Is “Preparing to Strike” Assisted Suicide?

Is “Preparing to Strike” Assisted Suicide?

 The opposition caucuses in the UFT are gearing up for the
election, and seemingly forgetting what election will determine the future of
the union, The November election is a generational election, the very existence
of public education is at stake, the union leadership election in the spring
pales in comparison.

The strategy of the opposition caucuses seem to be following the Trump playbook, attack, attack, nasty, snarky and unfounded accusations, it did work for Trump, campaigns across the country have become ugly and are turned off the voters.

Maybe the initial enthusiasm over the Harris candidacy will carry into November.  Mulgrew, in my view, has skillfully navigated the hallways of Albany and City Hall. In the waning days of the Albany legislature, called the “big ugly,” the Class Size Reduction Bill zipped through both houses and over the vigorous opposition of the mayor the governor signed the bill into law and NYSUT endorsed her candidacy. Political action classes will include in their curriculum for years,

 Sometimes avoiding passage is just as important. The governor was losing the fight to get the legislature to support legislation to allow the governor to override local housing ordinances and build affording houses in suburban communities. Bloomberg put up $5M for TV ads supporting the governor in exchange for the governor adding removing the NYC charter school cap, allowing an additional 100 charter schools, about 4,000 jobs.  The legislative leadership refused to pass the budget, held up the budget for the weeks until the governor backed away.  Why was the legislature willing to stop the entire state budgeting process at the request of the UFT? Somehow Mulgrew was able to be “at the table.”

 This past year the mayor began the year by announcing major
education cuts in the education budget. The UFT collected a wide range of
advocacy organizations, worked closely with the City Council: the June budget
is approved, no cuts,

 The opposition ignored and/or were critical, the offer
alternative, “prepare to strike.”

There are thousands of public employee unions with hundreds
of thousands of members in New York State without a public employee strike for
fifty years, The Public Employees Relations Act (PERB) prohibits strikes with
harsh penalties, two days loss of pay for each day on strike, loss of dues
check-off for the union, the law also requires unions for every public employee
unit and provides mediation, fact-finding and non-binding arbitration, the
process is frequently used.

 In 1975 the UFT-Board of Education contract negotiations dragged through the
spring into the summer, the City argued it had no money, the union had a “no
contract, no work” policy.  The union was considering a 30 day contract extension, the City, suddenly laid off 14,000 teachers. At the Delegates Meeting members shouted “We won’t come back until we all come back” and the City was preparing to declare bankruptcy, the court would assign a monitor to take over all city finances and all contracts, labor and otherwise would fall in the domain of the court. On strike the union would not have a seat at the table. The union negotiated a contract, membership reluctantly ratified, the city was only hours away from bankruptcy, the UFT agreed to allow the Teacher Retirement System to loan the city money and avert bankruptcy, laid off teachers were offered jobs and the city repaid the loan.  A fascinating story, the city asked President Ford to loan the funds, an iconic NY Daily News headline: Ford to City: Drop Dead. 

 Detroit did declare bankruptcy and the court, as part of the
fiscal restructuring reduced public employee pension.  

Doesn’t the NY Constitution contain language to prevent
reducing pensions? Yes, however federal law prevails over state law and regulation.

 While the union is “preparing to strike” management is
preparing to respond.

Bloomberg, with unlimited resources might renew his “lift
the cap” ask. Eva Markowitz, according to the Success Academy IRS 990 Report
has over $200 million and Orthodox Yeshivas are lobbying for vouchers,
transferring untold dollars to private and parochial schools.

 I’ll be accused of fear-mongering, and, I’d respond striking is suicidal, the best solution begins with electing Harris?  Have we ever had a president a close friend
of a teacher union leader? Would Harris support legislation to protect teacher
retiree health plans? 

 The current Trump-like criticism of UFT leadership may be in
the opposition playbook, it did election Trump. 

As a union rep I had to deal with the superintendent, and I
had to remember I represented all the members, including the malcontents. 

 I learned to “agree to disagree,” to work together when we could, to try and find common ground, to fight when I had to, we had one thing always in common, avid Mets fans.

 David Kirkland, the former Director of the NYU Metro Center and
currently the leader of EDForward, writes,

 Our diversity—of thought, experience, and identity—enriches us. The real challenge lies not in our differences but in our inability to embrace and navigate them.

 Perhaps we have made too much of the naked desire for consensus, mistakenly believing that homogenizing our views will heal our fractures. This drive for conformity does not address the root of our issues. The problem isn’t that we are not the same; it’s that we need to learn to live together within our differences. This isn’t about unity but how to agree and disagree more constructively.

Our failure to engage in constructive disagreement undermines our strength. True progress requires us to move beyond superficial agreements and confront the complexities of our varied perspectives. How do we shift our focus from
striving to be heard to fostering a culture where respectful, robust
disagreement is seen as a pathway to deeper understanding and genuine
collaboration? How do we quiet our passions long enough to listen to our hearts
and move more thoughtfully with our heads?

 This is the essence of equity work—recognizing the value in each voice and learning how to harmonize the dissonance into a richer, more powerful narrative of human experience …

 I have witnessed the transformative power of truly listening to and valuing every perspective, ensuring that even the most marginalized voices are heard and fully respected.

 Through this work, I have learned effective disagreement is not about striving to be heard or erasing differences but about quieting our passions so that we might engage our differences more deeply and respectfully. It is about creating environments where conflicting views can coexist and where dialogue can lead to growth and change.

 As bell hooks writes, “Engaged pedagogy begins with the assumption that we learn best when there is an interactive relationship between teacher and students.” This principle extends beyond the classroom to all areas of life, emphasizing how engagement and mutual respect are foundational to productive conflict resolution.

 Paulo Freire … states, “Dialogue cannot exist without humility,” highlighting the need for participants in any conflict to approach each other with openness and a
willingness to learn. In practice, this means creating spaces where all
participants feel safe to express their views and where there is a genuine
effort to understand and integrate different perspectives.

Is it possible for the caucuses within the union to “quiet
their passions” and “engage differences more deeply and respectfully”?  

We stand on a precipice, can we work together to elect Harris
and “make a genuine effort to understand and integrate different perspectives?”

 I hope so, we may be running out of time and chances.