Prediction – UFT Contract Vote

With the announcement just an hour and a quarter away – I’m sticking with last week’s prediction. “But if I had to guess I’d say this contract passes with an unenthusiastic 70% or so”

I’ve heard about even more schools swinging “No” in the last few days. However, the relatively high turnout, which is a good thing for our union (over 72,000 votes cast, 72% of eligible), means more members who casually follow union news were involved. The “No” vote was concentrated in the more highly engaged members, who would have turned out no matter what.

We will know soon.

And if somehow this thing is rejected, we will need to start talking, fast, about what we want our negotiators to change. “Everything” is an easy answer, and won’t get a hearing. Last week I proposed two areas to be renegotiated:

• Take our health care off the table
• Leave out the language that treats ATRs differently than other teachers

and two ways to change how the vote was approached:

• Don’t rush us. Give us the agreement in writing, and time to discuss it in our chapters.
• Don’t sell it. Tell us what is good, and what is bad. We don’t want to buy a pig in a poke.

And if there is a yes vote (more likely), we will need to start identifying areas that members and chapter leaders need to be careful. An easy place to begin is with abusive administrators who insist that they can still call faculty conferences – and that members must attend.