NYC Educator: UFT Leadership--Taxation Without Representation

NYC Educator: UFT Leadership--Taxation Without Representation:

UFT Leadership--Taxation Without Representation

In most schools in the state, you have a a samller district than we do. From within that district, you elect a president. Your president represents you in NYSUT and AFT, and thus gets your voice out somehow. You can talk face to face with this president, this president answers your email, and this president does not tell you you do not believe in democracy in front of hundreds of people should you disagree with one of his or her decisions.

If your president does a good job, he or she wins re-election. If, on the other hand, your president doesn't get you a raise for over five years, you select someone new. Things like that don't happen in NYC because the overwhelming majority of teachers expect so little and are so mired in cynicism they see not point in voting.

I have no objection to paying union dues. I also pay into COPE. But it's disappointing to realize that I, like every working teacher, get no say whatsoever in what the UFT does with my money. That is the province of leadership, which has secret meetings with their invitation-only caucus, tells them what to do, and then hopes the rest of us don't pay attention.

Outside your building, you have no voice in what your union does. This happens when you are represented by a chapter leader. Let's say, for example, your chapter leader, like most, is a member of the elite and privileged Unity Caucus. If that is the case, your chapter leader has signed a loyalty oath to leadership. Your chapter leader can help protect your contractual rights within the building. Outside, where we are under relentless attack, he or she can do nothing. Your chapter leader goes to conventions and votes as told. Your chapter leader is forbidden to