This month we find Brooklyn public school teacher Kevo considering his identity as a union man. If you live in NYC, you have heard a whole lot about this on the news. Read on.
I’ve now been a UFT member for about a year. This is my first experience as a member of a union (other than my brief stint as a “deli-boy” at my hometown SuperFresh). As one of the more powerful unions in NYC, the United Federation of Teachers recently wrangled an agreement from Mayor Bloomberg and the city. The teachers have been without contract for a full two years, which in my pre-teacher mind would have been unthinkable. Then I became familiar with the ways the Department of Education, the city, and actually, the union, tend to work (but I’ll get into the union a little later). So, to repeat, the teachers have been without a contract with the city for over two years. This means that teacher salaries along with all kinds of other agreements regarding the way New York Public schools are meant to run were two years old. And this is the way things usually go. I asked my aunt, a 32-year veteran teacher in the NYC school system about the state of the contract this summer. She replied in a calm tone that the situation was pretty normal. She assured me that we’d have a contract by the election, and indeed we do- wait, we almost have a contract. As of right now, we have a memorandum of agreement that is awaiting ratification by union members.
Teachers vote a simple “yes” or “no” on this agreement. After finding out two weeks ago that the city accepted the recommendations of an independent fact finding panel for modifications to the expired contract, effectively ending a long fight between the two sides, I figured most teachers would definitely vote “yes.” A month ago, the teacher’s lounge was full of talk about a possible strike, and all the troubles associated with one. Teachers would be docked for pay and all were unsure about what the final outcome of such an action would be. Now an agreement has been reached. It’s far from perfect, but it includes a 15% pay increase and a number of other improvements. This way, the union stays intact and lives to fight another day. If the members vote “no,” the only foreseeable option for the union would be an all-out strike – the result of which is unknown and pretty scary when looking at it as a teacher. This is why I was surprised with the events of our UFT chapter meeting in school this past Wednesday. I left amid a shouting match between one school’s chapter leader and the UFT regional representative. The chapter leader is passionately opposed to the agreement, while the regional representative was pushing the union’s position. The union hopes members will vote “yes.” They believe this is the only way the union can survive. During the chapter leader’s tirade about the unfair treatment teachers are receiving with this contract, I couldn’t help thinking about the lack of power teachers have in this discussion. We have to be smart, precisely because we have little power in these conservative and reckless times. The union is the power we have, and we must keep it strong through smart, creative negotiations. In a lot of ways, we’ve won with this agreement and I want to help the union stick around so that it can negotiate for me and the rest of the city’s schoolteachers for the two years after the this contract expires. I thought about this, started to get a headache from all the screaming, then walked out the door…
You're right -- there does need to be someone protecting our rights against those who might want to undermine them. But don't you think the UFT has gone a little too far away from the spirit of the teaching profession? First and foremost, teachers need to have their kids' best interests in mind. The union only has its own best interests in mind. Think about it: they battle over a small pay increase, a little more professional development, a lot more autonomy in decorating our fucking bulletin boards, but when was the last time they did fact-finding on the curriculum we are being forced to teach, not knowing if it's effective or not? When was the last time you heard about a union rep helping you figure out what was wrong with your student who messes up your lessons, rather than pulling out the UFT handbook and asking whether or not the administration is doing enough to keep you safe from him? Yes, we need protection, but we also need a union that shares our beliefs and our desires, that truly cares about why we're doing this work, not just that it's work and that we're supposed to get paid. I mean, really, how many teachers do you know would put money in the top five reasons why they're still doing this? Not many, I'll tell you. Maybe the union needs to rethink their priorities and align them a little more with ours.
: Monday, December 05, 2005 11:45:00 PM<< Home
