UFT Election Committee Sets Election Dates, Drops Non-Profit AAA for Wall St. Holding Company, Queens HS Dist Rep blog - LOL

Did a desperate Unity leadership hire a fly by night Wall St Holding company to run the UFT election?

 

See The Wire for a more comprehensive look.

 

NEW DATA: Friday Nov. 29:

Does it surprise you that the UFT/Unity leadership, tied to the corporate/donor class controlled Democratic Party, a leadership that tried to shift us from non-profit Medicare to corporate controlled MedAdv, would go the same route for an inexperienced, in debt, for profit for this crucial UFT election? And the data of every UFT member will be in the hands of this company. 

Who do you trust to help Unity cheat? The longstanding, respected non-profit American Arbitration Association or a Wall Street holding company.... Comment 

What - me worry?

Unity blamed AAA for sending out the Unity retiree flyer instead of the Unity para flyer with the Para ballot. Fix Para Pay ended up with 75% of the vote. It couldn't be due to the poor para pay that they won. Unity blames the AAA for sending out the wrong flyer when the story is the Unity hierarchy made the mistake in giving the AAA the wrong flyer. This is a pretty flimsy excuse but we sat there and were helpless to oppose or knew what questions to ask. Someone should go to the next UFT Exec Bd meeting and raise questions.

 

UFT Election committee did not review the RFPs but were told by the Election Committee Chair that a selection had already been made. It will be rubber stamped at next UFT exec board meeting. This process might cause problems. GES was used by a DC 37 local to run a controversial rerun election … there was a complaint that they were not legally hired. The complaint was dismissed because the arbitrator said that the RFPs were brought to the election committee and exec board.

In our case, the RFPs were NOT brought to the election committee or the exec bd.

Thanks to Daniel Alicea for the in-depth research. See his tweet down below.

AAA OUT:

 

The other story is Unity opposes electronic voting because they don't want more people to vote -- you know, the 80% of in-service people who don't vote. They are viewed as a threat. In the past Unity could rely on the 40% return of retirees. Now what? I pointed this out at the meeting - since Unity can no longer rely on retiree votes their best chance in the election is to increase in-service. Did I detect a note of panic on some faces?

 

Happy Thanksgiving - November 28, 2024

 

I attended the UFT Election meeting Tuesday along with 6 other oppo reps and and double the gaggle of Unity reps, all on the clock 'till 6. They made sure the meeting ended by 5:30 despite my best attempts. I rate the snacks, other than the fruit cups, as low-grade. How about a sandwich?

 

We raised a number of issues at the meeting but first here is the skinny on the dates, all to be ratified at the next UFT Exec Bd meeting.

• Ballots mailed May 1, 2025, counted May 29.
• Petitions available at the Feb.12 DA and must be returned by Monday, March 17 - wait, isn't that St. Patrick's Day? I hope the returnees don't make a pit stop on the way in with petitions. They added a requirement that every candidate must sign their name to every petition their name is on.

Boy am I glad I won't be involved with petitions this year. In 2021 I devoted almost 2 months of my life to the petition campaign. My basement was covered with petitions folders. This year I'm doing jigsaw puzzles in the basement.

The BIG News: AAA out, GES in to manage election

The big news is that the UFT is dropping the AAA and using a new vendor, GES - Global Election Services. That should be a fun experiment. They used a mistake by AAA in not sending out election materials for a para candidate as the reason and inside baseball people said the error was due to a higher up in the Unity chain. A flimsy reason and a suspect replacement? Why am I not confident? Imagine the oppo wins and Unity calls for another election due to "irregularities"?

 

Does this change meet the sniff test? 

 

See below for some GES history, only 9 years old. AAA is tied to hundreds of certified arbitrators…GES has far from a similar record. 

 

Does it surprise you that the corporate tinged tied to donor class of the Dem party would shift to a Wall St controlled company?

 

The shift to GES slipped by us as we had no real information, not that we could have stopped it. If we came up with all this data below at the meeting, every Unity clone would have voted us down. 

 

Candidate debate, protections for those stuffing mail boxes

At the meeting John Lawhead repping Solidarity,  raised the idea of a candidate debate and referred to the debates Randi held in 1999 and 2001 elections, where she did not fare very well. Maybe why they canceled them.

 

Bobby Greenberg (RA rep) pushed for increased protection for those who stuff mailboxes, not only from principals but from chapter leaders. Stuffing boxes is another chore I won't be doing this time because I believe it does little good in getting out the vote - though I did get sucked into doing it last time. Bobby also wants the oppo reps to have the same access as LeRoy who double dips as UFT and Unity when he talked to AAA in past elections without us being there.

Christina Gavin (EONYC Rep), who filed a 70 page complaint last time, pushed on the idea of UFT officials using time on clock to engage in campaigning. 

I revisited the push I made 3 years ago for school data on turnout rates, pointing to the low turnout deserts and how the union would benefit from this info - last time Unity turned that down but did go for district results (UFT Election 2022 Results - Districts).

I pushed hard for an electronic voting option but naturally there are loads of roadblocks. This time they came up with the constitution wrinkle - some language in the constitution that says you have to use written ballots. Christina Gavin pointed out that written can also mean electronic.

Anyway, I pointed out the low vote totals for previous elections and handed out the ugly story on a chart. Like less than 20% of actives voted while 40% of retirees votes. After all the reasons we couldn't do electronic voting were pointed out I said I had raised this same reso 3 years ago and they promised to look into the issue but did nothing so we are back to ground zero.

 

I also pointed out that in previous elections the leadership could count on the retiree vote to carry them through, now with that vote in potential jeopardy, the leadership should want very much to increase in-service vote for their own protection. But don't expect any creative ideas to come from the moribund leadership. They looked like turtles turned on their backs. 

The best they could come up with was Queens District Rep James Vasquez with a reso to form a task force to "study" the issue. He also placed blame on the oppo people over the past 3 years for not bringing up the issue during that time. Duhhhh, James -- we know you guys never want electronic voting and you will forget all about your task force.

But Vasquez did not lose the opportunity to put out a dumb blog post attacking the opposition and blaming them for his own party's failures. That attack can be termed, "I'm scared shit we will lose and I will have to go back to the classroom and teach a full load instead of my one or two periods a day - and lose my second pension." 

Arthur will address the story on Friday and I will chip in a separate post in case Arthur misses something.

But here are a few comments on the Vasquez post from the RA listserve:

Ill-informed. The NLRB doesn’t even oversee UFT.

Hohohohohohoho! This is too rich for words!

Among the gems: 

"Back in 2021, members of the MORE, ICE, New Action, Solidarity and Retiree Advocate caucuses proposed and voted for a motion for the Election Committee to add the word "electronic" to the election notice....These caucuses decided to take no action on this issue whatsoever over the past three years. This pattern of inaction has become all too familiar. These groups prioritize their political gain over the well-being" of UFT members

The caucuses were supposed to take action?  I thought resolutions passed at the Delegate Assembly were instructions for the UFT leadership to take action! If this comment on their part were not so stupid, it would be pathetic. Ok, so it's both.  What actually galls me is that Unity in their broadside below is trying to get out from under the pressure that is building currently and historically underway to move to a more modern and more easily accessible voting system being proposed by opposition groups.

They acknowledge that it was already proposed in 2021 and they didn't do a thing about it. Now they are suddenly waking up, in light of their defeat in the Retiree election, and realizing that they need to actually do something about demands they thought previously they could discount and ignore. And they blame the very groups that brought this matter up for their inaction!

 So after 3 years of inertia , they now insist that decisions about the feasibility of such a system are still years away. What happened to the 3 years they decided to waste? 

And Unity still has the chutzpah to declare, essentially, "Well, let's not be hasty!"Retired Sheila

James Vasquez calls us irresponsible for asking for electronic voting. He certainly didn't  say that to our faces at the Election meeting.

 

Background on GES

John S. Matthews
Chairman of GES from its inception in 2015, where he has supervised the development of elections software and hardware applications covering registration, tabulation and reporting.

He has a history: Global Arena Capital Corporation Owner Token Suspension for Private Securities Transactions

 

John S.
Matthews is currently the Chairman, CEO, CFO & Controller at Global Arena Holding, Inc. since 2016. He is also the Chairman at Global Election Services, Inc. since 2015, the Director at GAHI Acquisition Corp. since 2015, and the Director at Tidewater Energy Group, Inc. since 2019. In the past, Mr. Matthews served as the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Weatherly Securities Corp. from 1996 to 2000. He was also the Chief Executive Officer & Director at China Stationery & Office Supply, Inc. from 2010 to 2011, the Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Global Arena Capital Corp. from 2007 to 2014, the Chairman at JSM Capital Holding Corp. in 2003, the Chairman at Ehrenkranz King Nussbaum from 2001 to 2003, and the President at Clark Dodge & Co., Inc. in 2006.

 

Parent company is partially owned by Bacardi:

 

What’s the biggest election GES has handled … even if mail-in ballots?

 

Lots of chatter in this forum about him being a scammer:

 

From SEC filing about the parent company:

The Company has generated recurring losses from operations and cash flow deficits from its operations since inception and has had to continually borrow to continue operating. In addition, certain of the Company’s debt is in default as of December 31, 2022. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The continued operations of the Company are dependent upon its ability to raise additional capital, obtain additional financing and/or acquire or develop a business that generates sufficient positive cash flows from operations. The Company continues to raise funds from the issuance of additional convertible promissory note. Management is hopeful that with their ability to raise additional funds that the Company should be able to continue as a going concern.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1138724/000175612523000686/R7.htm

A holding company:

 

 

 

Do you trust your data with this guy:

 

 

 

Read through to the end for Daniel's tweets for more.

EONYC Tweet on GES:

Educators of NYC

@educatorsofnyc

Emerging Election Scandal —  

 

This past Tuesday @UFTUnity used its outsized power on the @UFT election committee to say that they were changing vendors for the monitoring and election balloting of the UFT’s 2025 citywide election.  This came as a surprise to many union insiders as for years non-profit arbitration stalwart @ADRorg AAA has monitored their elections as they for most of the major NYC unions. 

 

They announced that a 9 year old Wall Street holding company, General Election Services, Inc would now be in charge of the mail in balloting process for the UFT’s  nearly 200k members. There was talk that @UFTUnity was upset with AAA for allegedly messing up the para chapter election when a Unity caucus retiree flyer was sent out with the mail-in ballots, instead of their Unity para flyer. 

 

Fix Para Pay, the opponent caucus’ flyer was mailed out and we all know that FPP trounced Unity garnering 75% of the vote. They announced that a 9 year old Wall Street holding company, General Election Services, Inc would now be in charge of the mail in balloting process for the UFT’s  nearly 200k members. 

 

There was talk at the Tuesday election committee meeting that @UFTUnity was upset with AAA for allegedly messing up the para chapter election when a Unity caucus retiree flyer was sent out with the mail-in ballots, instead of their Unity para flyer. 

 

Fix Para Pay, the opponent caucus’ flyer was mailed out and we all know that FPP trounced Unity garnering 75% of the vote. It’s unclear if the snafu was AAA’s or a mistake by the Unity caucus leader and UFT secretary, LeRoy Barr

 

So who is General Election Services and their chairman, John S. Matthews? … take a look at their shady website, first.  Then their parent company’s, Global Arena Holding Inc, SEC history. Deep dive incoming---

General Election Services has limited experience in running mostly paper ballot elections for organizations, owned by Global Arena Holding, Inc. It claims 40 years “combined experience” in elections, the truth it’s been around since 2015...  

The GES chairman is John S Matthews, who has a controlling interest in several other companies, including its parent company, Global Arena Holding Inc. GES and Global Arena board of shareholders includes Barcadi owner, Facundo Bacardi and former NBA player, Kiki VanDeWeghe. Matthews has been fined and suspended from in the past for his past business dealings: “John S. Matthews of New York, New York, the former owner of Global Arena Capital Corporation, was fined $25,000 and suspended for six months from association with any Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) member after consenting to findings that he engaged in unauthorized private securities transactions.” And the 2022 SEC filing for the parent company and related holdings sounds an alarm about the viability of this entire enterprise: The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, which contemplates the continuation of the Company as a going concern. The Company has generated recurring losses from operations and cash flow deficits from its operations since inception and has had to continually borrow to continue operating. In addition, certain of the Company’s debt is in default as of December 31, 2022. These factors raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The continued operations of the Company are dependent upon its ability to raise additional capital, obtain additional financing and/or acquire or develop a business that generates sufficient positive cash flows from operations. The Company continues to raise funds from the issuance of additional convertible promissory note. Management is hopeful that with their ability to raise additional funds that the Company should be able to continue as a going concern.”

GES’ claim to fame is handling the logistics 2020 North Dakota democratic primary election in which on 14k North Dakotans voted. It’s unclear if GES has ever handled a union election for over 200k members with its hundreds of candidates, like the

@UFT

Who should UFT members trust more to handle a fair and honest election…? 1. AAA — The not-for-profit American Arbitration Association® (AAA®)-International Centre for Dispute Resolution® (ICDR®) who is the largest private global provider of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services in the world. Whose arbitrators and reputation are legal experts. 2. A fly by night Wall Street holding company that is in default for debt?

@UFTUnity

wants us to trust them to entrust GES and Global Arena. Bizarre.

 

ICE Zoomed, ICE Talked, ICE Talked and Kept Talking and Talking and Talking

Something old, something new, something blue (The Passing of Giants: ICE founders And RA Organizers Ellen Fox and Lisa North.)

 

ICE meetings keep going until no one has anything left to say.

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

ICE met on a Sunday night zoom by notifying the members of the ICE listserve. I'm extremely proud of the 21 years of ICE and the quality people it has attracted. The meeting reflected that.

As always, the company at an ICE meeting is comforting. We had old hands from the first days and some new people. The discussion was open and at times invigorating. There was disagreement - intelligent disagreement and everyone had a say, as often as they needed. 

 

We began by reminiscing about Ellen Fox and Lisa North, two ICE founders. Lisa was low key and so was Ellen - on the surface. But she often came up with with some dingers, which I won't repeat to save some people from being embarrassed.

 
Then we went around the zoom asking people to say a few words - we heard many UFT activism origin stories. I was proud that Ed Notes and myself were mentioned so often as the "connector." That segment took over a half hour and not everyone wanted to speak. We used to start in person ICE meetings with a go-around where we all got a perspective and snapshot of the current situation in schools.

 

UFT Elections

The main topic was the UFT elections and people were updated on the latest developments.

What about the turnout in the 2022 UFT election where less than 20% of in-service people voted? Holy crap, the Don't Give a Crap Caucus makes up 80% of the in service electorate? Untapped by the 7 caucuses and groups running under United For Change in 2022? 

 

Do we think a severely reduced UFC could do better this time? There was general skepticism that doing the same old, same old would make much difference. Of course the retiree vote (40% voted in 2022) is a wild card.

 

The outcome of the discussion was that an attempt will be made to write a statement for the ICE blog expressing the sentiments at the meeting. 

 

 

Congestion Pricing

We ended with an interesting deep dive on congestion pricing based on Jeff Kaufman's post on the ICE blog: Out of Touch and Out of Time: Why Mulgrew’s Fight Against Congestion Pricing Fails Teachers and the Working Class.

 

Jeff, a serious bike rider was surprised at the push back but also made a cogent defense. As usual despite disagreement, with everyone getting a chance to make their case, the meeting ended after 2 hours. We must do it again soon. Join the ICE listserve if you are interested.

The Passing of Giants: ICE founders And RA Organizers Ellen Fox and Lisa North

I heard from Ellen Fox's daughter this morning that Ellen passed away on Friday, just two weeks after learning about the passing of Lisa North from Alzeimers. Lisa and Ellen were both core members of the Retiree Advocate organizing committee and joined along with me and Gloria Brandman around 2016. Lisa, who was the RA chapter leader candidate in the 2018 chapter election, hadn't been able to participate over the past few years, but she was a key player, especially as an expert educator with Bank St training, a stalwart in the anti-testing movement and. popular with everyone.

Ellen was an active RA member until about 6 weeks ago when we began to lose touch and she said it was due to phone and computer problems. Notorious for going to be in the middle of the night, she used me as her alarm clock to wake her up for our 10AM meetings. Over the past week my phone calls would not go through so Sheila from RA who lives nearby went to the apartment on Tuesday to check and a neighbor said she was in the hospital.

Both Ellen and Lisa had been in New Action from its earliest days in the mid-90s along with the late James Eterno and his wife Camille but left when the leadership made a deal with Randi to support Unity in the 2004 elections and became part of the founding ICE meeting in late October 2003. Think of it: James, Lisa and Ellen lost over the past year.

Ellen has left a giant oppo footprint in the UFT. A member of Teachers Action Caucus from its early days and through their merger with New Directions in 1995 to form New Action, Ellen was elected to the UFT Exec Bd as a HS rep on the NA slate in 1995, 97, 99. She was chapter leader at the massive George Washington HS campus in Washington Hts until transferring to Gregorio Luperon where she was also CL until she retired. 

 

As a founder of ICE her knowledge and experience helped guide the new caucus through the move of ICE into MORE in 2011. Ellen and I handled the petition campaigns for MORE in 2013 and 2016 and she was relentless in hunting down every piece of information we'd need for each candidate. And when we filled in the petition headings her handwriting was impeccable.

 

She left MORE along with the rest of us and joined the RA Organizers when we began Zoom meetings during the pandemic.

Her analysis of UFT politics was deep and insightful. She earned the love and respect even from the people running the union, with LeRoy Barr being a big admirer.

Her daughter said there would be no burial but a memorial sometime in January.

As for Lisa, I hear there may be a memorial in December but have no information yet.

RTC Nov. Meeting Update: Unity tries to hide they are FOR Co-pays as Marianne leaves a comment

I was preparing for court to protect our healthcare that some of the unions including the Uft was trying to call back and privatize, like all those that support project 2025, [force us] into Medicare advantage as the default plan...They brought up a new point, as well. They insisted if we did not pay these copays, they would be passed on to in service members. That’s an interesting approach. I’d argue, though, that these co-pays were imposed only to make Unity’s Medicare Advantage scheme appear more attractive. ... Marianne Pizzitola, comment on Ed notes. 

Wow, we heard some of the same arguments from the Unity gang trying to sabotage our co-pay reso. Marianne's long reach into the co-pay debate at the RTC. Her comment proves the point - Unity favors co-pays but tried to disguise it with bogus arguments, similar to what the UFT was claiming in court, so they must have been briefed.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

 

I sure did have my fun yesterday, one of my more energetic days. The RTC Exec Bd meets at 11:30 on the 19th floor to do final prep for the 1PM RTC meeting. And there's some food. I had a nice turkey sandwich and there was some extra food at the end, so I took an egg salad for dinner. You see? There are some perks to getting elected. By the way, all RTC exec bd meetings are open to all RTC members. And there were chips and cookies. Oh, and also a meeting. Of course, Arthur who was remote, has the skinny: 

Our Second Democratic RTC Meeting

I went downstairs to hand out the latest ABC leaflet.

 

There was a long line down the block, as they don't open the doors until 12:30. Here's a wrinkle you might not know. When Unity controlled the RTC, there were people checking people in. Now we have to do it ourselves and our volunteers are learning the system. One nasty women who I tried to explain this to said, "So things will get better with you people?" Clearly a Unity hack.

I went upstairs and put some leaflets on the table. A woman told me they were being removed. I ran over and objected but they were gone. He said something about union rules. One of the first things we decided was to have an open table for caucus materials - any caucus. So I said RTC rules say we have the right.

 

I told the union guy I was going to make a stink about it. He called LeRoy, who called me over to discuss the issue and claimed union rules don't allow caucus materials. I pointed out that I raised the issue with Randi 25 years ago and she gave us a table for caucus materials which LeRoy canceled. He said these are different times. I said he was making up rules out of thin air and this isn't the end of it.
 

I checked with Bennett and he said UFT lawyer Rude Beth Norton told him we couldn't have caucus materials. WTF - these people are unbelievable. I decided not to raise it at this meeting.

 

(Later another retiree told me she rescued my leaflets from the goons and I had a batch to give out as people were leaving - and one lady looked at it and is interested in signing up with ABC. I was also yelled at for handing it out by a caucus member who feels no one other than the caucuses have a right to run in the election.)

 

Bennett was great at the meeting in handling a tough situation - super patient, as he should be. When people ask me who I would want for UFT president I say someone like Bennett. Some of my buddies were impatient at why he was being so tolerant - he's giving people enough rope was my reply. I love the interplay of the parliamentary game and saw clearly what Unity was doing - trying to delay the co-pay. They used the argument that we should do this another time to make it stronger. Well, they could have amended it, but clearly had nothing to add when the real purpose was to support the UFT leadership which is for co-pays. So the best they could do was try to delay. 

 

Here is part of Arthur's report on the co-pays.

...the original version of which I actually wrote, was to oppose co-pays on Medicare/ Senor Care. Unity was more polite this month than last, but worked hard to disrupt this. They brought up points that, to me, seemed irrelevant. They said it did not jibe with a City Council bill that insists we retain the same quality coverage we had in 2021.

They brought up a new point, as well. They insisted if we did not pay these copays, they would be passed on to in service members. That’s an interesting approach. I’d argue, though, that these co-pays were imposed only to make Unity’s Medicare Advantage scheme appear more attractive. There was, if I recall correctly, an $1800 ceiling on co-pays in the MA plan, and none for Medicare with Senior Care. Of course, before that Medicare/ Senior Care had NO co-pays. To sell the scheme, which they did not, that had to change.

During the debate a friend and delegate from Florida was texting me that Marianne was working to change the law that the Unity people were raising. Mike Broucom, also from the Marianne wing, went to the mic and pointed out how the Unity arguments were irrelevant -- I would say red herrings.

 

Speaking of Marianne, yesterday was a court date in Albany, but last night she was catching up with the ageist issue over memes mocking RA retirees, and she left this comment and link to her video response and she also offers some update on what happened in court:

Sorry I was late to the conversation (on Aqeel Williams)! I was preparing for court to protect our healthcare that some of the unions including the Uft was trying to call back and privatize, like all those that support project 2025, [force us] into Medicare advantage as the default plan.

And this time, I tried to convince the court they only had to pay $7.50 for any Medicare eligible.

So basically, the unity leadership led the fight against the aged.

One of the Uft lawyers, Alan Klinger admitted in a video a year ago that intro 1099 does not impair collective bargaining, what it did do was reduce what the city would pay for an active worker if it was paying for Retirees. That video is here. https://youtu.be/RWyav-cvbrE?si=nWaUFvx3RmiTQrMV

My statement on Mr. Williams is here:

https://youtu.be/JUjeXY5qiZ4?si=b9oVKe-ansTI5JfZ
 

UFT/Unity Caucus Trumpian World: At Executive Board, Nancy Aromando asked, “what can be done when UFT members are lying about other UFT members, including employees?”

....and LeRoy was like, “I’m going to assume that you’re talking about some posts that are going around, and even though you didn’t say his name, I’m going to let Aqeel Williams speak”

Then he gave a speech about how he’s a caretaker for old people (his mom, mother-in-law, gramma) and he’s a good guy and he’s not ageist.

Then all the UFT staff clapped.

Your Lyin' eyes.
 

Jeff Kaufman at the ICE Blog:

• Ageism Is Anti-Union: Why Aqeel Williams’s Mocking of UFT Retiree Delegates Should Alarm Us All

• And Arthur:  https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/unity-district-rep-use-ageist-stereotypes
  

• UFT District 9 Unity Caucus Rep (and Future Geezer) Aqeel Williams Mocks UFT Retiree Delegates with memes during DA - And He was On the Clock

UFT Elections Update: A Better Contract - A UFT Movement Powered by All of Us

We’re excited to announce that we’re launching *ABC - A Better Contract*, an election slate of independent-thinking members committed to improving quality of life for all UFT members, their families, and our students. 

 

 

 

 

 

UFT ELECTIONS

Are you UFT?  Get your friends in the know!    A grass roots movement of UFT members are getting ready to run a slate for 2025 UFT Citywide elections committed to better pay! Healthcare! Pension/Retiree Benefits!  Sign up today here!  They are also on "X" formerly known as Twitter. ... Marianne Pizitola,

 Monday, November 18, 2024

Well, the announcement just as the Delegate Assembly was starting, certainly caught me and everyone else by surprise. Shock and Awe for some.

It's not like I haven't been meeting with this group, but I'm part of an outer ring where I chip in with advice, which is mostly ignored. 

I was not in favor of the ABC name - I wanted Make Union Great Again - MUGA. 

I told you they don't listen to me. Thank goodness.

I felt some kind of announcement should have taken place two months ago since this group of independents and some caucus people have been meeting since early August. When I saw the announcement, at first I wasn't sure it was the right moment. But when I saw Marianne Pizzitola shared the news with her network, it dawned on me that this was a BOLD move I haven't seen from the oppo in at least a decade. Maybe 2 or 3 decades.

The attempt to appeal outside the usual circle of caucus politics and reach potential independents who often eschew both Unity and the oppo groups, is a bold move and it has some of the usual suspects upset. But we get to that another time.

I don't like stealth and thing meetings for elections taking place behind closed doors is not healthy for a democratic campaign. There are other groups that are meeting behind closed doors and I see this as a healthy move intended to get people beyond the usual oppo suspects involved. Already I see some new faces and others have been in contact with me through my network that seem interested.

What makes this group different is that there are some Unity and ex-Unity involved as you can see below with Paul Egan, Chad Hamilton and Steve Swieciki. Seventeen year teacher Katie Anskat is new to UFT politics, but in very short order has assumed a major and quite impressive role. The goal has been to attract people like her and this announcement, unlike oppo in past elections which met behind closed door, decided on a platform, candidates and campaign and sprang it all on the rest of the union, the other goal is to get more people involved in the entire process to get some new thinking. A draft platform based on the survey results will probably be offered soon for comment. As to candidates, there are none yet, so come on board. 

Other differences, ABC is not about being a caucus over the long term but a group running for the 2025 UFT election and then will disband. So no caucus building but only election building.

I will have a lot more to say in coming posts. But tomorrow I'm busy with the second RTC meeting of the year, which I helped plan and the rest of the week is chemo. So follow-ups may be delayed. Oh, and btw, I saw Rent at the Rockaway Theatre Company twice this weekend and am going back next Sunday. Not many tickets left:

November 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 29, 30 @ 8PM
November 17, 24, 30 Dec 1 @ 2 PM

Here is the ABC announcement:

A Better Contract - A UFT Movement Powered by All of Us

A grassroots movement of UFT members to run new slate for the 2025 UFT citywide elections committed to better pay, healthcare, pension/retiree benefits and working conditions.

UFT Members

Nov 13, 2024

Good afternoon.

We’re part of the group that published the Our Union Our Voice survey in August and more recently the petitions opposing mandated scripted programs disguised as curriculum and strongly supporting electronic voting in our union elections. 

Last month, we also organized and facilitated the first-ever Member Assembly meeting for UFT members, with our next meeting planned for December.

The response has been overwhelming — nearly 1,200 members surveyed, over 1,600 petitions signatures collected, and 150+ in attendance for the first Member Assembly — *and we have heard you*. 

Based on your feedback, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching *ABC - A Better Contract*, an election slate of independent-thinking members committed to improving quality of life for all UFT members, their families, and our students. 

Our slate will broadly focus on four core commitments:

• Making better pay that you deserve a top priority and protecting and improving healthcare and pension/retirement benefits

• Demonstrably improving working conditions and regaining and protecting freedom to make decisions as a professional

• Building a stronger, more responsive union that is member-driven

• Supporting and defending public education from any and all attempts at privatization and reduced funding

We’ll be posting our full platform and much more in the days ahead.

In the meantime, we’re putting out the call for any and all UFT members — both in-service and retirees — who want to make transformative change happen in the DOE and UFT. 

Please take a moment to check out our landing page to see how you can get involved:

http://uftmembers.org

Stay updated at:

http://abettercontract.org

And follow us at: 

• facebook.com/abettercontract

• instagram.com/abettercontract

• x.com/abettercontract

In solidarity,

Katie Anskat, Queens Metropolitan HS Delegate
katieharten@gmail.com

Paul Egan, PS/MS 194 Chapter Leader
Egan10980@gmail.com

Chad Hamilton P.S. K231 Chapter Leader
chadhamilton231@gmail.com

Steve Swieciki, Lehman High School Chapter Leader
uft.swieciki@gmail.com

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We are a member-driven, grassroots movement of UFT members organizing and mobilizing to build union power, and to increase member awareness and member voice. We are organizing for a better contract for all UFT members and school communities.

 

UFT District 9 Unity Caucus Rep (and Future Geezer) Aqeel Williams Mocks UFT Retiree Delegates with memes during DA - And He was On the Clock

During the meeting, BX D9 DR Aqeel Williams sent his CL group chat memes that mocked retiree delegates for being old while they were speaking.... A Unity Caucus snitch

Not only is he a fellow union member, but he’s an employee & should hold himself to a better standard of behavior than he is demonstrating...

wow - jokes and politics and caucus aside - that’s real messed up- we never made fun of tom murphy or George Altomare like that / ever - these are fellow unions  members and veteran educators - i really don’t like that....

Jeff Kaufman at the ICE Blog makes a strong statement:

Ageism Is Anti-Union: Why Aqeel Williams’s Mocking of UFT Retiree Delegates Should Alarm Us All

And Arthur:  https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/unity-district-rep-use-ageist-stereotypes

 

Thursday, November 14, 2024

I was going to write about yesterday's DA and other breaking news today, but first I had to get this out of the way. Unity people are nervous about losing power and  not happy because RA retirees have been a major factor in the two DAs so far, so Williams in his boredom is getting his jollies. Is this how he views the D9 members he represents who are approaching retirement age?

 

I doubt Aqeel Williams mocked the Unity retiree delegates we replaced. Would he have dared mock George Altomare?

He was on the clock being paid by our union dues as a UFT district representative. (Check time stamp.)

 

Delegate Assembly Today - UFT Members Handout, plus a few words from me (for a change)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 

I will be at the DA handing out the leaflet below and the Retiree Advocate leaflet. But I want to get upstairs first and get an aisle seat - in case I have to pee. One thing we've done is divide the 300 delegates into groups with volunteers taking a portion of the group. I have about 17 people in my group. I get in touch with them to make sure they get the registration emails and for some there have been some snags. Some are suspicious but I trust Yasmin Colon, who has been incredibly responsive, as has been LeRoy Barr when issues come up. Let's not get all Trumpian with conspiracy theories. Unity does do shit, like identifying Tom Murphy as RTC CL in the new calendar, but let's focus on the big stuff.

Like how long will Mulgrew talk today? Put your money down for the Ed Notes pool. I say 48 minutes. Take the over/under. 

 

Expect loads of paid staff to be there and for some of them to reserve entire rows of seats. I'm tossing their shit on the floor.

 

What tricks will they use to chew up the new motion period?

Here's a fun one. Apparently LeRoy Barr has taken away the table the oppo had for 25 years (that I procured from Randi). And also ordered that any motions we want to distribute not be allowed on the lit table unless we send it to him in advance. Wanda, who polices the table disallowed our motions last month. Today Wanda may face someone who will sit on the table and refuse to move until the police are called. Phone videos may be available. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here is a piece of lit from UFT Members with resos that LeRoy will Barr from distribution on the lit table because it has a group name on it.  I call this the Barr make up a rule as you go dictum.

I work with this group, a loose conglomeration of people who are focused on reaching out to the membership beyond the usual suspects. This had caused some consternation from those same usual suspects, but I won't go any further because a hell of a lot of people don't want me to report what is really going on, one reason Ed Notes has not been publishing as often -- social censorship from all sides of the oppo world. Wanna know one reason given for not talking about UFT elections? Unity will find out! Horrors. Too many oppo people spend too much time thinking about Unity reactions. Better spend energy on organizing people outside the usual suspects because an election won't be won with the current crop of US. 

And by the way -- how about a little more transparency instead of closed door meetings and decisions? Just sayin'.

(If you don't hear from me in a few days, you know why.)

 

 

 

 

Dear UFT Members,

Thank you for participating in the launch of our grassroots movement! To date, 1,200 of us have completed our member survey, over 1,000 of us signed our petition to expand UFT member voting, and 150 of us joined our first Member Assembly held at the end of last month. What a start!

Here are some next steps for November:

1. Share the Petition for UFT Member Voting

Please share with at least 1-2 UFT Members you know. In less than a week, our petition to expand member voting to electronic and/or in-person voting for our UFT citywide elections has collected over 1,000+ signatures! 

If each of us share this petition with just 1 or 2 (or more!) UFT members, we know (both in-service and retirees), then we will double or triple the number of signatures. Please share the petition far and wide, or simply ask 1 or 2 UFT members to sign. Each and every signature goes a long way toward making change happen!

Sign UFT VOTES! petition

2.  Share the Petition to End Mayor Adams' Scripted Curriculum Mandates

Educators and school communities must have an active voice in creating, choosing, adopting & implementing curricula that best serves our students - not politicians, bureaucrats or corporations.  Yet, we are forced to teach using Mayor Adams' latest reading and math scripted curriculum mandates that treat classrooms like assembly lines.

UFT members are dealing with a lot of unnecessary and frustrating managerial oversight. We're being pushed by school admins and superintendents to use certain scripted curricula that just don't cut it. 

There's not enough support, and many don't seem to get the wide-ranging needs of students in the biggest, most diverse school system around --- or they also feel pressured to implement.

Sign our new petition calling on the Mayor and Chancellor to halt these scripted curricula until educators, school communities and families can have authentic input.  Bring back teacher voice and autonomy.  End this micro-management, now.

Sign the TEACHER VOICE, NOW petition

3. Sign up to join  one or more (or all!) of our Campaign Working Groups

We said from the beginning that we will do this work together, and we mean it! We’re going to begin with the following working groups to start building out our UFT Election campaign.  Sign up, now. We will connect with you to see where you best fit:

1. Get Out the Vote: - think of ways to increase awareness in and the desire to vote in this year's election;
2. Organizing/Member Mobilization: - develop and implement plans to increase participation in the movement;
3. Media: - help with the movement website, outreach, literature to be disseminated;
4. Divisional work groups: - join with others in the same divisions (i.e. elementary, middle school, high school) to think about what needs to be done to improve working conditions in your division and engage others in the movement;
5. D75: - work on messages and mobilization that address the uniqueness of D75;
6. Paraprofessionals: - focused on mobilizing paraprofessionals;
7. Retirees: - focused on mobilizing retired educators

The working groups listed above will meet remotely via Zoom. Please fill out the survey linked below to indicate what working group(s) you’re interested in joining. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work! 

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGN WORKING GROUPS

Lastly, download, print and share our November flyer and share at your school.

Thanks for reading, we’re looking forward to meeting with you very soon.

In solidarity,

Your fellow UFT members 

Our Voice, Our Union
join.uftmembers.org

UFT Members

info@uftmembers.org