that would have stripped public-sector unions of their legal ability to charge representation for non-members. In the long run, however, the service approach to unionism and backroom negotiation strategies will harm the UFT the most.

This strategy of bureaucratic unionism laid the groundwork for the Friedrichs case. Friedrichs is a threat only because an anti-labor ruling would lead to massive numbers of New York City teachers choosing not to pay dues to the UFT--the result of decades of a union model that has taught members that all the union does is provide services and negotiate contracts, and it doesn't do that very well.

The fact that a union that is majority female doesn't even have a semblance of maternity leave rights only serves to illustrate why the membership may not see the value of their union dues.
To stand a fighting chance, the UFT must rebuild its base and our power, one campaign at a time. The fight for paid parental leave represents the type of social justice demand that can do just that—helping to organize the rank and file around a right that affects our membership and the membership of all public-sector unions and our communities.

The hope of real change lies not with the UFT leadership, but with the ability of the rank and file to organize and push for change from the bottom up.