6R

About ten years ago, our union leadership was throwing down some zeros as a raise. They told us, then, that relief from chores such as monitoring exits, early morning scanning, and cafeteria duty was better than cash. Now, if you've spent any time in the cafeteria basement of a large Brooklyn public high school, you may actually believe that relief from that task is better than greenbacks. You may, in fact, be right. When batteries are whizzing by you as if you were Dave Parker in the Pittsburgh outfield, and when the cafeteria seems eerily similar to a prison exercise yard (haircuts, tatooing, weightlifting, etc.), youmay be quite sure that relief is better.

Ten years have gone by now, and our leadership has done an about face: cash is better, much better! They must've been wrong then; they must be right now.

In our school, our Chapter Committee recently met with our Principal to discuss -- casually and informally -- what we all could expect from the shortened Professional Assignment list. Now, we fought like hell to get rid of our previous abusive administration, and we find ourselves with a more teacher-friendly Principal. We are lucky. There must be countless schools, that aren't so lucky. What will they do? The administration holds all the cards. Our union leadership tells us that they can't give you the assignment two years in a row: well, for many, that's cold comfort indeed.

What was interesting at the meeting, though, was the comment of a young teacher. She has about five years. When she found out that the new teachers and those indanger of getting a "U" could be given PD, she was taken aback. I guess she thought she was safe. She realized, then, that her union had put her in a game of musical chairs: last person standing gets the cafeteria. Her comment was that the union divides us (the rank and file) against each other. Seniority is the answer, of course. Yet, she didn't begrudge seniority, and respected those that paid their dues, she said, but she wondered how our leadership could put its members in such a cut-throat situation. A situation that is so unpleasant, and in some cases so frightening to some, that your colleague would gladly cast you to your fate, as long as they didn't have todo it. Perhaps our leadership thinks that if we are fighting each other, we will not get around to fighting them. Perhaps they just don't care. We know that it's the best they could do. In a similar way, I guess, Dave Parker's teammates didn't want to stand too close to him either. From theupper deck, those batteries could probably kill you.