As the NYSUT World Turns: Some NYC Unity Caucus Delegates May Bolt and Vote Stronger Together

Leroy Barr Offer to Unity RA Delegates

Reports are surfacing that a small faction of Unity may just vote their conscience and damn the consequences at the April 5 NYSUT Representative Assembly.

Unity Caucus held a meeting at 52 Broadway (UFT HQ) after last Wednesday's (March 19) Delegate Assembly - with dinner served (were they using our dues money - did they pay rent? Can MORE hold caucus meetings there too?).

Leroy Barr strongly reminded the 800 Unityites who were elected as delegates to state and national conventions in the March 2013 elections that they were expected to vote as a block for the Mulgrew/Weingarten instigated Revive slate in the April 5 NYSUT election and they would be watched due to the open ballot.

There are early signs that Barr's message did not go over very well with at least a few of the Unity faithful, soon to be classified as traitors and drummed out of the Caucus if they should dare cast their vote for Stronger Together on April 5.

Barr also admonished them that they should not miss sessions to traipse around the city, as usual, using their meal money to eat at local restaurants. "Bring your own food and snacks into the convention hall" - paraphrasing Barr's comment from someone who was present. I'll bring them a bag of peanuts when I stop by late Saturday afternoon on April 5th after I work the FIRST LEGO League robotics tournament at the Javits Center.

Too bad I'll miss Arthur Goldstein's early morning speech that day. Arthur us running a piece this morning (On Timeliness and Learning) chronicling  his travels around the state speaking and making new friends as he goes head to head for NYSUT VP against former UFT District Rep Andy Pallotta, who by the way makes around $350,000 a year. I gotta hit Arthur for a loan when he wins - and by the way, if he does I bet we see Arthur make a move to reduce those crazy salaries of our union leaders, just as Karen Lewis did in Chicago.

Arthur has a funny piece running this morning on
The Sad Tale of UFT-Unity's Robo Voters with cartoons yet.




That Barr had to make this point so strongly as a reminder to the Unity faithful (and those soon to be not so faithful) is a sign there is some unhappiness inside Unity Caucus (in the UFT) with the way the NYSUT split was fomented.

In some of my personal contacts when the subject comes up there is a rolling of the eyes. Sometimes a shrug. Clearly, little enthusiasm for the initiative to dump the current NYSUT leadership minus Andy Pallotta, a leadership that has one of their popular former members - Maria Neira - being dumped too. Maria still has a lot of supporters in Unity. Her integrity is well-known and counts for something when she sticks with Dick Iannuzzi when she probably could have deserted him for what could have been a guaranteed win if she ran on the Revise slate.

We always know that there are some decent Unity Caucus people with a conscience, but a conscience that will be put on hold when it comes to supporting dictums from the top. (I remember on the bus to the airport in Seattle after the 2010 Bill Gates AFT convention, some Unity people approached me and said they agreed with Ed Notes on many positions and trashed Randi and the Gates appearance. That didn't stop them from booing the people who walked out on Gates.)

There are some Unity people planning on leaving the caucus on their own and this vote will be their form of resigning. If they are thrown out of the caucus before the AFT July convention in LA, do they still get to go, given they were elected? In 2010, a Unity delegate and chapter leader who had invited my pal Angel Gonzalez to her soon to be closed school was tossed from the convention trip because she hadn't paid her Unity dues on time. She sent me off to Seattle with a scathing criticism of Randi/Mulgrew and Unity and joined GEM (the pre-cursor to MORE and Change the Stakes).

How interesting if even a sliver of Unity actually joins Stronger Together, the first even minor break in Unity here in the city since the mid-to late 60s. (We saw in the 2013 elections a large rank and file desertion of Unity - votes that MORE was not able to pick up.)

There is so much going on behind the scenes that I can't talk about yet - if I did I would have to kill you. But you will read it here first.

Stay tuned to "As the NYSUT World Turns."

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Breaking: Arthur Goldstein Runs for NYSUT VP Against Unity's Andy Pallotta

This, ladies and gentleman, is an example of true grassroots unionism.  A rank and file teacher, who has been in his classroom teaching today, finding an avenue to make his voice heard.  Bottom up, member driven unionism at it’s finest. 

Posted on the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association blog. I've been telling reporters calling about our coverage of this story that there are surprises coming. Maybe a few more to come.  When is the last time Andy Pallotta was in a classroom as a full-time teacher? (and please let's not count the one period a day when he was District 10 (Bronx) rep.)

Arthur Goldstein Shakes Up the NYSUT Election Scene

Posted on February 10, 2014 by thepjsta

Arthur Goldstein

We have learned this afternoon that Arthur Goldstein, who has been referred to by none other than Diane Ravitch as “NYC’s best teacher-blogger” is throwing his hat into the NYSUT election ring with the intention of running against incumbent Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta. 

Pallotta, who curiously thought all NYSUT officers but himself needed to be changed, recently cobbled together the “Revive NYSUT” slate to challenge the other incumbent officers.  Coincidentally, I am sure, he made sure to leave himself in a position he believed would be uncontested.  Now, however, he will have a contested election on his hands against a very qualified candidate.

Goldstein will be familiar to readers of this blog as the author of the blog NYC Educator where he has been blogging about education since 2005.  It is a blog we frequently have referenced on this site.  Additionally he has written articles about education for the Huffington Post (see here) and the Daily News, among other publications.  Goldstein works as an ESL teacher at Francis Lewis High School in Queens where he is also a UFT chapter leader. 

Those of you on Twitter may very well be familiar with him as he is a frequent participant in education related topics under the handle @TeacherArthurG.  Be sure to give him a follow if you don’t already.  While a member of the UFT, Goldstein has been outspoken in his criticism of the Unity Caucus leadership of his local.

Via his guest post on our blog, “Reviving Unionism”…

It’s funny to hear people in NYSUT complaining about democracy. I’m chapter leader of one of the largest schools in NYC, and neither I nor anyone in my school gets to vote or participate at all in NYSUT or AFT. Though I’ve been elected twice, that means nothing. The only way a city teacher gets to be part of NYSUT is to be part of Unity, an invitation-only caucus that has run the union for over 50 years. I’ve never been invited.
The reason for that, I suppose, is my public point of view. I’ve been published in the Daily News, at Huffington Post, at Gotham Schools, on Schoolbook, on multiple blogs, and in local Queens newspapers taking positions contrary to those of UFT leadership. For example, I wrote a column labeling mayoral control mayoral dictatorship. Though giving Michael Bloomberg absolute power was a bad idea, the UFT supported it. After he used it to close schools all over the city, aiding no one but privatizers, we supported it again.
I also oppose value-added ratings for teachers, since they have no basis in science, and since great teachers have lost jobs as a result.  I can’t support Common Core, no matter how many millions of dollars Bill Gates pours into it, as I don’t believe it helps the students we serve when we fail most of them and use said failure to label working teachers as defective. Brilliant education historian Diane Ravitch shares my positions, and it’s ironic to be excluded from not only UFT, but also NYSUT and AFT for the crime of sharing her opinions.

It appears as though Goldstein will now circumvent the lack of a Unity Caucus invitation as he attempts to have his voice heard in his state union.

This, ladies and gentleman, is an example of true grassroots unionism.  A rank and file teacher, who has been in his classroom teaching today, finding an avenue to make his voice heard.  Bottom up, member driven unionism at it’s finest.

Goldstein will now give NYSUT delegates a very appealing alternative to Andrew Pallotta, who has seen Tiers 5 and 6, along with the tax cap on his watch. 

Goldstein’s frequent and harsh criticism of Andy Cuomo also stands in stark contrast to Pallotta who used $10,000 in VOTE COPE funds to secure a table for his Revive NYSUT cronies at Cuomo’s birthday party.

We will have more on this situation as it unfolds and as we move closer to April’s NYSUT election.

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