Easy as ABC

Let's amplify member voice.

Often, when you read about our union, the papers call us the “powerful teachers union.” Those of us who’ve been following the massive health care giveaways by our ostensible leadership, among other things, might respond with skepticism to that moniker. Still, that’s what we ought to be. ABC will transform UFT into something that actually merits the label.

Our current leadership is afraid. They’re compromised They’ve been doing things this way forever, and can’t imagine anything else. We aren’t afraid, and we don’t want you afraid either. It’s a new day, and there is work to be done. We are ready.

ABC knows union power comes from members. It’s imperative we work toward member empowerment. We’re in this together. We stand together, we fight together, and we win together. Our first message is for Michael Mulgrew:

We don’t work for union leaders—union leaders work for us.

Mulgrew and his people seem to have forgotten us altogether. For example, like chapter leaders, UFT district representatives were once elected. Unity didn’t trust us. They disempowered us, and to this day, they have no idea how counter-productive or anti-union that is. We will return the power to select district representatives back to members. Perhaps Borough Reps should be elected as well. Union reps should be answerable to members.

Divisions used to elect their own vice presidents, until high school teachers chose a vice-president who was not Unity. Unity then changed the rules, so that all divisions selected all vice-presidents. They did this specifically to thwart the will of high school teachers—because elementary and middle school teachers tended to vote for Unity. In two of the three last elections, high school teachers selected non-Unity candidates, but Unity candidates won regardless. ABC will immediately move to allow all divisions to elect their own vice-presidents.

A big step toward earning back the “powerful teacher union” name will be the transformation of the MLC. Unions are powerful. Groups of unions are more powerful. How counter-intuitive is it to take all the city unions, bring them together, and work toward worse, rather than better working conditions? How is that not obvious to Michael Mulgrew and his Very Smart People?

When ABC wins, we will no longer use our citywide union power as a vehicle to demean health insurance. Moving backward will no longer be a priority for the United Federation of Teachers (let alone something we seek to drag our brother and sister unionists into). As far as we’re concerned, organizing to make things worse is anti-union.

ABC does not deem it reasonable that our pattern bargaining entails the city’s finding the first leader they can lowball, and then imposing the sucker pattern on every single city employee. Our voice in the MLC will be one demanding a fair pattern—one that meets or beats inflation at the very least. We will organize to align with unions demanding the same.

Which union (not which union leader) doesn’t want a fair compensation increase?

Furthermore, our current leadership has seen fit to grant health givebacks so as to fund compensation increases that, at best, hovered around inflation, and at worst, did not come even close. We understand the concept of giving something to get something. That said, keeping up with cost of living is not actually gaining anything. It’s simply remaining where we started out. We ought not to pay for that, at all.

ABC categorically rejects the notion that union members need to fund our own raises.

The city needs to compensate us fairly. ABC will sell out neither active nor retired members for compensation increases we should be receiving as a matter of course.

We’ve watched Unity leadership prematurely embrace both HMH and Illustrative Math, very much to the detriment of working teachers, not to mention our students. In stark contrast to Unity, ABC believes in studying and workshopping teaching methods before rather than after they are imposed. This precludes the necessity of wasting both teacher and student time, and saves us playing catch up.

Article 8 of the teacher contract says lesson planning is the purview of teachers. We will zealously enforce that. The DOE is free to adopt curricula, but not free to demand we use classroom practices that do not serve our students, let alone scripted lessons. We know who our students are, and plan lessons around their needs.

Being human, our students learn and react differently, and sorry DOE and reformy folk, but there is no one-size-fits-all model. We are the best judges of what our students need. Were there some magical utopia in which teachers could simply stand and read lessons, we could simply show recordings to students, have them tested on computers, and do away with school altogether. While self-appointed educational experts may see that as viable, those of us who’ve been in real classrooms with real students know better.

When members call UFT, they don’t want to press buttons and hope to get connected to someone. Nor do they want to be on hold for 20 minutes. ABC believes it’s our job to be responsive to member needs. Like you, we hate hearing, “Your call is important to us,” particularly when a non-response indicates otherwise. When you call UFT, you will speak to a living, breathing person, not a pre-recorded, computer-driven robot.

Last year, retirees told us in no uncertain terms that they wanted to keep the health care they’d been promised all their careers. For the first time in union history, they voted to get rid of entrenched leaders who’d told them Medicare Advantage was as good or better than traditional Medicare. ABC believes, as courts have demonstrated (and as Aetna admitted) that members will be denied procedures recommended by their doctors. This is unacceptable.

Despite claiming to support us, UFT Unity is actually lobbying against our efforts to protect ourselves. That’s absolute hypocrisy.

ABC will actively support legislation that retains the health care members have been promised in retirement. There are currently bills to protect retirees in both city and state legislatures. We will not only lobby for their passage, but we will also support the organizations that brought them. We will do the same for legislation that protects in service members.

When ABC wins, UFT boots on the ground will mean members actually showing up to work for and demand what we want and need. These days, it amounts to a dozen paid staffers showing up here or there. Years of Unity indifference to members have resulted in years of member indifference to union. That won’t happen immediately, but needs to change.

For really important issues, like money and health care, we will show up en masse and let people know who we are and what we demand. We will grow our union into the activist organization we need to be. Again, when papers talk of the “powerful teachers union,” it needs to mean something.

We will use union resources, including COPE, union lawyers, and UFT boots on the ground to support our causes. When grassroots organizations like NYC Retirees appear, and successfully battle to improve health care conditions for members, we will not merely contribute to them. We will work with them and emulate their successes. When others prove to do things better than we’ve been doing, we’re ready and willing to learn from them.

We will support politicians who support our causes, regardless of party affiliation. We will no longer endorse politicians simply because they are members of any particular party. Politicians who support our goals will win our endorsement, and we will actively work to make our endorsements worth pursuing.

We will align with organizations that share our goals. We will support organizations like NEA and Class Size Matters—organizations that serve to support public education and better classroom conditions for all. While we applaud efforts to reduce class size, we will no longer applaud good intentions, regardless of whether or not they’re sincere. We will demand the city provide sufficient space and personnel to achieve its stated goals. We will not hesitate to join other groups to put pressure on City Hall.

We will no longer censor the correspondence of elected functional chapter leaders. If RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer wishes to send something to those who’ve chosen him to represent them, he can do so. If elected chapter leaders want help editing, that’s human, and that’s fine. But they shall have final say over what goes out above their names.

We will hire UFT employees on the basis of competence, not simple loyalty. Union employees need to serve members, not caucuses.

The caucus model has failed us, and continues to fail us.

Unity has misled and betrayed us for years. They do this as though it’s their birthright, and barely bother to hide it anymore. They think they own our union hall, and if anyone else finds their way in, they build literal walls around them.

300 people ran with Retiree Advocate, and I was one. I pushed RA relentlessly on this very page. I made sure we got the key NYC Retirees endorsement, and I have no doubt that pushed us over the top. I won the title of Vice Chair. Along with 287 others, I got neither voice nor vote when eleven unelected RA members decided to align with MORE.

We’ve had 60 years of minority rule and outlandish palace intrigue. ABC has a better vision.

We are not a caucus, and will not demand loyalty to caucus. We represent UFT members, not some pre-determined philosophy that may or may not be representative. Member voice will guide us as we move forward.

We are not indulging in some last-gasp attempt to rationalize our existence. We are not a stalking horse for some mysterious, arcane philosophy. We don’t require an elite and self-indulgent steering committee controlling everything and everyone. We formed our platform by surveying members, and we’ll continue doing that as we move forward.

As UFT members, we’re looking to wake up the sleeping giant that is our great union, the United Federation of Teachers. That means empowerment and inclusion, not lip service and ignoring those who elected and worked with us.

We need a better contract with the city. Keeping up with the cost of living is vital, and ought not to entail givebacks of any sort, let alone massive health givebacks. We further need a better contract with our own union, and that’s why we’re here.

Stay tuned to this space. We will announce our slate within the week! I’m beyond proud to be part of it.