The UFT Is Useless

And now we see, on a basic bread and butter issue like the Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight, that the United Federation of Teachers is impotent to stop the madmen and women running the NYCDOE and the top madman running the city.

That the UFT could not put a stop to today's useless Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight shows just how useless this union and the current leadership is.

Bloomberg and Walcott are forcing teachers and staff into schools today all over the city to "prepare" their classrooms for Monday for no good rationale.

Classrooms are already "prepared" since school was in session just last Friday before Sandy hit the city.

On top of that, many teachers are being directed to report to schools other than the ones they work in because many schools are still without power or took damage from the storm.

In those cases, what classrooms could they possibly be "preparing"?

Even worse, travel into the city is still torturous at best, with many subway and commuter lines still down (NJ Transit tried to get up and running this morning, but had a set back when power failed on their lines.)  

There are HOV restrictions on cars driving into the city and there are now gas shortages all over the metropolitan area anyway, so why would people in power want to bring people into work for a useless PD day when it's a massive waste of effort and energy?

No, clearly this was a petulant move by Bloomberg and Walcott , two petulant men devoid of humanity and empathy who are making a political power play to show how much control they have over teachers, school staff and the union.

But what else can you expect from a man like Bloomberg, who insists the NYC marathon will take place on Sunday and is diverting precious resources and police manpower away from Sandy recovery efforts to the marathon preparation?

And as for Walcott, he's simply Bloomberg's toady - he does what Bloomberg wants or else.

I called the union yesterday at one of the outer borough offices, since the main office is closed due to lack of power, and registered my complaints about today and the lack of effort the UFT was putting into fighting the insanity of it all.

Somebody told me the union would have an announcement by 4 PM that would satisfy me, that Mulgrew knew this was a big deal and was negotiating with the insane people at the DOE to change it.

In the end, we got some jive letter from Mulgrew that told us we had to go on but there was an appeals process for people who couldn't make it due to problems related to Sandy.

As my friend NYC Educator pointed out today and as I pointed out yesterday, the NYCDOE denies every appeal that ever comes before them, so you can be sure that few people will have their appeals to not have CAR days deducted approved by Walcott and Company.

If Mulgrew and the UFT leadership can't protect members at something so basic as this absurd Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight, what can they protect us from?

They haven't been able to protect us from the madmen and women at the DOE, from the massive school closures, the insane 57 page Danielson rubric, teacher evaluations based upon test scores, VAM, TDR's, Race to the Top and a host of other things aimed at  privatizing education and breaking the morale of teachers.

Do you think Karen Lewis and the CTU would have handled this situation differently?

Judging by their track record so far, I do.

But we get compliance from Mulgrew, who apparently lacks the courage to take the mayor on in public and tell people how stupid this Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight is.

Well, enough is enough.

We know that Bloomberg pursues insane, ego-driven policies and has done so since he first got control of the system.

We pay the UFT our union dues to mitigate these insane, ego-driven policies, to protect us from them.

And the UFT is powerless to do so - today's Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight is just the latest example of that.

How much longer does the membership stand by the leadership of the UFT?

The current leadership has basically rigged the election process and has a lifetime guarantee of power.

But when they cannot deliver on bread and butter issues like this one, that's when even lifetime guarantees of power start to wane considerably.

Chicago is the model for that very thing.

The problem here with Superstorm Sandy PD Day By Candlelight is not that Bloomberg and Walcott imposed this on us.

The problem is that the UFT was powerless stop them.