Monday, November 23, 2015

Friedrichs is Coming. But You Wouldn't Know it Would You?

Call it Friedrich's Syndrome.

Anyone with a faded union sticker curling up from the edges on their windbreaker can probably tell you we're screwed when the same Supreme Court who thought Citizens United was a swell idea gets to decide if unions should be allowed to deduct money from rank and filers paychecks. As public sector unionists we are about to become citizens of a Right to Work Nation. Or as my union electrician friends in Florida call it a "Right to Work for Less State." There is understandably much angst and wringing of hands. Xanax and Ethanol intake is on the uptick. Surely our union leadership has a plan, they can't just be fiddling while the flames of ed reform begin to lick at the soles of our sensible shoes. 

Glad you asked. 

Unfortunately, R. Weingarten, Ed Reformer, is busier than a one armed paper hanger assembling a nifty new amalgam of her ed reform friends for Hillary. #TeachWrong is taking up most of her collaborative energies so we're not hearing a lot from her these days. But that's not to say the flow chart has been derailed, no, far from it. Here in the Empire State we saw just last week how Ed Reformer Weingarten's hand picked successor to UFT in NYC, one Punchy Mike Mulgrew is standing tall. As an ersatz Boy Friday Mike is covering the hot topics and burning issues our feckless President can't make the time to address. APPR? Receivership? Half of Buffalo Schools working with no labor agreement in place by way of NYSED Commissioner Elia's Imperial Edict? 

No, not that you ninnies. This! Beth friggin Dimino, President of PJSTA down Long Island way needed to be pushed in the dirt or have her standards taken away or something. It was with a heavy heart that Loyalty Oath Sworn Unity Caucasian Commodore Mike Mulgrew had to suggest Beth should go join forces with the Koch Brothers instead of representing teachers in fights Unity and AFT find beneath them or simply not worth the effort. Ms. Dimino committed the unpardonable sin of suggesting teachers rethink donating their hard earned dollars to VOTE COPE. Yes, she raised the pre-Friedrich's spectre of NYSUT hacks being separated from a comfortable flow of rank and file cash. Woe unto her who redirects funds from the geniuses who put out ads like these:




The top ad misspelled Ranzenhofer which is mildly overlookable but should an ad sponsored by teachers spell "lose" with to o's? This is what your donations are getting you folks.  

The one below caused an uproar here in Buffalo as it suggested Mark Grisanti was somehow cool with domestic violence and probably would step over a victim to get to his favorite slot machine. The local teacher hating Buffalo News had a field day with it and countless local political hacks got to play their "Well I've never been so offended" cards. It was a great moment for phony indignation and an easy cheapshot on teachers for being associated with such a foul ad. 

Not that Beth Dimino mentioned either of these ridiculous ads but did she have to? Do we really see anything coming out of the double pensioned braintrust of NYSUT that gives us hope, or makes us want to rally with drums, armbands and loudspeakers? So Punchy Mike of the UFT/Unity Caucus that wags the NYSUT dog has stepped up and attacked the very type of union leader the rest of the state admires and accuses her of being in league with billionaire ed reform sponsors. This is the caliber of leadership our dues are buying us?  

Not to be outwagged by UFT/Unity Caucus, Fearless Andrew Palotta has weighed in at the NYSUT meeting of Very Important NYSUT people to make his own shrill cry for justice. Is he railing against the Cuomo evaluations with 50% of it coming from standardized test scores? Is he speaking truth to power against the scourge of receivership in New York State? Mmmm nope, not that. Andrew Palotta, NYSUT's Executive Vice President took up a good chunk of the Very Important NYSUT People's meeting complaining about a teacher blogger's post that Andrew Palotta felt cast him unfairly in the role of a mobster. While no such claim was ever made nor was anyone ethnically stereotyped, the comparison was aptly drawn that handing over dues to NYSUT is akin to paying for mob protection. No matter how little return you see on your investment or what hardships you incur (hardships that NYSUT does nothing to mitigate) you are expected to shut up and pay up. Executive Pallotta thought this merited a call to the Attorney General. Executive VP Pallotta also thought filing a claim of discrimination against a teacher his union allegedly supports would be in order. Yes, he thought that. 

Do these people ever talk to each other? Did anyone say, you know A.P. with half the frigging state in receivership, teachers under attack from every conceivable angle including the media, contracts suspended, a Commissioner who's declared war on the Opt Out parents.... You know? Maybe this isn't really the thing we ought to be spending our time on just now... Did anyone run that scenario by this guy? I guess nobody did or if they did he refused to listen. I have to wonder too if anyone had the stones to tell Punchy Mike, "...You know Mikey, Beth Dimino is big in France, they love her in Buffalo too, maybe she's not the one you should be poking with the stick right now huh? Maybe that could backfire in a really weird  unpredictable way." I suspect nobody made that appeal or again if someone of that perspicacity does exist in either of these "union" enclaves they were summarily ignored by "leadership." 

What gets me is the other shoe hasn't even dropped yet. We are still laboring under the sword of Friedrichs so to speak. And from where I'm standing I see no sign of NYSUT organizing, strategizing, nut hoarding or gathering supplies for the coming winter. I see nothing but highly placed and well paid so called "union leadership" men lashing out at rank and file teachers who've shown the temerity to question the direction and merits of union leadership. Edward Abbey said "Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best." I'll let you decide friends who was attracted and who was corrupted. It's a coin toss from where I'm sitting. 

10 comments:

  1. Those ads are terrible. Who gives a shit about yogurt? NYSUT's satirical skills are not college and career ready.

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    1. Ranzenhofer won with ease by the way. And Grisanti lost because he's perceived as a flip flopper by his former Conservative base not because Vote Dope put the hoodoo smear on him. They used that same ad template on someone downstate too and I think it failed there.

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  2. Dear Mr. Crowley, perhaps you have not been completely brought up to speed on the many ways that NYSUT is developing leadership. Perhaps this is because you have not heard of the most recent plan, by NYSUT, to develop leadership? Perhaps that is because even NYSUT itself is having trouble selling this turkey? But here is the scuttlebutt. As you DO know, there has been NO attempt by NYSUT or BTF to develop any any anything for lo these many years. But that is going to change! Yes! There are going to be "leadership" workshops! And teachers can go out to the swanky NYSUT offices in the Ville de Will (Williamsville) on the Boulevard SJ(Essjay). Yes! And "leadership" currently translates, in NYSUT-speak, to learning how to fundraise, at the building level, for VOTE/COPE! Yes, NYSUT has gotten a terrible feeling of fear and dread regarding Friedrichs. And, as a way of spreading the bad tidings, they will make a big push to fundraise. And so, Mr. Crowley, you may see no signs of "NYSUT organizing, strategizing, nut hoarding, or gathering supplies for the coming winter" but they ARE planning to get us out to headquarters to help our colleagues empty their pockets before Friedrich takes away the dues. Good tidings, Sir, and a very happy Thanksgiving to you.

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    1. Gotta love the way their priorities show through everything they do. What they really care about is shaking teachers down for cash above and beyond the union dues they'll be losing pretty soon. And who is fooled by this? I know, the usual suspects. Happy Turkey Day to you to Anon

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  3. As much as I am not a fan of the UFT, I really don't think there is much that they can actually do in this case. From my understanding the whole case is going to be decided by one swing member of the court. Seeing that ya' can't bribe a supreme court justice, it makes no sense to really put the blame on the UFT here. (There are plenty of other things to blame the UFT for however)

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  4. I blame them for creating the very hard to ignore impression that they don't give a flying fuck about you unless you've taken their loyalty oath. I blame them for being in bed with the enemies of public education. I blame them for supporting Common Core and threatening to punch anyone who went against it in the face. I blame them for encouraging Danielsen drive bys and expedited 30120-a hearings and being ok with using junk VAM scores and high stakes test scores in teacher evaluations. I blame them for using their voting block to unseat a resurgent Dick ianuzzi and install a Do Nothing Karen Magoo in his place. Had they not created such a shitty non representative relationship with their own members maybe we'd be working state wide together on our post Friedrichs war plan. But we aren't. You know why? There isn't one. You know why? Cause the fuckers we've been handing our money to don't have any idea how to plan for it. They just allow all kinds of terrible shit to happen to teachers then declare it a victory. But guess what? They can't do that this time because this terrible event is going to take gobs of money out of their pockets. So now that they actually have some skin in the game what are they doing about it? Attacking teachers. Still want to stick up for them? Donate to Vote Cope? Knock yourself out. I can use that dues money for gas.

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  5. Here is the answer to all NYSUT's problems!

    http://www.nysut.org/resources/special-resources-sites/union-value

    Good to see there are getting this in the hands of every member.

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  6. As the commenter said above, you can blame the UFT for a lot of stuff, but they can't do squat about this supreme court case.

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  7. Really? The truth is they haven't done squat to prepare for the devastating repercussions this decision will bring. Nor has their dog NYSUT done anything to prepare for it either. Oh wait they're mobilizing their Vote Cope shakedown to hit us up for even more money beyond what they've already pissed away on donations to people like Flanagan. Fact is in times like this you gladly pay out to get balls to the wall union support. But when you see these clowns with no plan, no dialogue, no pretense of readying for the coming storm it pretty much tells you they have no ideas and nothing to offer. And when 2 of the top tier union people in 2 consecutive weeks take it upon themselves to attack working teachers in a public forum it assures me every one of my darkest fears about their ineptitude and incompetence is about to come true. By the way I never blamed NYSUT or UFT for the decision. I pointed out that they should be working overtime and pulling all nighters instead of attacking rank and file.

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    1. They are, and have been too busy looking over their shoulders to see who is trying to take their power rather than looking forward.

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