Weingarten: Failed Labor Leader
Randi Weingarten is looking to her new career as head of the AFT. That much larger pool of teachers must understand what they are getting. A failed labor leader. Randi, through her position, is in an excellent position to advocate for children and to negotiate health and welfare benefits for her membership. How well she performs either of these two functions demands future critical evaluation. What we address here is her inability to function as a labor leader. Make no mistake. Teachers are members of the labor force. We are not independent contractors or consultants able to individually control our own terms and conditions of employment. And the most important condition of employment is the right to remain employed. Remain in the profession we chose. Ms. Weingarten does not want to be seen as the protector of teachers’ job rights: The press and the public would label her a “protector of incompetents.” But the teachers who are being forced out of their jobs- the ATRS, the whistle-blowers, the questioners, the teachers who dared to exercise their transfer rights, and the teachers who make too much money, - are not incompetents. These teachers are the scapegoats being used to further Bloomberg, Klein, and yes, Randi Weingarten’s political ambitions.
Weingarten has proven she does not have the stomach to advocate for teachers’ rights to their jobs. She has colluded in turning NYC teachers into at-will employees. Her defense for doing so- “The UFT was not strong enough to fight.”
Questions TAGNYC has for Randi Weingarten:
1. Why did you not educate your membership about the implications of the givebacks in the 2005 contract? You and your lawyers knew the possible if not probable consequences. You can’t blame the membership for running to take the money since you did not do your job in educating the membership. Labor leaders don’t invoke the adage “Buyer beware” when the ‘buyer’ is the membership.
2. Will you admit that you feared for the careers of the more senior teachers in the wake of the 2005 contract and the empowerment of principals? Will you admit that you communicated this fear to your district reps? You hoped Bloomberg-Klein would go easy on the senior teachers. You lost and we lost. Labor leaders should never “depend upon the kindness of strangers.”
3. Why did you not rally the members to make a stand against Bloomberg-Klein? 80,000 plus teachers in your corner and you did nothing to get them on the street (strikes weren’t necessary- why not mass protests during rush hours, etc)? Oh, right, you were and are afraid of antagonizing the public. Too cautious to be a labor leader.
4. Why do you tell your members “Wait until 2009?” You see 2009 as a time when friends of ‘labor’ come back into office. How courageous! Who can’t ‘lead’ when times are good and ears are sympathetic. You failed to lead in tough times. Too many of NYC teachers- the competent teachers- have, and are suffering the devastating consequences of your failed leadership in the run-up to 2009. Will many of these teachers be employed in 2009?
5. Why do you hide behind the 3020a process? Rather than using the law as the pretext for not intervening, why are you not railing against the farce of the 3020a process?
6. Why don’t you state publicly what is said privately by district reps, chapter chair people, and OSI: Frivolous charges of incompetence, verbal, corporal, and sexual abuse are being used by principals to remove competent teachers from their schools?
7. Why have you not led your members in vocal, body-on-the line protests against the absurdity of turning competent teachers into ATRs? Why won’t you admit loudly and publicly that the ATR paradigm is the road to unemployment for high salaried, competent teachers?
8. Why have you not led your members in vocal, body-on-the-line protests against the willful destruction of competent teachers’ careers by incompetent, insecure, and unethical principals?
9. Who is defending your teachers in the schools? Do you know that most of your chapter chair people and district reps have abdicated the duty to advocate? Do you know of the despair being felt by teachers who know they don’t have a union willing or able to defend them within the schools?
10. How do you reconcile your claim to be an advocate for the students when their teachers- new hires and senior teachers- are stampeding out of the NYC school system?
11. On a NY1 news show last week, in criticism of the budget cuts, you chastised Klein and advised him to “Show some leadership in tough times.” Ms. Weingarten, how have you shown leadership in protecting your competent teachers during the tough Bloomberg-Klein times?
Teachers are urged to email Ms Weingarten with any of these or other questions. IT IS PAST TIME FOR HER RESPONSE. Not an opt ed piece but a question and answer format where Ms. Weingarten does not control the floor, or the questions asked, or the time allotted to each response.
rweingarten@uft.org
