It's never too early for the UFT to get ready for the next battle with Bloomberg and the corporate education reform establishment.
Bloomberg failed to get LIFO changed and therefore didn't REALLY want to do layoffs this year, as he would have had to lay off lots of newbie teachers instead of more expensive vets and the ATR's.
But you can bet in his last full year in office before the 2013 election, he will try extra hard to get that LIFO rule changed and lay off ATR's and vets as well and set things up so that the next mayor can lay off as many teachers as he wants every year without the union being able to protect them.
You can bet that he is manufacturing the budget crisis already.
You can bet the editorial writers at the tabloids - the Times, Murdoch Street Journal, Post and News - are dipping their pens in poison ink to get ready to write the anti-teacher/anti-seniority editorials.
You can bet that Bloomberg is finagling with New York's Tea Party Governor, Little Andy Cuomo, as well as Senate Republicans and corporate Dems to have LIFO changed for good.
You can bet that if you follow the cash Bloomberg hands these people, you will see just how tough this fight is going to be next year.
The UFT MUST not rest now that the threat of layoffs and LIFO changes are done for the year.
When it comes to fighting a man as petulant, as arrogant, as egotistical and as rich as Bloomberg, you cannot rest even one moment.
He's got one more year to make significant changes to the seniority system in the DOE. He's got one more year to make significant changes to the pay system, the pension system, and the health care system as well.
You can bet he will want changes to all of these.
The UFT has to muster all the anti-Bloombergian allies it can to fight these changes, both here in the city and in Albany.
There are enough pols in both places sick of Bloomberg and his shit.
Judging by the poll numbers, the people in NYC certainly are sick of him.
He CAN be beaten.
He MUST be beaten.
He is wounded, especially with all these scandals breaking that show how many hundreds of millions have been stolen on his watch even as he insists upon handing out money illegally to consultants for contracts that have been rejected by the city controller's office.
But he has enormous wealth and resources and won't hesitate to use it.
We cannot rest in this fight.
The fight goes on.
May God bless and keep Shelley Silver, who is the only one holding back the deluge.
ReplyDeleteI believe LIFO season doesn't start until next Fall. It's an annual thing. Bloomberg, sitting on a surplus, declares a financial emergency not for this year, but rather the next, and musters some scumbag Senator to push through some odious bill or another. Then E4E writes a bunch of crap in support and the Post declares teachers support it. If it passes, mass firings occur. If not, the mayor finds some way to weasel out of it at our expense.
ReplyDeleteOnce LIFO goes there will be a flood of discrimination suits.
ReplyDeleteBloomie is a lame duck and the next Mayor will not want to antagonize the unions unless we go into a double dip recession. He had his chance when he bought off the Republicans and still failed.
ReplyDeleteNow Jonathan Bing is gone, E4E is becoming irrelevant and the candidates will be flocking to the UFT for our support. We are safe for the next two years, at least.
LIFO battle may be put on the back-burner for the time being, but it will resurface every year until it is gotten rid of. It is about right but in the final analysis it is about money, and money is in short or shorter supply for many years to come.
ReplyDeleteNot on Wall Street.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what kind of a childhood the little twerp had??!!-Bet he was ridiculed a whole lot.
ReplyDelete