What Does a Better UFT Look Like?

Out with the fossilized, in with the new.

You don’t need to be a genius to know how to improve our union. There are a few glaring flaws that really need to be ironed out. We can all see them, particularly retirees, as leadership tries endlessly to diminish their health care. Alas, in-service members are next. Leadership knows they made an egregious error, but pivot is simply not in their vocabulary.

Let’s look at collective bargaining. It’s not really what it should be. The fact is, when we think of collective bargaining, the number one factor in the minds of most is money. A better UFT leadership will understand keeping up with the cost of living is fundamental.

A better UFT will look twice at the Municipal Labor Committee. The MLC, over the years, has been used to negotiate higher costs for health care. They tell us costs are going up and we have to keep up. I can’t argue the fact that pharmaceuticals are out of control. It’s the Wild West out there and they do whatever they want. A better UFT will actively lobby against Big Pharma, and their gouging of consumers.

A better UFT, though, will argue that our expenses are going up. It will, therefore, make sure we are compensated in such a way that we make enough to pay for additional expenses. And that, in fact, leads right back to the MLC.

If they MLC is going to continue to exist, a better UFT will work to make sure its values are those of rank and file. The desire to keep up with cost of living is not unique to our union. MLC will immediately cease doing things like giving the city a billion dollars from money designed to maintain our health care. It will not make stupid agreements to save the mayor 600 million dollars a year, forever, from our health care.

A better UFT will organize the MLC to stand together and demand a raise that meets cost of living, at the very least. A better UFT will not allow the mayor to nickel and dime a desperate union, and pointedly will never, ever again be that desperate union that imposes an unacceptable pattern on the rest of the city.

A better UFT, as a large union, will not only vehemently oppose, but also work to prevent stupid deals that help the mayor rather than membership. A better UFT will become the “powerful teachers union” that the news always warns everyone about.

As a matter of fact, it is the job of union to empower members. It is the job of a union to empower democracy. All over this country, democracy is imperiled. Southern states purge voter rolls to ensure against majority rule. Of course this is unacceptable. A better UFT will flatly reject the notion of leaders selecting voters, rather than voters selecting leaders.

To that end, a better UFT will ensure that high school teachers, along with all branches, get to select their own Vice Presidents. After once losing the Vice Presidency, UFT Unity pushed a resolution to allow all teachers to select all VPs. It is unacceptable that elementary teachers, who tend to vote Unity, are made to help us select our leader. In several recent elections, high school teachers were denied their choice. That’s not democracy. That’s a rigged election. (And unlike Donald Trump and his minions, we have evidence to prove it.)

While we’re on the subject of democracy, we need to respect actual votes. The OT/PT chapter rejected their contract. They did that because they want parity with teachers. A better UFT will work to help get them what they want. A better UFT won’t run a fear campaign saying you lost this and the city doesn’t feel like making it better. A better UFT will go back to the table, and if they can’t get what they want, will at least gain something.

In fact, a better UFT will have learned from the last election that this result is predictable. It is the job of leadership to represent membership, not the mayor. A better UFT will work to find ways to do that. A better UFT will not push “savings” unless they’re for the membership.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand what a better UFT looks like. There’s one caveat, though—a better UFT will get off its ass and vote in the next union election, and that is on us. That’s the only way we get there.