Here is a brief report-back from tonight's UFT delegate assembly:
The attached handout was handed to me by Peter Lamphere, former leader of
the ISO UFT fraction; how far they fall..... See the second side, which
is a petition for UFT to have internal election on whether to support
Bernie or mainstream Dem, probably Biden, (Weingarten's choice). The
Bernie UFTers people want to follow UTLA's lead which endorsed Bernie.
This did not come up on the floor but sure will soon. Thanks to Jon who
quickly texted me talking points on Bernie; I couldn't use them tonight but
will soon.
Not much controversy at the meeting itself: I spoke about forthcoming DACA
Supreme Court decision and suggested UFT form immigration support
committees at every school. Surprise, Mulgrew supported this, saying it
would be important to "gather information," and saying there are also
teachers threatened by DACA decision; he conveniently and pointedly skipped
over and talked over my call for these committees to organize to Stop the
deportations.
Adult Ed delegate Fran Meyer put up a convoluted motion for union for do
more to defend U-rated teachers in Adult Ed; Mulgrew said they were acting
on this already because Adult Ed was notorious for the U-ratings, but the
legal beagle UFT guy said Fran's motion should be opposed because it was
counter-posed to the procedure the UFT was already working on. Very
confusing; I spoke with them afterwards and will try to be more involved,
but they are kind of addled, as it were.
Mulgrew said he wants to form "political action committees" in the schools
to get more UFTers on the city council, etc. This is going to be very bad
news; these committees will pump for the Democrats and nothing else.
The union was offering free flu shots to all the delegates upstairs on
another floor; for this reason and general turkey season impatience,
everyone left early, that's that.
--Marjorie
Attachment:
191120 Labor for Bernie, UFT-Endorse Campaign.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document
