Yesterday, a Unity hack came to our lunchroom. My Unity CC felt it was necessary, since I got up and spoke for five minutes at a union meeting, to present the other side. He did this by sending a Unity employee to our lunchroom for three or four hours. Also, he forgot to tell me the guy was coming.
The Unity hack had set up a table, distributed handouts, and was talking very fast. I asked him why we couldn't get cost of living. He said we were bound by the pattern. I asked why we needed the union if we were bound by the pattern, and he then claimed we beat the pattern (the one we were bound by) set by DC37. I said our contract was four months longer than theirs, and that was why our raise was higher.
He immediately started discussing the transit workers, and how they had had to go on strike and eventually go to arbitration. I told him we'd done neither, and that our situation was not like theirs at all. He said he didn't want to talk about the transit workers. I asked him why he brought them up then.
At this point, he stopped responding to my questions, refusing to see my hand go up. After trying three times to get a word in, I interrupted him with a question, a supervisor stood up, saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa," or something, I concluded I was wasting my time and started walking out.
As I was doing so, I heard another teacher screaming at the supervisor, "You're not UFT and you've got no business here."
It did my heart good to hear such a comment, particularly since she was absolutely right and the thought hadn't occurred to me.
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