Whenever I read Union Matters it takes me back to my 40’s when I became a Shop Steward on Campus. It was the first time I saw and heard all the baloney being fed to the rank and file who attended the meetings and then reiterated when a guest sent by Union HQs would visit an on campus Union meeting. The PSC of course was considered the elitist Union by the members of DC37, who while belonging to different locals in the same place (similar to a very small city itself), would just shake their heads. All because all members thought their locals were better and more deserving than the next. Teachers, police, fire, nurses, paramedics and paras were all considered the “City Unions”. It seemed they were acknowledged as the “real” Unions and those in CUNY/SUNY were the schleps or subsidiaries of the real Unions all with a different set of rules and negotiations were separated for each faction. And the Electrician and Teamster Unions were the Crème de la Crème of all cause they were connected at the hips of the National Union Leadership and their politicians. I saw all this and attempted for 20 years and more of my life to make people see things they just refuse to recognize. I was raised a Union person by my father who was a longshoreman. He instilled in me the importance of Union for the entire working class in all titles. He never thought for a moment that inside the Union there were classes such as “white collar” Unionists vs “Blue collar” unionists. To him it was always One Union and he imbedded that belief in my soul. I was shocked when I realized how wrong he was. He was born in 1909 and the world was different then but people were and are still the same. Now that I am no longer represented by my Union even though I give them a fee from my small pension, I see yet another way that the class of Union Leadership disrespects people in general. My father over the past 12 years of my forced retirement from a physical disability must have turned over in his grave at least a dozen times from how far his beloved Union has turned its back on those who gave them their very start in this country… ALL RANK & FILE in every title should not have any more privileges than the person sitting next to them with a different title. Guess I’m still naive and still believe my father’s belief in a true Union was that ALL Union people have a right to fair pay and decent working conditions, safety protocols and a right to arbitration in a grievance. Retired unionists should be respected for having run the gauntlet, paid their dues faithfully, voted fairly for their leadership and paved the way for future Union members. The Union Leadership at all levels should be protecting their retirees not harming them by using them as a BETA Group for selfish self serving reasons. If todays Unions were brought back to the basic ideal that a Union has NO classes within it but is in place only to protect all its members as one unit, then I think my father would rest in peace knowing he was part of those who paved the way to protect ALL workers regardless of their titles. The way things are in today’s Union world as they were when I saw it 34 years ago has gotten much worse. When will Union members ever wake up and see it’s not working the way it does now and elect real members who will work with each other as Leaders without separate class distinctions within the Union world and complete the mission of a Union where one for all and all for one truly means something.
Well, I can't tell which union you were in by your message. PSC was one union that resisted all this nonsense, and that it was enabled largely by my UFT leadership, with DC37 just a heartbeat behind. If we have crap leadership, it's really on us for not voting, or not mounting a slate, or whatever. We made progress with UFT retirees, and we're hopeful for the general election next year as well. UFT and DC37 outnumber PSC by a very wide margin, so we're responsible for much of the bad decision-making over at MLC.
Thanks for including the fact that teachers get a smaller fixed rate on their TDA than all other city retirees. Active employees should realize that this unfairness will also affect them when they retire. We are literally second class citizens.
Randi exchanged that for the two extra days in August she'd agreed to as part of the horrendous 2005 contract. This can be quite costly to us and was an egregious error.
If DisUnity is so proud of its record, why not hold debates which the membership could attend and hear?
They're proud, but they don't like to be questioned. When everything you do is via divine right, questions are not relevant.
Whenever I read Union Matters it takes me back to my 40’s when I became a Shop Steward on Campus. It was the first time I saw and heard all the baloney being fed to the rank and file who attended the meetings and then reiterated when a guest sent by Union HQs would visit an on campus Union meeting. The PSC of course was considered the elitist Union by the members of DC37, who while belonging to different locals in the same place (similar to a very small city itself), would just shake their heads. All because all members thought their locals were better and more deserving than the next. Teachers, police, fire, nurses, paramedics and paras were all considered the “City Unions”. It seemed they were acknowledged as the “real” Unions and those in CUNY/SUNY were the schleps or subsidiaries of the real Unions all with a different set of rules and negotiations were separated for each faction. And the Electrician and Teamster Unions were the Crème de la Crème of all cause they were connected at the hips of the National Union Leadership and their politicians. I saw all this and attempted for 20 years and more of my life to make people see things they just refuse to recognize. I was raised a Union person by my father who was a longshoreman. He instilled in me the importance of Union for the entire working class in all titles. He never thought for a moment that inside the Union there were classes such as “white collar” Unionists vs “Blue collar” unionists. To him it was always One Union and he imbedded that belief in my soul. I was shocked when I realized how wrong he was. He was born in 1909 and the world was different then but people were and are still the same. Now that I am no longer represented by my Union even though I give them a fee from my small pension, I see yet another way that the class of Union Leadership disrespects people in general. My father over the past 12 years of my forced retirement from a physical disability must have turned over in his grave at least a dozen times from how far his beloved Union has turned its back on those who gave them their very start in this country… ALL RANK & FILE in every title should not have any more privileges than the person sitting next to them with a different title. Guess I’m still naive and still believe my father’s belief in a true Union was that ALL Union people have a right to fair pay and decent working conditions, safety protocols and a right to arbitration in a grievance. Retired unionists should be respected for having run the gauntlet, paid their dues faithfully, voted fairly for their leadership and paved the way for future Union members. The Union Leadership at all levels should be protecting their retirees not harming them by using them as a BETA Group for selfish self serving reasons. If todays Unions were brought back to the basic ideal that a Union has NO classes within it but is in place only to protect all its members as one unit, then I think my father would rest in peace knowing he was part of those who paved the way to protect ALL workers regardless of their titles. The way things are in today’s Union world as they were when I saw it 34 years ago has gotten much worse. When will Union members ever wake up and see it’s not working the way it does now and elect real members who will work with each other as Leaders without separate class distinctions within the Union world and complete the mission of a Union where one for all and all for one truly means something.
Well, I can't tell which union you were in by your message. PSC was one union that resisted all this nonsense, and that it was enabled largely by my UFT leadership, with DC37 just a heartbeat behind. If we have crap leadership, it's really on us for not voting, or not mounting a slate, or whatever. We made progress with UFT retirees, and we're hopeful for the general election next year as well. UFT and DC37 outnumber PSC by a very wide margin, so we're responsible for much of the bad decision-making over at MLC.
Yes, I understand your points made in Union Matters. I look at it a tad bit from a different POV. . I was in a DC37 local in CUNY.
Well, whatever our unions, we didn't make these decisions. It was our leadership acting without consulting us.
Well said! Can this very effective agitation against unity misrule be harnessed to a single opposition slate come this spring? Hope springs eternal.
Thanks for including the fact that teachers get a smaller fixed rate on their TDA than all other city retirees. Active employees should realize that this unfairness will also affect them when they retire. We are literally second class citizens.
Randi exchanged that for the two extra days in August she'd agreed to as part of the horrendous 2005 contract. This can be quite costly to us and was an egregious error.