Note: Thanks to Ed Calamia and Mike Shulman for taking notes, which were used to type up these minutes. Sill opens the meeting – Mulgrew is in Albany. Open Mic: Speaker 1: union supported me putting together programs for students when principal didn’t. Speaker 2: Dental plan (dentist dropped; then next dentist ‘no longer in network.’ My current dentist has a dirty office and a minimal exam schedule. Dental hasn’t been updated since 2016. Sill: no details of any real budget deal. Staff director report: MayDA à May 22. Spring conference coming up. Labor seder on Thursday in Brooklyn office. Open ..read more

Every three years, UFT members have the opportunity to vote for the Chapter Leader (CL) and delegates of their respective schools. It is easy to vote for a friendly colleague or to simply go along with the majority, but basing your vote on shallow virtues without putting real thought into your selection can prove costly to you and every other UFT member at your school. The upcoming chapter elections must be taken seriously. The people you elect will be representing you for the next three years. In order to try to help make your decision a little bit easier, here is a list of criteria and quest ..read more

Summary/Analysis Today was primarily about the UFT financial report – the first given in many years. Eventually, we will have a copy to provide, as it will eventually go on the website, so we’ll do most of the analysis when we also have that copy in hand (we had to give ours up before leaving). But a couple of things did stand out: While the overall financial picture seems fine, we do have some serious real estate concerns, both because we’re losing renter occupants in the building we do own (50 Broadway) and are coming up to some financially important deadlines with regards to the building ..read more

Summary/Analysis: The headline from tonight comes from the very end of the meeting – Unity’s bizarre handling of the paraprofessional resolution. Readers may remember that I motivated Migda Rodriguez, Marie Wausnok, and Daniel Alicea’s resolution at executive board on Monday, only to see it gutted of its most important resolved – the one that would have committed the UFT to fighting for a living wage. Tonight, Priscilla Castro, who ran with Unity and won the chief para gig over at 52 Broadway, made a motion to move the gutted version of the reso up to the number three slot (it was at eleven be ..read more

Summary/Analysis: There was one special order of business today, a resolution in support of paraprofessionals seeking a living wage and better working conditions. I motivated it, and it was signed by all 7 members of the HS Executive Board + Mike Schirtzer, but it was written by two paraprofessionals and a special education teacher: Migda Rodriguez (2nd Vice-Chair of the UFT Paraprofessional Chapter), Marie Wausnock, and Daniel Alicea, respectively. The resolution originally was meant to promote understanding of two pieces of legislation meant to help paraprofessionals and to commit to fighti ..read more

For months now, UFT members have been told that ‘Tier 6 will be fixed,’ and that for UFT, NYSUT, or the AFL-CIO to get it fixed, we’d need to donate to COPE. In a longer piece, I wrote about this general strategy, which unfortunately had all the fixings of an advertisement to get members to donate to COPE, with little evidence that those COPE funds were being used for pension reform purposes. Indeed, UFT members in the opposition are often critical of COPE: (1) because it valorizes outsourced lobbying tactics over rank-and-file action; (2) because COPE has a certain opacity, with members havin ..read more

JOIN US TUESDAY, 03.12.24 AT 5:30 PM – New Action-UFT members and supporters, our next general meeting will take place, Tuesday, March 12, 2024 at 5:30 PM. We will discuss a number of our initiatives on healthcare, pension, chapter elections, abusive administration, and more. Join us. We will meet virtually. If you haven’t already, please register for the Zoom link by clicking the button below or go to http://register.newaction.org. REGISTER FOR MEETING NOW NAC/UFT launches its school chapter election campaignThis spring, UFT members will once agai ..read more

This spring, UFT members will once again be electing their union representatives at the school level and for functional chapters. Every three years, each individual school elects its chapter leader, delegate(s), paraprofessional representative. Functional chapters and retirees also elect their representatives around the same time. All UFT members have a right to run for office, nominate other members and vote for candidates. Union representatives will be responsible for supporting and informing members; communicating members’ views, priorities and ideas to the union; and representing members a ..read more

The next New Action general meeting is on March 12th at 5:30 PM. We will discuss a number of our initiatives on healthcare, pension, chapter elections, abusive administration, and more. Make sure you are on our email list if you would like a link. Sign up to become a member through our website today ..read more

Help get fellow teacher and New Action/UFT Executive Board member, Ben Morgenroth, on the ballot for the May NYC TRS board election as part of the three teacher trustees who oversee the more than $100 billion in our pension fund. Ben is supported by members across the City’s schools, across many caucuses, including New Action, and of course by independents, owing to his passion for maintaining solvent pensions, his unsurpassed quantitative and financial background preparing him to make financial decisions, and his advocacy for fixing Tier 6 (see NAC’s Tier 6 presentation, predominately l ..read more