Joe asked that this On The Inside article be made available on the blog for comments. Here it is:

WE HAVE DUES PAYING MEMBERS? YOU’RE KIDDING ME, RIGHT?

by Joe Mudgett

How do you know when your union is neglecting you? Well, one way is to read their web page. Prominently displayed on the UFT web page is a seemingly impressive: UFT ACTION CENTER. Within this box is the list of the union’s priorities. Here’s what was posted on 2/16/06:

UFT ACTION CENTER
PROTEST ABC-TV “20/20” LIES

The Sandy Feldman Fellowships For Service Through Education

Stossel Watch

Help Katrina Victims

Katrina Benefit Fund Raiser

UFT Spring ’06 Course Catalog

Contract implementation problems? Let us know!

Yes, that’s right, there’s nothing about the members until the last two lines. Sure, helping Katrina victims is a good cause. But what’s this Stossel/ABC stuff? Oh yeah, I remember now, didn’t John Stossel do one helluva a number on our president? I can see why that tops the list for UFT Action. Don’t be disresepectin’ Randi, you media dogs! D’ya hear?

I don’t know about you, but I am extremely disappointed and angry. Contract implementation problems appear to be listed almost as an afterthought, and don’t even rate all capital letters! Even worse is the fact that the number one issue facing the membership is missing entirely. Where is the bold action plan we’ve been promised for months to prepare the troops in all the chapters to show City Hall (and its puppet, the DOE) that we mean business? That we’ve shaken the dust and cobwebs from our armor and are drilling in union militancy once more? That we are preparing to enter the next contract talks in a position of strength?

What we get, instead, is a weakly-worded, and ambiguous Fair and Timely Contract resolution that calls for “exploring” ways to become more militant, perhaps considering a “no contract-no work” policy. This poor excuse for activism was approved at the last Delegates Assembly.

What’s a poor, dues paying, union member to do? Attack the one-party sickness that pervades the Delegates Assembly. Vote for chapter leaders and delegates who will put members at the top of the Action List. To reform our union, each of us must understand the issues, read all viewpoints (not just the Unity-controlled New York Teacher), and decide what kind of union we want to represent us in the 21st century. Let’s make the UFT a powerful union again, a force to be reckoned with in the next contract negotiations!

UFT SLEIGHT OF HAND; OR, THE GREAT RANDINI SHOW~

The highly vaunted 25/55 sounds as if it has bit the dust. Not that it ever had a chance. What did Pataki call the idea? Ridiculous? Silly? Ludicrous? No more so than our COPE dollars backing him. No more than our leadership selling the idea as part of the recent contract.

On the other hand, the dramatically undersold 6R kicks in this week. Members get a blast from the past: you may experience all the wonders of five in a row. And what did our leadership sell here? That you can't get two involuntary assignments in a row. No one, not even veteran teachers, can predict how demoralizing this element of the contract will be. At least eleven or so years ago you had a term off; now, settle in for the long haul: this doesn't go away.

Over on the ICE Blog, Jeff Kaufman informs us that letters that are removed from your file are not destroyed, but sent to a city agency to be held there until you have retired (as if that'll happen) for six years. When the DR's made the rounds, that wasn't advertised.

But all these are in the past. Let's look at the future.

Well, we have the Mayor seeking concessions in the health benefits and pensions of municipal employees. No doubt our leadership will put up the same staunch fight that they showed in contract negotiations.
Prepare to be ravaged.

We also have our profession being beaten to a pulp in the media. And it is here that our leadership performs an even better sleight of hand. Here, they are in their true element: deception. After our President walks into the Stossel meat grinder, we find ourselves in a huff. Stossel did a hatchet job on the boss. Let's get indignant. Let's protest. But it's a day late and a dollar short. We've been getting pounded in the press and media for years. However, now it is convenient for our leadership to get haughty. It is convenient because if the membership is doing something else, they can't look at their own house. Unity leadership gives us the basic union 101 sleight o' hand: when you fail on all fronts: distract. In fact, let's have lots of distractions: let's have hurricane relief; let's have cancer walks; let's help the teachers in New Orleans; in fact, let's vote to bring our troops home too. As good as all these things may be, we have a leadership that can't even secure a decent contract for its members, and yet they can solve the problems of the world. Read the minutes to the Ad Com meetings, or the Executive Board meetings. This is what we pay dues for?

But it's a shell game, a sleight of hand. It's nothing less than a distraction from the abysmal failure that our Unity leadership has provided. It's the man that stands in the street looking at the stars while his house burns.