"Demagogic Rant" by Michael Mendel

Marjorie Stamberg sent us a report about the latest UFT Delegate Assembly meeting on Wednesday, November 9.  We excerpted the parts that are of particular relevance to ATR teachers and their supporters. 

[During question period], most of the questions revolved around the delegates’ concerns for the situation with the ATRs. Now, those who are not picked up by a school which agrees to provisionally pay for them, are going from week to week to a different school. This is tremendously stressful.

A delegate from Madison High School asked about the procedure for ATRs in D 75.

The UFT remembers with pride that Albert 

Shanker assisted Dr. Martin Luther King in his

struggle to gain voting rights for all Americans.

Too bad the UFT doesn't protect the voting

rights of ATR teachers, who are disenfranchised

from UFT elections. 

I again raised the issue of the disenfranchisement of ATRs, saying that there are over 1000 teachers who do not now have the right to vote in any union election because they are not assigned to a school and they do not have their own functional chapter election.

Megan Beherent, a delegate from the Roosevelt HS campus put up a motion: Resolution to Solve the ATR Crisis, for a vote at the next DA. This called for:

1) a job freeze in every license area where there are ATRs who could fill the position;

2) for ATRs to be able to certify in new license areas without loss of tenure; 

3) to audit the DOE hiring for age and race discrimination; 

 4) to restore the contractual right of excessed teachers to the closest vacancy in their license.

                    

UFT Secretary Michael Mendel

There was much support as the motion was  read. However UFT Secretary Mike Mendel opened up with a demagogic rant (my description), saying the points in the motion were not true and advising the delegates to vote it down, which happened.

(The points under dispute were subsequently argued in the hallway with Mendel, who then ceded that the contract did in fact specify excessing rights for teachers in closing schools, however, not to the “closest vacancy” but “within the district.” Mendel’s intervention was purposefully designed to “send a message” to the delegates who follow the lead of Unity Caucus to vote the motion down from appearing on next month's agenda, which they did.)

A motion put up by New Action Caucus reasserting “Dignity for all teachers” was passed. This proposed various support measures for the ATRs but did not address the systemic issue that the ATR pool will continue to grow as long as the DOE is on a school-closing campaign, and until the rights of seniority transfer and excessing transfer have been restored.

Photo credits: http://www.uft.org/files/imagecache/medium/migrated_media/news/teacher/union_history/nyt20100204_56b.jpg
                   http://www.uft.org/files/imagecache/small/photo/mmendel.jpg