NYC Educator: Unity-New Action Hypocrites

NYC Educator: Unity-New Action Hypocrites:

Unity-New Action Hypocrites

For years I've been reading rationales on why it's unhealthy to disagree with the union. It makes Bloomberg happy when you disagree. You're emboldening our opposition. We need to put on a united front. These arguments become particularly strident during union elections. Yes, of course you have the right to your opinion, but for goodness sake, don't ever air it.

In fact, to further bolster that argument, the UFT has created a fake opposition group, specifically for the purpose of making the union appear less monolithic than it actually is. That would be New Action, the opposition group that politely endorses the Unity presidential candidate, so that Unity will cross-endorse a small group of their people. This has the added bonus of more or less hobbling any real opposition, who can be shut out altogether of all union decisions.

So please, don't oppose mayoral control. Sure they've closed every comprehensive high school in the Bronx, and sure plenty of small schools can't even muster someone to stand for chapter leader, but at least every damn person in the building pays UFT dues. Unless it's a non-union charter. But don't oppose charters, because we've supported them. In fact, we've not only created one of our own, but also colocated it, so don't oppose colocation either.

And keep your mouth shut about rating teachers via junk science, because we support that too. We've created a great law to enable it, and we get to negotiate how it's carried out. Except that we didn't--we had John King decide, so don't oppose that either. After all, we say he's