Approved.
Barr--Functional CL weekend went well. Early childhood conference Saturday. Please come out and support--hybrid meeting. March 26 CL weekend 4.
Reports from Districts--
Mary Vacarro--Had Golde Hawn come for training. Partnering with foundation. Will give training and one year subscriptions to anyone who participates.
Tom Murphy--4500 at general meeting for RTC. Mulgrew explained that new Medicare Adv. has been suspended. No need to opt out.
Akeel Williams--March 10 Marina Del Rey Bronx, had retirement party for 36 year teacher. Thanks to all who attended.
Special order of business--Resolution to support Ukraine--Reads resolution very fast--UFT stands with teachers, students, families in Ukraine and Ukranians in NYC schools, and will direct relief funds to them.
Passes.
Resolution to defend LGBT plus against attacks--Mike Sill--We have to continue to fight for gains. People want to marginalize students we teach because of their identity. We have to be vigilant in defense of our students and profession. Cannot weaponize schools. We serve students in all their diversity. Must defend out colleagues and students no matter where they are.
Rashad Brown--Stands in favor. Representation matters. Students need to see representation in literature in their classrooms. Must choose own identity, in schools they're in. As for Florida, we want to make sure teachers are not disciplined for those conversations. Some students attempt suicide. We want to make sure these students are not overlooked
Pat Crispino- I have outed myself many times over the years. I didn't know what gay was when I was young, but I knew I was different. Many things have changed over the years that have helped keep kids alive. People like Ellen coming out and many other famous people. That has helped kids not feel different and be ok who they are. Please support this resolution any anything else you can do. We have to stop this maniac in Florida.
Michael Freedman--Another example of right wing people attacking "the other." We've been fighting this for centuries and must continue.
Passes unanimously.
President Michael Mulgrew-- Thanks everyone part of last weekend's training. People are starting to really like being out there. Tomorrow biggest event in two years at UFT with CTE. Will see how that goes.
Week of lobbying--Budget process. Governor puts out proposal. Senate and Assembly put out proposals. We fight to get what we want on the table. Lobbied whole week. We were able to make significant progress. Both assembly and Senate put in 100 million for public schools. Teacher centers did very well. 26-28 million. Will probably have best funding in 20 years. Funded aid for 9th grade CTE students. Child care providers--get 69% of market rate--Assembly said make it 90%. Trying to get these things in. 3 billion for child care funding. Mayoral control not in either house bill.
Chair of education committee says if mayoral control is redone will be changed. Week of lobbying really paid off. Never had these in one house budgets before. Will see where it goes. Will finish in 17 days. Then will be city budget. Mayor says city is broke. All mayors say that, but our advice at all times is use federal funding on infrastructure. DOE needs new computer system, is 45 years old. These are big ticket items we need now.
Judge ruled Medicare Advantage could go forward, but both plans would be premium free. We need to stop process, we told mayor. He agreed. City is appealing. Will see what happens when things are settled.
April 14 is when we will meet about Regents. Our members will be on stage speaking to politicians. Tired of answering same questions.
This weekend early childhood conference.
Questions--
Q--PS 211 in Bronx was in Daily News yesterday. Are these kind of cases you can bring to chancellor so we can encourage better relationships with principals?
A--Relationship on those issues has never been good. DOE always rationalizes this, like special ed. shortcomings. I will ask if this is what they believe they want in their schools. Do they want their employees treated that way? Supervisor union always blames us. When schools have constant churn that's significant evidence there is a real problem. Easily demonstrated. Carmen Farina agreed, but those with biggest churn rate were her friends and she turned away. Often these people are removed but hired by DOE. We hope to work things out better. I was CL in a school like this, dreading walking into the school. Will say that DOE superintendents applying seems to be serious process. They seem to be looking at everything, wanting people who can get things done. Clear that Superintendents will get more staff and BCOs will be downsized. Reason you're reading these stories is because of our work.
Q--At RTC meeting LeRoy gave shoutout to birthday of union.
A--Wednesday.
Thanks us. Halfway through March. Will have break April 14.
Resolution in Solidarity with striking Minneapolis teachers--Janella Hinds--Speaks in favor. We work hard to protect class size here. Part of contract. Many places don't have those protections, or competitive pay. Retention and recruitment difficult. Standing in solidarity for them, who seek the protections we already have. We need teachers treated with respect and dignity they deserve.
Carries.
Barr--March 16, 1960 was birth of union. If it were five or ten years ago, you'd see many founders sitting here. 62 years ago a bunch of groups combined to form the UFT. George, before pandemic, was always in halls, with a bit of history. I always listened. We need to respect and build upon our foundation. Please reflect upon and teach someone else the importance of union.
George Altamari--Thanks everyone here. We have a long history and a short history. Why wasn't there a union earlier, or collective bargaining, or negotiations? Why did we have to grovel at supervisors? We were not in unity, together in solidarity. HS teachers used to say they wanted more money than elementary. Elementary said they did more work. There were about 50,000 teachers, many of whom in Teacher's Guild. We cut through and merged into a union to earn collective bargaining.
Certain moments will never be redone. March 16, we voted to join together for sole purpose of solidarity. They were the founders. I'm the last remaining of founders. January 10 officers of UFT were allowed into 110 Livington St. Bosses had big conference table. We had never been in there. After winning collective bargaining election we had first negotiating meeting. I was there as HS VP and strike chairman.
We walked in, saw long oak table, previously reserved for bosses only, and proclaimed we wanted collective bargaining. Power was not given to us. We took it because of Unity and Solidarity. Sings Solidarity Forever.
Adjourned 6:46
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