Arthur Goldstein, a high school teacher in Queens, New York, has often criticized the UFT for not taking the militant stands that Arthur prefers. But now, he says, it is time to stand together and fight. Unions are facing an existential threat to their existence. The Rightwing billionaire Robert Mercer is behind an effort to call a state constitutional convention. Arthur knows what Mercer has in mind: stealing the hard-earned pensions of working people.
Goldstein writes:
“This is problematic for those of us who envision a retirement in which we don’t have to check prices of canned cat food before purchasing it for lunch…
“This is a very real threat, and not just for senior teachers. Our pensions are already under attack by national reformies, and folks like Mercer would probably like nothing better than to do away with them utterly. Right now, the only solid entity I know that’s fighting this is our union and AFL-CIO. That’s why I went before my staff and made my own pitch for COPE this year, and that’s why I signed up another 80-plus members.
“I would not be able to sleep at night if I weren’t doing my bit to fight Mercer and like-minded reformies. While some of my friends disagree, I will continue to push COPE for now. Hey, if we win in November, maybe we can reconsider. But a country controlled by Donald Trump and his thugs is a very dangerous place for working people. While I frequently disagree with union leadership, this is one area in which I don’t want their hands tied.
“To them, I say fight this vigorously. Too frequently I see UFT leadership fall down when no one pushes them. They can’t afford to do that now. We need to not only support them in this, but also to monitor their actions and progress.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well said, Arthur.
LikeLike
well this is good to know; I believe that we defeated charter schools in MA because of the strong union presence, the MTA, NEA, AFT and SEIU. Education Justice Alliance is helping to build more grass roots and also Raise Up Massachusetts has active presence in our cities. IWe have some local meetings through groups such as Education Justice Alliance (in Lawrence, Lowell, our group in Haverhill is still “tiny”); and Indivisible has helped us significantly (with two groups in each congressional district). A clear distinction was drawn between the true “grass roots” and the DFER dark money persons who were pushing charters. I wish more people would get the message of how important the unions are and how they concentrate on improving goals and programs for students as well as working conditions or what they accuse us of (such as “special interest).
LikeLike
Unions should find a party other than the Dems. David Brock’s Share Blue recently posted, “Youngest Dems in Congress…helping big business…” Other passages in the article could have been written by Gates and DFER. “Youngest Dems” bemoan the inability of schools to prepare students. “Youngest Dems” would be at home with ALEC.
LikeLike
I also agree that NYSUT should take a stronger position and focus more on activism, I continue to support Vote Cope in retirement because I understand that NYSUT stands between me and the pet food aisle at the store. Retired NYS teachers are nervous too. If Mercer and his lobbyists get their way, they can open up Pandora’s box and harm more than just pensions by reshaping the state constitution. All New York State employees should join together to protect the well funded defined benefit pensions in the state as it is the only way to provide a somewhat secure retirement.
LikeLike
Eh.
As a deep advocate or more and stronger unionization and labor thinking in general, I don’t support this view.
The AFT, UFT, NYSUT, etc have proven themselves to be incompetents. They are incompetent at literally everything in regards to the threats that we face as organized teachers. The are especially incompetent at messaging and narrative in every way.
It’s obvious that here in NY we don’t want a Constitutional convention. This would be a disaster for organized teachers and public education in the state on all levels. However, we DO NOT want the UFT, AFT, or NYSUT trying to become a voice in the opposition here. They are likely to screw it up and provoke unintended consequences. One obvious unintended consequence would be to allow the supporters of a convention to point directly to us pesky unionized overpaid and over-pensioned teachers as a reason to have a convention and awaken a TON of latent venom towards organized teachers and harness that into public support for a convention.
UFT, NYSUT etc should shut up allow other, more skilled, players to oppose a constitutional convention. They will only mess things up royally and provoke a strong swell of public support for the convention.
LikeLike
Who other than organized labor is opposing the convention in any serious way. So if not labor then who ?
LikeLike
Basically every group in NYS that has a state pension. The thing with a constitutional convention is that it becomes possible to “open up the tiers” and modify what Tiers 1-6 mean fundamentally. You can literally change the pension structure for tier 1-4 people. So, nobody with a pension wants it.
There is no argument here that shows me that UFT or NYSUT’s voice in opposition will not backfire spectacularly. Both organizations have F’d up literally everything they’ve touched for the past 10 years. Now we want them to be the generals on the battlefield for this fight? Insanity. Really. That’s insane. 0 track record of success….especially with a narrative-centric fight like this. 0 confidence they won’t make a back room deal here too. Really. Sounds snarky but both organizations have made backroom deals over deeply non-negotiable stuff kind of routinely in the past.
So, aside for some late-in-the-game morale building and rallying for unions with deeply broken leadership still in place, I see absolutely no reason to support this push for UFT and NYSUT to get in the game. The unions need to be taken over and changed fundamentally before we can trust them on the proverbial battlefield. You can’t skip that step. This is an exercise in insanity.
From those who brought us: “seats at the table,” backroom deals, and the demise of politically-relevant teachers unions in New York!!!! Now they are going to put up a fight against a constitutional convention that will likely destroy the pensions of current membership and maybe even more! Yup. That’ll play out well.
LikeLike
NYSTEACHER
It is a ballot measure so I don’t see where there is room to negotiate . Unless of course the measure passes. The only leadership the UFT has to provide is getting their members out to vote . And perhaps participating in the funding of an ad campaign . There are far more than Public worker pensions on the line at a constitutional convention.
Issues that affect workers in the private sector as well can be hijacked by ALEC’s
LikeLike
Environmental groups are also strongly opposed to the constitutional convention because it poses a direct threat to the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves.
These priceless resources, safeguarded years ago by forward-looking citizens and elected officials – in the case of the Catskills, crucial to the high quality water NYC residents enjoy – would potentially be opened up to logging, mining and development.
The propaganda about eliminating corruption is a smokescreen; all New Yorkers should vote “No!” In November.
LikeLike
Unions are the only thing between the people and the deep state that runs everything.
There are no arbiters of FAIRNESS, and no accountability for those who abuse the laws and trample our civil rights. I have said this here, before, and I will say it again and again, and I said it in a recent email to Randi Weingarten: because it is at the heart of ACCOUNTABILITY. A return to fairness is demanded. “Fairness is a contract’s fundamental purpose. A raw, moralistic conception of fairness—that people shouldn’t get screwed.” That is what UION’S DO.
How do we bring back accountability, when rules and regulations are falling and failing, and there is no moral authority in the highest places, and the president https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/opinion/where-did-we-the-people-go.html?emc=edit_th_20170621&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50637717&_r=1 (great link BTW)
and our president is a senile, delusional child-man who fills the government with the very worst people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxPO8dSJu74&t=2s
he Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and Trump has selected Eric Dreiband—- , who has represented numerous clients accused of violating civil rights laws. Activists are outraged. The selection of Dreiband is in keeping with the selection of Betsy DeVos, an opponent of public education; the selection of Scott Pruitt, who sued the Environmental Protection Agency many times, to lead it; and the section of others who are antagonistic to the mission of the agency they head. Agggh!
America’s Top Prosecutors Used to Go After Top Executives. What Changed?“ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/books/review/the-chickenshit-club-jesse-eisinger-.html
“Corruption can take many forms — not just bags of cash under the table, but a creeping rot that saps our collective motivation to pursue the cause of justice. As Upton Sinclair might have written were he alive today: It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his résumé depends upon his not understanding it.”
… the symbiotic relationships developed between Big Law and the Department of Justice and corporations like the big banks which got off paying symbolic penalties, while defense firms raked in huge fees, and prosecutors earned P.R. victories — as long as everyone played along:
“In the eyes of the elite establishment, businesses are now job creators and pillars of the community. Executives who bend the rules are “good people who have done one bad thing,” in the words of one S.E.C. lawyer reluctant to bring charges against individuals. Prosecutors no longer punish lawbreakers, but instead make corporations promise to behave better in the future — in the end amounting to “at most a tollbooth on the bankster turnpike.”
“There’s just one problem. While the “unelected permanent governing class” may have been willing to look the other way when highly paid bankers wrecked the economy, many of the workers who lost their jobs and families who lost their homes were not. Outside the Beltway, the fact that the Wall Street titans who blew up the financial system suffered little more than slight reductions in their bonuses only reinforced the perception that the “system” is “rigged” — with the consequences we know only too well. …
Many people simply want to live in a world that is fair.” WE NEED TO BRING BACK THE UNIONS, and to give them our support so they can kick ass!
LikeLike
Agree fully.
In the meantime tho UFT and NYSUT should stay out of the constitutional convention fight.
If I were a supporter of the convention I would LOVE IT if NYSUT or UFT got loud in opposition. Then I could make the whole narrative about the convention a referendum on teachers pensions, which I know so many New Yorkers hate and/or could be made to hate! Thanks incompetent UFT and NYSUT who couldn’t get in front of, organize, or maintain a successful narrative if they had a flashlight and instructions!
LikeLike
Yes, he’s right, and I’ll get the VOTE/COPE checkoff card when I go back to school in the fall.
LikeLike
Good. You know Mercer and his cronies have plenty of cash to poison the public consciousness. It will take a good deal of cash to provide a counter narrative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The unions, all of them, should make sure every member understands that (1) Bill Gates, Laurene Powell Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are actively undermining face-to-face education in favor of corporate profit taking from student screen time and, that (2) the richest 0.1%, including Walton heirs are plotting to eliminate democratic community control of schools.
LikeLike
If it takes the ouster of Weingarten to build bridges with unions like the nurses union, force the change.
If the NEA won’t denounce Gates- funded organizations like NSVF and the Pahara Institute- force new leadership.
BATS can certify as a union to replace them.
LikeLike
There is nothing wrong with criticizing as a means of improving. Even if you disagree with the union on some issues you need to support the union. The only one that benefits form division in a union is the employer. I was a teacher and a union member. I didn’t always agree with what they did. i was also a good friend and associate of the union president. We often discussed union matters. On thing that still stands out in my mind is his comments on membership support. According to him if the members don’t support their union then the union is powerless. He told me the employer negotiator used this to their advantage as a negotiating tool. There is strength in solidarity even if you don’t always agree.
LikeLike
I still encounter teachers who don’t know Bill Gates/Walton heirs are the driving force behind privatization and corporatization and that the Koch’s State Budget Solutions and John Arnold are involved in eliminating public pensions. Most don’t know what ALEC is. What the h_ll? How does the union get support when the rank and file are uninformed?
LikeLike