New Action – UFT

I am good friends with the Chapter Leader at a medium-sized high school. Within the last ten years, their founding principal retired and they got stuck with an extremely abusive replacement. It got so bad that they eventually had to have a vote of no confidence, the results of which were overwhelming. For the first time in years, they were optimistic that things might be looking up – that their work environment would no longer be toxic. They weren’t 100% sure what would happen next. But needless to say, they wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble if they knew the answer would be nothing at all. Despite the assurances of their UFT District Rep. and Borough Rep. that Michael Mulgrew was coming through for them at the Chancellor level, the Chapter Leader and their school was completely ghosted by both the UFT and the DOE. 

So, those of the staff who stayed on are faced with a dilemma. How do they organize as a union, when their administration knows that our union leadership won’t back them up? How does the Chapter Leader do their job, knowing that the UFT and DOE won’t give a damn if they’re retaliated against?

One of the answers that Unity Caucus often gives is to pick (i.e. limit) your battles (so that the principal doesn’t fly into a rage and destroy you and everyone else in their path).  I’ve found that this advice works pretty well in schools with high morale. In schools like that, few and minor contractual violations are offset by a culture in which observations are fair, disciplinary meetings are few, and where administration looks the other way on other aspects of the contract. It’s trickier in schools with low morale like this one, where the word ‘discipline’ is thrown around like candy (to teachers, not to students of course). In schools like this one, you can pretty much guarantee that each APPR domain will be rated a full point lower than what you actually deserve (unless you befriend the principal – in which case you’ll be given great ratings and innumerable per session opportunities). As for contractual responsibility, it’s enforced to a T against teachers, but the second you point out that an ask by administration is unreasonable or clearly violates the collective bargaining agreement, you’re met with a mix of (1) gaslighting; and (2) unchecked anti-union rage (sometimes, paradoxically, at the same time).

1. In the gaslighting scenario, toxic administration reminds the aggrieved, exhausted, and overworked teachers that they work at one of the good schools. They’re only asking you do to a ‘little more than our contractual agreement,’ but all the extra paperwork is really for the kids – why not just do it? This doesn’t work so well for veteran teachers who were there for the vote of no confidence, most of whom have seen what actual good schools look like. In my experience, this strategy works some of the time for younger teachers, who are less likely to have worked with another principal in their career. ‘Maybe this is as good as it gets,’ they say amongst themselves in the teachers lounge; ‘why are we rocking the boat?’ It can also work for  teachers on the good side of administration, who have reaped such rewards after befriending the principal that it’s impossible for them to empathize with the majority of teachers who are drowning in toxicity. 
2. In the unchecked anti-union rage scenario, the principal retaliates against the Chapter Leader and/or other union activists. They can do this by weaponizing APPR or the disciplinary system (since we can no longer grieve letters in the file, after all). Or, they can combine rage and gaslighting by telling the entire school population that: yes, they are about to be truly terrible abusers to all of the teachers, but it’s only as punishment for the Chapter Leader having had the audacity to try and enforce the contract. (I’m pretty sure this would count as corporal punishment if we used it as a classroom management approach in our classes, but I digress). 

In schools like this one, picking even a small number of battles eventually leads to one or both of these situations, no matter now ‘nicely’ the contractual issue is brought up. Since the Unity-led UFT got rid of its centrally administered programs to identify and compel the DOE to deal with abusive administrators, we no longer have mechanisms to help chapters in trouble. In the age of Janus, I’m afraid that this means a lot of our members will eventually leave the union, seeing that all it gets them is unchecked rage from abusive administration and no help from the UFT leadership once things escalate. I don’t want that to happen. I want a better union that backs up chapters when they’re in trouble. I want a union that at least tries to force the DOE’s hand to get rid of abusive administrators (rather than a union that ghosts real chapters in trouble, but uses our dues-money to post celebration videos that double as election ads when one administrator gets a vague cease and desist notice after four long years of arbitration). United for Change supports strengthening programs to actually identify abusive principals and help chapters end the abuse. This is a bare minimum for any union, and while those types of actions take serious organizing, UFC is willing to do the work; Unity has shown us that they are not.

This spring United For Change (UFC) is running in the citywide UFT elections. UFC is running 400+ educators as candidates for convention delegates to the statewide NYSUT conventions and nationwide AFT and NEA conventions. UFC consists of members from several UFT-represented rank-and-file educator groups: Movement of Rank and File Educators [MORE-UFT] Caucus, Solidarity Caucus, New Action Caucus, Retiree Advocate, OTs and PTs For A Fair Contract, the Independent Coalition of Educators [ICE-UFT], and Educators of NYC.  

Our local UFT election will have an effect on national debates over education and labor tactics. New York City makes up such a large share of New York State, that if UFC wins the UFT elections, we effectively win NYSUT and can tackle these important issues at the state level. The UFT’s delegates also make up a significant plurality of AFT delegates. Therefore,  winning the UFT election makes it possible for our union to be authentically progressive at the national level.  

The Unity Caucus, led by UFT President Michael Mulgrew, is the foundation for the so-called “Progressive” Caucus of the national AFT, which is led by former UFT/Unity leader and current AFT president Randi Weingarten. UFT representatives form a large plurality of the representatives at the NYSUT and AFT conventions. If United For Change wins the election and removes Mulgrew from power, there would likely be a transformation in the approach and ideology of the state and national unions towards real grassroots democratic unionism and authentically progressive politics.  Weingarten and Mulgrew call their national caucus “progressive,” but it is hardly an accurate term. For example, just see this video of Mulgrew and Barr arguing at the national convention in support of the Common Core. 

NYSUT and AFT conventions work similarly to UFT Delegate Assemblies, just at higher levels: state and national union, education, and political questions, all of which have a major effect on schooling in NYC. Because conventions are not in NYC, delegates and representatives also get travel/lodging expenses to attend them (and a biannual conference about pedagogy). When in person, delegates and representatives at these conventions get to meet teachers from very different places and with very different levels of union activity, which can be enlightening. That should be a selling point, but unfortunately the UFT/Unity leadership of Mulgrew merely uses the conventions to promote the positions of the corporate wing of the Democrat Party held by Randi Weingarten and establishment politicians. 

  Nick Bacon, one of seven UFC candidates for the UFT High School Executive Board, was elected as a convention delegate in 2019 before he joined UFC. He says the following regarding the conventions: 

With the ‘Progressive Caucus’ in power, these events are much more scripted than even the UFT Delegate Assembly.  At the AFT convention in particular, a disproportionate number of speakers are UFT staffers (or staffers from another union). Most were literally reading papers in front of them. We were also sent out documents from the ‘Progressive Caucus’ that tell you how to vote. Last year, votes were closer than usual since no one was able to monitor us remotely (and so people, like me, voted our conscience without fear of retribution), but I’ve heard that when in person, these meetings are so monitored by UFT District Representatives that everyone votes the party line. Some cities (LA, Chicago, Baltimore…) do have ‘opposition’ representation, so there’s a bit more diversity in the meetings, but it’s still a minority. In particular, because university professors and graduate students are AFT members, you see a lot of graduate teaching fellows putting forth progressive ideas. But again, with the ‘Progressive Caucus’ in power, convention delegates are expected to systematically shoot down good resolutions.

If UFC wins, we won’t shoot down progressive resolutions – we’ll write them. Therefore, we’ll be able to do more to push progressive educational policy statewide and nationwide. Remember that many educational questions are decided at the state level – such as our pension tiers, tenure, and standardized testing. We can put an end to ‘symbolic’ resolutions there and start pushing resolutions that actually affect educators and students in positive ways. We can form national coalitions with progressive politicians who understand we can’t just try to improve school conditions and benefits for teachers – we need to improve and transform schools as a whole and society as a whole. UFC’s platform speaks to this in many ways. 

If UFC were to win the entire election this spring, it would have implications beyond just a changing of the guard in the UFT officers. It would allow a national movement to flourish that endorses progressive candidates, fights for progressive positions, organizes members for democratic input on convention decisions, and prepares national actions that increase pressure for education investment and labor respect. The fight starts here in our schools and communities. Vote UFC in the Spring 2022 UFT elections.