Sunday, May 8, 2011

Why Doesn't The UFT Bring Up The Planned Technology Spending In The Budget Fight?

The NY Post reported that Mulgrew and the UFT declared war on Bloomberg's budget cuts and layoffs yesterday, vowing to fight them to the end.

But as usual, the "Fight Smarter" UFT seems to be fighting with one hand tied behind its back.

Mulgrew continues to bring up the supposed surplus the city has and pointedly calls for the mayor to use $270 million of that surplus to stave off layoffs.

But Chancellor Walcott says the mayor has already used parts of the surplus to keep the layoff numbers lower than they could be.

Is that true?

Who the hell knows.

The problem with fighting this battle by using the "surplus" as the prime weapon is that Bloomberg can say he has already used part of it to replace cuts in state and federal aid and the rest of it to pay debt for 2012, sound reasonable and leave it to the UFT and other opponents of his budget to prove otherwise.

Beyond that, when Mulgrew demands the mayor use $270 million from the surplus to stave off the layoffs, that amount of money doesn't replace the numbers of teachers Bloomberg plans to get rid of via attrition.

9 comments:

  1. The figures are dubious. Weeks ago Bloomberg said it would take 369 mil to prevent layoffs at a time when layoff numbers were estimated higher. The new line that they are already using part of it to keep layoffs down is simply indefensible, clearly a rationale they invented recently--or they'd have been using it previously.

    He's still got to run this by the city council, all of whom need to face their constituents, unlike the emperor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RBE:

    For the most part I agree with you. I also believe that the UFT should run a commercial showing the public schools losing 6,100 teachers but does not layoff administrators while increasing computer and consultant services. Opposite what the Governor wanted.

    However, I believe that Michael Mulgrew has drawn a line in the sand and is going to bring up your other points you bring up in the next few days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We still need to wait until the end of June to determine the number of teachers, G.C., secretaries that were not granted tenure, and the end of August, the number of UFT members retiring by then. We also have to keep an eye open to ensure that there are no NEW hires in September. If that happens, then the union should step up their game. Everything is still up in the air. I do agree that any layoffs of UFT members should be the last thing done after there are layoffs at Tweed, the various Children First Networks, at 65 Court Street, and there should be a halt on no-bid contracts until everything is equalized.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sheep Herder MikeMay 8, 2011 at 1:31 PM

    You mean The Stepford UFT.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RBE right on! I am sick of the UFT pretending to support us and having to pay for this half ass sh*t. I'd like to take one month's worth of dues and plaster this post all over NYC. Mulgrew: hear us NOW, or get out of the way.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The UFT appears to have become a toothless PR agency for the DOE. It's time to take matters into our own hands. No wonder the younger teachers don't have a clue what unionism is, since there is none at the UFT any more.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I firmly agree with the last poster-Teachers must organize themselves within their respective schools-some type of MASSIVE job action must take place on a designated day. The J.Q. Publics, who read the NYPost must be made aware of what this Mayor has done to the Education system of NYC . Articles like this should be in ALL of the NY papers-unfortunately this will not happen and the little emperor will get just what he wanted

    ReplyDelete
  8. Let us see how large the crowds are on Thursday. If the crowd reaches 50 to 100 thousand than the unions mean business. If it the usual 10 thousand, then they are playing the same old game of appearances with no real effort to do damage to the administration. All the unions should be working their tails off to have a huge Wisconsin mass rally against the mayor and his budget priorities.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Emma Goldman's GhostMay 8, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    If you want crowds, you can't have yet another rally on a Thursday afternoon. People who work in Queens won't be there....they can't make it. HAVE A WEEKEND MOBILIZATION not a weekday afternoon whinefest in Manhattan. This is true activism, not the wimpy meaningless crap the UFT dishes out. The time for discussion has been over for a long time. Now it's time to act with civil disobedience and real activism. HEY HEY HO HO BLOOMBERG'S GOT TO GO!!!

    ReplyDelete