The MORE caucus will present this resolution at today’s UFT Delegate Assembly. Tomorrow we will publish our DA report.
Whereas, educators are fearful of reporting detrimental working and learnings conditions established by principals who work in a dictatorial
Whereas, our contract provides due process for all UFT members; and
Whereas, whistleblowers such as Francesco Portelos have been removed from schools and now falsely arrested and imprisoned for reporting abusive conditions and expressing their free speech rights; be it therefore
Resolved, that after careful consideration, the UFT will publish a list of DOE’s most abusive administrators in its newspaper, website, social media, and in a press release; and be it further
Resolved, that the UFT will escalate its defense of educators who speak out on behalf of their colleagues and students; and be it further
Resolved, that the defense of UFT members, particularly chapter leaders, who speak truth to power will include, but not be limited to, a full mobilization of our membership for protests and rallies with educators, parents, students, and concerned community members to expose despicable administrators; and be it further
Resolved, that UFT will demand the immediate removal of all administrators that are found as being abusive
“When UFT members are under attack, we must stand up and fight back!”
nice idea; I will treat everyone to donuts and coffee if it passes. Dave
It has been passed in the past. This is just restating what is already in place. So why should there be another resolution to do the same thing we have done in the past? Does MORE not look at previous resolutions, or know the history of the UFT DA? Just in case some one at MORE needs the link to the archive. http://www.uft.org/where-we-stand/union-resolutions
We need a new resolution because teachers are still not being defended! We need this resolution and, more importantly, the follow through (in the new contract) so that bully bosses will not be able to continue to disregard the contract and teachers’ rights.
Let’s see how much pull UNITY has in the UFT membership, if MORE members get a seat at the state level. :)
Dear Sancha,
There was some discussion of exactly the resolution Emil Pietromonaco spoke about from June 2012 built into the drafting process for this resolution.
At the DA today, I thought Kit Wainer made it very clear that this resolution, and MORE is calling for something different. We believe that only supporting harassed teachers through quiet legal action is not sufficient, and that instead, we need to mobilize publically to show support for our harassed colleagues. We need to make it clear that we, as a union of teachers, stand together against abusive or inept school leaders, because ultimately, their poor leadership hurts us, our students, and our society.
Today at the DA, people spoke about the unjust imprisonment of Francesco Portelos. His case is unique, in part because he continues to courageously speak out about both problems at his school, and in our system as a whole. He was also tenured. His case was also taken up by the UFT.
Many teachers who face similar challenges are not so lucky. Many teachers live in fear of their administrators, and do not feel that our union sufficiently “has their back.” Furthermore, they cannot grieve letters in their file, since we lost that right in our 2005 contract.
Our resolution, and the actions it suggested, were meant as a way to offer all of those teachers some hope, support, and solidarity.
What is already in place is not enough. We, as a union, can do better.
I agree we should stand together as a union against inept administrators but the resolution proposed was over the top. Publicly shaming people is not the way to go about it. Do we not remember the teacher data reports? We as a Union should not resort to such despicable tactics. We are above that.
How many teachers have actually been fired over the years? Abusive administrators have been around a long time, but none of them have shined so brilliantly as those under the regime of our former Mayor. The nastiest of those ED bosses was given a parade and official recognition during his era, but he is gone now. DB and the progressives will want an administrative metamorphosis, and they will get one. It will be a slow process so have patience. As Dylan once posited, ” The times they are a changing.” Thank you, Dr. John Marvul.
Sancha,
Did you forget about the resolution passed on 2011 to protect chapter leaders? It was ignored so in 2012 we passed another “reaffirming” the protection. How’s that working out?
#UFT2016
I was present at the Delegate Assembly and felt that this party’s proposed resolution crossed boundaries. Forcing the hand of New York Teacher to publish inept and abusive administrators is not just bad politicking but it makes us no better than our former Bloomberg administration.
The proposal of the resolution provided bare bones information about Francesco Portelos. I am unaware of this educator, and his abusive conditions, and felt that the the resolution used his case try and manipulate the delegate body. I found it unprofessional to blast an educator’s case out there in an attempt to grab the attention of the body.
There is already a system in place and I am confident that UFT has done what it needs to do to clear up the names of it’s members in the case of abusive working conditions. Furthermore, to mobilize people to rally and picket for every poor administrator will surely land us back in the papers and media. We are working to BUILD up the good name of educators in our society and this surely is not the way to go about it!
Hi swiftheart,
I will concede that we could have provided more details of Francesco’s case, although he has his own blog and has been featured in several newspaper articles. He did approve of the resolution, but in the future we will take your fair critiques into consideration.
I must respectfully disagree with you on your second point , as a union isn’t it our job to mobilize our members to rally in support of each other? Part of building our union is by working with students, parents, and community members to advocate for our public education system. I know we all agree that there are terrible administrators in some schools who work against our students and their educators. Wouldn’t organizing with the local school community gain us positive press, rather than the constant political back room deal strategy that our current UFT leadership employs? I’m not sure how passing this resolution and gathering our sisters and brothers to defend our children would ruin our good name.
At any rate, we look forward to our continued open dialogue. MORE caucus welcomes all rank and file educators with a diverse set of perspectives. i can personally assure you your thoughts are welcome here!
Best regards,
Mike Schirtzer