Unity-New Action types are all aglow with a resolution they've made in the executive board proposing that ATR teachers be placed before new teachers are hired. However, without specific contractual amendments, it's just as meaningless as their declaration about solving the class size problem.
Monopolistic, amoral, self-serving Unity-New Action can make all the resolutions it likes. Perhaps it's learned from Mayor Bloomberg that image can yield more political capital than substance. The fact is, however, that its patronage machine enabled the ATR problem by approving it, and recently worsened it by supporting Klein's Mach III re-org. They took an enormous step backward with this, and the result was entirely predictable.
Were it not for the extreme apathy of most city teachers (over 75% of whom didn't even bother to vote in union elections), and the patronage mill that enables the Unity-New Action machine to suck up our dues money (not to mention permitting them blatantly unethical major television campaigns before every election), informed voices would be crying out for the impeachment of Randi Weingarten, along with her entire Unity-New Action gang of double-pensioned sycophants.
The 2005 contract was an abomination of unprecedented givebacks for a compensation increase that failed even to meet cost of living. It was relentlessly promoted by union leadership with threats and lies worthy of Karl Rove. On Edwize, they even changed the names of Unity faithful to give us the impression they were voices "from the trenches." Ms. Weingarten's "progressive" leadership earns us ATR status and the admiration of blatant anti-unionists like Rod Paige. There is no question we could have done better.
We could hardly have done worse.
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