UFT Contract: Why Union Officials Owe Ellen Fox, Me and MORE

View from my deck

Oh, what I gave up to spend 2 days observing the vote count as a MORE rep. (I'm still redoing my ravaged garden from Sandy.) 

The UFT owes Ellen and me bigtime. Here's why.

A call came in last night (I'm paraphrasing): "Norm, if not for your ed notes piece on the count being honest the people in my school - almost 100% NO - would be ready to storm UFT HQ over what looks like a shady vote count."

So I assured him from what I saw there was no way. "What about Unity chapter leaders doing something funny (there is such trust in the Unity machine out there)?" We went over possible scenarios and nothing really made sense - that a vast conspiracy would have been needed and someone at some time would talk.



But he didn't quite give up. "My sister's elementary school is also all NO." "Come on," I said, "maybe she is just talking to a small subset." So he called up his sister and called me back. "Nope. She said they were overwhelming NO from the get-go."

There was no active MOREista in her school. So what explains this? I just don't know.

But the point of this piece is that if Ellen and I weren't there representing MORE, there would be a hell of a lot of suspicion.

When MORE first began negotiating with Leroy Barr about observers, his first response was that one observer from each caucus  would be allowed. MORE objected, demanding it be open to everyone, not just caucuses. (Info on Observing Contract Vote Count).

I urged MORE to threaten to boycott the observation with, "The UFT needs us more than we need them on this one because if we are NOT there they will be charged with stealing the vote no matter what happens."

My fellow MOREistas rejected my idea because they felt it important to have observers there -- and anyway, Leroy came back with a proposal to allow anyone who wanted to come to do so.

So how important was it for the UFT to have us there? And shouldn't they be sending Ellen and me a check for giving up 2 beautiful days?

Leroy, I'll take mine as per session. Make sure to add it to my pension.

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UFT Contract Vote Lessons: Number 1- Unity DID NOT STEAL THE VOTE

You know why Unity didn't steal the vote? 
BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO. 

(The first in a series of LESSONS - directed at the oppositionists to Unity - based on what I learned this time in the context of what I've known for the past 44 years.)

14 color cards for 9 bargaining units - why? beats me.

The emails started coming yesterday afternoon. Skeptics about the vote being real. People looking for chinks to challenge the outcome. Can the AAA be trusted? (Yes - they could go to jail if not).

I spent good chunks of the past 2 days watching the AAA process -- mostly temp workers from Philly and other places brought in to do the work of opening school packages, matching names to ballots (verification), opening up the outer envelopes and pulling the inner envelopes.

Photo by Leroy Barr - trying to blur me out

Then piles of inner envelopes with the ballot are opened and the cards are stacked for the counting machines - which we could watch. Does anyone really think these people would cheat? Hey, there was free pizza (which we shared). Do we think UFT officials were passing around hordes of cash under the tables? [NOTE - me fat belly BEFORE eating the pizza.]

NOTE- THESE TOTALS WERE PRELIMINARY, NOT FINAL - don't you love that 3 person chapter where it was 2 YES and 1 NO? Where is that Unity slug who challenged me yesterday when I suggested school totals be published?


Every batch I watched - say 1-200 hundred cards - had an overwhelming amount of YES - I was just watching the white teacher cards, not the 14 other colors. After a while I didn't even bother, the outcome was so clear even 15 minutes after I arrived at noon. Ellen Fox was there and said she saw 70-30. In my brief forays - where I counted YESes on one hand and NOs on the other, I was seeing 80-20 or 75-25. I think only one batch we watched looked 50-50ish. I never say a batch that had overwhelming NOs - which given that many of them were bunched from the same school, we might have seen.

I keep telling them Unity did not steal this election by cheating at the Unity dominated school level where rogue chapter leaders could substitute sure bet NO votes for yes votes.

But people kept coming up with theories.

Steam open the signed outer envelopes of sure NOs and substitute a NO ballot inside. Or just toss the NO person and make up a dupe and forge the signature on a new one.

And those 30 missing sheets I reported on after Monday? (UFT Contract: A Day At the Count - What I Learned).
They were down to 2 as the others were found in 2nd or 3rd packages.

The curious thing was about the OT/PT/Nurses chapter

Color cards: Nurses, OT, PT

vote which was overwhelmingly YES. All 3 are bunched together - about 500 are nurses who probably vote almost unanimously YES and 1200 OT/PT who apparently also voted mostly yes though it you break that out it might be closer -- the UFT has those break-out figures but I didn't get them.

The only issue I had was why it seemed 200 or 300 schools didn't send in ballots. I waited as late as I could to get that number but finally gave up around 7:30. A union official informed me that ballots were sent to 1650 schools. Why when there are supposed to be 1850? I also would want to know which schools did not send in ballots. I bet we would have to go to court to get that info. But I feel people are entitled to know if their school didn't get to vote.

I had long and intensive conversations with UFT Chief Financial Officer David Hickey and the UFT Membership head (sorry I forgot her name) about the process they used. They were open and answered every question in depth. They sent out ballots to I think 8000 homes using the last address they had. I went away understanding the process and the issues they faced in executing this vote. I had no problems.

If it is ever close, would there be some cheating at the school level or above? Hell yes - Given that the mantra is to keep control of the union and their jobs.

BUT - You know why they didn't cheat?

BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO.

Afterburn
UFT officials seemed genuinely happy at the turnout - and I think they were very embarrassed at the low 2013 union election turnout - even though winning, they looked sick when the saw the outcomes then. I think there will be serious thought about doing something different in the 2016 elections. Hickey seemed very up for that - and was talking about it with New Action's Mike Shulman. All the people involved in elections would have to be part of these discussions. The conspiracy theorists would be going wild and my solution of publishing outcomes in every school with over x members -- say 10 so it is a secret ballot --- that would be a serious check on cheating --- by either side - do I know a few anti-unity people I've met over the years with such hatred they would do anything? Hell yes. And you know who you are.

I'll close with the selfie I took with my ancient Blackberry - I wore the shirt on honor of the school which was killed under Bloomberg and is not being helped under Farina -and its great chapter leader John Elfrank-Dana.

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UFT Contract: Vote Predictions - Will the NO Voters Spark an Anti-Unity Movement?

Anyone for 80-20? 70-30? 60-40? How about 75-25?

(I scheduled this to be posted at 3PM, the rough time the vote count is expected to be announced. I will be there.)

Many of the bloggers have been out there predicting.

Mr. Talk Predicts: 2014 Contract Passes in a Landslide

Perdido Street School

UFT Contract Vote: Predictions And The Roadmap For The Future -

 Urban Ed is relatively optimistic:

My Contract Vote Prediction: 55% 45% (Sunday Morning Banter)

I view things from an organizational point of view - what does this vote mean, no matter what the count, for building an alternative to Unity? I know building MORE is an answer but I also don't want people who are not "joiners" to think they can't do anything -- but I'll explore that idea in a future post.

I remember the 2005 contract struggle where people came out of the woodwork - only to disappear once the rancor died down. The opposition - TJC and ICE were attracting people - but never managed to hold on to them. New Action had already sold out but did a faux "we oppose the contract".

So, Yes, I am wary this time about a post-vote movement.
Megan Behrent has a piece on the MORE blog.

What next after the UFT contract ratification vote? -
Megan did a great job on this analysis.

RBE at Perdido has a piece today with extensive quotes from Megan's piece: UFT Contract Vote: Predictions And The Roadmap For The Future -  

I tend to be pessimistic - my sense is 75-80 Yes because I feel the Unity machine reaches deep into so many schools the voice of opposition never gets close to. Only by facing this machine for 44 years do I know how they work. My younger colleagues tend to live in somewhat of a bubble. 

But this is a new world compared to 2005 - social media, MORE being a united opposition and so far the most effective group of people I've worked with - so there is hope.

Imagine a 20% NO vote and compare it with the vote for MORE in last year's election -- let's call it for sake of argument also 20%.

But comparing the two is apples and organges.

Our vote last year was 20% of the roughly 20% who voted in the schools. My math leads me to 5% of the total membership - say around 4000 votes - I'm too lazy to look it up. Unity's 80% in the elections was roughly around 15,000 votes - I may even be high.

Contract NO vote is a different thing altogether than union elections.

Let's look at how 20% NO votes translated if 80,000 teacher vote. I get 16,000 NO votes in what some people claim is a worst case scenario. If 70-30 that is 24,000 votes. And if the contract begins to fall apart in some areas - like an ATR slaughter fest, teachers from schools being excessed into the ATR pool, health care payments, etc. Those votes translate into opposition to Unity Caucus.

But a caveat -- they only translate into MORE's ability to coordinate this -- to become an effective alternative to Unity with wide outreach into the schools never touched and only subject to Unity propaganda. People do not realize how many chapter leaders are Unity - the key to their control. We will know more in next year's CL elections if there is a shift. If not don't expect widely different numbers in the 2016 elections. In other words if Unity controls 80% of the schools they will get 80% of the vote.

Unity machine exposed in contract struggle

A lot of people had their consciousness raised - it may be temporary  - but at some level the way Unity operates has been more widely exposed and infiltrated a certain portion of the rank and file who never really were aware.

Will they pay more attention one contract issue goes away?

The key to me is the work MORE is doing and can do.
It takes people power to challenge Unity - which in case you haven't noticed has lots of people power. The battles are won not on social media or at Delegate Assemblies but in the schools - in the trenches. If you think that battle is worth winning sitting on the sidelines is not an option

If you want to know MORE come to our meeting this Saturday form 12-3.

https://facebook.com/events/650100971732766

MORE General Meeting

June 7, 2014 at 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm

224 W. 29th St., 14th Fl. (Between 7th & 8th Aves) NYC

All are welcome! 

After the contract vote what are our next steps to build a better UFT? Come join us in evaluating the contract campaign and deciding on next steps.

How can we help organize the people who were opposed to this contract into a force that can defend UFT members from a bad contract?

Future steps: Organizing in our Schools, UFT Chapter elections, May/June 2015, UFT Elections, Jan-March 2016

Local/Regional groups: Meet with others who work in your neighboring schools or regions.

Reports from MORE action committees 

We hope to see you there!

Join us for post meeting happy hour at Pioneers Bar, 38 W 29th st (b/t 6th and 7th) NYC (http://pioneersbar.com/)

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