AFT forcing Baltimore teachers to "vote until they get it right"

[Hannah Bell]

AMERICAN FEDERATION of Teachers (AFT) leaders are pressuring Baltimore teachers to vote until they get it right--that is, accept a proposed contract that would abandon traditional job protections in the name of "school reform..."

A solid majority of the 2,000-plus members of the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU) who cast ballots — some 58 percent — voted October 14 to reject the national AFT leaders' latest attempt to sell a contract aimed at enticing teachers into abandoning tenure-based job security in exchange for a chance to become one of a select few whose pay could reach $100,000 a year...

When BTU members voted down that deal, union leaders responded by claiming that members simply "didn't understand" the contract — and then stepped up the pressure to ratify the deal at a second vote scheduled for October 28.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1743§ion=Article


This is exactly the same crap that the UAW "leadership" pulled on its Indiana Local 23: "you didn't understand, vote again."

Could it be any clearer what's going on?

The rank & file need to throw the bums out & take back the house of labor.

Just because the rules say officers are elected at such & such a time by such & such rules (that effectively cut off any challenge to the status quo) doesn't mean you have to follow them.

There are more temps working at GM now than UAW full-timers, & they're working for $14/hour.

[Hannah Bell]

1. am kick for the am people

Weingarten's approach weakens the pillars of teacher unionism. The AFT broke with the NEA nearly a century ago precisely because that organization, then dominated by administrators, left teachers without an effective advocate. The renaissance of the AFT in the 1960s--which included several illegal strikes--was due largely to its leaders' demands for collective bargaining agreements that enshrined tenure-based job security.

That generation of AFT activists understood that tenure is the only defense against the arbitrary behavior and favoritism of administrators. For similar reasons, the teachers' unions have traditionally opposed merit pay, since it allows administrators to reward their friends while denying such gains to union activists deemed to be "troublemakers." The impact of the AFT's gains was enough to spur the NEA to shed its much old conservatism and push for collective bargaining as well.

Weingarten is reversing these historic positions to try to avoid risky confrontations with school reformers, from Barack Obama and Arne Duncan to local officials. But such battles are inevitable, given the school reformers' determination to break the back of teacher unionism.

Rather than protect teachers, Weingarten's policies are weakening both the AFT and the NEA as they face their greatest battles in half a century. Teachers who are determined to defend their unions' gains will have to press their leaders to take up that challenge, or see their organizations decisively weakened.

[maryf]

3. another am kick

and recommend.

[rpannier]

2. K&R Thanks for posting this

Your diligence is much appreciated

[alc]

4. bad for EFCA?

When union leadership pulls something like this it's hard to defend card check against people who claim it's a way for union leadership to force the outcome of a vote. Businesses are sleazy when it comes to unionization votes. But union leadership either doesn't always explain their position well (as they are claiming), or can be just as uncaring about the majority preference as a business if the result isn't what they want.

[Hannah Bell]

13. EFCA = DEAD.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k & r

[blindpig]

6. We ain't gonna get nowhere...

until workers regain the leadership of their unions.

Paging William Z Foster..........

[LWolf]

7. What a joke.

Except I'm not laughing.

So our vote, democracy, is a meaningless ritual that allows someone to claim to act for us, or that we chose something...whether we did, or didn't.

[Hannah Bell]

8. kik

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. "Just because the rules say officers are elected by... rules... doesn't mean you have to follow them

This strikes me as a surprising and probably poorly-thought-through statement.

[Hannah Bell]

10. how's that, donald?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

11. If you declare that you're not following the union's rules, you're effectively leaving the union.

"We should leave this union and start another" is a potentially sensible position (I think it's probably not sensible in this case, but I don't know enough of the details to be sure).

"We should stay in this union but ignore its rules", however, is not - it will just result in you being thrown out, and the ensuing division and bad publicity will do no-one any good.

[Hannah Bell]

12. The rank & file *are* the union. When the rules render them powerless & voiceless, they have every

right & every reason to turn over the table.

I wasn't talking about "starting another union". I was talking about TAKING THEIR OWN UNIONS BACK. Through e.g. booting the collaborationist leadership OUT.

[Hannah Bell]

14. k

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. How?

Some (not all) of the members say "we are taking this union over, and you are no longer members of it".

The others say "but the rules say we are, and since you've broken them then we'll throw *you* out".

If you want to take a union over (not "back" unless you, as individuals, were once in charge of it) then you need to do it by its rules.

[Hannah Bell]

16. lol. your vote for potemkin villages & potemkin votes is noted.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. As is your failure (inability?) to answer my question. N.T.

[Hannah Bell]

21. i understood your question just fine.

[Chan790]

20. Establishmentarian position duly noted.

Rejected, but duly noted.

[Joe Fields]

18. maybe the union leaders understand a bit more than you do.

You seem to go flying around here half-cocked.

[Hannah Bell]

22. yes, the quality of union leadership and its great results is why membership is so high, & growing.

lol.

they "understand," all right.

[Joe Fields]

24. you can't have it both ways, girlie.

[Hannah Bell]

25. don't have it either way, chef boy-ar-dee.

[Chan790]

19. What. The. Fuck.

Seriously, WTF. This crap is going to continue until organized labor remembers that it used to be vicious.

It sounds like some asshole at AFT needs to be run out on a rail. Grab him, toss him over and away we go!

"Throw the bums out!!"

[Hannah Bell]

23. k