It's disgraceful that Donald Trump got 46% of the popular vote and is poised to take 57% of the Electoral College, thus becoming President of the United States. There are all sorts of rationales advanced for this system, but the only one that makes any sense is that it's designed to thwart the will of the people. In a national election, there's absolutely no justification for a vote from Wyoming carrying more weight than one from New York.

UFT members may or may not know that my friend James Eterno got more votes from working high school teachers than his opponent. Taking that into consideration, why shouldn't he be UFT Academic High School Vice-President?

The answer is simple. Someone like James would be inconvenient for leadership. For one thing, he has consistently refused to sign a loyalty oath, and is therefore not qualified, in their view, to lead. It's kind of ironic that leadership sees the sworn inability to speak one's mind as indispensable for leadership. Me, I'd think in these troubled times that out-of-the-box thinking would be an absolute prerequisite for survival. Of course I haven't signed the oath either, so my thoughts are nothing but an inconvenience to those at the top.

In fact, in the 1980s, shortly after I started teaching, Michael Shulman of New Action had the temerity to go and get himself elected UFT Academic High School Vice-President. This was unacceptable to Unity, which insisted on doing over the election, only to have him win by an even higher margin. This was even more unacceptable.

So when UFT Unity once again controlled everything, it changed the rules and made all Vice-Presidents at large. Than means that everyone gets to vote on every VP. It doesn't matter if you teach elementary, if you are a paraprofessional, a retiree, or a nurse. You get to help select the High School Academic Vice-President. That's your reward for consistently voting the right way, and the punishment for high school teachers for being so uppity and daring to challenge the status quo.

This directly parallels the undemocratic United States Electoral College system. In fact, it also parallels the Voting Rights Act, which was rendered pretty much moot in 2013. That's discriminatory, and it's a national disgrace. Effectively removing the right of high school teachers to select their own leader is also discriminatory, and it's a local disgrace. High school teachers have no voice in leadership.

Pretty soon we'll be a "right-to-work" country, and UFT leadership will have to ask members to pay dues. How are they going to explain to high school teachers that taxation without representation is the way to go? That's a tough mountain to climb. Are they going to tell us that our choice for Vice-President is invalid because only they know what's good for us? Are they going to treat us like 4-year-olds and expect us to say, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

I'll tell you something about James Eterno. He knows the contract up and down, back and forth, and can recall instantly regulations I've never heard of. He's been an enormous resource to me and many others. He was the chapter leader of Jamaica High School, and Jamaica teachers far and wide have nothing but respect for him. They contact him immediately from wherever they are ATRs with questions.

Yet UFT members at large have little access to him because leadership prefers to hire people like this one. Not only is James shut out from his rightful place as Vice-President, but he can't even help members on the phone as a UFT employee. I don't know about you, but I call the borough office to talk to staffers only as a matter of last resort. I know who I trust, and not being Blanche DuBois,  I'm not willing to rely on the kindness of strangers. Extraordinary competence, alas, takes a back seat to the loyalty oath, and leadership scratches its head and wonders why we're in the state we are.

These are extraordinary times and leadership cannot break out of the weak, flawed thinking that endorsed junk science because it was the easy way. Leadership can't break out of the bind that endorsed charter fan Hillary Clinton and failed to criticize the hurtful policies of John King and Arne Duncan. Leadership can't see that its criticisms of Betsy DeVos apply largely to both King and Duncan.

Leadership continues to walk all over high school teachers with impunity, and they wonder why three out of four teachers don't find it worth their time to vote in union elections. Organizing effectively will soon be a fundamental aspect of our survival as a union. The "sit down and shut up" philosophy of UFT Unity will not enable our union to even survive.

by special guest blogger Unity Eunice

I'd like to thank NYC Educator for allowing me to point out the other side to the worthless and vile propaganda you usually read in this filthy and unreliable blog. Mike Mulgrew, hallowed be His Name, never reads the blogs and never talks about them, except to mention that they are "myth." Now that's real class. Instead of calling them BS and crap, which he really wants to, he calls them myth. But that's not all we've accomplished under Mike Mulgrew, hallowed be His Name.

First of all, 30% of the teachers observed by UFT validators were not thrown under the bus. Anyone who tells you they were is a propagator of myth, and we all know what dirty bastards propagators of myth are. Those 30% of teachers have won the right to a 3020a in which the DOE will have to prove they are incompetent. So remember that when those lying bastard bloggers say any more than 70% of teachers facing job loss will have to prove they are not incompetent. Let's not be hijacked by some opposition Gloomy Gus.

Now let's look at the weather. Under UFT Unity's leadership, it's been over three years since we've had a catastrophic disaster. Can MORE or New Action make a claim like that? Of course they can't. They're not in charge, they've never been in charge, and if we have anything to say about it, they'll have nothing to say about it. Do you want Hurricane Sandy to come back and visit every year? Every month? Every week? How can you know that wouldn't have happened if you had left them in charge? Besides, they are all commies anyway.

I'm so sick and tired of hearing about how senior teachers become ATRs, how they're wandering all over the city teaching subjects they don't know and how they have no hope of ever being hired under Fair Student Funding, which we supported. Well, what do you want? Do you think we should have supported the alternative, Unfair Student Funding? That's what the opposition types must want. Plus they are always calling us names, those unwashed smelly bastards.

Think about what you did the last time you were in your school. You walked down a flight of stairs, didn't you? And did anybody push you? Admit it, how many times did you walk down the stairs and not get pushed? A lot, right? And does opposition ever say, "Thank you." to us when they aren't pushed? Of course not. And they are always calling us names, those ungrateful bastards.

Didn't we get a new contract with a raise? And what does opposition harp on? That they have to wait eleven years for the money and that ATRs have second tier due process? Do they ever stop to think that they don't have to wait 12 years for the money and that ATRs haven't got third tier due process? And they call us names, the filthy scumwads.

And why are they always harping on the undisclosed health givebacks, the ones an arbitrator can assign if Mulgrew doesn't meet the savings he promised for the new contract, the one that doesn't exist because the health givebacks are up in the air? Don't they know that Mulgrew could have given back health care altogether and let them sell their homes to pay hospital bills? And he didn't. Yet they call us names, those dirty pieces of crap. 

So decide, UFT, are you going to focus on the things that you've lost, or the things you haven't lost yet? Remember, this is the best of all possible worlds, we are the best of all union caucuses, and Mike Mulgrew, hallowed be His Name, is the best of all union leaders. And for all you know, I'd be saying the same thing if I hadn't signed a loyalty oath and gotten a cool union gig writing stuff like this.

So make sure you don't vote for MORE/ New Action in the upcoming union election, because the most important thing for us to not lose is my after school gig and ability to go on free trips you pay for.

 New Action has come to its senses and decided to align itself with tried and true activists in the MORE caucus. Opposition is finally coming together.

This is a time for change. It's a time for renewal. New Action Caucus, far less credible for the unholy alliance they forged with Randi Weingarten's Unity, has finally dumped said alliance in favor of being once again a truly independent opposition. Without the quid pro quo deal to support Mulgrew for a few seats, there is no longer any reason to oppose them.

So I'm happy to announce here, whether or not you've seen it elsewhere, that the opposition caucuses will present a common front against Unity this spring. I've known this was coming for a few months and had been sworn to secrecy.

The UFT election is rigged. 52% of the voters have no stake in who negotiates UFT contracts. Most unions don't allow retirees to vote on who negotiates for working members. But leadership loves to have a big old office in Florida where no opposition candidate can go, and get them all to vote for whatever it is they get down there.

Mulgrew is a shoo-in, and anyone who tells you differently is delusional. But there are still a few spots that are chosen by the people who they ostensibly represent. Years ago leadership decided high school teachers, having selected a New Action candidate, were too irresponsible to select their own VP. Now, the high school VP is now chosen by the elementary teachers, the retirees, UFT members who don't work in schools, and everyone. That, frankly, is an outrage. But leadership forgot to take the Executive Board seats away from us, and from the junior high schools, and history suggests MORE-New Action will win, at the very least, the high school seats. They are far from a majority, but they are a start.

A few months before the election there will likely be UFT ads saying how the world would be better if people were nicer, or some other such profound reflection. The one that sticks with me was, one election year, a teacher saying, "It's just not fair." I don't recollect exactly what was not fair that year, perhaps that we were underpaid or without a contract, but that's not what resonates with the public. Often, I don't even accept fairness arguments from my students. This particular commercial seemed aimed at UFT voters.

I've been teaching over 30 years, since 1984, Unity's always run things, and I can tell you that things have not improved for us since then. I have never seen so many people discouraged, I have never seen so many young teachers fleeing from my school in particular, and I have never seen morale so abysmally low. I see people with big hearts running for the hills, and even more of them contemplating which hill they can run to when they get half a chance. People ask me if they can take another job and hold onto this one in case it doesn't work out.

There is grotesque incompetence in administrators, and if you can't see it firsthand take a gander at Sue Edelman in the NY Post. Boy wonder supervisors are now empowered to fire people based on whatever, dispensing poor ratings based on a rubric clearly beyond their highly limited interest, let alone comprehension. If they see things that didn't happen, or didn't see things that did happen, too bad for you, and having it on video won't make a difference. So don't let them tape it, unless you want them to have evidence to use against you.

The time of going along to get along, whatever that even means, is gone. The time for a seat at the table for the sake of sitting there is over. So is the time for saying, "Everything sucks but it's not leadership's fault." I'm sorry, but if we're going to be accountable, so are they.

 Job one is making it through the door being indebted to leadership for nothing. No endorsement of Michael Mulgrew. No meeting with Randi Weingarten and forming a caucus the following week.

We will win, we will represent rank and file rather than leadership, and we will make leadership hear us, whether they like it or not. Make no mistake, this is our year.

I went to the DA last week. When you enter, you are greeted with flyers from UFT Unity, New Action and MORE. Sometimes I read them. Sometimes I do not. Last week I had other business and tossed them out as I exited. But someone sent me a scan of the Unity flyer last week. It portrays all those who dare question Punchy Mike Mulgrew as contrary imbeciles shouting, "The sky is falling."

It speaks of the contract Mulgrew negotiated but somehow forgets to mention that UFT members don't actually get the money until over a decade after most city workers did. It neglects to mention the second-tier due process it negotiated for ATR teachers, or the fact that several of them have lost their careers for the offense of not reporting to interviews of which they may or may not have even been aware. It neglects to mention the fear and loathing that pervades our ranks since Punchy Mike negotiated the current APPR. Forget about the impending draconian version for which he thanked Andrew Cuomo's Heavy Hearts Club Band.

The pamphlet harps on the fact that Unity opponents have never been in control. This is interesting, by way of non-comparison. In fact, Unity, in this very handout, is striving to make sure they never gain control. It's ironic to hear them complain of their very success. But this is the sort of rhetoric you get from the visionaries who failed to recognize Cuomo as an opponent until a full five years after he announced he was going after union.

One reason opponents have never been in contol is that Unity has taken many steps to ensure its iron-clad monopoly. It keeps the faithful that way with loyalty oaths it exchanges for free trips to conventions and patronage gigs. And while I know some very smart people who work for the union, I've also encountered people who clearly aren't smart at all, just along for the ride on the gravy train. As a high school teacher, it's insulting that we alone are not trusted to elect our Vice President. As a chapter leader, it's insulting that we aren't allowed to elect our District Rep.

It's a fact that more retirees than active members voted in the last election. It's a fact that Unity maintains a UFT office in Florida from which non-teachers like Michael Mulgrew can campaign, and from which working teachers who might oppose him cannot. And while Unity accuses its opponents of cynicism, it's a further fact that fewer than 20% of working members found it worth their time to vote in the last election. If there is cynicism, it's certainly engendered by UFT Unity policies.

Here's a fact--it's no fun opposing the Unity juggernaut. It's no fun being excluded from every single decision made by the union. I am an activist, and I would love nothing more than working with leadership to make things better for members. Unlike Punchy Mike Mulgrew, I'm in school every day, I see kids every day, and I hear the voices of working teachers every day. That's what motivates me. Unlike a whole lot of Unity faithful, I am not motivated by free trips or patronage jobs.

That's why I cannot support charter schools, mayoral control, junk science teacher ratings, two-tier due process, erosion of seniority privileges, collusion with Bill Gates, contracts clearly inferior to those of our brother or sister unionists, or dumping the worst pattern ever on those same brothers and sisters. I want what's better for working people, not what's convenient for me or Punchy Mike.

UFT Unity assumes its readers to either have signed the oath, drunk the Kool Aid, or more likely, to be utterly ignorant of every demonstrable fact on this blog. If that isn't cynical, I don't know what is. It's disappointing that this is the best argument they can muster--reheated nonsense rendered even more baseless with every concession they embrace.

To judge from this piece of paper, you'd think working conditions were minor technicalities. Talk to someone who lost his job for not showing for an interview. Talk to someone facing job loss via Mulgrew's APPR. Talk to someone whose rating got dragged into the gutter by junk science VAM. Talk to an ATR teacher who got discontinued for no reason whatsoever.

I can only suppose the person who wrote this pamphlet talks to none of these people. I talk to all of them, someone has to represent them, and this pamphlet makes clear it is not UFT Unity. 

There's an interesting dynamic in UFT. The primary dynamic is Unity Caucus has all the power, completely shuts out all opposition voices, and does whatever it damn pleases. It apologizes to no one. It praises itself for every position it takes, and when it changes said positions, completely ignores its previous positions, dumping them down the ever-open memory hole.

I know this well because I transferred to my current school via the UFT Transfer Plan. I had a boss who wanted to make me teach all Spanish because her current Spanish teacher threw a lot of kids out of class. I never threw kids out of class. So for her convenience, she wanted to make a change that really would not have served the students well. I am certified to teach Spanish, but my English is much stronger and more precise.

The UFT Transfer Plan was a great victory, I thought, and it helped me tremendously. But when leadership replaced it with another plan, including the disastrous and counter-productive ATR, they called that a great victory too. They rationalize it by saying there are more transfers now and ignoring the ATR completely. 

Anyway, New Action is now embracing democracy, and rejecting the winner take all mode that shuts out the activists who speak their minds rather than that of Big Brother, Randi Weingarten, or whoever the hell it is that makes the calamitous decisions that have led us to the lowest point in teacher morale I've ever seen. They've taken the same position this blog has taken for years--that high schools ought to select the high school VPs, that NYSUT and AFT reps ought to represent everyone, not just those who sign oaths to vote as told, and that chapter leaders ought to select the District Reps who will support them.

They're absolutely right, of course. What's sorely missing from their piece, though, is representation on the UFT Executive Board. New Action has a deal to be cross-endorsed by Unity, resulting in their having seats on this board. Their first deal entailed Unity not running against them, but ICE was able to take the seats earmarked for them by leadership. (Unity corrected the inconvenience of having ICE on the board by cross-endorsing New Action.) Also missing is an explanation of why they support UFT Presidential candidates who absolutely oppose everything their column supports.

I can only suppose the answer is they want democracy except where it interferes with their keeping seats on the Exec. Board. Unfortunately democracy is not something we grant when it serves us, and deny when it doesn't.

I would be happy to work toward democracy with New Action. The very best thing New Action could do would be to ally with MORE and work toward democracy across the board. Our union has been unsuccessful in mobilizing membership, fighting apathy and cynicism, and that's why the overwhelming majority of members don't find it worth their while to even vote in union elections.

It's time for leadership to stop building brick walls around opposition voices. I will help with that, if they choose. And if New Action wants to genuinely work toward that, I'll help with that too.

You hear a lot of talk about that word nowadays. The man on the left didn't much care for it. And some right-wing commentators will say we shouldn't elect Barack Obama because he'll practice it. But all Mr. Obama has suggested was that he'd talk with our problematic neighbors. Personally, I don't see how that could hurt anyone.

Appeasement is when you give things to the enemy. Like a good portion of Czechoslovakia.

Closer to home, UFT President Randi Weingarten gave up the right of working teachers to grieve letters in their files. She gave up the UFT transfer plan, which enabled teachers like me to escape crazy supervisors. She gave up the right of teachers in closing schools to work in open ones. She gave up three days a year, and thirty minutes a day. She gave up professional assignments and sentenced working teachers to lunchrooms, halls and potty patrols in perpetuity. She gave up five classes a day and now has UFT teachers doing a sixth class.

One of the responses I got when I commented on Edwize about the awful 2005 contract was on the lines of, "What will the tabloids say if we reject this contract?" Well, we didn't. And we now know what the tabloids say now that we've accepted it. Naturally, they praised it when it was signed. But about five minutes later they began vilifying us as though it had never happened, and they continue vilifying us on a fairly regular basis.

Have Ms. Weingarten and her minions learned anything from this? To their credit, they're hanging tough on the ATR issue for now. Will they continue to do so during the next round of contract negotiations? I certainly hope so. It's the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, doing the right thing does not always precisely suit the needs of the UFT patronage mill, which needs to go to conventions, collect second pensions, and re-invent itself with new Borg-like drones every now and then. Would that it were otherwise. Until it is, I'm afraid I'll have to put my trust elsewhere.

On Wednesday night, if you stayed up later than I did, you could have seen UFT President Randi Weingarten on Charlie Rose. I TIVOed it, though. Ms. Weingarten grabbed my interest immediately by referring to her mom, who was a teacher. Ms. Weingarten, referred fondly to her experience as a teacher, but explained that education was not her first choice:

“I went into law first, because we watched how my mother worked, and we thought that teachers worked all the time.”

Interestingly, Ms. Weingarten's approach to the volume of work teachers did was to add to it, and add to it considerably. Under Ms. Weingarten's leadership, teachers now work 30 minutes more a day, and three more days a year. High school teachers generally teach six classes per day instead of five, and all teachers now have perpetual hall or potty duty. I suppose Ms. Weingarten felt working all the time was simply insufficient.

Ms. Weingarten likes to say that city teachers are now paid on par with their suburban counterparts. Regrettably, that isn't true at all. However, Ms. Weingarten has succeeded in bringing us the longest school year in the area. Remember that, because when you bring up the fact that we have not actually achieved salary parity, UFT bigshots like to claim that suburban teachers work an extra 10 minutes a day. If you actually consider we work five extra days, that argument weakens considerably.

The show also featured an interesting quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

"We’ve instituted merit pay, we’ve gotten rid of a lot of the seniority rules, the teachers are teaching longer... "

Ms. Weingarten's response:

“It’s not merit pay.”

It's certainly nice to hear that merit pay is not merit pay. This statement dovetails nicely with the UFT's assertion that the sixth class is not actually a class.

If I had a magic wand I would try to instill a sense that schools have to be able to be a big tent where we listen to what parents need and what teachers need to do a good job.

Ms. Weingaten praises inclusion. It's odd, then, that Ms. Weingarten and her monopoly party do everything within their power to stifle and crush any and all voices of dissent within the union itself. They restructure voting so that high school teachers, who once dared to choose a non-Unity VP, can never make their own choice again. They make sure Ms. Weingarten hand-picks district reps so those nasty chapter leaders won't choose anyone not to her liking. They buy out opposition parties with patronage gigs if they'll only agree to endorse Ms. Weingarten for re-election. In true Joseph McCarthy style, they call their opponents reds.

In any case, Ms. Weingarten needs no magic wand. As the head of the largest local in NYSUT, which is the largest state union in the AFT, she's pretty much guaranteed her long-awaited promotion to President of the AFT. And Ms. Weingarten need not quit her UFT presidency, as it's only a part-time job anyway.

Kind of like what Ms. Weingarten's teaching job was.

The rest of you teachers, get off that computer and go find a hall to patrol!

(Extra credit to anyone who names the TV stars pictured above)

Not wasting a minute, they're on the case. After printing pages and pages of propaganda on Edwize about why it was better for working teachers to have fewer transfer privileges, and why it was best that principals alone decide where teachers can work, after giving away everything but the kitchen sink for less than cost of living, the UFT leadership has come to the defense of an ailing Brooklyn teacher who needs to work closer to home on Staten Island.

Though the teacher, David Irons, requested a medical transfer, the best the good ol' DoE would do was offer him a permanent substitute position. Mr. Irons' misfortunes would certainly not have occurred if Randi Weingarten and her minions had not been so willing to trust in the good graces of Tweed and its Leadership Academy principal corps.

It's pathetic that an experienced working teacher needs a crippling disease to qualify for a transfer. If Ms. Weingarten had half the foresight and vision of the folks on the other side of the bargaining table, we'd never have left this poor teacher in this miserable situation. We'd never have left teachers whose schools had closed as ATRs either.

The patronage employees at Edwize regularly congratulate themselves on the program that's enabled easy transfers for low-paid new teachers. While that may be a good thing, they regularly ignore the plight of ATRs dumped into this pool through no fault of their own. The UFT aristocracy is responsible for all this, and for the very real problems of Mr. Irons as well.

Ms. Weingarten can make a principled argument that Mr. Irons deserves placement, but he wouldn't be in this predicament if it were not for her monumental indifference to the needs of working teachers. Rod Paige's admiration notwithstanding, Ms. Weingarten is plainly incompetent, frets only over the maintenance of her 40-million per annum patronage mill, and merits impeachment, not promotion.

Woke up. Watched a little tube. Ate light breakfast, whistled for chauffeur.

Met Joel at usual place. Waiter hosed him down, threw him a steak. Once again, forgot raincoat, rainhat, got wet. Must visit hairstylist in PM. Note to self---leave rain gear in SUV. Knew I'd get no chance to eat, was good idea to have breakfast at home.

Second steak, less tearing and groaning, less flying saliva, but threw bone at chandelier. Strong throwing arm. Expensive repair for taxpayers. No one turned head, everyone pretended not to notice, then Joel finally spoke.

"Teacher BAD! FIRE teacher!"

Putrid breath, as per usual. I hate when he gets like that. How many teachers should we fire? How to make deal w/o pertinent info?

Yuk. Drool everywhere. Will probably come off pantsuit with Woolite. Better idea--Note to self: call Mike Shulman--get New Action boys to dry clean pantsuit.

Made big mistake, replied too loudly, "FIRE?"

Waiter, misunderstanding, brought butane torch. Joel even more upset. Screaming wildly. Flailing limbs in every direction.

"Fire BAD! Joel NO LIKE! Fire BAD!! AYEEEEE!"

Jumped from chair. Bared teeth, growled, viciously attacked waiter. Ran away screaming. Jumped out front picture window with loud crash. Was awful. Expensive repair for taxpayers. Blood all over new pantsuit, total loss, put on expense account. Hope fire didn't spread too far when torch hit floor. Snuck quietly out back door and whistled for chauffeur.

Will have to meet again , try to pin down number of teachers to fire. Note to self--mount token opposition? March? Can always make deal to cancel at last minute. Note to self: wear sunglasses when meeting Joel--best not to be noticed around rampant destruction of property.

Can't wait to get out of here and go to DC.

In Leo Casey's most recent column on Edwize, he decries the politics of personal attack. I found that ironic, and posted this response:

When the LA Times suggested teachers were throwing tenure out the window to join Green Dot, I reported it. Mr. Casey then suggested I was making up facts to suit my daily rant, or some such thing.

It's always illuminating to hear Mr. Casey's denunciations of personal attacks. However, Mr. Casey has no qualms about publicly libeling real working teachers when it suits his convenience.

What a disgrace that 80,000 working teachers must subsidize such blatant hypocrisy.

Minutes later, the reliable UFT censors deleted my comment. Apparently, personal attacks are fine if you're part of the UFT aristocracy. Responding to them, however, is strictly forbidden. In fact, Edwize is supposedly non-political, so you may not even mention caucuses, particularly the Unity Caucus and its monopolistic antics. Nonetheless, Edwize has no problem mentioning ICE, the opposition caucus. in an article entitled "A Grave Injustice to the UFT Tradition of Union Democracy."

Speaking of union democracy, here's an apt quote from Life After the Rubber Room:

When I was chapter chair the representative from the Manhattan High Schools was not part of the ruling Unity party. This apparently bothered the UFT leadership so much that they changed the way people vote. They used an old trick used by segregationists in the 60's. If you were afraid that a minority group would elect representatives you switched to an at-large system. If you had 10 house representatives and 20% of your population was black you changed the way voting was done to have the representatives elected at large. This almost assured that all of the representatives were white.

In our case, of course, they ensured that all the representatives were from Unity. It was designed to shut out New Action. New Action used to be a viable opposition party, but now endorses Ms. Weingarten in exchange for patronage gigs and double pensions for its leaders. Ms. Weingarten now calls them the "responsible opposition," and greatly respects them for not actually opposing her. Now they throw a few seats to New Action, and work to shut out ICE, the opposition party that actually opposes the patronage mill.

As a teacher and a parent, I find the notion of saying one thing and doing another repugnant. Unfortunately, when you don't have the truth on your side, there are few viable alternatives. Perhaps the UFT's peculiar notion of democracy is a contributing factor when over 75% of teachers don't even bother voting in the union election.

Unity-New Action types are all aglow with a resolution they've made in the executive board proposing that ATR teachers be placed before new teachers are hired. However, without specific contractual amendments, it's just as meaningless as their declaration about solving the class size problem.

Monopolistic, amoral, self-serving Unity-New Action can make all the resolutions it likes. Perhaps it's learned from Mayor Bloomberg that image can yield more political capital than substance. The fact is, however, that its patronage machine enabled the ATR problem by approving it, and recently worsened it by supporting Klein's Mach III re-org. They took an enormous step backward with this, and the result was entirely predictable.

Were it not for the extreme apathy of most city teachers (over 75% of whom didn't even bother to vote in union elections), and the patronage mill that enables the Unity-New Action machine to suck up our dues money (not to mention permitting them blatantly unethical major television campaigns before every election), informed voices would be crying out for the impeachment of Randi Weingarten, along with her entire Unity-New Action gang of double-pensioned sycophants.

The 2005 contract was an abomination of unprecedented givebacks for a compensation increase that failed even to meet cost of living. It was relentlessly promoted by union leadership with threats and lies worthy of Karl Rove. On Edwize, they even changed the names of Unity faithful to give us the impression they were voices "from the trenches." Ms. Weingarten's "progressive" leadership earns us ATR status and the admiration of blatant anti-unionists like Rod Paige. There is no question we could have done better.

We could hardly have done worse.

The most egregious and short-sighted giveback of the 05 contract was that of seniority transfers. While there is a school of thought that downsizing is part of industry, and should therefore be part of education as well, there's another that says you don't exchange very valuable benefits for compensation increases that don't even meet cost of living. I'm not an expert negotiator, but it stands to reason if they want to remove very valuable benefits, they ought to pay to do so.

Well, here's the UFT's City Sue on precisely that:

Specifically, Klein complains about the contractual right of teachers who have been "excessed" to another position in their license area in the district. He wants to eliminate that right and force these excessed teachers, whose positions have disappeared through no fault of their own, to pound the streets and find their own jobs or be laid off.

Tell 'em, Sue! Why on earth should teachers pound the streets and find their own jobs if their schools disappeared though no fault of their own? You wouldn't stand for that! I'm glad you're in our corner, fighting for us. Otherwise, the DoE could arbitrarily close schools and screw the entire union.

That, of course, was before the 05 contract. Afterward, she sang a very different tune:

In fact, there’ll be more transfer opportunities. The only thing is, like in the real world, you’ll have to sell yourself. See a vacancy? Just apply! All vacancies will be declared, not just half. No limits on how many jobs you can apply for. No release needed from your principal. No limits on how many teachers can transfer out of a single school. No discrimination in hiring allowed, not even for union activities — or age, race, etc. No involuntary transfers. It’s a free market, for those who dare! And for excessed teachers, there’s always a job for you back home (in your school or district) if you can’t find anything else.

Now, you can pound the streets and find your own job after all, or become an ATR. Of course, it beats unemployment (assuming the accompanying insecurity and frustration doesn't actually drive you to give up). Still, it's hard to see how it beats having your own classes and your own job. And now, even some from Unity are complaining about the plight of the ATR teachers the party's lack of foresight has created.

But on the official union blog, they say problems with the "open market" plan are an urban myth, and virulently refuse to answer any questions on, or even acknowledge, the situation of ATR teachers. Since there are more transfers, it's better. Period. There will be no discussion of ATR teachers, and don't look at that man behind the curtain.

Our leaders change their opinions at the drop of Ms. Weingarten's chauffeur's hat. They've signed a loyalty oath to Unity, the monopoly party that's dominated the UFT for half-a-century. Their opinions are issued by the leadership, and they alter them as the leadership demands. In the 60s, they tossed people out for the sin of opposing the Vietnam War.

And their priority is neither your welfare nor that of the kids you serve. They've tossed your hard-won rights into the trash for less than cost of living, and their principled stands evaporate as their leaders drool over national offices.

It costs us 40 million dollars a year to grease the Unity patronage mill, fully half the dues we pay them, and they aren't going to tell the truth if it means giving that up. On Edwize, you're not even allowed to mention Unity. You're not supposed to know its name, its loyalty oath, or how much you're compelled to pay to support it.

How much of it does Unity get back in caucus dues? They don't have to tell us, but patronage is never exactly free. When I was a kid, my father sold construction supplies to Nassau County. He whispered that everyone working for the county had to kick back 1% of their salaries to the local GOP. Ten years later I read about it in Newsday, and it was a scandal.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the tabloids to expose the Unity Caucus. Unlike political parties, they're allowed to charge dues. They're like the old USSR Communist Party--you need an invitation to get in, and absolute loyalty is required. They feed the state, the state feeds them, and they look out for one another.

No one who's cast a critical eye on the terms of the 05 contract could say they look out for working teachers.

ATR teachers are wearing targets on their backs, custom made by Klein-Weingarten designing team.

Part One here

Thanks to Schoolgal

That's why professional teacher-basher Rod Paige loves Ms. Weingarten, and that's why you're walking hall patrol. That's why she supports the latest reorganization, which forces principals to consider salaries before removing teachers from the ranks of ATRs.

And Ms. Weingarten is very busy, courting Green Dot Charter Schools. You remember Green Dot--they're the "unionized" schools that boast of rejecting tenure and seniority.

Today might be a good day to ask your boss for a favor. After all, your AP just got a substantial compensation increase. On top of that, if Uncle Joel thinks they do a swell job, they can pocket a cool 25K above and beyond.

However, they might be a little cranky about that extra 15 minutes a day they agreed to put in. Also, they gave up the practice of bumping themselves into schools, much like the UFT did.

Under the proposed contract, the city will have to help find a position for any assistant principal left without an assignment, and offer a severance package or the opportunity to return to teaching to any assistant principal not offered a post. In addition to the general wage increases, every union member who is active in the school system as of June 27 this year will receive a lump sum payment of $4,000 in August.

Beats the hell out of 750 bucks. More importantly, they haven't given up nearly what UFT President Randi Weingarten presented to Mayor Bloomberg on a silver platter back in 2005. There's no hall patrol for APs. Nor have they agreed to 90 day unpaid suspensions based on unsubstantiated allegations. I see nothing about reforming grievance procedures to the city's advantage, or teaching extra classes.

Here's what my pal reality-based educator says:

I would assume this is a preview of our next crappy contract, minus the bonuses and lump sum payment. Basically 3.2% a year (not even a COLA) and more minutes (if APs are working 8 hours and 15 minutes, teachers can't remain at the 6 hour and 50 minute day, can they?)

A good leader would point out that these terms reflect the last rounds of negotiation, not the coming one. Unfortunately, our leader indulges in givebacks even when contracts are not being negotiated. Ms. Weingarten just agreed to Klein's funding plan, which, despite some cosmetic changes, plainly rewards principals for hiring lower-paid teachers.

I'm told that the New Action folks, before selling their souls for part-time union jobs, used to say, "Randi Weingarten never met a giveback she didn't like."

If emails I'm receiving this morning are correct, Unity, as expected, won the election, and though ICE-TJC outpolled fake opposition party New Action, Unity's cross-endorsement has given it the high school seats, the only ones, frankly, that were ever in play. Preliminary figures in high schools:

Unity 2183
ICE-TJC 1524
New Action 521

This means Ms. Weingarten will no longer have any opposition whatsoever on the executive board, having rid herself of the only six people who opposed letting PERB design the 05 contract. It also suggests the overwhelming majority of high school teachers, like all teachers, didn't even bother to vote.

That may have something to do with the AAA snafu, but not that much, so shame on us all.

It also suggests, however, we are well within striking distance. And as for the other branches, a well-informed electorate is no friend of the Unity machine. Preliminary figures indicate Ms. Weingarten may have received only 12,000 votes total from working teachers (of 70,000), including 1500 from New Action, many of whom were undoubtedly unaware they were voting for Ms. Weingarten.

Meanwhile, New Action's leaders can claim victory, quash the voice of the real opposition in the Executive Board (which is precisely why Ms. Weingarten keeps them around), keep their patronage jobs and pretend they aren't beholden to the Unity Caucus. They can make believe they were elected rather than rubber-stamped by the Unity patronage mill. They can pretend they want change.

They can pretend not to have supported the 05 contract, even though its leaders were part of the committee that unanimously endorsed it, and even though they played no part whatsoever in the very lively discussions all over the net.

Whatever they say, Unity-New Action has brought us:

1. permanent hall patrol
2. punishment days in August
3. the end of guaranteed placement
4. the end of the UFT transfer plan
   
5. 90 day suspensions based on unsubstantiated allegations
6. mayoral control
7. the end of high school teachers selecting their own VP
8. a phony, diversionary "opposition" party dedicated to fooling rank-and-file
9. over 30 years of no progress whatsoever in reducing the class size of 34
   

And I know, I've said this before and I'll say it again, but they did this (and more) for less than cost of living. I was there when we took two years of zero-percent, two years in a row, for the end of hall patrol. It was bad business, and lazy negotiation from a tired, entrenched, cynical and outdated leadership.

These figures are very rough, and very tentative. But if ICE-TJC turns out to have gotten only one vote, it was mine.

We will continue to tell the truth about the rampant corruption that swirls around the spineless, disingenuous and self-serving UFT leadership. We will explore new ways to get our message out, and we will be in the faces of those who've repeatedly sold us out every step of the way.

We have time on our side, and we have the truth on our side. Apathy, Unity's best friend, is not ours. We must reach out to the overwhelming majority of rank and file who did not find it worth their while to vote.

And we will do precisely that, beginning now.

Thanks to Norm

Several days ago, I ran a post which did not much please Jeff Zahler, assistant to UFT President Randi Weingarten and head of the Unity Caucus.

Mr. Zahler characterized allegations made in that post as "fiction" and stated categorically that "the union would not tolerate" this sort of thing.

It's been an interesting few days, though. First of all, I've now heard the story about Tom Pappas' son-in-law being involved in a UFT real-estate purchase from two other sources. If Mr. Zahler is concerned about this story, he's in a perfect position to get to the truth about it. I certainly hope he follows up.

I've been told that the story of the UFT dumping computers and furniture onto the street was covered by the New York Post, and that it was an embarrassing moment indeed for the union.

Anyone can see that the UFT has a new logo, and it's certainly within Mr. Zahler's purview to find out how much it cost. I mean, if the UFT President's assistant can't get his hands on that figure, who can? Please share it with us, Mr. Zahler.

Is New Action really independent? Well, it's hard not to notice that their love for UFT President Randi Weingarten materialized at precisely the moment their leadership all got patronage jobs. I just finished watching Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. He spoke of a guy who worked for the government, and got a gig with Exxon-Mobil the day after he retired. He offered a quote from Hampton Sinclair--"It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on his not understanding it."

New Action claims to have opposed the 05 contract, but they publicly embrace the person who brought it to us, and their primary leaders were part of the committee that unanimously endorsed it. I believe I voted for them last time, before the 05 contract, when I didn't know any better. I absolutely believe many, many of my colleagues still don't.

The poster who used my real name on this blog was one "Harold Spinner." Mr. Spinner appears to be the alter-ego of "redhog," who's paid to write for the union paper when he's not on the net. Redhog wrote "I have never used the Harold Spinner name. You did not match IP numbers." If you click on the pictures here, they'll become clearer, and you can check the IP numbers for yourselves.

Does the UFT demand truthfulness in those who write for us? It certainly doesn't appear so.

It's one thing to pay people for their services. It's another to have a veritable army of people (like every single member of Unity) who have signed loyalty oaths to a political caucus rather than rank and file. There's a distinct difference between "paid" and "bought and paid for."

We need real teacher voices, and real voices of opposition to maintain the health of our union. I'm told the voices that warned Randi Weingarten not to go to PERB in 05 were those of ICE. Every day, as I patrol the halls, I wish she'd paid them more heed.

The only genuine alternative voices I hear are those of ICE and TJC. If you're tired of being snookered by patronage employees who care about nothing but their second pensions, let the union know with your vote.

"Let's get started, please. You all know me. I'm Mike Shulman, dammit, and I was the UFT Academic Vice President."

"We know, Mike."

"We changed everything. We were responsible for the defeat of the infamous zero-zero contract, and we..."

"We know Mike. And a few months later we accepted another zero-zero contract, and..."

"You can't talk to me like that! I'm Mike Shulman, dammit! Why, I oughta..."

"What's that?"

"She's coming! Quick, everyone on your feet!"

"MIKE! Where the hell are you?"

"I'm right here, Ms. Weingarten."

"Well, your boys are not doing a good job. Don't they even know how to wash a car? My chauffeur can't see himself in the SUV wheels. What the hell is that all about?"

"I'll get right on it, Ms. Weingarten."

"And what about my dry cleaning? It took your boy over 80 minutes to get it back to me. That's a 60 minute dry cleaner, and with travel time, I should have it back in 68 minutes, tops."

"It won't happen again, Ms. Weingarten."

"See that it doesn't. I won't be asking you again, and next time, you and your entire gang will find yourselves working at Dunkin Donuts, where there's no second pension for anyone. Got it?"

"Yes, Ms. Weingarten."

"Good."

"Okay, you can sit down again."

"Didn't I tell you guys you were getting sloppy? How are we gonna bring reforms to this union with your careless attitudes? I can't put up with that. I'm Mike Shulman, dammit, and I used to be Vice President! Did I ever tell you guys how we defeated the zero-zero contract?"

...and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I wasn't always so critical of UFT President Randi Weingarten. In fact, I saw her speak at my school, was very impressed with her, and voted for her as a result. I was optimistic about Edwize when it first appeared. In fact, I used to write for NY Teacher every now and then (before I opposed the contract).

But when the 05 contract rolled back every gain I'd seen since I began teaching, I knew we needed new leadership. When I found out that Ms. Weingarten had bought off New Action (the ex-opposition party) and its leadership with patronage jobs, I knew the UFT's lookout was not rank and file.

I just received an email from a very inside UFT source, claiming the following abuses were documented by the accounting department:

1. The lease and purchase of 50 and 52 Broadway were through a company represented by Thomas Pappas' (ex-UFT Director of Staff) son in law (not what you would call an arms length transaction).

2. When we moved downtown all furniture and equipment (computers, printers, desks etc.) no matter how new and usable, were thrown out on the street as garbage.

3. Randi has a car and driver all paid for by the union. This is used meetings as well as for commutation and personal.

4. Her teacher staff regularly cheats on their expenses (lunches, dinners, false receipts for car service etc.).

5. The PM staff paid per session puts in for sessions not worked.

6. More than a quarter of a million dollars spent unnecessarily on a new logo so she can revamp the UFT into the United Federation of Randi Weingarten.

7. Kick backs from the Hilton Hotel to one individual so that events would be held there.

Actually, dissent enables democracy. But it's routinely ridiculed by our union's management. Instead of entertaining voices from the opposition, it presents an "opposition" party that fails to oppose. While New Action claims to have opposed the 05 contract, its leaders were on the committee that "negotiated" it, which voted unanimously for its approval. I was very active in the 05 contract fight, and I can tell you that New Action was absolutely nowhere to be found (unless you looked in UFT headquarters, where they hold meetings).

In an all-out effort to purge the union of the only existing opposition voices, New Action is running a slate for the high school executive board that's cross-endorsed by Unity. They think we're too ignorant to notice.

We'll soon find out whether they're correct.

It doesn't appear UFT President Randi Weingarten is up to the task of debating her opponent, Kit Wainer. In the long UFT tradition of refusing to acknowledge The Help, Ms. Weingarten banned ICE-TJC rep Norm Scott from the one place she was appearing with her opponent. Not only were the results not videotaped, but the one person who could've easily accomplished the task was banned from the premises.

Ms. Weingarten's supporters have very clever labels for their opponents from ICE. They say it stands for "I Complain Everytime." Do you get it? What they did, see, is they took the initials "I," "C," and "E," and then they started a sentence with those initials. You get it? Not only that, but they took TJC, and said, "They Just Complain." Get it?

They're extremely clever over there at 55 Broadway. It certainly wasn't easy to move us 20 years backwards and then explain why it was a good thing.

Complaining, apparently, is a bad thing. Did Randi Weingarten complain when she sent 80,000 teachers to walk hall patrol? Did she complain when teachers were given six classes? Did she complain when teachers lost the right to grieve letters in their files? Did she complain when we lost the UFT transfer plan? Did she complain about unpaid suspensions based on unsubstantiated allegations? Did she complain when they halved our prep time?

Of course not. So why won't Ms. Weingarten defend her record to "complainer" Kit Wainer? She could certainly make a strong case that she complains less than he does.

During the 05 contract discussion, Unity folks asked me, "What would the Daily News and the NY Post say if we rejected this contract?" It's painfully obvious what they would have said--the very same things they say now. Ms. Weingarten's efforts to appear statesmanlike by selling us up the river were for naught. They still call her (gasp!) an old-time union boss.

Would that it were true. Personally, I don't give a damn she isn't a teacher. I don't care if she's paid many times my salary. I'd happily pay her double if she'd represent our interests.

The Daily News got one thing right--that's her job.

I don't think she's got what it takes.

Prove me wrong, Ms. Weingarten. Start by debating Kit. You owe us, at the very least, the opportunity to see you debate your opponent.