Tuesday, October 06, 2009

NEW TJC CONTRACT BULLETIN: DEFEND OUR ATRS!


Because their strategy to win a contract is so lame, UFT leaders are under great pressure to reach a deal before the mayoral election. Bloomberg and the D.O.E. have the ATRs in their sights. Will this combination spell termination for many ATRs? What can we do to defend our colleagues? Check out the text of our latest leaflet, below. Then, reply to this email to get a pdf or hard copy to reproduce and distribute in your school.
Contract Alert:
Defend the ATRs!
More than 1,500 UFT members are now ATRs: second class union members whose professional rights are being violated every day. The DOE and the Mayor have worked hard to create this crisis. Without any justification, they stigmatized these colleagues as bad teachers, allowed principals to hire new, inexperienced teachers, trained new classes of "Teaching Fellows," and blocked a retirement incentive that would have opened up positions.
The UFT's Unity Caucus leadership deserves some of the blame for this crisis. In the 2005 contract, they negotiated away the rights of excessed teachers to be placed in vacancies in other schools, and allowing principals completely control over hiring.
All summer, the DOE orchestrated a media campaign to present the ATRs as a waste of the taxpayers' money. At the end of each article, there would be a plea from Chancellor Klein to put a limit on how long teachers could remain in what was outrageously portrayed as a vacation spot for incompetents. After that, DOE wants to terminate them.
The DOE has declared a hiring freeze, supposedly to get principals to hire ATRs as a cost-saving measure. However, it's full of loopholes. It does not apply to certain licenses, or to new schools. Some principals have waivers and others are just plain hiding vacancies.
Now, the UFT leadership is under tremendous pressure to negotiate a contract in a hurry, while Bloomberg is still a candidate for reelection and possibly willing to give something in exchange for the UFT's neutrality in that race. But last summer's publicity campaign against ATRs makes it clear that the City is set on creating a deadline for ATRs to find a position.
We have to give the UFT leadership this message loud and clear: No matter how important it is to make a fast deal, they must not yield an inch on the protection of ATRs.
Some ATRs are veterans from schools that closed through no fault of their own. Some ATRs are new teachers excessed because of budget cuts. None of us is immune. You could be a future ATR.
ATRs deserve the same rights as all teachers: positions, seniority, rights such as program preferences, session rotation, and applying for compensatory time positions.
We also need to be alert that, in their "zeal to deal," UFT leaders don't soften on state legislation to use test data for tenure decisions, or on lifting the caps on charter schools.
This dangerous rush to reach an agreement is the result of the contract strategy of the UFT's Unity Caucus leadership. They have staked everything on the hope Bloomberg will make an acceptable agreement in exchange for our neutrality in the mayoral race. On this basis, the UFT leadership has led absolutely no contract campaign, not even the token events they've held in the past. Even if some kind of deal is reached, this is a destructive plan in the long run. Our membership is already losing interest and involvement in the union. It seems ever less relevant to their lives. Leaving us completely out of the contract process means that, however good or bad this one turns out, when the next one rolls around, we'll be in trouble. There will be even less experience of mobilization, and the muscles of our union will be even flabbier.
Unity's strategy of limiting - and, more recently, totally eliminating - contract mobilizations has been a disaster. Not only is there an ATR crisis, we are now working longer and harder, with fewer rights and protections, than twenty or even ten years ago. That extra money we got for working longer has been eroded by inflation, but the extra time we work doesn't get any shorter.
It's clear that the UFT needs a different strategy if we are going to halt our downward spiral and make gains. Teachers for a Just Contract believes part of the answer is a more democratic and activist union. UFT elections this coming winter will give us the opportunity for a true alternative. Teachers for a Just Contract, in coalition with the Independent Community of Educators and other groups, is running James Eterno, a longtime teacher and Chapter Leader at Jamaica High School, for UFT President. To find out more about us, check out our website, TeachersforaJustContract.org. To volunteer for this campaign, or for more information, you can email us at justcontract@yahoo.com, contact us by telephone at 212-831-3408, or send the coupon below to Teachers for a Just Contract, POB 1346, Bronx, NY 10471.
NEXT TJC MEETING - FRIDAY OCTOBER 16
Our next contract could be just around the corner. Please join us to discuss a rank and file response. Friday, October 2, 4 PM, room 313 at the High School of Art and Design, 1075 Second Avenue, near East57 Street. Closest subway stop is 59 Street/Lexington Avenue on the 4, 5, 6, N and R. Also nearby, 53 Street stop on the E and V trains.
POP QUIZ ON THE SEPTEMBER DELEGATE ASSEMBLY
True or False: 1. According to President Mulgrew, for the UFT, the most important race in the coming city elections is the mayoral race. 2. The majority of the time at the Special D.A. on UFT Contract demands was spent on discussion of UFT Contract demands. 3. At this D.A., President Mulgrew informed the Delegates what the city's demands were. 4. At this D.A., Mulgrew urged Delegates to let members know what the union's demands are, so we know what we need to mobilize to win.
Answers: If you answered "True" to any of these, you are under some degree of illusion that the UFT leadership is dedicated to democracy and to organizing members to win the best possible contract.
To find out what really happened at the Delegate Assembly (minus the verbatim demands, which those present were exhorted not to put in print to anybody) reply to this email, and ask for Marian Swerdlow's D.A. Notes.
THE TRUTH BEHIND OUR TWO VACATION DAYS
For this and other recent TJC Leaflets, check out our website, TeachersforaJustContract.org.

Our mailing address is TJC, POB 1346, Bronx NY 10471

2 comments:

Astronomy said...

This dangerous rush to reach an agreement is the result of the contract strategy of the UFT's Unity Caucus leadership. They have staked everything on the hope Bloomberg will make an acceptable agreement in exchange for our neutrality in the mayoral race. On this basis, the UFT leadership has led absolutely no contract campaign, not even the token events they've held in the past. Even if some kind of deal is reached, this is a destructive plan in the long run. Our membership is already losing interest and involvement in the union. It seems ever less relevant to their lives.

NY_I said...

This is one instance in which the union needs to exert top-down power to force the city, audit-style, to open up about the recent hiring patterns. As I detailed in my http://nycityeyeblogspot.com blogpost today, ATR teachers are too vulnerable and isolated at their sites to raise it at the level of the school site.
LET the ATRs TEACH.