Hey - looking for a fun evening with some fellow merry makers? Cuomo is the most hated man in NY State.
Let’s have a Conversation with Cuomo!
Come to a Rally this Tuesday to greet Cuomo and his friends-
Dinner and Conversation Fundraiser for Andrew Cuomo
When: Tuesday, April 7 at 6:00pm
Where: 320 Park Ave. NYC (Between 50 & 51st Sts.)
Why: To get more money from his friends - $15,000 a ticket so he can do more harm to our schools!
We’ll be giving out free tickets. They may not get you into Cuomo’s event, but you can attend ours! Arrive by 6:00pm, bring your favorite signs and dress up as your favorite hedgefund celebrity!
We need to keep the fight against the corporate assault on public education strong. We must let our elected officials who “voted YES with a heavy heart” for Cuomo’s budget know that they did the wrong thing!
Come on out on Tuesday!
A question I have for Governor Cuomo:
Why does he support a sadistic charter school network where the children are subjected to humiliation, shaming and physical/verbal abuse?
Why is he going to help these child abusers raise money in two weeks?
Shouldn't NYSUT and/or the UFT be organizing this rally?
ReplyDeleteAfter losing big in the budget, I bet they'll lay low for awhile, hope the moribund R&F don't notice how bad things are.
DeleteNYSUT and UFT, at this point it's clear, are empty apparatuses of organizations. NYSUT isn't even updating its webpage. When a union loses as hugely as we lost last week, well, lets be real....they cease to exist. At this point I just wish they'd stop taking dues.
ReplyDeleteThird hand report so do what you will with it: NYSUT is done with teachers. For the last year or more they have been focusing all of their real efforts (with our money) at organizing groups other than teachers. Support staff. Nurses. Etc etc. You know, the people left after teachers are basically gone. I think NYSUT folks are playing a long game and trying to "rebrand" as "education professionals." So, right now, to teachers, they are dead. I think we'll see them announce an official name change before thy announce any large scale push back against the new legislation.
They just aren't that into us anymore.
AFT/UFT/NYSUT - a union group of retired professionals.
DeleteThis has been the UFT game plan - nurses, aiming for 50,000 home day care workers. UFT has 108,000 working members but less than 70,000 are classroom -- but add 60,000 retirees to that.
DeletePlease don't forget this was a huge win for teachers and UFT. I'm sure Mulgrew will donate several hundred thousand dollars to Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteYes, the win was so huge it scrapes the skies, as former EdWize blogger Red Hog used to say...
DeleteI wrote to Karen Magee today and asked her to issue a statement/press release on the NY Times article and to call for federal and state investigations. No response whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteMagee and NYSUT seem to have disappeared after their initial pushback of the budget deal.
DeleteMagee made her comments about opting out and they vowed we'd hear about some plan soon. Martine Messner tweeted about how "crucial the next two weeks will be" in regards to supporting the opt-out movement. Well one week is already passed and we have heard crickets from our NYSUT "leaders"
DeleteWhen I first heard Magee and the NYSUT braintrust (such as it is) contradict Mulgrew and the UFT braintrust (such as it is), I thought "This can't be...NYSUT never contradicts what its UFT master wants..."
DeleteAnd so it is. Empty rhetoric from NYSUT, it seems.
Here is Karen Magee's e-mail address:kmagee@nysutmail.org
ReplyDeleteReal convo to have: what would it take to create a new union? Just tossing that out. Whatever that conversation is, now seems to be the time to start it.......
ReplyDeleteWe just had that convo on MORE listserves. Not feasible for numerous reasons.
DeleteI'm skeptical too. What were the some of the reasons mentioned on the MORE listserves?
DeleteLet ST Caucus take over, In their place, they would do an outstanding job.
ReplyDeleteHey, some of us aren't on that snazzy listserve. So, why isn't it feasible? There was more than one union back in the day. There is a process and precedent for it. Do you just think there's not enough support?
ReplyDelete35% of the bargaining unit (73,000 teachers in the UFT) must sign a decertification petition with PERB. We can't even get anywhere near 35% to vote in a UFT election. People need to get involved. The UFT is a huge local.
DeleteIf I remember correctly, 20% of the R&F voted in the last election.
DeleteJust last week I was banging my head against the wall at how many teachers in my building were completely unaware of the "reforms" Cuomo was sticking into the budget.
Yes. This is the juicy center of it. A huge bulk of teachers are un/under-informed, apolitical, and sort of made dizzy by their breeding and focus on BS. It's a huge weakness. So few people knew about this legislation.
DeleteThat said, I kind of blame NYSUT here too. Where were they? Why weren't they communicating clearly, frequently, and loudly about these things and spelling out so even the folks who don't read much understand how their careers are on the line? Its relatively easy. NYSUT has failed on every level.
Yes...the unions are tailists...wildcat action will force them to get wagging
ReplyDeleteHmmm, okay, how about a wildcat action. Occupy the next DA. Or, hold a rival DA down the street at Zuccotti in protest. oint is, Unity's lack of action has caused a lot of pain.
ReplyDeleteOne reason most teachers are uninformed is the control of communications by the Unity leadership. They have most chapter leaders by recruiting them into Unity after they get elected and use the monthly district rep meetings to control them - and at the DA they urge them to sit with them - and they keep an eye on how they vote. A group like MORE has to build its own communication system school by school. It all starts at your own schools -- it is up to everyone who is aware to share blogs and other lit with colleagues -- get an email list and share -- that is a start.
DeleteThe only way you will be able to remove the current leadership in NYSUT is to get every local in the state to send delegate(s) to the NYSUT RA in 2017. That is an election year. Align them with the ST Caucus and have them vote. If money is a factor they would only need to stay one overnight. Currently only 38% of the NYSUT membership is represented at the RA because of the lack of engagement by the smaller locals. Unity holds 70% of that 38%.
ReplyDelete