Randi Spin on Hillary Defeat Ties Her Up In Knots While Lily Stays Mum and Fred Smith Nails It

EIA's Mike Antonucci compares the NEA spin after Iowa and after New Hampshire: NEA Pulls a Cam Newton in New Hampshire .

As I write this, it’s about 1:30 pm Eastern time. Anything about New Hampshire on the NEA web site? Nope. Education Votes web site? Nope. Education Votes Twitter account? Nope. NEA’s Twitter account? Nope. NEA Public Relations Twitter account? Nope. Eskelsen García’s Twitter account? Nope. How about NEA New Hampshire? Nope.

While Randi just can't seem to shut up, creating a WTF moment for some:

AFT Randi Weingarten had her spin on the results, but she addressed them (here, here, and here).

fklonsky ‏@fklonsky 23h23 hours ago

@rweingarten Trying to turn a pig's ear into a purse.

1 retweet 3 likes

1. I'mabeacher ‏@PaulaGibbons13 24h24 hours ago
   @rweingarten @HillaryClinton hugely outspent?? I don't think so.
   0 retweets 5 likes
Lee in Iowa ‏@Lee_in_Iowa 23h23 hours ago
@PaulaGibbons13 @rweingarten @HillaryClinton Yes, she was. Bernie DOES have SuperPACs, and Hillary gives % her donations to other Dems, $23M
7 retweets 7 likes
2. View other replies
David Ruperti ‏@davidruperti 21h21 hours ago
@Lee_in_Iowa @PaulaGibbons13 @rweingarten @HillaryClinton Wait. You are equating a nurses union with a super PAC like American Crossroads?
1 retweet 4 likes
3. Alison Eichhorn ‏@alison_eichhorn 21h21 hours ago
   @rweingarten @HillaryClinton you want a leader that is pro-charter? this, after speaking at TFA? maybe you have the wrong job. #FeelTheBern
   2 retweets 3 likes
Alison Eichhorn ‏@alison_eichhorn 20h20 hours ago
@rweingarten @HillaryClinton also note: you used no democratic process to endorse her. Instead, you made a decision for members. not okay.
1 retweet 2 likes
Sahila ChangeBringer ‏@Kiwigirl58 23h23 hours ago
@rweingarten what a weasel way to avoid the reality that @HillaryClinton is not liked by women, that most people see thru her lies/posturing


5. Sahila ChangeBringer ‏@Kiwigirl58 23h23 hours ago
   @rweingarten what's wrong w/the polls? @HillaryClinton did badly --- that's on her; she doesnt have peoples' trust, nor a winning platform
  Senator_Corleone ‏@JimmyA_Shook1s 23h23 hours ago
@Kiwigirl58 @rweingarten @HillaryClinton you don't follow politics much I take it.
6. CNY Teacher ‏@CNYTeacher 24h24 hours ago
   @rweingarten @HillaryClinton should back off personal and policy attacks and focus on electability. It'll carry her 2 #potus if she lets it.
Senator_Corleone ‏@JimmyA_Shook1s 23h23 hours ago
@CNYTeacher @rweingarten @HillaryClinton lol personal attacks.
0 retweets 0 likes
Arielle Chiger ‏@fraublucher606 13h13 hours ago
@rweingarten Speaking at #TFA25 and endorsing @HillaryClinton against the wishes of most R&F. You're eating your own. #Feelthebern
Tim Schrodel ‏@TimSchrodel 24h24 hours ago Carroll Park, Philadelphia
@rweingarten "tough polls"? What were the polls last summer?

Gail Swingler ‏@Swinglerg 24h24 hours ago

@rweingarten You may be, but apparently you misread the AFT crowd...

Fred Smith comes to our rescue from the twitter world with these comments:

Did Randi campaign for Hillary in NH? She must have -- otherwise how do you account for such a large loss. Is it too late for Randi to endorse Trump?  Maybe she can revive Pataki's campaign...In an act of pre-emptive misrepresentation of those whom she professes to represent Randi she sold her soul to be the next Secretary of Education. Even Goliath knew he was in trouble when Randi bet on him. The real reason Cam Newton had a lousy game was because Randi put union money on the Panthers.....Fred Smith

On Bill and Hillary Clinton’s First Date in 1971, They Crossed a Picket Line

We both had wanted to see a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Yale Art Gallery but, because of a labor dispute, some of the university's buildings, including the museum, were closed. As Bill and I walked by, he decided he could get us in if we offered to pick up the litter that had accumulated in the gallery's courtyard. Watching him talk our way in was the first time I saw his persuasiveness in action... Hillary Clinton, 2003 memoir Living History

Zach Schwartz-Weinstein, In These Times with a fascinating analysis of the first couple's first date:

The “labor dispute,” not even named here as a strike, is not only abstracted from the very spaces the future Clintons inhabit in this narrative, it is made incidental to them, an obstacle which has to be sidestepped.....

The relationship between Rodham and Clinton, two instrumental figures in the decoupling of the Democratic Party from the priorities of the mainstream labor movement, thus began with the crossing of a picket line.....

When Rodham and Clinton picked up the garbage strewn about the art gallery courtyard (if, indeed, they ever did so), they were doing exactly what everyone from Vincent Sirabella to the Black Student Alliance at Yale had asked students not to do: they were performing—or at the very least offering to perform—the work that members of Local 35’s Grounds Maintenance division, had refused.
Rodham and Clinton were offering themselves as replacement labor, blunting, if only temporarily, the effects of the strike on the university. The two law students then bartered their litter pickup, which was, in essence, scab labor (or maybe just the promise thereof) into access to a struck building.

The art gallery and other nonessential buildings were closed because the university did not have enough managers to keep them open during the strike. They were closed because the people who usually cleaned and repaired them, whose labor helped make the university’s display of art possible, had been forced to absent themselves by the necessity which fueled the ongoing strike.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/18841/hillary_rodham_bill_clinton_and_the_1971_yale_strike

Excerpted and adapted from Beneath the University: Service Workers and the University-Hospital City, an unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. 

Kasich is as Big a Disaster as the Rest of Them

Scary thing last night: Fooled by his demeanor, omeone told me she could live with Kasich. I sent her this - and it doesn't even touch on his horrible ed deforms.

Please see the below highlights from Tina Brown’s Women in the World Forum in LA last night. Tina asked Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, what a Kasich presidency would be like:

“It would be a complete and utter disaster. Governor Kasich has come off as a moderate, only by comparison to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, but it’s really important to know in Ohio, more than half the providers of safe and legal abortion have had to shut down. He signed 17 separate bills to restrict reproductive access in the state. It’s rivaling Texas as the worst place for women to get access to healthcare. We have a lot of work to do to to make sure folks know about his record and where he really stands.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tptznes2CtQ 

Cecile’s thoughts on closing clinics in Texas:

"The heartbreaking part of it is it’s hitting low income women the very worst. If you live in the rear border of Texas, you have very few options for healthcare. Many women are now going over the border — estimates of up to 250,000 women trying to self abort in the last several years in Texas. We’re better than that as a country.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXMnscLUPjQ

Ding, Dong: Courtenaye Jackson-Chase IS LEAVING the DOE

The EVIL DOE Legal Empire, which basically decides much of school policy towards how to treat employees, loses its Darth Vader.

EDUCATION MOVES: “Courtenaye Jackson-Chase, the city Department of Education's general counsel, will leave the department next month, education officials said Tuesday. Jackson-Chase has been at the DOE for nearly a decade and has served as general counsel since 2012. She will become general counsel at the Children's Aid Society in March. Charity Guerra, the current chief deputy counsel, will take over as interim general counsel while the DOE conducts a search for Jackson-Chase's replacement.” —POLITICO New York’s Eliza Shapiro [PRO] http://politi.co/1Lfd61E.

Time to party - until they appoint the next slug.

Learning From Lois (Weiner): Social Justice Unions, Restorative Justice, and Caucus Building

Lois talked about how Restorative Justice can only work in a democratically run, collaborative school environment with a non-abusive, instead of a top-down principal.  ... AMEN

I was at Lois Weiner's very interesting presentation last night, Urban Education & Teacher Unionism Policy Project. MORE co-sponsored it.

This is an exciting venture that, in addition to the goals listed below, will also focus on the various movements within unions rather than the current leaderships. As Lois pointed out, many of these movements like MORE and WE in Philly were inspired by CORE Caucus in Chicago.

Lois pointed out that forming a strong democratic caucus with a large school base is the key. She contrasted cases like Milwaukee. Bob Peterson of Rethinking Schools won election pretty much on his own without a caucus and now leads a union where people are not especially active. That is problematical - trying to build a caucus without a firm school base AFTER winning.

As Lois talked I felt she was affirming the rough strategy MORE has been following - building enough of a base of schools which in NYC with 1800 schools and a Unity machine that battles for every single one, is the biggest challenge. When people say MORE doesn't want to win they are distorting reality. MORE can't win UNTIL it establishes enough of a base to win. Why can MORE challenge in the high schools and why did New Action win the high schools for over a decade? There is enough of a base in the high schools to win.

Lois emphasized the school as the organizing tool. And she is a board member of Teachers Unite, which also emphasizes the school unit. Where I  differ somewhat is that she doesn't focus attention on building geographical clusters of schools on the district level. NYC is a special situation due to size and the massive Unity control of the schools. District level clusters of K-8 schools must be built to begin to challenge Unity in the middle and elementary schools before any caucus has a chance to win.

Lois emphasizes that the social justice component is a key to building an alliance that goes beyond narrow teacher interests, which is proving to be a dead end no matter how much people scream and yell about teacher rights. Without building a community component that supports the teachers, a hostile press will kill them. The teachers walking out in Detroit, even if unorganized, can do so because parents are not killing them for doing it. Imagine if there were gangs of people outside schools screaming at them on days when they do come to school. That hasn't happened.

For me one of the most illuminating parts of her presentation was about restorative justice, which Teachers Unite has made a key part of its operation.

MORE supports restorative justice and has come under criticism for doing so. MORE supports RJ WHERE IT CAN WORK. MORE has to make that clear.

We know that some principals use RJ as a cover - and as a way to suck up to Carmen Farina - "see, we have an RJ program" - while they screw the teachers.

I have not always been comfortable with simply saying we support RJ without qualifying the RJ language used. She talked about how RJ can only work in a democratically run, collaborative school environment with a non-abusive, top-down principal. I pointed out that there are complaints about MORE's support for RJ from people who have such principals and RJ is just used as public relations crap to put the blame on teachers. Lois pointed out that the very idea of RJ is children and teachers taking control and if a principal has total control it just doesn't work.

She made it clear. If you have an autocratic or abusive principal, fuhgetaboutit. Well we know that leaves out the majority of schools in the system and MORE should clean up its RJ platform language to make that clear. Jia Lee was present and I hope that she makes this clear when she talks about RJ which she knows would never work with her old abusive principal but works in her current school - as long as the principal is supportive. But things can turn on a dime once an ego-driven principal takes over a school that was progressive.

Lois also addressed the issue of institutional racism, a term which seems to rub some (white) people the wrong way. I will deal with this in a separate post.

One thing I would have liked to address was the special situation of Unity Caucus being able to dominate the city, state and national unions and set policy for all of them through their autocratic rule.

Here is description of the Teacher Unionism Policy Project:

The aim of the New Jersey City University's Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project is to apply research, explained in accessible language, to address those very hard issues that divide teacher unions from communities of color and support strong alliances.

Dr. Lois Weiner, Project Director of the Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project, is an internationally-known scholar in urban teacher education and teacher unionism.

This event is sponsored by the GC Urban Education Program, GC Critical Psychology Program, Public Science Project, Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Graduate Center Chapter, Teachers Unite, and the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE).

Don't Spend it Yet If You Think Friedrichs Ruling Will Save You $1300 Bucks Next Year

My guess is the UFT's reaction, as well as many other city and state unions, if we lose will be to run to state court to say the Friedrichs decision doesn't apply here as it contradicts with the state Taylor Law.  Then, the unions may try to tie things up in court for years while forcing people to keep paying union dues and/or agency fees. That is just an educated guess and could be way off.... James Eterno on the ICE blog

There was some excellent post-Friedrichs analysis at the MORE meeting last Saturday. Kit Wainer was on top of the situation.
"If the UFT leadership was very worried about the immediate future it would be doing things in a very different way," he said.

In other words, nothing has changed. No taking any time to win the membership over. No worries. Go on as usual.

All those people gloating in comments on blogs about how they look forward to not paying dues should reign in their enthusiasm. James Eterno was there also and blogged some of the things talked about on Saturday on the ICE blog.
  

Both James and Kit agreed that the union strategy was to tie this up in court for years. So don't go spending that $1300 just yet.

Kit and James were the ICE/TJC UFT presidential candidates in 2007 and 2010 respectively. Julie Cavanagh, the MORE 2013

presidential candidate, was also there with her son 3 year old son Jack, who spent his first UFT election campaign in a baby sack
carrier. These 3 former presidential candidate was joined by MORE's current choice, Jia Lee for a photo op.

UFT Elections, the 2014 Contract and The NYC Teacher Healthcare Crisis

One thing is for sure. Among the 99%, no one in this nation has health insurance as good as we have. Given that costs have been rising for three decades now and given the implications the Cadillac Tax brings, that party is about to come to an end.  And the next party will be BYO penicillin.... DOENUTS Blog

The DOENUTS blog has a 3 part series on healthcare that is worth taking a look at.

• The NYC Teacher Healthcare Crisis: Part 1, 'Great Insurance!'

• Part 2: Toward the Tipping Point

• Part 3; The Road Ahead

One of the things we pointed out in the 2014 contract was that a health care crunch was set to come after Mulgrew gets re-elected in May. So I looked through these posts for signs of what is to come.

In part I DOENUTS says:

...someone has to pay for all that health insurance. And that someone is our employer, the City of New York.
Since 2010, since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became the law of the land, the city has been required to note the amount they spend each year on all of our healthcare costs. (This includes GHI, as well hospitalization and, I'm sure, other coverage). For the past six years, this amount has been counted as deferred wages on our W2 form. This allows us, and Obama, to see how much the city has paid for our benefits.
Now this amount has outraged some people and media outlets capitalize on that outrage (see here for example or here ($) for another) but it is a fact that, if you select the top rate GHI-CBP as your health insurance, the city pays the cost of the premium and we pay nothing.

Nothing, that is, unless the cost of your plan goes up over $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage. If that happens, if the amount increases over those prices (and if city actuaries count our aggregate insurance as one), then we pay a tax of 40% of that amount (here). This is the famous Cadillac Tax and it goes into effect for those plans in two years -2018.
Nothing, that is, unless the mayor exclusively decides that we must now coin up and contribute from our paychecks. The unions quietly gave him this power almost three years ago.

In part 2 he talks about how Obamacare screws us and the Cadillac tax. Check it out - Part 2: Toward the Tipping Point

He addresses the contract in Part 3; The Road Ahead

On May 6, 2013, Michael Mulgrew announced to his UFT Executive Board that the union and city reached an agreement on a new contract.  Teachers would receive wages and back pay (albeit through a gradual arrangement where teachers didn't actually receive it for six more years) and the city would not be hit with over $3 billion in up-front costs. Both entities would now be 100% committed to keeping city spending under control. The city leaders, who wanted to show responsible fiscal policy and the union leaders, who wanted to ensure that there was money in the budget for the lump sum payments their member would receive for years to come were now all in it together.

Among the terms of the deal, the city would be able to withdraw $1 billion dollars from the Health Insurance Premium Stabilization Fund, an account funded by 81 unions and the city to help defer healthcare costs during times of need. This withdrawal would be what covered the initial costs of the contract(s). According to Mulgrew that evening, every single union leader in the city was on board with the withdrawal expect for one -the union that represents Sanitation workers- but that would soon change.

I smell trouble coming.

The ultimate agreement did indeed withdrawal $1 billion from the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund. That money was, in fact, used to cover our cash wage increases the following September (here or the IBO (p. 13)):

"...a one-time $1.0 billion transfer from the Health Insurance Stabilization fund, which was a product of the agreement between the city and the municipal labor committee on ways to help fund the current round of collective bargaining agreements..."

Since the mid-80s, the fund has covered Welfare Fund premiums (for the UFT and other unions) and city budgetary shortfalls as well. In order to help cover the cost of not laying off employees in 2011 (FDY and UFT employees were both on the chopping block), the unions and the city agreed to dip into the fund to cover the city budget prevent the layoffs (here).

And now they've dipped into the fund to pay employee salaries.
This is supposed to be the fund that relieves us from paying (or paying greater) health insurance premiums. Instead, it is being used to cover our paychecks.
And now, as part of a larger effort to reduce the city's health insurance costs, the city will be paying even less into the fund than it already does (here)

The largest projected savings [in healthcare] this fiscal year—$153 million—would result from an agreement labor relations commissioner Bob Linn and the municipal unions recently struck to allow the city to pay less into a fund jointly controlled by both parties and known as the "Health Insurance Premium Stabilization Fund."

You can only draw one conclusion from this: They are tapping the fund. It is no longer a fund to ensure our health insurance costs are not passed on to workers. It has become a source of income which supports city level governmental policy. And while those policies are admirable (over the past five years, they have included balancing the city budget during the Great Recession, enabling union contracts to be settled and reducing the long term costs of healthcare) they are still policies wrought by politicians who are leading a government. They no longer see the fund as a way to avoid having workers pay into their healthcare plans. That's an important distinction to make.

He closes with:
One thing is for sure. Among the 99%, no one in this nation has health insurance as good as we have. Given that costs have been rising for three decades now and given the implications the Cadillac Tax brings, that party is about to come to an end.  And the next party will be BYO penicillin

If doom does come and people are taking a big cut in salaray that wipes out the retro pay, doesn't Mulgrew have to run again in 2019?

Mulgrew will just channel good ole Scarlett Ohara: I'll think about it tomorrow.

Especially if he can escape to the AFT and leave someone else holding the bag.

EIA: NEA, AFT Spin in Opposite Directions

The Hillary-Bernie rancor is growing and it is bound to affect - and infect - the teacher unions and their leaderships which jumped on the Hillary bandwagon early while claiming that was what the membership wanted. They are about to find out just how far they were off. I'm always interested in checking out the view from the right.

I reported on the EIA pre-Iowa election analysis in

AFT/NEA, Randi/Lily Big Losers in Iowa and Troubles Ahead

but I missed Antonucci's post-Iowa take. Bitterness grows between the camps and will be visiting a local union near you sooner than you think.

NEA, AFT Spin in Opposite Directions

Written By: Mike Antonucci - Feb• 02•16

The presidents of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, eh, emphasized different aspects of last night’s Iowa results.

First, NEA’s Lily Eskelsen García:
“Last night, the people of Iowa sent a message to the rest of the country: Hillary Clinton is the best choice for president of the United States.”

Then, AFT’s Randi Weingarten:
“I know the early four states love being the early four states, and every four years you hear more and more about them. But 60 percent of the delegates actually get decided in March.”

I’m also a bit mystified by the touting of this bit of exit poll news.

Lily Eskelsen García Verified account ‏@Lily_NEA

CONFIRMED: #Union households were 21% of total #Iowa turnout. Thanks to @NEAToday members, @HillaryClinton won by 9pts in union households.

 It’s an odd thing to brag about. The unions have not only dropped millions in support of the Clinton campaign, but assured everyone that their endorsements of Hillary reflected the democratic will of their membership.

They acknowledged there was some rank-and-file support for Sanders, but those union members had no SuperPAC money to draw on, no staff to airlift into Iowa, no pre-existing organizational structure, and no communications professionals disseminating their message to the press and the public.
And the unions beat them by 9 points.

Vermont NEA retweeted this sentiment:

National NEA and AFT wasted no time in hopping a plane to Nashua, so I’m reminded of my concerns about a civil war in Lebanon.

MORE Co-Sponsors: Lois Weiner at CUNY Tuesday 5-7PM

Unions must act on the principle that if it's a social justice issue, it's a labor issue.

Join Dr. Lois Weiner in her presentation of New Jersey City University’s

Urban Education & Teacher Unionism Policy Project

Tuesday, February 9th

5pm - 7pm

Room 6304.01 at the CUNY Graduate Center

365 5th Avenue in Manhattan

(Please bring ID to enter the Graduate Center)

Unions must act on the principle that if it's a social justice issue, it's a labor issue.

The aim of the New Jersey City University's Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project is to apply research, explained in accessible language, to address those very hard issues that divide teacher unions from communities of color and support strong alliances.

Dr. Lois Weiner, Project Director of the Urban Education and Teacher Unionism Policy Project, is an internationally-known scholar in urban teacher education and teacher unionism.

This event is sponsored by the GC Urban Education Program, GC Critical Psychology Program, Public Science Project, Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies, Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Graduate Center Chapter, Teachers Unite, and the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE)

Flyer attached.

Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/138552853189425/

From the MORE CL Discussion List: The Tax Man is Coming: What Are You Paying in Tax Deductable UFT Dues?

Ahhh, the current convoluted UFT dues structure as people try to calculate the exact amount for their tax deduction as discussed on the MORE chapter leader listserve. Let me get in my little piece first. Dues increases are automatic and not voted on by the DA which used to vote on it before Unity changed the constitution so people won't take note of dues increases. (I'll get to some of the substance of the MORE meeting discussion on Friedrichs on Saturday.)

From The MORE platform:
Create a sliding scale for union dues based on salary and require dues increases to be voted on at the Delegate’s Assembly.

Here are the comments on the listserve.

Thought people would be interested in this... from my Dist Rep:

I have received a number of requests for the dues total for 2015. Unfortunately, the amount for fiscal year 2015 is not the same for every member as it includes the retroactive payment/dues we all received/paid in October. In order to compile the exact amount of individual dues, each member will have to add up the amount deducted on each stub (actually, they should all be the same except for October). They can find their stubs in the Payroll Portal on the DOE website if they have direct deposit.

How annoying is this?!

You've got to be kidding. This is outrageous. With all their minions at 52 Broadway, they can't calculate this and send it to the members?
Abusive...

Is there a baseline dues rate that I can direct members to as a starting point, and then have them add on their individual retro dues?

There's an insert in this issue of NY teacher.
From p.38 NY Teacher (Unity rag)
Teachers: x 8 for each (24 pay periods)
1/15-4/15 $53.14
5/15-8/15 $54.17
9/15-12/15 $54.87
Why they don't give us a total? Maybe it would astonish members how much they pay (with after tax income) for what little service they may get.

So for teachers, it is $1297.44, Please send this info to your staff. You would be surprised how few teachers know dues are deductible. I don't think I knew until 2 years ago!

You also need to add your retro pay dues too.

Does anyone know the approximate amount from paras?
Paras
26.57 27.09 27.43
8 pay checks each
From p.38

Why UFT Dues for Your Tax Return is Complicated This Year-and for the Next Five Years
Very complicated!
Everybody has a different retro amount, from which dues were taken. Members have to add up the UFT deductions from their 24 2015 stubs to get their dues amount, remembering that the October contributions are higher. Again, the answer is different for everyone.

According to NY Teacher (page 38)
Teacher - $1,297.44
Guidance Counselors - $1,321.04
School Secretaries - $1,006.64
Paraprofessionals - $648.72
Psychologist - $1,339.44

You have to add what was taken out of retro check to get a grand total.

My Proposal@MORE Today: UFT After Friedrichs -

I heard from Roseanne McCosh on my recent Friedrichs post:

MORE to Talk Friedrichs at Saturday Meeting, Roseanne Sends Mulgrew a Message

I agree with you.  I will not ask people to support a union that hamstrings its membership every chance they get.  Their abuse of power is no less sinful than Cuomo's, Gates', Koch brothers', Christie's etc... Calling for automatic support sends them the message that they can continue to treat us like shit and we'll happily pay them to do so. And it sends a message to the membership that Leadership's management style can't be that bad if even their critics are asking us to support them.  That is absolutely the wrong message to send at this time.   Leverage given away can never be regained---make them earn the support. 

And ATRs seemed to like my proposal on putting dues in an escrow account pending a reform package from Unity:

Dues to Escrow Accounts, ATRs and Friedrichs: Should ATRs Keep Paying Union Dues?

When I get a chance to speak at the discussion at the MORE meeting today I will offer the following proposal for future post-election post-Friedrichs ruling - maybe for a MORE Summer2016 workshop:

I will propose that more take a position that we will support the leadership call to stay in the union for one-two years pending some package of reforms. Not promises but real constitutional change. Like voting on dues increases. Scaled dues depending on salary (both in the MORE recently amended platform thanks to Jeff Kaufman). Proportional rep on ex bd and aft/nysut delegates so more voices get heard. Reduce power of retirees. If no signs after a year we look to organize all those who left and want to leave into an alt uft challenging for bargaining rights. 

There will be arguments that the only way to change the UFT is to stay in and fight Unity. But when there is so little chance to win more than a sliver of control and say there comes a point where you have to pull the plug.
To those out there who just want to pull their dues and do nothing - that is worse than even Unity because that kills any hope of unionism. Stay and fight or leave and fight but fight.


Saturday 2/6 12:00-3:00pm: UFT After Friedrichs

Join us for a lively discussion on the future of our union after the Supreme Court's decision. What can UFT leadership do to better engage our members? How will the decision impact rank and file members?

Workshops on how to petition in your chapter to get signatures so that MORE/New Action slate can appear on the UFT officers ballot in May.

We will also meet in local groups by districts/boroughs to organize our campaign, distribution network, and mutual support.

Pizza, soft drinks, and snacks will be served
Free Childcare will be available available
CUNY Graduate Center
34th st and 5th ave Midtown NYC

Room 5414
Facebook Event Here

Childcare will be available

Norm in The Wave: No Excuses Success Charter Network Under Fire, The Case for Humane Teaching

With Eva supposedly coming to Rockaway I thought I'd get ahead of the curve with this column in the Feb. 5 Wave.

-->

No Excuses Success Charter Network Under Fire, The Case for Humane Teaching

By Norm Scott

Educational historian and blogger Diane Ravitch posted a letter from a teacher who couldn’t bear working any longer at the Evil Eva Moskowitz-run Success charter chain, known for its high suspension rate and pushing children they don’t want back into the public schools. Here is an excerpt:

    I spent much of my time at school crying in the bathroom and the stairwell. I cried from the emotional harassment I faced from my leaders, I cried from simply watching my scholars go through such grueling days and intense ridicule, and I cried because I was exhausted, stressed, and anxious, constantly feeling like I wasn’t enough and that I couldn’t be enough. When I helped my own scholars work through their tears, I would often ask them what they were feeling, and they would say “scared.”... Former Success Academy Teacher. The entire letter is posted at: (http://tinyurl.com/h5vumnl)

Ravitch commented: “When they start calling them children, I will know that they are completely de-programmed.” I get the woolies when I hear them using the term “scholars.” They are touching on the edges of being a cult.

Moskowitz has also been sued by parents whose children were pushed out in a federal civil rights complaint for systematic violation of disabled students' rights. And SUNY, the charter chain's authorizer, is investigating the Success Network's disciplinary and suspension practices, including the infamous "Got to Go" list first reported by the NY Times (tinyurl.com/psz2rlg).

Should Eva Moskowitz be investigated for child abuse and teacher bullying? Is it time to call 911 on Evil Eva's operation, which is rumored to be coming soon to Rockaway?

Now, some parents want this rigid and punishing atmosphere for their children. In my professional judgment as a teacher, I believe even for children who do well in this environment, there are long-term effects that infect their learning for life. So far not one Success Academy grad has made it into any of the high-end specialty schools. As for creativity, how does that flourish in an environment where children are marched with arms at their sides with mouths sealed shut?

Success and many other charters have high teacher turnover and are constantly funneling in new and inexperienced people who haven’t had enough time to deal with the complexities of child behavior, especially with children who are having some difficulty. It takes years to make a teacher and these schools with new people need to create a straight jacket of discipline because they haven’t learned any other way.

I know there are some people out there who believe we need more no excuse schools like Success. As a 35-year elementary school teacher in one of the poorest areas of the city (Williansburg/Bushwick) I categorically reject this philosophy. I saw so much peripheral learning going on in the fairly open environment I encouraged.

Teachers don’t often have the chance to see how their students grow up in later years. Recently I had this treat when a whole batch of former students from my 6^th grade class of 1979 connected to each other and me in Facebook. They are now in their late 40s. (I also had many of them in my 5^th grade class.) Their memories from 36 years ago focus on the fun things we did. I tried to make my classroom as humane a space as possible given that with 30 students there was a need for some discipline. But I tried to keep that aspect as light as possible as long as I could keep order. I had been teaching for about a decade by the time I had this class and had learned a lot, not from professional development but from the kids themselves. They gave me the best child psychology courses. What worked and what didn’t? I adjusted to each child and tried to develop some individual relationship with each of them so discipline was pretty easy. I tried to treat them well and expected them to do the same to me and each other. I wasn’t always successful and it still bothers me in cases where I feel I could have done something different. But reading some of their positive comments over 3 decades later gives me pride as a teacher. We are planning a reunion on February 28.

Norm blogs at ednotesonline.org

Dues to Escrow Accounts, ATRs and Friedrichs: Should ATRs Keep Paying Union Dues?

Should ATRS Stop Paying Dues to the UFT Which Taxes Them Without Representation?

The comment below got me to thinking. Are there any people more likely to stop paying union dues? I think that Unity might be happy to be rid of them because then they would have absolutely not ability to complain to anyone in the UFT. But I was thinking of a what if: they with hold a portion of dues and pool the money in an escrow account of sorts to possibly hire someone to rep them?

Just a another crazy norm idea on a snowy day. Gotta go shovel out and clear my head of this crazy shit.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "MORE to Talk Friedrichs at Saturday Meeting, Rosea...":

The ATRs have been at their current schools for many weeks now just getting use to the kids, school, staff, parking procedures and now what happens....the DOE takes us to another school....wow....I really cannot believe Farina continues to implement this Mike Bloomberg torture program. I work as a social worker and have been working with many kids for the past several weeks implementing programs and the like. So what does the DOE do? THey are sending me to ANOTHER school next week to start all over again. WHy?? This system is so dysfunctional it is beyond belief. The notion that they are trying to get rid of the ATRs is bull shit. The notion that the DOE is "concerned" about the social well being of the students is bull shit. The schools have one and two year counselors and social workers who are no nothings and still believe the system runs like they were taught in grad school!! This is a story for television and most people cannot believe this when you tell them what is going on. Get the ATRs in the CLASSROOMS idiots. Stop this ridiculous shit!!!!!! Paying people over one hundred thousand dollars to rotate from school a to school b?? Really?? No wonder we have all these reformies flying over our heads because there are so many jerks in the education field it is quite astonishing. The UFT continues to do nada and more and more I am looking at Freidrichs as maybe a blessing for the ATR crew because this madness must stop.

MORE to Talk Friedrichs at Saturday Meeting, Roseanne Sends Mulgrew a Message

Teacher apathy that has worked in your favor thus far may now ironically be a nail in the UFT coffin... Roseanne McCosh in letter to Mulgrew

Most MORE people are very loyal unionists despite the Unity hack attacks that they are tools of anti-unionists for daring to run in a union election. The Unity leadership wants to talk Frierichs at the membership, not with it.

Unity talks Friedrichs

As MORE talks Friedrichs at tomorrow's meeting I think I will be in the minority when I call for reservations to be put on unlimited support for people to stay in the union and continue paying dues without some quid quo pro from Unity towards democratizing the union.

I say this in the context of Roseanne McCosh's letter to Mulgrew below where she lists a litany of failures of the UFT leadership.

Now I tie these fundamental failures to this very lack of having broad areas of opinion in the UFT represented at the top of the pyramid so decisions are not made within the top-down Unity bubble. Having produced Ed Notes since 1997 as a means to create a forum for the very discussions not taking place I know I have pretty much warned the leadership about what was clearly to come when they ignored class size when money was available, when they supported so much of ed deform Roseanne points to below, allowed their principal pals in the CSA to run rampant, killed the seniority provisions that would have protected teachers and schools from the BloomKlein assault.

I'm looking forward to an intense discussion of Frierichs at CUNY on 5th Ave between 34th and 35th (Rm 5409- bring id) starting at noon in case you want to chip in your 2 cents.

Sean Crowley at B-LoEdScene (Union Members -- Who Do You Love?)
touched on the Friedrichs theme related to the AFT Hillary endorsement and the Mulgrew punching himself in his own face for taking away his beloved common core from himself:

this two-tiered sleight of hand used by so called "leadership" has no place in our current modus operandi and will be even more outrageous in the coming landscape of Post-Friedrichs unionism. We all witnessed the disgust and outrage of our colleagues when we learned that Weingarten had slid the AFT endorsement to Hillary when none of us were paying attention.

Here is Roseanne's letter to Mulgrew:

Dear Mr. Mulgrew,
I received your mass email about Friedrich. I am fully informed on Friedrich. Teacher apathy that has worked in your favor thus far may now ironically be a nail in the UFT coffin. You can't continue to protect the testing moguls, the billionaires who want to use tests as a weapon against teachers in order to destroy public education, the DOE and Mayor DeBlasio at the expense of teachers and then expect us to support you. You have done nothing to untie teachers to test scores (that 4 yr moratorium on state tests simply means teachers will sit on death row a little longer before being executed). You have done nothing about abusive administrators who torment teachers and ruin lives and careers. You have done nothing to expose credit recovery schemes and other misdeeds swept under the rug by the DOE. You have done nothing to lower class size. You have done nothing to expose the unreasonableness of Danielson. You have done nothing to highlight the factors beyond a teacher's control that affect students' academic success. You have done nothing to expose the invalidity of the tests being used to harm us (MOSL, State tests etc... ) And yet you have the gall to ask us to save you from the axe looming over the head of UFT/NYSUT and the AFT leadership. 

I wrote the below to Karen Magee and it applies to UFT leadership as well.

Friedrich may offer the disenfranchised an opportunity to starve the unions that refuse to be accountable to their membership. We'll all know soon enough is those chickens do indeed come home to roost. And if they do, you have no one to blame but yourselves.

Roseanne McCosh

UFT Elections/#MORE2016 - You Have the Right to Distribute

With the UFT elections at hand we want to remind people that all UFT members have the right to distribute material

• Distribute MORE’s Election Literature

  

• Download our flier here

in school mail boxes even if they don't work in that school and the UFT has asked that a memo be sent to all principals informing them of that fact. Now you will find that some principals don't read and you may be stopped. In other cases you may face a Unity CL who tells you you don't have the right or tells you he or she will put them in and most likely toss them away. Get CL name and serial number.

MORE has a rep on the election committee who will call the school info to Amy Arundell.

MORE has some excellent advice on how to deal with gaining entry into the schools: http://morecaucusnyc.org/2016/02/04/distribute-union-election-literature/

1. You have the right to place union literature in the mailboxes within your school or within any other school, as long as you don’t do it while you are on duty. You can do it before or after school, or during your lunch period.

2. When going to other schools make sure to sign in with security (bring photo ID), go to the office where the mailboxes are, and introduce yourself to the secretary. Show the secretary, or any administrator who asks, the Department of Education memorandum which allows you to place election literature in the mailboxes. Attached Here

3. Do not agree to leave the stack with the secretary, the UFT chapter leader, or anyone else. You have a right to put them directly in the mailboxes.

4. Do not get into fights or arguments! Speak confidently but not aggressively. Getting into a battle will do you no good. If after you have shown everyone the Department of Education memorandum they still won’t let you leaflet, contact Kit Wainer (KitWainer@yahoo.com,). Kit will contact the UFT and the UFT will get the Department of Education to tell the principal to let you in. You will then be allowed to return on another day.

   5. The right to distribute is based on the Baizerman decision, which is still in effect, formally established the right of UFT members to distribute union   material, including caucus election materials, in mailboxes of NYC public schools on their own time. If you are distributing MORE material in school mailboxes, consider printing out this decision and having it ready in case your right to place MORE materials in mailboxes is challenged.

Tomorrow Mike Schirtzer and I hit the road to stuff mailboxes in some schools. If a Unity slug shows up to try to stop us Mike will talk him/her to death.

The Ira Goldfine files
Ira Goldfine who has archives from the 70s - the 1770s - gives us some background on the various grievances and decisions over the years. Note that our group - the Coalition of School Workers and its subsidiaries in the districts were behind all of these challenges that were won. My late pal Loretta Prisco and I did one school in the morning and she remained to watch the mailboxes to see that they weren't pulled out and was arrested for trespassing which led to NYCLU taking her case and forcing our district to agree to allow access to mailboxes, though we were sure we would wake up to find a horse's head in our beds one day.

You'll note that in no case did the UFT actually represent us but just was there as observers.

And note the mention of the NYSUT big wig Alan Lubin who preceded Andy P. as VP for spending cope money on whatever - back in the 1972 district 16 case.

Summary of the Various Teacher Mailbox Cases

District 16 Step 2 Hearing:_October 27, 1972:

This I believe was the first teacher mailbox case and it arose when Paul Baizerman and I received letters in our files for distributing the first issue of The Brooklyn Bridge in the mailboxes.

At the step 2 hearing we based our case on the UFT Contract Article X A2 which states “ that he has been treated unfairly or inequitably by reason of any act or condition which is contrary to established policy or practice…”. 

The policy that we used was the Chancellors General Circular #4 from 1962-63 which stated: “The Board of Education, at its meeting on Wednesday, August 22, 1962 has clarified the nature of its current relationship with all teacher organizations other than the duly recognized exclusive bargaining agent (United Federation of Teachers for the teacher unit). All such organizations, including the Teachers Union, now have equal rights to disseminate their views in relation to educational matters through the bulletin boards and teachers’ letter boxes, through meetings on school premises and through other authorized procedures”

The UFT  was represented at the Step 2 hearing by Alan Lubin, then District 16 UFT Rep – he played the role as an observer not a defender of our position which we argued ourselves.

The decision was totally in our favor and granted us full rights before or after school ours to distribute material in our school.

Baizerman VS. The Board of Education:

Step 2 Hearing: February 6, 1974:

Principal argues that the  UFT Chapter Chair handbook specifically states that only the UFT chapter chair and delegate in the school can use the mailboxes without the principals permission and further that Teachers Action Caucus is not a recognized Teacher Organization. Harriet although not a member of TAC was distributing a TAC leaflet.

Step 3 Hearing: May 2, 1974:

The case was heard by Irving Anker, Chancellor of the Board of Education. Harriet was represented by Eve Cary of the NYCLU and the UFT was there again to observe not defend and in fact that is stated in the decision.

Eve Cary argued that Article 2 of the Contract bars the board from discriminating against any employee participating in the  in the activities of any employee organization. She cited in this regard a court case NLRB Vs. Magnavox.

Although she mentioned the Chancellors circular which still existed at the time I always believed that the reason she didn’t base the whole case on it was that the Board could just eliminate that any time they wanted and that would leave no leg to stand on.

The case was an unequivocal victory.

Read the entire decision: https://morecaucusnyc.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/baizermancompressed.pdf

Letter from Eve Cary, NYCLU to Chancellor Anker: August 8, 1975

In this letter Eve requested that the chancellor issue a directive that the first amendment grants teachers the right without prior permission of the principals and Anker said he already granted this in the Step 3 decision but he would confer with counsel about establishing it as a constitution right. He never got back as far as I know.

District Step 2 Hearing: January 19, 1976:

Paul and I started distributing The Brooklyn Bridge at all schools in the District and of course were stopped from doing so. At the Step 2 hearing we again represented ourselves and Ron Mailman, the District Rep was again an observer. The superintendent Adolph Dembo, merely quoted from Harriet’s Step 3 decision and granted us full rights before or after school to distribute in all District 16 schools as long as we notify the principals in advance and sign in.

Chancellor Anker Circular: March 25, 1977

After a group of us took a day off during the 1977 UFT election campaign to distribute election literature in hundreds of schools all in one day, the Chancellor issued a  circular which basically said that teachers could not use personal business days to distribute literature in school mailboxes.

Unity Caucus Hacks: Union elections are divisive, especially now with Friedrichs

Well that's the line you will hear and I will say that should work, just as it did for Giuliani when he wanted to cancel the 2001 mayoral election due to 9/11. But that gave us Bloomberg so, hmmmm.

Anyway - that is what you will be hearing in the schools from Unity over the next few months. In their ideal world there will never be elections. But then there is the embarrassment of a one party system. So they like to have a loyal opposition if possible.

When Ed Notes went rogue around 2001 they used to claim Bloomberg was funding me.

In 2013 I caught a Unity official leaving anon comments attacking a few MORE candidates. You might hear all kind of rumors spread by Unity and their quasi-allies about MORE and its candidates.

Like they serve fetal body parts at their meetings.

The Unity pals in Philly running on the Jerry Jordan slate are facing opposition for the first time in ages - from Working Educators (WE) and are pushing the same kind of crap against them.

A precursor of what is to come here:

http://www.workingeducators.org/

Dispelling Rumors, Correcting Misinformation

Because it's been so long since the last PFT election, many rank and file members are unfamiliar with the process of choosing their union leadership. As a result, we've encountered a lot of questions and points of confusion that deserve a response. Read on to find out what people are saying, and whether it's true or not.

Should I hand my ballot over to my Building Rep or Political Liaison? They're asking me to.
We respect the efforts that people are making to ensure that voter turnout is good. However, we find it straight-up disturbing that somebody would come between you and the secure delivery of your ballot. And letting somebody fill out your ballot for you is just crazy. Why would you hand your democratic right to vote over to somebody else? Arrange a ballot fill-out and mailing party at your building, come to one of our happy hour events on Friday Feb. 5th, and feel free to show people your sealed envelope. But send it off personally, please.
The bottom line: putting your ballot anywhere else but inside a USPS mailbox means it might not get delivered. Don't let anyone come between you and your vote.

Will the PFT know how I voted? 
The answer here is an absolute NO. When you send back your ballot, you will be placing it in two envelopes: first in an anonymous ballot envelope, and then in the prepaid mailing envelope. This second, outer envelope gets scanned upon delivery. This ensures that the ballot mailbox isn't being stuffed. That envelope is then removed and discarded, leaving only your anonymous ballot. AAA will have a record of who sent in a ballot, but NOT how you voted.
Unfortunately, we have had several reports of PFT members trying to intimidate voters by telling them "the PFT is watching you and how you vote." If you hear that in person, please let the offender know that they are both a bully and a liar.

If WE win, will everybody in the PFT offices get fired?
Again, the answer here is an absolute NO. We are interested in retaining as much of the current staff as possible, especially the administrators and secretaries who have kept things running "behind the scenes" all these years. Think of it this way: when we elect a new President of the United States, do all government workers get the axe? Certainly not.
Unfortunately, several PFT staffers have explicitly stated, even threatened, that they will quit if WE wins the election. We are troubled to think that partisan loyalties would overrule whatever sense of duty and service staffers might have to the membership.

Where did the caucus get the money for this campaign? 
The answer: from the rank and file of the PFT, and the friends and family who care about them. Seriously -- hats off to our fundraising team, but they didn't have to go sell their souls or make a single handshake deal to secure the funds we needed. Most of it was raised in tens and twenties at the dozens of house parties, happy hours, and other events we have had. We've raised about $30,000 total, the bulk of which is being spent on our citywide mailers.
Craziest rumor to dispel: No, we did not accept, nor were we offered, any donations from PSP. There is no version of the universe where that would happen.

How did the caucus get my home mailing address?
According to PFT election procedures, any caucus running a slate may pay to send out campaign materials to the membership, though a third party. So technically, we didn't get everybody's address -- we sent our materials to a company that mailed it for us. CB team has to do the same thing.

If you haven't received a campaign mailing from WE yet, call AAA as soon as possible to confirm you are on their ballot list: 215-731-2280. People who have called were able to get immediate confirmation. 

Jia Lee Live on South Bronx School Radio Thursday Night, 9:30PM

Peter Zucker is back with his radio show. MORE/New Action UFT Presidential candidate Jia Lee will take calls.

JIA LEE WILL BE LIVE THIS THURSDAY!!!

It's back, the Internet radio show you all loved.

This Thursday night, February 4, 2016 at 9:30 PM I will be interviewing Jia Lee as she shares her vision for the UFT, teachers, and education.

Listen Here!!

The call in # is (646) 716-9956