Our anti-Union Leadership

It needs changing.

We’ve reached a very odd juncture. Our union leadership, due to a number of stupid deals it made, is obsessed with saving money for the city. This is not our job at all. Our job is to save money, increase pay, and improve working conditions for those of us who do the work.

And yet, UFT leadership not only supported Mayor Eric Adams for election, but also supports his efforts to diminish our health care. Many in-service teachers seem unruffled by Adams and UFT leadership trying to take Medicare from retirees. This is short-sighted, not only because they will retire one day, but also because they are next. The Adams/ UFT partnership is poised to give active members something 10% cheaper than GHI.

If you think a health plan 10% cheaper won’t cost you and your family more, I have a bridge in Brooklyn with your name on it.

We recently went through a contract process. UFT leadership recruited a 500-member negotiating committee. They told them it was up to them to work out a new contract, but that they could negotiate neither money nor health care. And of course, they didn’t bother to record new class size rules into this contract. The argument, in the past, was that DOE would take salary money for that agreement. What’s the argument now? Who knows?

If you think the new class size law will be enforced without contractual language, you too can purchase a share of that bridge.

As if that weren’t enough, one faction of our union decided they did not like the contract. The OT/PT chapter has long been clamoring that they want parity with teachers. Not only did they not get that, but they got nothing. And they voted no.

Our union leadership, which ostensibly represents them, did not go back to the table. Instead, they waged a fear campaign. The city doesn’t want to come to the table. Pro-tip—The city never wants to come to the table. The city would be perfectly content to have us work for what they paid us in 1984. If we don’t take a stand, why bother changing anything, ever?

It is, in fact, the job of leadership to bring them to the table. UFT Unity has a different concept of what their job is. Therefore, they told the OT/PT chapter to take this or nothing.

Statements like those are the precise opposite of what union leadership should represent. They ought to come from our contractual adversaries, not our union leaders. Leadership pushed through a second vote, and a demoralized and diminished OT/PT chapter voted it up. Try and persuade me that they no longer wanted parity with teachers.

If you think that’s how you promote activism, again, I’m willing to negotiate that bridge purchase.

We have been conditioned to depend on our leadership for everything. Demonstrate, but only where and when we tell you. Ask for this, but not that. Demand a raise, but only the raise that DC37 got. You want cost of living? Mayor Adams only wanted to give us 1% and we got 3! How is that not a victory?

You want more? Too bad. Go back and vote on the same thing you rejected. Mayor Adams doesn’t want you to do better, and neither do we. You take that milk, and you pour it on your mush, and you EAT IT!

The Municipal Labor Committee, tasked to negotiate health care for us, cares only about saving money for Mayor Adams. They should be focused on preserving and improving things for us. It doesn’t take a genius to suggest they should, at the very least, agree on a minimum acceptable pay raise.

Instead, they diminish our health care, and continue to allow our anti-labor mayor to pick off the most desperate union, make whatever lowball offer they accept, and effectively lower our compensation. The Municipal Labor Committee is inept, hurtful to us, and needs to be replaced.

The only way to replace them is to replace the leadership that enables them. Retirees will be able to dump UFT Unity this Spring. Rank and file will shortly thereafter have a chance to follow.

We can no longer afford a leadership that works for our adversary. We can lead or follow. The first step, if we’re going to lead, is to elect leaders willing to do so.