Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
We returned Friday from a tour of northern Spain, our first travel since fall 2018 when we toured Croatia. We had the best two weeks of weather ever and missed the rain in NYC. We were hoping to bring back some of that nice weather - maybe tomorrow. We traveled with Insight
Tours for the second time. There were a batch of Aussies, Filipinos,
Canadians and some Americans, so it was a very international tour.
I won't bore you with too many details other than to say we landed in Madrid a day before the tour began to peruse that city for the first time and loved what we saw in the 3 days we were there. Then we headed north to a variety of places along the north coast of Spain, which I had visited briefly only once before on trip sponsored by my then boss at the DOE to establish a robotics partnership with a middle school in Queens and in a small town. That was in mid-January I think 2005, so it was pretty chilly then.
The tour guide told is this was wet and chilly season for northern Spain but we were high(temps) and dry -- we ended up in Barcelona where it was also expected to rain but never did. This was a return to Barcelona after 20 years and we loved it more than ever and stayed an extra 3 days.
From the vantage point of a tourist, Spain seems to work. Clean, efficient, seeming to be flourishing on so many levels, I can see living there if things get iffy here. Barcelona especially. But I think I'd have to go beyond the two Spanish words I know.
A few pics from the top site in Barcelona -- Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, 150 years under construction. I love anything Gaudi -- check out his work.
We went to Parc Guell too.
I have hundreds of photos, many of my wife and I eating and drinking.
Did I miss anything while I was gone? I heard something about AmyGate in the UFT. Hmmm, sounds intriguing. Maybe I'll weigh in later. My UFT chat pals did a pretty good job of keeping me informed. I did miss a few ex bd and Retiree Advocate meetings, so my UFT updates are a bit rusty. A good thing, maybe? But darn, missing those Ex bd dinners while forced to eat paella was a chore.
September was a lazy month for the Ed Notes blog. Only 3 posts. What else is there to say? But my problem has really been that I have so much to say on so many issues, I end up getting tangled up. And then there are all the daily podcasts that occupy so much of my time. So, sometimes, silence is golden.
October will also be a sparse month as I've got things to do and places to see.
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Silence has also been golden for the UFT/Unity leadership. With the wild storm on Friday and the incompetent reaction of the Banks and Adams administration (As NYC flooded, a botched shelter-in-place order added confusion at schools - Chalkbeat), there has been no word of criticism from our glorious leaders. But that is part of the pattern when it comes to Mayor Adams, their partner in crime in trying to reduce the healthcare of retirees and coming soon - working UFT members. I've said it time and again - the UFT leadership acts more like a boss than a union.
Shawn
Fain’s disdain for the “billionaire class” informs his showdown with
Detroit’s automakers. Now he must prove that his hard-core tactics pay
off.
Before Mr. Fain took over in March, the U.A.W. leadership did not so much scorn the billionaires as strive to emulate them. Mr. Fain defeated the incumbent by the
thinnest of margins. That might have given another candidate an
incentive to keep a low profile, secure an adequate contract and declare
victory.Not this fellow. He is playing a very high-stakes game.
Mulgrew, Randi and the Unity faithful don't want to eat the rich. They want to rub elbows with the rich.
And for those of you who think if Unity Caucus replaces Mulgrew things will be all hunky dory, don't hold your breath. Playing ball with the boss is embedded in their DNA for over 50 years, after the initial decade of UFT militancy in the 60s.
UFT bosses, like Mulgrew and people at every level of his UFT
Unity caucus, are also a one-issue group. Their issue is retaining power
by any means whatsoever, and their most precious possession is the
patronage mill they run. If you’ve ever called UFT and got bad info, if
you’ve ever gone to a retirement consult and gotten the old song and dance, you know firsthand that UFT hirees are selected for loyalty rather than talent.
Arthur goes after the Unity patronage machine. I can't tell you how many children of Unity members are on the UFT payroll. Arthur points to the welfare fund. I would add the Teacher Centers, a prime patronage arena. I've always maintained Unity would live with 60 in a class but would fight like hell to save teacher centers. At one point BloomKlein hinted at going after them, which scared the hell out of Unity. Unity has used union jobs to buy off opposition voices for decades. They are super competent at attempts to undermine critical voices. But if they can't buy them they work to suppress their voices.
If the DA is supposed to be the highest decision making body, why is
there so little time set aside for resolutions and debate? Why is the
President’s Report the only part not time limited? Why is it allowed to
be used as a filibustering technique to preclude that which UFT Unity
bosses wish to avoid discussing?
Why? Because going back to Arthur's first article, do whatever has to be done to hold on to power. And don't think that if the oppo ever gets close, they won't resort to trying to steal the election.
So, Yes Virginia, Unity rehearses the DA. At one point in the UFT history, the Shanker years, they followed procedures because Shanker was so confident, but with Randi I began to see more and more manipulation and controls - she didn't want any surprises she couldn't handle. With Mulgrew in charge since 2009 it's gotten even worse. They now use backdoor lobbying on social media to get critics banned.
The use of paid staff to dominate the DA has become endemic. Oppos people at the DA should call a point of order - full disclosure -- before you speak identify if you are on the payroll.
Arthur has some ideas on reforming the DA. Like limiting the presidential filibuster. It will never happen. The only way to reform the DA is to elect enough chapter leaders and delegates that oppose Unity. And I'd bet that if that happened they would find a way to change the rules to hold onto power, which is the prime directive.
Just think of Unity as just another democracy-in-name-only- totalitarian regime.
AFTER BURN
Nick has a report on Monday's Ex Bd meeting and a piece on the lack of UFT responsse to Friday's floods.
We need to actively start pressuring the City to do the right thing – to not put our lives at risk when climate events strike.
It
won’t be easy. Our union has given up most of its power outside of
traditional bargaining subjects—and climate emergency is certainly not a traditional bargaining subject.
In
the end, we’ll need to regain a capacity to strike if we want to have
any power, and that will be difficult with a union leadership who mocks
and heckles members for having the audacity to utter the words ‘strike
readiness.’ But we’ve reached the point where our lives will be at risk
if we don’t start mobilizing. In that context, I hope even Unity will
recognize the need to do things differently, though I won’t hold my
breath.
here is Nick@NAC reporting on the Sept. 18 meeting re UAW:
There was a resolution on the UAW Strike. I didn’t speak on it, as I of
course support my fellow unionists and had already spoken enough. But,
there was a certain irony to voting to endorse another union’s strike
for 40% wage increases over 4 years when Unity Caucus spoke out against gaining our own right to strike, and later mercilessly heckled opposition members for suggesting we ourselves should be strike ready. The DC37 pattern that UFT conceded to without a fight, remember was just 16.37% over 5.5 years. To put this in perspective UAW was offered 21%
initially over 4 years – that’s more than we got in our final deal. We
heckled our own members for asking for a strike over a smaller wage
increase than the offer UAW is rightly striking over. I support the UAW,
and also support the UFT being able to strike. UFT leadership supports
the UAW, but not our own right to strike. The contradiction should speak
for itself.
Compare and Contrast: UAW Shawn Fein and UFT Michael Mulgrew as union leaders.
Key point: Fain pushes back against tenets of crony capitalism while Mulgrew supports shifting public money into the hands of corporate giants. And you will never hear Mulgrew talk about where the real money is in this city by attacking real estate interests and calling for them to pay their fair share. Why is a subject for future analysis. Hint: Militancy is no longer in the Unity DNA - except when it comes to attacking the opposition.
Friday, Sept. 15, 2023
I got off the ferry shuttle bus near my house yesterday with another guy who was wearing a union tee-shirt. I asked him if he was coming from the rally I had attended and he said hell yes. I asked what union and he is a Teamster out to support other workers. He lives a block from me. Nice to see union spirit in a 75% Republican neighborhood.
I woke up today to a chill in the air. And a UAW strike. Today we are heading up to Westchester to meet up with Harris Lirtzman for a tour of Untermeyer Gardens. But I needed to get these points out before I go.
I'm postponing my blog post on the first UFT Ex Bd meeting of the year on Monday and last Saturday's Labor Day parade due to the breaking stories of the UAW and ongoing SAG/AFTRA and Writers strikes.
A bunch of Retiree Advocates attended the big rally and picket lines on East 19 St and Broadway yesterday.
The militant union movement in the nation is intense - and how this makes UFTers who just voted up a contract with a 3% raise and little else, feel - well not having access to schools - I wonder if anyone is even thinking about the comparisons. We saw no one from the UFT staff there - 52 is just a short subway ride away -- but if they did show it would be only for a photo op.
My thoughts go to how our UFT leadership lines up with the Mayor on healthcare issues while Republicans and Democrats come together to protect us from being forced into Medicare Advantage schemes. And note that the Teamsters and UAW fight to reverse givebacks, including ending multi-tier systems while the UFT seems fine with a 6-Tier pension system. In fact they gave a report at Monday's Ex Bd that the largest group working is in Tier 6 (only 7 Tier 1 left working).
Tier 6 - another UFT death panel.
Note this breaking news --- Right and left unite to protect Medicare in Congress and Adams (and probably Mulgrew) go ballistic.
The evidence keeps mounting. The UFT is more an agent of the employer than a union. Ie - See healthcare
A major difference between the UFT 60s-early 70s and now? The
leadership and staff were battle hardened strike vets while the current
crew have spent their time managing the membership to tamp down
militancy.The role of the Unity machine is to manage the membership and lower expectations, not to defend their interests. The story of the re-vote on the OT/PT contract is a perfect example.
...since collectively bargaining away our healthcare is so important to UFT leadership, there’s a certain irony to AAA certification of the OT/PT revote...Nick@NAC
Wednesday, Sept. 6
There were cheering crowds by Unity Caucus hacks in Mudville, as the mighty OT/PT chapter was struck out - for now, a Pyrrhic victory for Unity which will come back to bite them. The lesson for critics of Unity is to mock and boycott the bogus negotiating committees with their cone of silence in the future as the sham they am, and question the
entire voting process on contracts and even on UFT elections. There will be much more scrutiny of ballots in the future - observers should camp out at the AAA offices.
High school teachers have voted against Unity for most of the past 4 decades, yet are saddled with the Unity HS VP since the 1990s and might start calling for going back to the old pre-1960 days of the militant High School Teachers Association, which with the recent death of a UFT founder George Altomare, reminds us of his role in bringing HSTA into the UFT fold through a merger in 1960. There would be no UFT if not for that merger. The history is interesting. Altomare was forced to retire when Shulman defeated him for HSVP in 1985, a cataclysmic event in Unity history and setting the pattern of "When we lose we re-do." (See Jonathan's dissection of the high school division.)
Highly paid 6 figure UFT staffers making double the pay of many therapists trolled and mocked the OT/PT leader and when challenged resorted to ghost twitter accounts.
Imagine if these highly paid staffers actually spent their time defending teacher rights.
Unions and strikes are so popular right now that in every labor dispute a clear and overwhelming percentage of the American people side with workers, not the bosses. And that’s just the beginning..... Internet comment
But our leaders live in the UFT/Unity universe, so the summer/fall of strikes is a myth to them.
This is basic premise of this post and was stimulated by attending the SAG/AFTRA/AWG picket line with thousands from a variety of unions that make the UFT/Unity leadership look like ghosts.
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
In the midst of thousands from active unions, seeing the sparse turnout from the UFT - they looked mostly like staffers - got me to thinking, a very dangerous thing.
The sense of militancy on that picket line was inspiring.
I started thinking of the strike fever around the nation and the contracts being won and realize there's no way our UFT leadership wanted our rank and file to witness this strike militancy.
I heard a UAW worker on a podcast recently talking about how demoralized workers were under the old leadership which bargained away their rights -- asking them to vote for bad contracts and how the new leadership has invigorated the rank and file.
The same thing in the Teamsters which voted in a new and aggressive leadership.The membership had voted down a recent contract but the leadership over ruled them. Sound familiar? Think of the overturning of the OT/PT NO vote. I wrote:
New Leaders: Several prominent unions, representing groups from automobile workers to actors, are now in the hands of outspoken leaders who have taken their membership to the brink of high-stakes labor stoppages — or beyond.
The UFT outspoken leader focuses on attacking our health plan, critical voices in the union, and to sell an inferior contract.
Then I read articles about how in a little over a decade the newly elected leadership in the Chicago Teachers Union has turned what was a moribund union into the most progressive and dynamic political force in Chicago. The same with the UTLA. And then fought down nausea thinking of the 60+ year reign of our own Unity Caucus in the UFT. You know what Unity shills say to this? We still have it better. It we do it is because of the militant strikes and contracts won over 50 years ago.
...an insurgent socialist-led caucus, the Caucus of Rank and
File Educators, had taken over the union in 2010. By 2012, the teachers’ union — then under the leadership of the late visionary Karen Lewis — had launched a strike in response to the state legislature passing a bill that curtailed teachers’ bargaining power and right to strike.
I followed the Chicago story since I connected with the late George Schmidt in 1999 and that union was dead in the water in 2009. Look at how things changed with the new leadership elected in 2010? In over a decade they've made up a hell of a lot of ground, and in times when teacher unions have come under massive attack.
So I make the case that only new, progressive leadership will change the UFT from a passive to an aggressive union.
The big issue is whether such a nascent potential leadership currently exists like it did in LA and Chicago? So far I haven't seen anything comparable to CORE or the coalition in UTLA here in NYC with similar outreach. After all, this is a much bigger enchilada with 1800 schools. (George Schmidt used to tell me Chicago is roughly equivalent to Brooklyn -- in the 2010 election there were about 675 schools). Also neither city had a Unity-like machine or anything like a lock on the union that Unity has had. (In the 2010 Chicago election, there were 5 caucuses running and a runoff). Unity has set up an undemocratic fire wall that other unions don't have.
There will be no change in UFT leadership until there is a powerful counter-force to the Unity machine with deep outreach into the schools, especially elementary and middle schools.
So far building such a force is a work in progress and progress has been very sketchy with too many caucuses doing their own organizing. The founding of the coalition, United for Change for last year's UFT election was a step forward. I don't believe any one caucus can win power in the UFT. So the UFC coalition is the only way forward and Unity will do anything to disrupt its progress, including divide and conquer.
Unity may be passive when it comes to dealing with the DOE and principals but when it comes to threats to its power from opposing forces, Unity becomes a tiger.
So what's the verdict? Is the UFT leadership saddled with a membership -- New York's meekest as my late friend used to lament?
Or is the rank and file saddled with a leadership that only shows militancy when its own members who challenge it?
The MLC has never bargained for or represented retirees, and surely not for me as a non-union City Council employee.... Gary Altman, lawyer for City Council for 38 years.
Monday, August 21, 2023
This Altman piece is a dagger Mulgrew's heart. But just like Trumpies back him no matter what the crimes, watch the Unity Caucus hacks stay on the gravy train and shill away for whatever crap Mulgrew makes up. What's coming next is an assault on working member healthcare to make up the money not being saved by screwing retirees. He will try to put working members against retirees -- it's the rich boomers, not UFT leadership that's screwing you.
Here's the quick skinny before you watch the videos. Mulgrew, Garrido are lying openly about the retiree healthcare issue and are exposed in this op ed by Gary Altman, who was a legal Council on the City Council for 38 years and goes back through the history of how the UFT testified more than once to the very opposite of what they are claiming now. Marianne reads the op ed below with emphasis.
Mulgrew has been claiming the City Council can't pass bill 1099 which would offer retirees a choice of healthcare options.
Altman points to previous legislation to protect healthcare via City Council and not once was there a claim that it hurts collective bargaining. Somehow Mulgrew has been dragging the Taylor Law into this issue, claiming that by passing 1099 they violate the law. Utter bullshit.
leadership is making their threat to the rank and file PLAIN.
Now that their BIG LIES are being dismantled concerning any amendments hurting collective bargaining, the talking points are more honest and bare in their threat to active city workers.
And even as their actions are ruled illegal in court…
There is another nuclear campaign afoot to scare members to act on lobbying city council members to not protect retiree choice of healthcare.
Translation: They are saying if we can’t screw retirees … we will need to screw you, active city workers.
And yet the choice is not binary for our city unions. It’s not force retirees into MAP or we will need to agree with the city to charge healthcare premiums on city workers.
Henry, Michael, and Alan know this. They want to path of least resistance. And the one that preserves their welfare fund patronage system.
There are various paths and solutions that help all workers and keep costs manageable. And QUALITY, PREMIUM-FREE.
Did you see this twisted, deceitful, ad hominem attack on the Unity
website? It deserves an exposé showing what fucking liars and manipulators they are. ... UFT retiree Sheila
It is such a mess Norm! I've been thinking a lot about your posts over the years since this all went down. Mulgrew refused to do anything for us and proposed the revote himself! The whole thing felt like begging for a plea deal .... Rank and file therapist no associated with opposition
Melissa
Williams, shares her experience as chapter leader for occupational and
physical therapists under Michael Mulgrew's Unity - the partisan
patronage caucus machine that controls UFT leadership.
Friday, August 11, 2023
Unity Caucus is the gift that just keeps giving. It has used its blog to engage in an assault of OT/PT Chapter leader Melissa Williams. Her is her eloquent response explaining the rational for resigning from a chapter that has been divided and undemined by the Unity leadership is below the parody.
The above comment from someone I've known since she was in high school and has never expressed political views on the UFT shows how their assault is backfiring.
Their recent post was exactly as Sheila characterized it: twisted, deceitful, fucking liars and manipulators.
Their attacks remind me of how the actions of Trump help energize the base of the Dems to vote against him. Sheila's reaction is an example. I predict that the Unity attacks on the opposition will have the same effect in future elections because the overwhelming majority of members either don't give a crap about them because they have not led and in fact have allowed working conditions to deteriorate. So their bombast calls for this type of parody - and is so easy to do. I may start a blog just to parody Unity. I will do a deep dive on Melissa's response soon. Note she is visiting family in Korea. I suggested she visit North Korea to get advice on bringing democracy to the One party Unity control of the UFT.
Unity, Caucus of Knifing OT/PT Chapter in the Back
When Unity caucus members were elected to ‘lead’ the UFT
they promised to organize with an eye on the
2023 contract.
In the year that has followed the only “organizing” they’ve
done is a “vote yes” campaign, with little foresight or strategy. They
told people to vote yes and will turn their back on their members when
the actual repercussions and consequences of the contract became
apparent. Makes one wonder if these so called "leaders" were amplifying
the voices of their members or driving their own Unity Caucus agenda regardless of
their union members needs.
Case in point:
60% of the OT/PT chapter voted NO on the 2023 contract, as they did in the 2018 contract, rejecting their Unity Chapter Leader's urging them to vote yes. Makes you wonder. Those who cannot lead, don't.
In the 2021 chapter election, the OT/PT voted down this misleadership and elected new leadership.
Nurses, Audiologists, and Supervisors of Nurses and Therapists
demanded to be separated from the OT/PT chapter in 2018 and were promised that would be done at an Executive Board meeting in late 2018 but that was not done. They voted yes for the
contract but their votes were drowned out by the no votes of the OT/PT
chapter. Why were they part of the bargaining unit with the much larger OT/PT chapter in the first place and why was their request to be separated ignored then? Where was democracy for them?
For the 2023 contract, the demands of nurses, audiologists, and supervisors of nurses and therapists found themselves still in the same bargaining unit and facing the same undemocratic process as they did in 2018. Where is the democracy and who is at fault? Clearly, those in Unity Caucus, who claim to lead but cannot do so.
In 2018, there was not a revote but a proper renegotiation of the contract with the DOE which was voted up by the OT/PT chapter in February 2019.
Yet, in 2023, the UFT leadership found an excuse not to renegotiate but instead to overturn the democratic vote of the OT/PT chapter, an unprecedented action. Where was the democracy in that?
What is the difference between 2018 and 2023? The loss of control by Unity of the chapter leadership and a two year assault on the leadership of the chapter by the Unity machine with the goal of using this revote to recapture control of the OT/PT chapter by unprecedented attacks on the current chapter leader.
Unity claims they have received over 1,500 emails from rank and file members
of the OT/PT
Chapter and other UFT liaisons
expressing that they were sold a fake bill of goods from their chapter
‘leadership’. They claim the members of the Chapter, have asked for a
revote. Unity has offered no proof other than some expressions of
disgruntlement from the minority of YES voters and non-voters. Their
virulent campaign will probably result in may of those who voted NO
originally to refuse to honor the revote campaign by voting again, thus
giving the disgruntled minority their opportunity to reverse a landslide
democratic vote.
At the first sign of rough waters Mulgrew abandoned the OT/PT members
and is asking them to vote again for the same contract 60% rejected
just a month ago.
Seeing that their agenda was not the will of the chapter, UFT
President Michael Mulgrew has thrown a tantrum and blamed chapter leader
Melissa Williams, taken their renegotiation ball, and gone home by
asking for a revote.
Case in point 2:
When Unity led an assault on retiree health care, with thousands of complaints from retirees being forced out of Medicare and into a privatized Medicare, first Emblem and then Aetna, Advantage plan, those pleas were not only ignored, but mocked as fake news. Yet so far a judge has supported the retirees and these nefarious plans to reduce retiree healthcare as a way to save the city money, have come to naught.
Makes one wonder – what’s more important to those in these in the leadership: the members or undermining or the interests of the leadership of our union in kowtowing to the DOE and Mayor Adams?
Makes one wonder – is this how the leadership will handle dealing
with management and the membership of our union should they be entrusted
with leading it in the future? What will they do when the stakes
are higher? Surely they don’t believe that it’s their way or the
highway? What kind of democracy is that?
Those who can, lead.
Leadership isn’t for the fragile.
VOTE UNITY OUT IN FUTURE ELECTIONS
=====
See below the break for the Unity twisted, deceitful, ad hominem attack. I hope I exposed what fucking liars and
manipulators they are.
