The efforts of those who justly oppose the UFT leadership must begin at once. The disastrous results of this agreement will become quite evident by June 2014 and the wheels will come off in June 2015. The only chance to oust the Mulgrew caucus will be to win enough delegates to remove retirees from the election process. There is a chance for a removal ala Chicago if enough teachers are affected by this agreement and they will be.
It will only take a year for many of the rank-and-file - even, perhaps some of the Educators4Excellence - to realize how badly rigged this system is against teachers.
The question is, what will the rank-and-file do after that realization.
At my school, there is already a big contingent of anti-Unity/anti-Mulgrew people ready to hang this albatross around the leadership's neck.
The CL used to be an apolitical guy when it came to caucus politics, but over the last year he has grown increasingly politicized by the lack of help he has gotten from 52 Broadway with a swath of "u" ratings.
After a year of APPR, I would bet John King's 90's goatee a lot more people join the anti-Unity/anti-Mulgrew contingent and I don't see the CL waving Mulgrew pom-poms any time soon.
The more schools this can happen at, the better the chance that we can take this union away from the crooks and the hacks in Unity/New Action.
It's a tough road but it's better than sitting still and silent with this catastrophe.
The way forward, for most NYC teachers is to probably have a "Plan B." Go back to school, and prepare for another job. You have a couple of years. In my school one teacher is going to cooking school, another is going for physical therapy, and quite a few young teachers are going on interviews in other states. We have already had 5 quit or retire during the school year. With this new APPR scheme now in place, I'm sure many more will start looking for other careers.
ReplyDeleteI'm finishing my 12th year. I would like to try and hang in to see if this falls apart sooner rather than later. A couple of years ago when I saw this coming down the pike, I started to think of what else I might like to do. To be frank, I love being a teacher. I really enjoy working with students. I just don't know if I can do 17 years of this, however...
DeletePerdido Street School. your blog is one way to organize teachers. A one page flyer containing your e mail address and your mission statement can be posted on each uft bulletin board citywide. If half of the school catch on you have a base to organize. Also, offer such a sheet at the delegate assembly, the internet makes organizing possible. Another avenue is to attend hearings at 52 Chambers Street and hand out flyers. There must be enough retirees and CORE family folks who can help with this. Start this September and watch your numbers grow. Your blog is a great way to help the teaching profession.
ReplyDeleteI am receiving calls and emails from many of my colleagues that would like changes to the union leadership.
ReplyDeleteSome have mentioned the MORE caucus and if they will mobilize the rank-and-file to those changes before they lose their teaching position.
MORE can use the help of anyone who is ready to get involved. At the basic level -- sign up to hand out any material MORE is putting together. Right now a leaflet for distribution to schools to counter the Unity gang being sent into every school to sell this. If you want to get further involved MORE has formed working committees to tackle many of the issues from contract to testing. If you have an idea for a committee MORE is open to that to. But the key thing is to act. Collect emails at your school from those willing to get info and send out blog commentaries to them -- the first step in organizing is to educate.
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