The United Federation of Teachers, the country’s largest teacher union local, has wrapped up their 2016 elections and results are due back today. President Michael Mulgrew, who infamously threatened Common Core opponents with violence, was being opposed by opt-out activist Jia Lee. Though a victory for Lee would seem to be a no-brainer to most outsiders, those who know the UFT’s rigged system of democracy will tell you that it is anything but. It is expected that Mulgrew and Unity Caucus will be victorious, however the MORE Caucus, of which Lee is a member, is expecting to seriously challenge for several executive board seats. Winning executive board seats would represent an enormous victory for MORE, the social justice caucus of the UFT.
Early election results are showing an increase in voter turnout by about 10,000 according to James Eterno at the ICE UFT Blog…
Camille Eterno and Norm Scott are reporting from the American Arbitration Association where votes are being counted in the UFT Election. Here are the latest numbers from Norm:
53,000 voted, that is up 10,000 from 2013.
Only 1000 of that increase came from retirees who in 2016 make up 46% of the voters. In 2013, retirees made up 52% of the voters.
Where did those new voters go? Mulgrew is the known commodity. The conventional wisdom guess would be the majority went to Unity but we shall see.
We will try to be back later with updated results.
I have written in great detail about the harm that Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus inflict not only upon their local union, the United Federation of Teachers, but upon unionized teachers across New York State and beyond. Fortunately this is an election year for the UFT and Mulgrew has a very formidable challenger in noted public education activist Jia Lee.
Lee needs no introduction to most advocates of public education. She has been on the front lines of the fight against high stakes testing, junk science teacher evaluations, and the struggle for more democratic unions at all levels. In 2015 she travelled on her own dime to Washington DC and she quite eloquently represented public school teachers in the United States Senate. PJSTA members will remember her as our keynote speaker at the PJSTA Conference Day last year. She was one of the first conscientious objectors in New York State when she began refusing to administer the rigged New York State assessments in 2014 and she is one of the authors of the Teachers of Conscience Position Paper. As someone who is fortunate enough to call Jia a friend, I can share that she is the real deal when it comes to public education advocacy. She breathes activism. In addition to the tireless efforts she has put into the opt-out campaigns and working for union democracy, Jia is a dynamic teacher at New York City’s Earth School and she has been a tremendous professional resource to me, sharing countless things from her classroom that my students have then been able to benefit from. If such a thing as an education superhero exists that person is Jia Lee. You can click here to access one of Jia’s flyers to share widely with your public ed allies.
Beth Dimino, Jia Lee, Brian St. Pierre. Lee is running against Michael Mulgrew for UFT President.
This election is about more than just Jia, however. Jia is simply running at the top of a slate of candidates being put forth by two UFT Caucuses. Those two caucuses (MORE and New Action) are tired of seeing their union compromise and collaborate with reformers bent on destroying us. They are ready to transform the UFT into a member driven union that represents the teachers in the classroom rather than the union “leaders” with personal agendas. While that sort of transformation would certainly benefit New York City’s classroom teachers, it’s benefits would stretch far beyond that as well. It would significantly alter the direction of our statewide union, NYSUT, and our national union, the AFT. As the local that is by far the largest in the country (several times larger than the second biggest), the UFT’s leadership wields extraordinary power within the teacher union landscape. They impact virtually every unionized teacher in the United States. The leadership of the UFT is the largest reason why unions have supported the Common Core and test based teacher evaluations. They were the ones urging state legislators to vote in favor of the Education Transformation Act last year! As a matter of fact, much of Unity Caucus’ (the caucus representing the UFT leadership) campaign in this year’s election has even centered upon their support for the evaluation plan in which 50% is made up of test scores.
Clearly anyone who supports public education has a stake in this year’s UFT election. Nobody can ignore it and think that it only impacts teachers in the five boroughs. This election will impact every teacher, student, and parent across the state. With that in mind I will ask that all of you head on over right now to make a donation to the MORE Caucus and their election fund. Unseating the biggest bully on the public education landscape can’t be done by simply “liking” something on Facebook or retweeting a link on Twitter. It will take money too. So give what you can, even if it is only a small amount. Finally, be sure to ask your friends who support public education to do the same.
A few days ago, New York State’s Unity Caucus, the controlling caucus of NYSUT and the statewide extension of the UFT’s Unity Caucus, published a piece on their blog attacking PJSTA President Beth Dimino. In the post Dimino is accused of working for her own political gain while attempting to “squelch the voice of educators, SRPs, those working in higher education and health care professionals.” The post goes on to label her “anti-union” and accuses her of siding with the Koch brothers and “other right winged-politicians” with the goal of killing the union.
The comically misguided post is clearly an attempt to discredit a respected labor leader with a well earned track record of being outspoken in her defense of public education and unionized teachers. From trying to paint her as being on the side of the Koch brothers to the use of the word histrionics, whose use is rooted in misogyny, the Unity henchman was clearly trying to paint Dimino as a voice who should be ignored. The reason surely being that Ms. Dimino’s ability to speak truthfully about the leadership of our parent unions, NYSUT, the AFT, and the NEA, has caused an increasingly large number of members to reduce their contributions to NYSUT’s political action fund, VOTE-COPE.
Ms. Dimino’s track record as an advocate is fairly well known. She has been a vocal and visible proponent of the opt-out movement. She is a conscientious objector, refusing to administer New York State tests. This video of her lambasting former NYSED Commissioner John King has made her fairly well known in public education circles. She has spoken all over the state as an advocate for teachers, students, parents, and communities. I am sure Long Island Opt-Out founder Jeanette Deutermann or our friends at NYSAPE would vouch for Ms. Dimino as somebody who works tirelessly for teachers, students, and public education in general. If you don’t believe me you are welcome to ask them. None of these things tend to be characteristic of the circles that the Koch brothers travel in. None of them are synonymous with anti-union activity.
Let’s now contrast Ms. Dimino’s record with that of the Unity Caucus. Unity Caucus, for nearly the entire existence of NYSUT, has benefited from being the only party in a one party-system. The caucus has always chosen the presidents and each of the other officers. When they decided you were out, then you were out, as they have always been able to use the 800 UFT-Unity delegates as a voting block to elect who ever they have wanted to or to enact any changes within NYSUT that they have decided to. You may be wondering why 800 people always have to vote the same way? Well that would be because the 800 Unity-UFT delegates have signed an oath pledging to vote as they are told to. Currently, every NYSUT officer and every member of the UFT’s executive board are members of the Unity Caucus. Let’s take a look at some of their greatest hits from just the past few years…
Most recently, Unity Caucus has been using their twitter account to advocate for #TeachStrong, the newly formed group of ed deformers that our national unions have inexplicably partnered with, including Teach for America and Educators4Excellence. These are the same groups that have helped to finance legislative changes that have done tremendous harm to teachers over the past several years. Unity Caucus members will make the argument that “the tide has turned” and that these groups now want to work with us. They should try telling that to the teachers in Buffalo in receivership schools who just had their contracts thrown in the trash in the name of “reform.” If you are wondering what that sharp feeling is in your back, it’s the knife that the Unity slugs are pushing into it. Here is Marla Kilfoyle of the BadAss Teachers take on #TeachStrong. Here is Peter Greene’s take on the Curmudgucation blog. Here was the renowned Michelle Gunderson, a leader in the Chicago Teachers Union, with her reaction…
Chgo teachers are on verge of a mass layoff and prolonged strike while nat union leader cavorts w/ our enemies. #TeachStrong@DianeRavitch
John Flanagan, the senate majority leader in the New York State Senate, and the former education chairperson in the senate has been another friend of Unity Caucus. Yes, the same John Flanagan who has declared opt-out parents a problem, claimed that charter school parents are the best parents there are, and whose highest campaign contributor is an ed deform group. While NYSUT did not vote to endorse Flanagan when he last ran in 2014, that didn’t stop Unity Caucus’ Andy Pallotta from giving Flanagan money anyway. Flanagan, who has received over $40,000 in VOTE COPE dollars over the years, received $7,750 in 2014.
Just this past spring Unity Caucus used their might to defeat a measure at the NYSUT RA that would have allowed all NYSUT locals to participate in NYSUT elections, as opposed to the 30% who did in the last one. Unity Caucus doesn’t want any of that pesky stuff called democracy interfering in their ability to guide the union in the direction they want to guide it in.
In 2014, at the AFT Convention, the Unity Caucus’ Michael Mulgrew gave his passionate defense of the Common Core when he stated “I’m gonna punch you in the face and push you in the dirt,” if you took away the Common Core. At the same convention fellow Unity Caucus members Karen Magee and Leroy Barr also stood up at the microphone in defense of the Common Core. You can watch it here…
Later in 2014 the Unity Caucus’ Michael Mulgrew marched in the New York City Labor Day Parade with Andrew Cuomo amongst “Labor for Cuomo” signs.
I could go on, but I am not really sure that’s necessary. There is a clear divide between the top down, business unionism model that is represented by Unity Caucus and the grassroots, member driven unionism espoused by Ms. Dimino and the Stronger Together Caucus of which she is the chairperson. Still the blog post on the Unity website was written because of the fact that Ms. Dimino has openly advocated for the idea of NYSUT members reducing their VOTE-COPE contributions. The blog post implies that every PJSTA member did that simply because they were told to. I am here to tell you that is not the case.
I have been a PJSTA member in good standing for 14 years. I tend to think of myself as being fairly independent minded. I don’t do things because my president tells me to. I generally do things because I believe them to be the right things to do. Members of our executive board can vouch for the fact that there are many times I disagree with Ms. Dimino and I am not shy about it. Like Ms. Dimino, I am not a right winger and anyone who knows me would assure you that I am not anti-union. Throughout the first 12 years of my career I gave faithfully to VOTE-COPE. As much as $10 a paycheck for a few years. Last fall, fresh off NYSUT’s decision not to endorse Zephyr Teachout, a clear advocate for public education, in the Democratic Primary I decided to reduce my VOTE-COPE contribution to $0. I did so because I no longer had any trust that a Unity Caucus controlled union would represent me or the interests of my fellow classroom teachers very well. In addition to giving money to candidates who hurt us and falling on the wrong side of so many of the important issues facing public school teachers, I got sick of seeing NYSUT’s legislative action wing be so woefully ineffective. Whether it be the creation of Tier 6, the creation of test based teacher evaluations, the inability to get allies of public education elected, or the inability to prevent such a disastrous and harmful state budget from passing last year, I simply have no confidence in a legislative wing controlled by Unity Caucus’ Andy Pallotta. Instead I donated my money to Zephyr Teachout, purchased NYSAPE Opt-Out signs, and used some money in ways that directly benefited students. I was in control of the money and was, therefore, confident it was going to causes that I believed in.
So if you are on the side of Randi Weingarten (who came up through the Unity ranks), Mike Mulgrew, Andy Pallotta, #TeachStrong, Common Core, and test based teacher evaluations, then support Unity Caucus (you can’t join, it is invite only) and keep funneling your hard earned money into VOTE-COPE. But if you are like me and you are tired of your profession being trampled while your union “leaders” compromise and collaborate with coroporate privatizers who seek to destroy public education, then go ahead and reduce your VOTE-COPE and join STCaucus (open to any NYSUT members). It literally is about the only say you have in your parent unions.
It’s hard to call it leadership when the rest of the state has been doing it for a couple of years now, however kudos go out to NYSUT President Karen Magee who today called on parents to opt-out of the coming New York state tests. This is certainly an interesting development given that the UFT’s Mike Mulgrew called the budget deal a victory. This is the first time under the current leadership regime that I have seen a NYSUT officer go again Mulgrew. Perhaps Magee knows she is only staying on for one term and has decided to start listening to the demands of the membership. That would certainly be a welcome development and one that I would happily support.
If NYSUT really wants to put their money where their mouth is we will see a NYSUT sponsored advertising blitz imploring parents to opt-out their children over the next two weeks leading up to the state tests.
Earlier we covered the “secret meetings” between Karen Magee, Mike Mulgrew, and aides for Governor Cuomo. I mentioned my belief that the NYSUT and UFT ads would not not be pulled from the air any time soon. As I mentioned, it is important that they at least make it appear as though they are putting up a fight before ultimately capitulating to the governor and sticking us with a worse APPR scheme than we have now.
Still there is one thing that continues to stick in my craw about the entire situation. It certainly doesn’t surprise me to see him involved, but the presence of Michael Mulgrew at these meetings can’t possibly make any teacher in the state comfortable. Last spring, in the lead up to the NYSUT elections, Revive NYSUT went out of their way to claim that the UFT held no extra sway over NYSUT’s leadership and that the UFT were simply one of NYSUT’s hundreds of locals. They scoffed at the notion that the installation of new leaders (other than the UFT/Unity Caucus’ own Andy Pallotta, of course) was a power grab by the UFT leadership.
Yet yesterday we read about Mulgrew being involved in these secret meetings. Again, this isn’t suprising. Anyone with even a passing interest in NYSUT understands that the head of the UFT calls the shots in both the UFT and NYSUT. Mulgrew’s presence in the Cuomo meeting only furthers that notion. It’s why they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with claiming that he is simply just another local president. If that were the case there are hundreds of other local presidents they could have called on. Virtually all of them would have had more classroom experience, and therefore be more in touch with our membership, than Mulgrew. As a matter of fact, I am sure our very own Beth Dimino, who was busy teaching science last week, would have cleared her schedule to send the governor a message. Dimino, after all, has some skin in the game, as they say. She will be evaluated, just as her members will be, by whatever APPR scheme New York’s teachers end up with. That doesn’t apply to union elites like Mulgrew or Magee. After all it’s doubtful they have been inside many more classrooms than Cuomo has this year.
These meetings apparently aren’t as secret as the ones that secured double pensions for NYSUT officers, however the NY Daily News reported yesterday that NYSUT’s Karen Magee and the UFT’s Michael “Take my Common Core and I’ll punch you in the face!” Mulgrew have quietly met with aides for Governor Cuomo recently.
Via the Daily News…
Shortly after unveiling ads last week attacking Gov. Cuomo’s education plans, the heads of the city and state teacher unions met with aides to the governor, the Daily News has learned.
City teachers union President Michael Mulgrew and New York State United Teachers President Karen Magee attended the meeting on Friday at the state Capitol.
Sources say the unions during the meeting may have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads, leaving some insiders to question whether the sides are trying to hammer out some type of agreement on how to move forward.
The union leaders said the talks were not unusual and insisted they were not pulling back on their TV ads and social-media outreach attacking the governor’s proposals to strengthen teacher evaluations, streamline disciplinary hearings and expand charter schools.
“We talk to elected officials all the time,” said UFT spokeswoman Alison Gendar. “We . . . are engaged in the largest grass-roots campaign in recent memory to empower teachers and to protect our students.”
NYSUT rep Carl Korn added its campaign is “accelerating.”
Over at the Perdido Street School blog, Reality-Based Educator has several good posts up already on this topic. Be sure to head on over and check them out.
Sources say the unions during the meeting may have agreed to temporarily pull their attack ads…
This goes into the category of Mulgrew “threatening” to go to court to enforce the CFE lawsuit over state funding that was “won” 10 years ago. Threatening. Why not wait another 10 years to go to court?
Cuomo puts outrageous demands on the table and the unions put nothing on the table. So they negotiate from where Cuomo started and even if they split the baby — 4 year tenure instead of 5? 35% based on eval instead of 50%? It is – as Fearless Forecaster often says — a LOSS.
There is a lot to process here. One publication says the ads may be pulled as part of a deal. Another publication quotes a NYSUT spokesperson saying that the campaign against Cuomo is being accelerated. I don’t honestly believe that the ad campaign is being pulled. I think that even NYSUT and UFT officials know they can’t do that. They have to at least continue to give the appearance that they are fighting for their members. Pulling the ads now would be virtually impossible for them to do. Particularly since it is certain that doing so would only ramp up the anti-Cuomo actions that are being planned and carried out around the state by the rank and file NYSUT members. Nothing would make NYSUT leadership look as out of touch with the rank and file as calling off a fight while it’s dues paying members ratchet up the intensity of theirs. Cuomo surely knows this too.
What I think will ultimately happen is that NYSUT will continue to run it’s ads and use it’s #InviteCuomo and #AllKidsNeed hashtags while behind closed doors our surrender is negotiated. We will end up with an APPR agreement that continues to erode tenure and is worse than what we currently have. Because it will be somewhat less damaging than the one Cuomo proposed in his budget NYSUT and the UFT will claim “victory!” Of course a “victory” in which every teacher, student, and community in the state loses out on will ring as the hollowest of “victories.”
This all may very well end up as what Arthur Goldstein heard a few weeks back. That an APPR deal was likely done and that it would either raise test scores to 40% of teacher evaluations or give the entire state the awful deal that the city teachers have dealt with for the past couple of years. Arthur also outlined the likely spin coming from NYSUT and the UFT, that by holding Cuomo off of 50% this is some how a “victory” for our teachers. Via NYC Educator…
I don’t have a lot of time right now, but several sources I trust tell me there is already a deal in place for a new APPR plan. They think it will either be a 40% junk science plan, or that it may be a statewide model based on the NYC plan. The NYC plan, while we in NYC don’t much like it, is a better one than those in a few upstate cities that were poorly negotiated. It is not nearly as good as those many small locals came up with.
…
An agreement could actually still be made to make an NYC-style evaluation statewide, which Mulgrew alluded to at the last DA, or 40% statewide junk science. In either of these scenarios, UFT/ NYSUT could argue that Cuomo wanted 50% and we kept it down to 40.
All of this makes one thing crystal clear. The one and only weapon left to fight back corporate education deform in New York State is the refusal movement. Here in Comsewogue last year, where we had in excess of 60% of our students who refused to take the grades 3-8 assessments, very few teachers received growth scores from the state because not enough of their students took the exams. The message is simple. If you deprive the APPR machine of the data it needs, the entire evaluation scheme breaks. It is the last remaining weapon at our disposal and it is the one thing that every New York State teacher should be picking up.
Yesterday NYSUT held a Moral Monday rally on the Million Dollar Staircase in the state Capitol. Kudos to them for protesting funding inequities that rob our students of the education they deserve.
One thing I noticed in the coverage of yesterday’s events was that, deservedly so, there was lots of tough talk aimed at Governor Cuomo. From Andy Pallotta to Mike Mulgrew to Randi Weingarten, Cuomo was being called to task for his record as an ed deformer. What was unfortunate, however, is that none of this tough talk came last year when it mattered most. When there was a viable alternative to Cuomo in the race for governor the three aforementioned “unionists” weren’t talking tough about Cuomo. Instead Mulgrew was threatening the Working Families Party with dissolution if they didn’t endorse Cuomo and marching with the governor in the Labor Day Parade. NYSUT was hiding under a rock and throwing their money at reformy John Flanagan and Randi Weingarten was making robo calls on behalf of Cuomo’s running mate. So pardon me if their tough talk now rings a bit hollow to me.
Our friend Reality Based Educator had a good observation yesterday as well. Lost in all of this talk about funding inequities has been the fact that there has been little if any talk about the Cuomo and Tisch APPR agenda. As RBE points out on his Perdido Street School blog, it’s likely due to the fact that a big APPR sellout is on the way.
The union leadership puts together a rally with a message focused on the inequities between rich and poor districts.
Speaker Silver says education funding will be a “top priority” in this legislative session.
But there’s little-to-no pushback on the damages of test-based evaluations or redoing the evaluation system to make tests 40% of the entire rating (and really 100%, since if you come up “ineffective” on 40%, you’re ineffective overall.)
You can see how this will play out in negotiations, can’t you?
If you’ve been a teacher and have watched these kinds of fights for a while, I bet you can.
The unions and Assembly Dems will trade Cuomo’s evaluation, tenure, and 3020a “reforms” for more “education funding.”
And of course Cuomo will get his increase of the cap and funding for charter schools – that goes without saying.
…
It’s a lot of noise meant to fool the rank and file into thinking the union leaders plan on trying to protect them in upcoming negotiations.
Make no mistake – they don’t.
They plan on selling you out, giving Cuomo and the charter school entrepreneurs most (if not all) of what they want on the charter cap and charter funding, giving Cuomo and Tisch most (if not all) of what they want on the evaluation system “reforms” and 3020a changes in return for a few extra dollars in “education funding.”
We’ll hit on the coming sellout more in the coming weeks. For now one other thing to note…
Why is NYSUT giving VOTE-COPE money to John Flanagan? The Republican senator, who chairs the senate’s K-12 education committee, is a noted ed deformer and member of ALEC. He is on the take from reform group StudentsFirst and has been in the news for backing changes to the APPR that would take local control away from school districts. Flanagan has supported the idea of eroding tenure rights. He was also the senator who complained to Comsewogue’s administration that Beth Dimino needed to speak to him in a more deferential tone. He was not endorsed by NYSUT as there was literally no reason to endorse him. So one certainly wonders why NYSUT contributed $7,750 to him in this past election. That made them one of Flanagan’s top donors. Not issuing an endorsement is sort of pointless if you are going to then fill the coffers of that candidate anyway.
Several years back, when discussing the work of our local union I had a colleague say to me, “If you can’t trust your union, who can you trust?” I, of course, agreed wholeheartedly. Years later I can still agree with this statement in regards to my local union. Over the course of my career the PJSTA has provided me with wonderful working conditions, a good living wage, and excellent benefits. On top of that they have represented my voice well in matters regarding public education and legislative issues that impact our profession. They have advocated for the students we teach and the community that we serve. The PJSTA, over the course of my 13 years as a member has undoubtedly earned my trust. Where things change, however, is with my other unions. My parent unions.
There was a time when I would go to the polls with a list of NYSUT endorsed candidates in my pocket and vote accordingly, believing that they had made endorsements only to those who would be fighting for quality public education. Additionally I would give generously from each pay check towards VOTE-COPE, with the belief that this money was going towards those candidates who would fight for the sort of public education system that I could be proud of. The type that benefited our students and communities. After all, if you can’t trust your union, who can you trust?
Unfortunately I have learned over the past couple of years that I can’t trust NYSUT and I can’t trust the AFT. I say them separately, though the elements that make them untrustworthy tend to be one and the same (The UFT leadership’s Unity Caucus, which controls both NYSUT and the AFT).
As we sit here, a week into 2015, the public education landscape looks bleaker than ever. We have clear adversaries regarding the attacks on our profession and what is perhaps most disturbing is the way in which our parent unions have, in many ways, been complicit in working with those adversaries.
For example, let’s look at Governor Cuomo. Cuomo was a clear enemy of public education throughout his first term in office, even going so far as to say that schools whose test scores weren’t good enough should receive the “death penalty.” By now we all know the litany of other offenses on Cuomo’s part. It goes without saying that Cuomo should have been public enemy #1 for NYSUT. If they were representing the voice of their membership he certainly would be. Let’s take a look at the NYSUT timeline of events regarding Cuomo over the past year…
April- The Revive NYSUT slate, backed by Mike Mulgrew and Unity Caucus, wins the NYSUT elections while vowing that they are “Against Cuomo.”
Summer- Teachout, with a great platform on public education, campaigns against Cuomo with the intention of challenging him in the Democratic Primary in September. NYSUT remains silent throughout, rather than opposing him. They had an opportunity to endorse Teachout in the primary at their summer endorsement conference. We wrote about the result in August…
There was certainly more than one local president at the endorsement conference who asked for an endorsement of Teachout in the primary. Our own Beth Dimino was one of them. That brings me to another option for NYSUT. Dimino suggested that if Teachout were to lose to Cuomo in the primary, NYSUT should support the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones for governor and lieutenant governor. We covered their education platform back in May. So NYSUT had two separate options to oppose Cuomo and they chose none. Despite pleas from their membership and presidents from locals around the state, Magee, Pallotta, and the rest of NYSUT’s board of directors decided in their private meeting yesterday that they would not oppose Cuomo.
September- Only days before the primary, AFT President Randi Weingarten (former UFT President and Unity Caucus member), made robo calls in support of Cuomo’s running mate Kathy Hochul, a back door endorsement for Cuomo if there ever was one.
September- At the Labor Day parade in Manhattan, UFT President, NYSUT Board of Director member, and the Unity Caucus’ Mulgrew marches with Cuomo.
September 9th- Cuomo and Hochul beat Teachout and her running mate Tim Wu in the primary. Teachout garnered 34% of the vote, Wu 40% despite the fact that Cuomo spent 40 times (!) as much as Teachout. NYSUT was busy throwing their VOTE-COPE money at ed deformers like John Flanagan, who is well funded by StudentsFirst, the pro-charter, pro-voucher Jeff Klein, and the indicted Thomas Libous. They chose not to give a dime to Teachout who could have desperately used the funding to help combat Cuomo’s Wall Street funded campaign. Teachout, of course, could have also benefited from an endorsement that would have gone out to NYUST’s 600,000 members (you’ll recall that Cuomo’s margin of victory was less than 150,000).
November- Cuomo wins re-election with only 53% of the vote. Of particular note is the fact that he had the Working Families line on the ballot. If Teachout had gotten that endorsement back in May and ran to the left of Cuomo she likely would have pulled a considerable number of Democratic voters with her and severely harmed Cuomo’s chances of winning the election.
The names of the organizations may have changed in the above scenarios, but the faces behind them are essentially the same. Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew pull the strings more than any other. In NYSUT, Executive Vice-President Andy Pallotta mostly does their bidding while the other officers fall in line. Pallotta, Mulgrew, and Weingarten have all taken the Unity Caucus oath and have all benefited from it tremendously. That’s why they won’t act in opposition to Cuomo. They won’t act in opposition to the Common Core. They will do very little to benefit the members (though Martin Messner may save you money on your car insurance!). It’s only a matter of time before the statewide APPR sellout comes. Unfortunately not many of our statewide members benefit from the work of Unity Caucus. Most of us are actually hurt by it. That’s why I can say that I don’t trust my union.
The only way for things to ever change within NYSUT is to defeat the statewide Unity Caucus and their “seat at the table” brand of unionism. We need leadership who is driven by principle, by the desire to see our schools strengthened, and by the collective conscience of our rank and file membership. Not by an oath that they took to vote along party lines.
We are getting pretty late into this game now. Things are becoming more dire by the day. Maybe the coming APPR sellout will be what finally galvanizes our members to stand up and take back their union.
I have a lot of thoughts to share on the role of our unions in yesterday’s Cuomo victory in the Democratic primary. Within the next day or two, when I have the time to sit down and get those thoughts on paper I will share them. In the meantime our friend Reality-Based Educator who blogs over at Perdido Street School absolutely hit the nail on the head in his piece today.
Via Perdido Street School…
The only group of people who did more work than de Blasio to help Cuomo and his bank lobbyist running mate win the primary?
The UFT/AFT/NYSUT leaders:
1) who engineered a putsch at NYSUT to make sure the old leaders who had turned on Cuomo were ousted
2) who threatened the Working Families Party with dissolution if WFP gave their ballot slot to Zephyr Teachout
3) who refused to endorse Teachout in the primary and provide much needed cash and support for the Teachout/Wu campaign (as PEF did) and
4) who made robocalls for the campaign.
De Blasio, Weingarten, Magee, Mulgrew – four reasons why Andrew Cuomo will win re-election this year handily in the general election and his bank lobbyist running mate will ride along with him into power.
Head on over and read the entire thing. There are some good quotes from Tim Wu as well on the role that De Blasio played.
At yesterday’s Labor Day parade in New York City, Zephyr Teachout approached Andrew Cuomo. The same Andrew Cuomo who has refused to debate her, while outrageously claiming that debates do a disservice to democracy. Not only did Cuomo not debate her yesterday, but he didn’t shake her hand either. As a matter of fact he refused to even acknowledge her presence.
According to the Daily News Cuomo’s running mate, Kathy Hochul, also refused to acknowledge Teachout who even went as far as tapping Hochul on the shoulder.
Teachout said “hi” to Cuomo, the governor ignored her like she was the invisible woman and repeatedly asked, “Where’s Mayor Bill de Blasio?” Hizzoner waded through the crowd and gave Cuomo a kiss on the cheek.
Teachout also tapped Cuomo’s running mate, former Congresswoman Kathy Hochul, on her shoulder. Hochul was also frosty. She never turned around to face Teachout, giving her a steady view of her back.
“I just wanted to say hello as a courtesy,” Teachout said after Cuomo’s snub. “We’ve been running against each other, and it seems pretty clear by now he’s not going to debate.”
Cuomo has refused to debate the Fordham law professor.
“Someone get her out of here!” someone screamed.
…
“I know she was the parade, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her,” he (Cuomo) said.
Ah yes, Cuomo didn’t get a chance to talk to her. He makes it seem as though he frantically searched for her yet their paths never crossed. Meanwhile she stood two feet away saying “hi” to him.
Andrew Cuomo is the worst kind of politician. He is corrupt and has consistently put the needs of his Wall Street cronies ahead of the people of New York. The video below of the encounter with Teachout showed that he is not just a bad politician, but he is a classless coward as well. The same can be said for Kathy Hochul and Bill de Blasio.
The video is nauseating, compounded only by the appearance of the UFT President (and member of the NYSUT Board of Directors) Michael Mulgrew joining the Cuomo crew for the parade (see the :26 second mark of the video… the guy in the blue UFT hat is Mulgrew).
More on how you can help Teachout in the final days of her campaign before Tuesday’s primary in a little bit.
The Official Website of the PJSTA 