Three years ago I was on the negotiation committee for the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) contract. It was a really interesting experience and gave me a lot of insight into how the leadership of the union functioned. I went to a few in person meetings wherein we had some discussions at our table groups and held votes on policy recommendations. That being said, it really felt like a rubber stamp type organization to me. There was no way to debate as a large group (outside of the people at your table) and we never heard the exact tally of votes for whatever we were making decisions on. The majority of the time the only people to talk to the large group of us (maybe 300-400 people) was President Mulgrew and some other VPs. I found this off-putting in the process, to be honest, because it felt not-so-democratic to me.
I write about this experience because I think it is very telling about the Unity caucus and how it functions. I think there are wonderful people who work within UFT leadership but the method in which they conduct within-UFT meetings, assemblies, votes, etc seems not very transparent and not very democratic.
For that reason, I am supporting the United For Change (UFC) caucus in the upcoming election.
The UFC caucus believes in transparency and conducts itself accordingly. Just during the pre-election process I have been asked for a vote on how I want my caucus dollars spent on advertising materials - and that had a meaningful impact on what happened! I once asked the Unity leadership why we don’t share the results of surveys during negotiations and the response was “we just don’t do that.” Later, I learned that it was a tactic - they are afraid the City and DOE sides of the table would have an unfair advantage if they share. Personally, I disagree and I think the UFC leadership does as well.
The UFC caucus advocates for more transparency, more engaging of the membership, and more democracy overall within our union. I hope you will join me in voting for them when ballots are mailed to your homes in April*.
*case in point - Unity did not allow ballots to be mailed to SCHOOLS, which would have allowed for more easy voting.
I write about this experience because I think it is very telling about the Unity caucus and how it functions. I think there are wonderful people who work within UFT leadership but the method in which they conduct within-UFT meetings, assemblies, votes, etc seems not very transparent and not very democratic.
For that reason, I am supporting the United For Change (UFC) caucus in the upcoming election.
The UFC caucus believes in transparency and conducts itself accordingly. Just during the pre-election process I have been asked for a vote on how I want my caucus dollars spent on advertising materials - and that had a meaningful impact on what happened! I once asked the Unity leadership why we don’t share the results of surveys during negotiations and the response was “we just don’t do that.” Later, I learned that it was a tactic - they are afraid the City and DOE sides of the table would have an unfair advantage if they share. Personally, I disagree and I think the UFC leadership does as well.
The UFC caucus advocates for more transparency, more engaging of the membership, and more democracy overall within our union. I hope you will join me in voting for them when ballots are mailed to your homes in April*.
*case in point - Unity did not allow ballots to be mailed to SCHOOLS, which would have allowed for more easy voting.
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