UFT, Chapter Leaders, under attack. Time for New Action!
UFT Under Attack
Chapter Leaders Bear the Brunt of Abusive Administrators
It’s time for New Action!
For years the Bloomberg administration has been waging war to destroy the UFT and its members:
- breaking up large high schools (once our most militant division) and creating a whole new set of “campus” problems
- refusing to help struggling schools and then closing over a hundred of them
- starting charters and co-locating them in existing schools causing inequities that adversely affect the public school
- breaking one agreement after another
- establishing the Principal’s “Leadership Academy” which espoused a corporate philosophy and condescending attitude toward educators and the UFT
- violating our contract (even after a UFT grievance victory) and refusing to negotiate a new one unless it contains one concession after another
- singling out veteran teachers as scapegoats for every problem of the system
- pitting newer colleagues against veteran teachers
- establishing bogus education reform groups
- using the media to vilify, demean and disrespect educators
- blaming educators for all the failures of the NYC school system
And now Bloomberg has launched an insidious campaign against seniority and tenure in Governor Walker (Wisconsin)-like fashion. He really wants to destroy our ability to bargain collectively.
In order to accomplish this he has gone after the first line of defense—UFT chapter leaders! The examples are numerous. Many have been reported on in our union paper. But the numbers reported are only the tip of the iceberg. Some cases:
Chapter leaders:
- who are singled out for program abuse
- who are forced to transfer
- who are harassed with multiple unsatisfactory observations
- in every borough who are singled out for unsubstantiated U-ratings
And what is the fall-out of this policy? In many cases the school staff is too terrified to back up the chapter leader. After all, if they can abuse a union representative, what chance does the individual member have? Of course, there are notable exceptions where the staff has come together and stood up and changed the policy or the administrator!
At the same time, Bloomberg has done absolutely nothing about abusive administrators like Principals Blige and Bost, to name a few. In fact after abundant evidence they have received only a slap on the wrist or reinstated to their previous positions in the same school.
What Can You Do?
New Action stands ready to help! We can help with advice. We can help develop a wide-range of proven tactics for implementation at your school. If you can get your chapter and your District Representative to get on board it will improve your chances against an abusive administrator.
Call us at 718 238-8030 or write or e-mail. If you do nothing, nothing can change. Try New Action.
April 2011
New Action/UFT…a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers
PO Box 180574 North Richmond Hill, NY 11418
newaction.wordpress.com / [email protected]
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