Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Voice
Teachers less and less see the Union as a vehicle for improv-
ing their lives at an ever more demanding job where they are
increasingly less secure and respected. Higher salaried senior
teachers o en feel they have a target on their backs. New
teachers see achieving tenure as an ever-receding mirage
as an obstacle course as they engage in a 3, 4, or more year
endurance contest with their principal and/or local Superin-
tendent. And if they get past that will they survive long
enough to get a pension? The silence and impotence of the
Union is apparent. How o en do we hear exasperated, de-
moralized teachers asking, Where is the Union?
Contd Fiorillo
The lack of union democracy has very tangible consequences
for teachers. Lately, virtually all of those consequences have
been nega ve, and have correlated with declining par cipa-
on from the rank and le. Less than 20% of ac ve teachers
voted in the last elec on and 52% of those who did vote were
re rees. Unity has so rigged the elec on process, every single
member of the 101 member UFT Execu ve Board is Unity
endorsed.
Members must commit to a loyalty oath to ALWAYS support
whatever dictates come down from the leadership and NEV-
ER speak against them publicly. Hundred of chapter leaders
are Unity Caucus members and if it comes down to sup-
por ng the interests of the teachers who elected them or the
union leadership most Unity chapter leaders will force feed
policies from the top to their members, thus pu ng the
needs of the caucus over their colleagues.
Teachers who a empt to go above a Unity chapter leader to
the borough or district reps are stonewalled since these reps
have been appointed by the leadership since the UFT ended
elec ons of District Reps in 2002, thus bringing Unitys cen-
tralized, top-down governance to both the school, district
and borough levels.
Other than a few excep ons, ge ng even part- me work at
the Union is condi onal on Unity Caucus membership, a pow-
erful incen ve for closely-policed conformity.
There are many reasons for the scapegoa ng, disrespect and
a acks that public school teachers have been suering for a
genera on. One of the reasons theyve been so successful is
that the Union leaderships con nuing an -democra c prac-
ce has made it rigid and sclero c, dangerously dependent
on friends in high places especially since their most im-
portant friend, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, was recently
indicted - and unwilling to tap into the knowledge and energy
of its rank and le. Unity Caucus is so wedded to decades of
power, so scared of the membership and intent on managing
it instead of represen ng it, that they risk the destruc on of
the Union itself along with the mission of public educa on as
we know it.
It follows that the survival of public educa on and teacher
unions themselves are bound up with issues of union democ-
racy. The con nued entrenchment of the Unity Caucus Ma-
chine virtually guarantees the con nuing success of a acks
on teachers, their benets, working condi ons and dignity. If
we are serious about saving public educa on and the teach-
ing profession, then we must be serious about taking back
our Union from the out-of-touch Unity Caucus Machine that
controls it.