Welcome Back, Chapter Leaders
(from the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2013 Citywide Chapter Leaders Meeting).
For a printable version click: NA/UFT Leaflet 2013 September
Welcome! New Action welcomes you to the Citywide Chapter Leader meeting.
New Action/UFT is one of several caucuses (political parties) in the United Federation of Teachers. There are differences between the caucuses. But we believe that whatever differences there are, that the external enemies of our union and the threat to the members outweighs our differences. Today we see that, as our entire union faces the challenge of the new teacher evaluation system.
We work with our leadership, yet remain independent and critical of the leadership when warranted. To that end, we have worked with Michael Mulgrew and Unity Caucus in a bipartisan relationship that we believe benefits the membership. New Action chairs Michael Shulman and Jonathan Halabi, and eight additional New Action supporters, give voice to members’ concerns on the UFT Executive Board.
ABUSIVE ADMINISTRATORS
We sincerely hope you are in one of the many schools with collaborative principals. That relationship makes for a healthy work environment and benefits staff and students. Too many principals, however, are not collaborative, and many are downright abusive. We need to modify the behavior of all abusive and troublesome administrators.
Particularly troubling are principals who target UFT chapter leaders. We need to prioritize standing up for Chapter Leaders – they are our members’ first line of defense!
Organizing a response requires a strong chapter. Chapters that regularly meet and discuss issues of importance are chapters that are in a better position to mobilize.
CONTRACT
We have been working without a contract, or rather, under an expired contract, for 47 months. On Halloween it will be a full four years. The settlement of our contract is long overdue. The hold up? Bloomberg and his demands for unreasonable concessions, or for breaking the pattern and trying to pay us less.
But there will be a change in City Hall come January 1. We look forward to a contract, before this year is out:
- with RETROACTIVE PAY – for EVERYONE – including recent retirees.
- with NO GIVE BACKS
- with 4% and 4% for the first two years (2009-10 and 2010-11)
- and that allows us to work under a CURRENT, UNEXPIRED CONTRACT
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