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!
UPDATE: Saturday August 28 - There are rumors Mulgrew surfaced in a video somewhere -- I think it is a hologram - or a robot.
With all the swirl about school openings, Mulgrew has been invisible. Oh, the UFT has put out some statements in his name,
This decision is not up to the union. However, while the mayor is
asserting his legal authority to mandate the vaccine for city employees,
by law the details of this mandate must be negotiated with the UFT and
other unions, and if necessary resolved by arbitration.
Has anyone actually seen Mulgrew anywhere? Maybe he is being held against his will by anti-vaxers in Staten Island.
Leave it to Michael Mulgrew to at least figure out when he made a
completely unforced error. In yesterday's statement, the UFT President
claimed: "Our first priority is keeping our kids safe and the schools
opened." He neglected to mention UFT members who pay dues and his
salary. Well in the latest email, (see below), he has added the UFT
members. It took him a while but at least he figured out who he is
supposed to represent and included the members. That's progress,
everyone.
Is Mulgrew in or out? His fears of the right wing anti-vax, anti-mask UFT members pulling their dues is palpable. Chicago and LA, the two next largest cities with strong left wing unions leading the way, have much stronger push back for safe school openings while we have Mr. Wishy Washy.
Recently Mulgrew's lack of presence at a seemingly important event was noticed:
Randi, Ed Secty Cardona and UFT second in command Leroy Barr at Bronx DOE Event -
It
says something that Mulgrew wasn’t there. This is the US secretary of
education and Randi .. but LeRoy was there .... Vacation?
“Sorry Mr. Secretary of Ed. I’m on vaca …” no no no. Sick. Death in the
family or on the outs. Those are the only reasons that make sense to me
for why a Union president would not be present for a visit from a
federal official..... UFT member comment
An event in a NYC school with the chancellor and the US secretary of education takes place in a NYC public school and there's Randi, the national president - which is not out of the ordinary but the absence of UFT President Mulgrew was noticed, especially when Leroy Barr, the most probable successor if Mulgrew were to leave, posted about his presence.
Hmmm, has Mulgrew grown su unpopular with UFT members (and even with some in Unity Caucus) he is in hiding? I expect we will see him soon. Is there even a chance that he doesn't run for UFT president next year? I doubt it because if he was moving on they would have handed it over to his successor by now.
For the inside baseball UFT crowd that have been privately speculating
for the past year and a half over the rising unpopularity of Mulgrew
with working UFT members over safe schools and with retirees over the
Medicare sellout, Mulgrew's absence was a cause for speculation over his
future, especially with the pending UFT election coming this school
year and the nascent prospect of a united opposition making a dent in
Unity control.
The UFT has only changed presidents 3 times in the past 31 years and each time the new president was installed a year in advance of an election. That time frame for Unity Caucus replacing Mulgrew has past, so this speculation may be meaningless. Maybe there is a rift of sorts between Randi and Mulgrew and this is a sign.
But they need each other since control of the AFT is based on Unity Caucus. Leroy Barr is the head of Unity ---- but from all reports Leroy and Mulgrew are two of the three men and one woman (maybe two women from the latest scuttlebutt) in the room making decisions for the UFT -- how did that Stringer endorsement work out?
Chicago an LA have required teacher vaxes while NYC has not and Mulgew has not called for it. Word is that he is bombarded by UFT right wingers and anti-vax and anti-mask people and the hierarchy fears these people more than the progressive wing.
The different responses and open bargaining of the UFT and CTU and UTLA and the outcomes are stark:
One way to look at the costs is to compare them with rates paid by
Medicare, the government program that covers older people. In general,
Medicare covers 87 percent of the cost of care, according to hospital association estimates. At multiple hospitals, major health plans pay more than four times the Medicare rate for a routine colonoscopy. And for an M.R.I. scan, some are paying more than 10 times what the federal government is willing to pay. Health economists think of insurers as essentially buying in bulk, using
their large membership to get better deals. Some were startled to see
numerous instances in which insurers pay more than the cash rate. .... NYT - Hospitals and Insurers Didn’t Want You to See These Prices. Here’s Why.
Medicare for all will not be good for the private, profit making health care scammers.
... repeat 10 times to our union leaders who join most of the Democratic Party in opposing all forms of socialized medicine.
As Ed Notes readers know, 250,000 NYC municipal retirees are being moved out of Medicare into a privatized insurance plan starting Jan. 1. The union and the city have been crying about health care costs and claim this will save the city 600 million. After reading the article below on how there is a conspiracy too hide prices, tell me where the savings are coming from.
Coming next will be the contract for non-retirees next year and watch the fur fly.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Good morning -- another day of outrage at the state of the health care system and the blood suckers at all levels. I include much of the mainstream media, which has not has a whisper of this important NYT article on the scam. Wanna bet the private insurers and hospitals have heavy advertising running?
One of the puzzling things about our union, the UFT - and other unions - is the leadership support for the current corrupt health care system which is the reason we have such high healthcare costs that our union leaders are using as an excuse to cut costs by weakening public options and strengthening the private insurance grip (along with the corrupt profit making hospitals) on our health care.
The NYT posted a Monday mind blowing report on how hospitals and insurance companies hide prices despite a bi-partisan law passed calling for transparency:
The five largest insurers — Aetna, Cigna, Humana, United and the Blue
Cross Blue Shield Association — all declined requests for on-the-record
interviews. Cigna, Humana and Blue Cross provided statements that said
they support price transparency. The requirement to publish prices is a rare bipartisan effort: a
Trump-era initiative that the Biden administration supports. But the
data has been difficult to draw meaning from, especially for consumers..... The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive negotiations.” Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost. They lost again, and seven months later, many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing. But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden. It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for
the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy
test.
Here is one example of crazy costs at the same hospital:
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a colonoscopy costs ...
$1,463
with a Cigna plan.
$2,144
with an Aetna plan.
$782
with no insurance at all.
How is it possible that it is cheaper with no insurance at all?
People carefully weighing two plans — choosing a higher monthly cost
or a larger deductible — have no idea that they may also be picking a
much worse price when they later need care. Even for simple procedures, the difference can be thousands of dollars, enough to erase any potential savings. It’s not as if employers can share that information at open enrollment: They generally don’t know either. “It’s not just individual patients who are in the dark,” said Martin
Gaynor, a Carnegie Mellon economist who studies health pricing.
“Employers are in the dark. Governments are in the dark. It’s just
astonishing how deeply ignorant we are about these prices.”
Right, we are going to save money by pulling us out of Medicare?
Do you ever wonder what out unions are getting from these insurance companies for selling us out?
I think I'm due for a colonoscopy but one thing I know - I want to get it before Jan. 1. My doc is connected to NYU.
I recently had an MRI and didn't think twice about it. After Jan. 1, who knows?
At Aurora St. Luke’s in Milwaukee, an M.R.I. costs United enrollees ...
$1,093
if they have United’s HMO plan.
$4,029
if they have United’s PPO plan.
At Memorial Regional Hospital, in Florida, an M.R.I. costs ...
$1,827
with a Cigna plan.
$2,148
with a Humana plan.
$2,455
with a Blue Cross plan.
$262
with a Medicare plan.
At the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a pregnancy test costs ...
$18
for Blue Cross patients in Pennsylvania.
$58
for Blue Cross HMO patients in New Jersey.
$93
for Blue Cross PPO patients in New Jersey.
$10
with no insurance at all.
Well, I don't plan on getting pregnant - because the baby would come after Jan. 1.
The NYT piece makes the point that employers are also getting screwed. Our employer is the city of New York -- they are getting screwed but don't seem to care. We know that politicians who run the city get campaign contributions from guess who?
I gave you the flavor but the entire article is a must read ---
The above segment is amazing to watch. Ingraham brags about her mother being forced to work when she was 12. Pro child labor Laura. This right wing crew hungers for this:
So contrast this NYT piece where Biden aims to destroy capitalism by trying to increase food for hungry families.
Biden Administration Prompts Largest Permanent Increase in Food Stamps.....The
jump in benefits, the biggest in the program’s history, comes after a
revision of the initiative’s nutrition standards that supporters say
will reduce hunger and better reflect how Americans eat.... https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/us/politics/biden-food-stamps.html
Let's see what Republicans are saying:
Critics say that the costs are
unsustainable and that the aid erodes Americans’ willingness to work.
...as hints of the benefit increase spread last week, Republicans pushed
back. Former Representative Mike Conaway, a Republican and chief author
of the 2018 law, said it was written “assuming the precedent of
cost-neutrality would be followed” and warned the administration against
“unilateral overreach.” Before the plan was even released, two
Republican legislators called for a watchdog to review it.
Opponents
of a benefit increase say the program is meant to supply only part, not
all, of a household’s diet, as suggested by its formal name: the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. They also say the
aid would last longer if the needy spent it better, citing research
showing nearly 10 percent goes to sweetened drinks.
“The
data on the inadequacy of the Thrifty Food Plan is pretty weak,” said
Angela Rachidi of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
...others note that nothing guarantees the needy will buy healthy food.
Ms. Rachidi of the American Enterprise Institute said “to the extent
that SNAP contributes to poor diet,” an increase could even harm poor
people’s health.
Anticipating the
benefit increase last week, Republicans on Capitol Hill warned of a
power grab. During the pandemic, Congress approved extraordinary, if
temporary, SNAP increases, with average benefits doubling. Since those
increases are now starting to expire, some Republicans see the updated
plan as a backdoor effort to sustain a major welfare expansion.
The full NYT article below does a deep dive into the nitty gritty of SNAP.
The debate over benefit
adequacy turns on colliding assumptions: SNAP bills itself as
supplemental, but more than a third of households receive the maximum
benefit. Caseworkers have found that those households have no cash for
food, so for them, aid is not supplemental.
Just take the beans story for example:
Critics [of the old plan] say
multiple features of the department’s model drove such unrealistic
results. The model ignored preparation time — assuming that SNAP users
would buy dried beans and soak them before cooking them, which takes
hours but is cheaper than buying them in cans. (Few did.)....
The update:
They
also factored in time: The plan assumes that SNAP families will get 99
percent of their beans from a can. Among the other convenience foods it
includes are hard-boiled eggs, prepared salsa, baby carrots, boxed
macaroni and cheese and bagged salad greens.“It
was a scientific, analytical process,” said Stacy Dean, a senior
Agriculture Department official who oversees the program. “It wasn’t
about approving a benefit increase.”
I'm guessing that the media focus on learning loss is more about making sure schools are open so people can go to work and boost the economy rather than interest in the children ... no one talks about the learning loss of test prep - and the anxiety high stakes tests creates. Or the anxiety just getting ready for school and the often ordinariness of schools.
When I taught there was loads of "learning loss" when I tried to make school fun for them, especially for trips. My principal tried to limit our trips yet my kids had learning gain. The kids put up with me when I tried to teach the normal stuff. I tried to lighten the anxiety levels when I could but the tests were always looming. Boy, if I had to do it all over again today, I would totally focus on making school so much fun, they would have anxiety if they missed coming. But let's face it -- as kids get older, the social net of friends and so on becomes a serious operating issue ---- and one of my biggest failures I had as a teacher when I recognized that issue and tried to interfere in not a good way and made a few what I viewed as mean girls as enemies. I learned better ways for the future - find activities to incorporate kids on the outs.
For some students - maybe more than we know -- not being in school has actually been beneficial socially. This may be true especially for wealthier students who can more easily do the work at home with some support. But we hear from poorer students that being home avoided some of the more racist issues of school for some of them. Don't forget that school to prison pipeline.
Not a lot of media have reported on the tensions of school, especially with high stakes tests creating anxiety -- and no one talks about the learning loss of test prep.
And don't forget the anxiety. In my final years of teaching the admin expected us to create anxiety and fear of failure as "motivation" for test practice. Do you think kids at Eva's schools don't feel anxiety over batting their eyes? Listen to Leonie Haimson's WBAI show from this past Saturday on some insane rules in no excuses charters --- https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=24568
A Sunday Morning CBS report indicated what they termed "surprising" reports of less anxiety.
Just one kid dying from covid that is traceable to a school where
contagion might have come from an unvaxed teacher will cause a firestorm
that makes Greece look like an iceberg.
Daniel Alicea
from Educators of NYC and others including me wrote some clear demands
that the NYC Department of Education should meet before anyone returns
to NYC schools. Schools need to be safe. This evening Daniel turned it
into a change.org petition. --- ICE/UFT Blog.
Dueling petitions inside the UFT. Check the wild west comment section on the ICE blog. The EONYC petition is hitting 700 in less than 24 hours - so if you want to see mandates head on over. a change.org petition.
Arthur Goldstein, NYC Educator and UFT Ex Bd member, makes the case for mandated in an appearance at Bloomberg News -
"It's our duty to keep our students safe.. and to keep ourselves safe ...I do not understand some of my colleagues [who are opposed]. My kids come in from other countries and when they are not vaccinated the nurse comes in and tells them they can't attend school until they are...."
The waffling UFT leadership is leaning toward mandates but fears the much more vocal anti mandate crowd. Full disclosure -- I'm working with the ICE crew and lean toward mandates but my libertarian tendencies keep popping up. But I get that Mulgrew fears taking the lead -- Randi came out for mandates but personally with the AFT most likely to take a position, especially since the NEA just did so. From what I hear, the leadership has been inundated by the organized anti-mandate crowd while the disorganized pro-mandate crowd has had little impact - so far - but seems to be rearing up.
I bet they weren't vaxed. People are scared, in some ways worse then last year when there were lots of options. Now the option is a crowded classroom.
As I said I'm torn but also pissed at the possibility of non-vaxed spreading sickness. I can afford to stay in hiding. But what about the children in school factor? The unvaxed under 12 and the over 12 students who have not chosen to get vaxed. The report of resistance in the Black community is a real problem for progressives - I have more on this further down.
Just think of a school where most teachers are vaxed but some aren't, as are many parents and almost all students are not vaxed. The vaxed teachers are fairly safe -- maybe not the older ones but still pretty safe. But what kind of environment? Do unvaxed teachers work as freely as vaxed? What about the testing for unvaxed - even if every week, what about between tests and the mingling that goes on?
Just one kid dying from covid that is traceable to a school where contagion might have come from an unvaxed teacher will cause a firestorm that makes Greece look like an iceberg.
Resistance to the vax resisters grows --back to the petition that calls for mandated vax for teachers - a list of demands - sign it here- a change.org petition
We DEMAND:
1. Mandated vaccinations -
Anyone 12 years of age or older entering a DOE facility, including but
not limited to school buildings, should possess proof of being fully
vaccinated against Covid-19. The unvaccinated must not be allowed
entrance in instructional spaces (unless there is a documented medical
exemption). 2. Mandated masking -
Everyone within the premises of a DOE facility must have a mask on at
all times, except for eating at proper times. Failure to do so will
result in their immediate removal. 3. Heightened COVID Testing and Tracing Protocols -
Weekly random testing of at least 33% of the entire school communities.
There must be baseline testing for all students and staff in September.
We expect clear, strict and concise procedures in place for quarantine
and closing down schools when there is a COVID outbreak. This includes a
return to a school-wide 14 day quarantine based on a total threshold of
3 or more positive cases within the school community. Baseline testing
for all those returning from quarantine. 4. Strict adherence to social distancing -
There must be strict adherence to at least 3 feet of social distancing
at all times. Distance is subject to increase if authorities deem so. 5. Proper, Science-Based Ventilation in all DOE facilities-
We demand for scientifically proven methods to control and monitor the
spread of airborne diseases, including COVID, that include enhanced
ventilation with outdoor air, and high efficiency filtration. Sites must
be inspected and certified by a board certified industrial hygienist
before anyone is allowed in the facility. 6. A Remote Option - A remote learning option for all parents/guardians that want to opt for one. 7. No Learning Loss Screenings/Diagnostics and Focus on SEL, trauma-informed supports
- There will be no academic screening/diagnostic assessments for
so-called deficit of learning/learning loss. Rather, we must focus
resources on the social-emotional well-being of our students by funding
after school programs, PSAL, counseling, social service and weekend
programs. We desire a pause in required high stakes state standardized
testing until performance based alternatives are explored. 8. Increased transparency, tracking capability and reliability in COVID-19 data reporting -
We demand an updated COVID-19 city wide dashboard that is more
transparent, meaningful and reliable in its data reporting of COVID-19
incident cases, hospitalizations and deaths that tracks over 90 day
intervals and shows vaccination rates. Failure
to implement these demands will result in a coalition of educators and
parents urging UFT members, families and students to stay out of
buildings deemed unfit until they are safe for teaching and learning.
There is a racial component to the anti-vaxers, which has given some progressives pause:
"as a
Black man, he was more worried about the prospect of being stopped by
the police than he was about getting Covid-19..." Politico
This is an eye-opening report from Politico, but not surprising. Over the past week a few of us were engaged in a debate on ICEUFT listserve with a black retiree who was an adamant resister. I really get where that resistance is coming from - there is massive mistrust of the medical community by Black people, often well-deserved.
“Why Only 27 Percent of Young Black New Yorkers Are Vaccinated,” by The New York Times’ Joseph Goldstein and Matthew Sedacca:
“A construction site safety manager in Queens said that as a
Black man, he was more worried about the prospect of being stopped by
the police than he was about getting Covid-19. A graduate student in the
Bronx who had not gotten vaccinated said her worst fears seemed
confirmed when a vaccine that the government was directing to Black and
poorer neighborhoods was briefly suspended over a small number of
dangerous blood clots. And a civil rights activist in the Bronx said he
grew suspicious when he heard last year that politicians were
prioritizing minority neighborhoods for coronavirus vaccinations. ‘Since
when does America give anything good to Black people first?’ said the
activist, Hawk Newsome, a 44-year-old Black Lives Matter leader who is
unvaccinated.
“All three situations reflect
a trend that has become a major concern to public health experts: Young
Black New Yorkers are especially reluctant to get vaccinated, even as
the Delta variant is rapidly spreading among their ranks. City data
shows that only 27 percent of Black New Yorkers ages 18 to 44 years are
fully vaccinated, compared with 48 percent of Latino residents and 52
percent of white residents in that age group
I had a conversation with a white over 80 retired unvaxed teacher, a Trump supporter, who told me she was not getting vaxed because she didn't trust Fauci, having heard he was financially involved with the vax companies. She already had a fairly mild case of covid this past March. She doesn't seem worried. Am I over-reacting?
With my libertarian tendencies, I don't like mandates and I hate wearing a mask. I also hated to be circumcised without my permission. And it hurt like hell. Still hurts. I balance that with fear of getting sick. And those who don't get vaxed are threats to me and others. I can support their position -- but do I have a right to know? If it was Ebola and not Covid would they claim a right to privacy? I'd like to see a blinking patch in foreheads.
They seem to be against forced testing. Will they now protest rules for other vax requirements or are they basing their resistance to this vax because it is so new? I can see that point but so far 150 million people make for a pretty good test. Unless in a year or so I might find unexpected outcomes from the vax -- maybe my circumcised foreskin will grow back.
Word is this group has bombarded the UFT leadership and that is a factor in the UFT leadership's waffling over mandating a vaccine. They foresee a massive dues sucking machine.
Their steering committee has a bunch of NYC teachers:
It was a pleasure joining Bruce Markens on WBAI yesterday on Leonie Haimson's "Talk Out of School" program, with Daniel Alicea hosting and skillfully guiding us through an hour of UFT history covering the 3rd and 4th decades of its existence - the 80s and 90s. This was part 2 of the three part history, each covering two decades.
In Part 1 in July Leo Casey, a high level UFT and now AFT official - he now heads the Shanker Institute -- joined Daniel and me: Listen to Inside UFT Politics and History (Part 1) : How The Nation’s
Most Powerful Teachers Union Impacted NYC Public Schools from Talk Out
of School in Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000529187414
Part 3 will be in September, covering the past 20 years. Despite the many changes we've seen over the 6 decades of UFT history, one thing has been constant: The absolute dominance and control by one party/caucus - Unity, a creation by one of the union founders, Albert Shanker, perhaps his most enduring legacy - creating a political structure that has seemed impregnable.
Bruce, Daniel and I covered a lot of ground, but could have spend many hours drilling down. We began with The Nation at Risk - the Ronald Reagan and neo-liberal ed deform report trashing public schools and teachers - while the impact didn't hit until the 90s and 2000s - think BloomKlein -- Shanker's support for it changed the way teacher unions were able to fight back against the deforms by enlisting the unions as partner and making way for the New Democrats - aping Republicans - like Clinton and late on Obama -- to forge ahead with policies that have often proven to be a disaster.
We spent time delving into internal UFT politics. The rise of a coalition of opposition groups to create a more serious challenge to total Unity control by beginning to win the high schools - which has pretty much continued to current times --- the MORE/NA win in 2016, for example. We talked about Michael Shulman's victory for HS VP -- on the AdCom -- the only time in UFT history that a non-Unity person was elected in 1985 and how Unity challenged his win and forced another election - Trump's Stop the Steal used Unity 85 as a model --- only to see Shulman win by over 60%. Unity changed the constitution a few years later to make all VPs elected by the entire membership - including retirees so this could never happen again.
We talked about Shanker's giving up the presidency of the UFT in 1985
and turning the union over to Sandra Feldman -- in the UFT, the
successor is hand-chosen -- like a monarch of sorts. We actually had a
few fond memories of Sandy, who in some ways adhered to at least some
formalities of democracy in the union. But of course he overall story was suppression of opposition when they could ger away with it,
We talked about the big 13 seat opposition united state in 1991 and Bruce Markens' major victories as the only non-Unity District Rep in the 90s and how his example led to the end of district rep elections by 2002 - that was Randi, not Sandy, who actually could have done the same thing soon after Bruce's election.
A key issue in the 90s was the 1995 contract which was voted down by the membership and our experiences with Giuliani as mayor. We just had time to mention the rise of Randi Weingarten, also a hand-chosen successor, in the 90s but ran out of time before getting to the details. Maybe in Part 3 we can talk about some of the changes she broight to the UFT before leaving in 2009 for the AFT after - guess what - hand choosing her successor, Michael Mulgrew.
And of course a big part of our discussion was charter schools, which was an original idea from Shanker, and how it morphed into a dagger at the heart of teacher unions and public education -- but that issue escalates in the 21st century.
We explore and analyze the history and political highlights of our city’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, today with part 2 of what is to be a three part series.
In July, we had Leo Casey and Norm Scott, two iconic union activists, on this show to share with us what they thought were some of the highlights of UFT history and politics for the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Today we are joined by two lifelong and beloved UFT union activists and leaders, Bruce Markens and, once again, Norm Scott, as they take us through a decade by decade overview of the significant historical and political developments within the United Federation of Teachers union and how these impacted public education of NYC schools.
The Discussion:
Today’s discussion:
Inside UFT politics and history: How The Nation’s Most Powerful Teachers Union Impacted NYC Public Schools
Part 2, today, will take us through a decade by decade overview of what our our guests perceive as the most significant events within the UFT from the 1980s to the year 200- … we’ve invited Bruce Markens and Norm Scott. And Part 3 will likely be broadcast in September.
Richard Trumka fit the profile of a
traditional union leader. He got his hands dirty as a miner before he
ever gripped a podium and addressed a crowd... The Nation
One of Trumpka's most important positions was opposing the job sucking trade agreements, including the Hillary backed Pacific Trade Agreement in 2016, which Trump used to help beat her. Where was Randi on that issue? Supporting anything Hillary backed. In essence, Randi heading the AFL-CIO would be like inserting a Clinton operative - the Clintons who were fundamentally anti-union --- and if you doubt that just look at the record in Arkansas and the White House.
Sara Nelson actually worked her way up by working on the job. Randi was handed a job to buttress her rise to lead the union. Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly
customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.
Nelson has been a flight attendant with United Airlines since August, 1996.[6]
Soon after beginning her career, based in Boston for United Airlines,
Nelson became an activist in the Boston AFA Local. She served in a
variety of roles including the elected position of Council
Representative. In 2002 Nelson was selected by AFA leaders at United
Airlines to serve as Communications Chair.[7]
She previously served as AFA's international vice president
for a term beginning January 1, 2011. AFA-CWA represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines.
[She] worked four jobs to pay off her student debt, including as a
substitute teacher, waitress, linen salesperson, and temp at an
insurance agency.[5]
Funny - Nelson may have as much teaching experience as Randi.
Then I watched Randi's appearance on Morning Joe yesterday and video of Trumpka, who headed the Mineworkers union. Would miners and other workers accept a teacher union head as their leader? My brainstrust convinced me I was being delusional. Just watching how Randi waffles and obfuscates and is often so cloying convinced me.
We considered Sara Nelson and as head of the Flight Attendant union with a very public face during the pandemic, she seemed more likely to be accepted. The third option is Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer and designated successor. Thus we will see the first woman to head the AFL-CIO in history -- unless a dark horse emerges.
The first ever woman elected to the position in 2009, Shuler also
holds the
distinction of being the youngest officer ever to sit on the
federation's Executive Council. Coming from Portland, Oregon, Shuler has
been at the forefront of progressive labor initiatives like green job
programs and the fight for workers' rights for many years, starting as
an organizer at her local union.Prior to her election as
secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Shuler was part of the Executive
Leadership team of the Electrical Workers (IBEW)....Shuler first became active in union work after college. Her first job was as a union organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125, working on a campaign to organizer clerical workers at PGE.[3][5][7] She became a lobbyist for the IBEW in 1997, representing the union before the Oregon Legislature.[3][5]
OK. Shuler may be the favorite now and actually comes across as more progressive than Randi - for those doubters -- watch what Randi does, not what she says.
But here's something that makes Sara Nelson more legit and more Trumpka-like than either Randi or Shuler -- she actually worked in the industry she represents, just like Trumpka was a real miner.
But wait you say -- doesn't Randi claim to have worked for 6 years as a high school teacher - she mentioned her teaching on Morning Joe. We've reported many times that Randi only worked 6 months on a full schedule at Clara Barton HS, a school hand-picked for the lawyer from the UFT who had to show some in school creds in order to become UFT president. Everyone at the school knew what her future was and she was treated accordingly. That's not real world experience.
Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.
As for Shuler, she functioned as a union organizer and lobbyist, which give her some creds. And coming from the IBEW probably rates higher than the AFT, which is still not the largest teacher union. Now if Randi were heading a merged AFT/NEA with almost 4 million members, that might have bolstered her case.
But I also am thinking about the power as AFT leader of a union versus heading the AFL-CIO which is a coalition of unions with no actual power. I could also make a case that Mulgrew as head of the UFT actually has more real power than Randi as head of the AFT -- but the UFT is the tail that wags the AFT dog --- both need each other to maintain their position.
The brainstrust also speculated as to whether Mulgrew would even be taken seriously as a potential AFT leader. I heard from my old buddies in Chicago after they won their election 11 years ago that they had developed a good working relationship with Mulgrew, though politically, the Chicago leadership was more aligned with MORE.
Here's The Nation with a Trumpka obit
Richard Trumka, 1949–2021
The
labor leader practiced “true solidarity”—from his days as an
anti-apartheid activist to his bold embrace of immigrant rights and
Black Lives Matter.
Maybe I've been wrong on Mulgrew becoming AFT president. Imagine the scenario where Randi runs for AFL-CIO and wins (not so sure about that) and Mulgrew moves up -- Mulgrew wariness in the UFT might just make that enticing. Who would replace Mulgrew? Inside betting is on Leroy Barr. A former UFT president has been AFT president for 43 of the past 47 years.
This is a very disjointed piece based on old published and unpublished info I've been storing until the election was announced - which was in 2022. These articles are from pre-pandemic times mostly when the election was scheduled.
If she wants to be AFL-CIO president, she's going to have to break Trumka's kneecaps.... A source
For the record, Trunpka died of a heart attack, not knee capping, but check alibis.
Speculation has already begun. Will Randi run, as there have been indications in the past? Will Sara Nelson, a Bernie wing union leader also run? Does this set up another battle of progressives vs center/right Dems? And if Randi runs and wins who heads the AFT? Does Mulgrew follow the historic pattern since 1964 (other than 1966-74, 2006-10) where a UFT President runs the AFT? And if there is this chain reaction, who runs for president of the UFT in 2022?
Under the A.F.L.-C.I.O. constitution,
the federation’s current secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, will take
over as president until its executive council can meet to elect a
successor. The federation’s next presidential election was originally
scheduled to take place this year, but was delayed until next year because of the pandemic.
Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is a contender. If it's Randi vs Sara, that's the repeat of the Biden/Bernie or any of the internal Dem Party battles.
The Guardianreported
in July 2019 that Trumka intends to back current AFL-CIO
secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler. Many labor activists, however, hope that
the militant and charismatic president of the Association of Flight
Attendants (AFA), Sara Nelson, throws her hat in — meaning that for only
the second time in its history, the AFL-CIO might have a contested race
for its presidency... When voting for AFL-CIO president, however, each delegate will get to
cast a number of votes equal to the number of members they represent. So
an international with a million members will get a million votes, split
equally among the twenty delegates.
The Jacobin article, which doesn't address a Randi candidacy, has good historical analysis.
Here's a piece from Bloomberg Law May 2019 that does:
As the campaign wound down, Democratic heavy hitters flocked to the
district, as the race, rightly or wrongly, was cast a re-litigation of
their party’s 2016 presidential primary.... Brown ran better in most suburban communities, and held Turner to just a
narrow edge in Cleveland proper -- Brown was especially strong in
Beachwood, which has a high Jewish population.
Though it doesn’t account for much of the district, Turner narrowly
carried OH-11’s portion of Summit County.... Sabato's Crystal Ball
Thursday, August 5
I reported on the much talked about Nina Turner loss twice yesterday:
So yesterday I followed a lot to commentary on the outcome. The right center Dems on Morning Joe gloating and attacking the left, with Sharpton leading the way. Below I posted the NYT article and the Sabato report on the race. Speaking of which, did the black vote abandon Nina because she is too radical and anti-Biden with her comment about eating a bowl of shit when she voted for him? or how about the fact that she didn't support Hillary in 2016 and voted for Jill Stein (most likely, though she didn't say? These anti-Dem comments were used to great effect - plus the Israel thing.
Plus the open primary may have brought in Republicans:
Progressives (including Nina Turner) pushed hard for open primaries and this analysis finds strong evidence of a significant number of people who typically vote Republican choosing a Dem ballot to oppose Turner over Israel https://dansdeals.com/more/dans-comm
The district has lots of whites and Jews -- so Nina lost those badly, which means that counter to early reporting, she actually didn't do badly with the black vote. Her biggest problem was turnout -- low. And the fact that her black base was younger and they just don't vote as much as older.
Ryan Grim on The Hill had an interview with Brianha Joy Taylor -- worth finding it if you can -- I can't seem to.
Some of the best stuff was Sam Seder's analysis (my daily watch from noon to 2:30 which often kills my day) on Majority Report where he took some shots at the progressives who engage in rhetorical flourishes that come back to bite them when they have to gather support beyond their base to win an election. Sam points out that the purpose of running is to win and the purpose of winning is to make changes.
The Nina discussion starts around 1 hour and 12 minutes and goes on until 2:02 -- long but a lesson for the left from Sam, who is often attacked for not being left enough -- but I like reality based leftists.
Sam strikes back at the Ultra left dum dums who criticize Cori Bush for "performative" politics. Sam and Emma take them to task for their attacks on those who actually run in the Dem Party to win and not search for the mythical left cannon unicorn of the Labor-Green-People Party where they can get ten votes or just enough to let Republican right wingers win. Ahhh purity. Sam points out that if Cori Bush were some civilian instead of a formerly homeless Congresswoman, her sleep-in would have been laughed at.
Here is the NY Times article which features the despicable corp shill Hakeem Jeffries who I pray will be primaried and even if it's a losing battle I will be giving money to whomever.
In String of Wins, ‘Biden Democrats’ See a Reality Check for the Left
Progressives
are holding their own with moderates in fights over policy. But
off-year elections suggest they need a new strategy for critiquing
President Biden without seeming disloyal.
Nina Turner, the hard-punching Bernie Sanders ally who lost a special election
for Congress in Ohio this week, had unique political flaws from the
start. A far-left former state legislator, Ms. Turner declined to
endorse Hillary Clinton over Donald J. Trump in 2016. Last year, she
described voting for President Biden as a grossly unpalatable option.
There were obvious reasons Democratic voters might view her with distrust.
Yet
Ms. Turner’s unexpectedly wide defeat on Tuesday marked more than the
demise of a social-media flamethrower who had hurled one belittling
insult too many. Instead, it was an exclamation mark in a season of
electoral setbacks for the left and victories for traditional Democratic
Party leaders.
In the most important
elections of 2021, the center-left Democratic establishment has enjoyed
an unbroken string of triumphs, besting the party’s activist wing from
New York to New Orleans and from the Virginia coastline to the banks of
the Cuyahoga River in Ohio. It is a winning streak that has shown the
institutional Democratic Party to be more united than at any other point
since the end of the Obama administration — and bonded tightly with the
bulk of its electoral base.
These
more moderate Democrats have mobilized an increasingly confident
alliance of senior Black and Hispanic politicians, moderate older
voters, white centrists and labor unions, in many ways mirroring the
coalition Mr. Biden assembled in 2020.
In
Ohio, it was a coalition strong enough to fell Ms. Turner, who entered
the race to succeed Marcia Fudge, the federal housing secretary, in
Congress as a well-known, well-funded favorite
with a huge lead in the polls. She drew ferocious opposition from local
and national Democrats, including leaders of the Congressional Black
Caucus who campaigned for her opponent, Shontel Brown, and a pro-Israel
super PAC that ran advertisements reminding voters about Ms. Turner’s
hostility toward Mr. Biden.
Representative
Hakeem Jeffries of New York, a top member of House leadership, said in
an interview Wednesday that Democratic voters were clearly rejecting
candidates from the party’s most strident and ideological flank.
Where
some primary voters welcomed an angrier message during the Trump years,
Mr. Jeffries said, there is less appetite now for revolutionary
rhetoric casting the Democratic Party as a broken institution.
“The
extreme left is obsessed with talking trash about mainstream Democrats
on Twitter, when the majority of the electorate constitute mainstream
Democrats at the polls,” Mr. Jeffries said. “In the post-Trump era, the
anti-establishment line of attack is lame — when President Biden and
Democratic legislators are delivering millions of good-paying jobs, the
fastest-growing economy in 40 years and a massive child tax cut.”
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OH-11
Wins for Clinton and Trump?
In two special elections last night, Ohio voters in two congressional districts went to the polls to cast ballots in primaries. Though there were four primaries overall, the results in the the two most watched contests were, to some degree or another, unexpected.
In the Cleveland area’s OH-11, County Councilwoman Shontel Brown upset former state Sen. Nina Turner in the Democratic primary. Turner, who had superior name recognition, built a fundraising advantage and was seen as a clear, but not prohibitive, favorite for much of the campaign. Though Turner represented part of the area in the legislature from 2008 to 2014, she was most known for her work on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaigns. Brown, who was initially elected to the Cuyahoga Council in 2014, positioned herself as a mainstream Democrat.
As the campaign wound down, Democratic heavy hitters flocked to the district, as the race, rightly or wrongly, was cast a re-litigation of their party’s 2016 presidential primary. In the closing week, Sanders stumped for Turner while House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D, SC-6), a major figure in the Congressional Black Caucus, made a visit on Brown’s behalf -- Hillary Clinton endorsed Brown earlier on.
Despite Turner’s apparent advantages, Brown prevailed by a 50%-45% margin (there were almost a dozen minor candidates who split up the balance). While Turner’s association with Sanders undoubtedly seemed to help raise her profile, her association with the Vermont senator may ultimately not have been much of an asset in OH-11: in the 2016 primary, it was Clinton’s best district in the state, giving her a nearly 40-point advantage over Sanders.
Roughly 90% of OH-11’s votes come from Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County, where Brown did slightly better than her districtwide showing, but there were some interesting local patterns. Brown ran better in most suburban communities, and held Turner to just a narrow edge in Cleveland proper -- Brown was especially strong in Beachwood, which has a high Jewish population.
Though it doesn’t account for much of the district, Turner narrowly carried OH-11’s portion of Summit County. An interactive map from our friends at RRH Elections gives a detailed breakdown: Brown carried many of the white-majority areas while Turner ran better in the heavily Black precincts that make up Akron proper.
Given the working class nature of the Akron
area, perhaps Brown’s relative moderation played better with white
voters. A few months ago, a similar dynamic was at play in Louisiana’s
2nd District: in an April special election, now-Rep. Troy Carter (D,
LA-2), who was tagged with the “establishment” label, beat out state
Sen. Karen Carter Peterson in an intraparty runoff. Peterson’s posture
as an “unapologetic progressive” sold well in gentrifying white
neighborhoods in New Orleans, but Carter racked up healthy majorities in
the district’s white -- and non-white -- working class pockets.
Both the LA-2 result and the New York City
Democratic mayoral primary, where Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams
was seen as a moderate choice, represent, to some degree or
another, disappointments for progressives. Now, with a loss in Ohio,
progressives find themselves looking for a high profile win.
