Nothing Would Make Me Happier

Ken Lovett reported that UFT President Mulgrew and NYSUT President Magee met with Cuomo aides on Friday after the unions unveiled attack ads against Cuomo's education budget and reform agenda.

Lovett wrote:

Sources say the unions during the meeting may have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads, leaving some insiders to question whether the sides are trying to hammer out some type of agreement on how to move forward.

Norm Scott heard "secret meeting" between Cuomo aides and the union heads and smelled sell-out.

So did I (here and here.)

Because whenever I hear the words "secret meeting" and Cuomo, I have these painful flashbacks to the meetings they had to bash out the APPR agreement back in 2012 or the CCSS test safety net deal that Cuomo reneged on - so why wouldn't I smell sell-out since that's what's happened before?

But my friends on Twitter, many of them part of locals around the state, assure me I have nothing to fear - here's a few tweets from Martin Daly that do a good job of explaining their perspective:

@perdidostschool DOn't let one article blind you to all that is happening across the state- the union is fighting this war on may fronts.
— Martin Daly (@marty10707) February 10, 2015

@perdidostschool @NYGovCuomo I have seen no evidence of a deal or of the union backing off.
— Martin Daly (@marty10707) February 10, 2015

@perdidostschool @klnynews I think the union is keeping @NYGovCuomo on the defensive - we'll negotiate from strength
— Martin Daly (@marty10707) February 10, 2015

Now, nothing would make me happier in life than for Martin to be right about this and me to be wrong.

Seriously.

But I'm a little skittish, both as a UFT member who's seen his share of "compromises" from the leadership that ended badly for teachers and as an NYSUT member who's seen at least two in the last few years between NYSUT and Cuomo (the 2012 APPR deal and the CCSS safety net deal.)

So forgive me if I'm a little skeptical when I read a report from a reputable, excellent reporter like Ken Lovett (who broke much of the Moreland story before anybody else) about secret meetings between Cuomo aides and the union heads.

I'm glad to hear Martin Daly say the unions haven't pulled the ads, that there is no evidence that the union is backing off from the fight against Cuomo.

Nothing makes me happier than to hear that.

But the "secret meetings" thing concerns me a bit, because now is NOT the time to be doing any talking to Cuomo.

As I wrote yesterday:

There is no reason the unions should be talking about anything with Cuomo, not after he broke his promise over the CCSS safety net, not with him taking heavy damage from both political sides.

The unions ought to be doubling down on the ads, running more of them, exposing more of the Cuomo agenda for the brutal vendetta it is, weakening him so that when the time to talk does come, he's soft and pliable from the beatings he's taken.

The time will come for talk, but it surely hasn't come yet - there's more attacking to be done to make sure that when the talk time does come, Cuomo's beaten up enough to actually listen to what other people have to say.

I stand by those words today.

We didn't want this war but Cuomo brought it on us.

The time for talk will come - but we're not there yet.

Cuomo wanted a war.

Well, let's give it to him.