I wish to thank UFT President Mike Mulgrew for graciously sending out not one, but two, emails regarding the new contract. It was chock full of information that I, an informed UFT member, need and which will allow me to properly discuss when mocked by the chimps at the Bronx Zoo for being part of a union that can't do right by it's members.
As discussed on these pages this past Thursday, the throwing under the bus of the ATR's is a deal breaker for us here at SBSB and apparently all those with a modicum of independent thought. As we were reading our personal message from President Mulgrew we sucked in the details he wished to share with us. Unfortunately, President Mulgrew only wants us to know the news he wants us to know and not anything else. Which leaves it up to us, myself and The Crack Team, to share what wasn't shared.
President Mulgrew is super duper excited about how great the contract is. I have never read such a superbly excited letter addressed to me ever in my life. But one thing is bugging us here at SBSB. Something seems to be missing. Can you guess what it is?
Figure it out? Who needs more time? Of all the new and exciting thingys we now have in the contract, the pay raise and retro pay that will take almost a decade to receive, the new merit pay for teachers with levels that seems to be named after trim models for automobiles, to the new (I have goosebumps now as I am writing this!) lack of rules, contract, and chancellor's regs for 200 schools, there is nary a word from President Mulgrew about the plight of the ATR's. Why is that?
We here at SBSB feel it is safe to assume that President Mulgrew knows that he threw the ATR's out with the bath water. That he personally threw them under the proverbial bus and that he thinks we, the rank and file are so stupid, so greedy, so desperate for contract, that he hopes we think of the ATR's are non-people. Mulgrew is using the old, "Out of sight, out of mind," Jedi mind trick and praying that no one notices their not being mentioned.
But the deception gets better. On the official UFT propaganda blog, The People's Daily, oops, we meant, the DailyNK, oops, Edwize, again not a word about how the new contract affects the ATR's. Look, see for yourself (Shhhh, if we don't think about he ATR's it means they don't exist and we can do whatever we want).
Where, oh where, can we find out information about the ATR's that does not come from here, or Accountable Talk, or Reality Based Educator, Chaz, or any other blog?
Simple, the UFT website. Click here, and find the button on the left hand side for ATR's. Click that link and you will read;
The union stood by its commitment to educators in the ATR pool. We prevented the DOE from summarily firing ATRs, and we also won a voluntary severance package for ATRs.
In a new two-year pilot, ATRs will improve access to professional and relevant job placements. Under the new contract, the DOE is obliged after Oct. 15 to send an ATR to any school in the district/borough with a vacancy in the teacher’s license area. The principal retains the discretion to keep the teacher or return him or her to the ATR pool.
A modified due-process procedure puts the burden on supervisors to provide specific written documentation in cases of discipline.
The union did not stand by the ATR's. The DOE was never summarily terminating the ATR's. The UFT held the upper hand and folded like a cheap suit. So now instead of the threat of ATR's being summarily terminated there will just be a show trial in a modified, no, an abbreviated 3020a hearing and then be summarily terminated. Can anyone say, "Open to abuse?"
One last thing, "Pilot Program?" Nothing you give away ever comes back. Not the puppy, not the kitten, not money, and certainly not givebacks in a contract.
Vote no on this contract. I don't care if we were getting 25% raise, as long as our ATR brethren are being abused, lied to, and forgotten about, no amount of money will allow me to forget about them.
4 comments:
You are obviously emotionally attached to this issue. However, you need to look at the apparent union busting that is in place, a la the 10% "pilot" program. That's the true danger I see in the contract. For all concerned.
I and others have seen the union busting happening for some time. Sadly, our union leadership does not see this.
They perpetrate it.
I don't like the slow phase out of public schools that is obviously planned. Ten percent next year, 25% the year after, then 40% the year after...
Don't be foolish, we don't have a union. That's been the case ever since Mulgrew arrived on the scene. No union; just dues.
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