Thursday, October 8, 2009

Mulgrew Enters the Danger Zone

I just got word that Michael Mulgrew, our new and seemingly affable UFT prez, is coming to my school one day next week. He'll only be there for a short while, but as luck would have it, I will be off the period he'll be there. I should be able to get a word in edgewise.

So, I'm leaving it up to all of you. I should be able to get in one question to Mulgrew, so what should it be? Submit your questions, and I'll select the most interesting or obnoxious to ask. Fire away.


Chaz said...

Will the union negotiate with the City on a ATR time limit? I'm no ATR but this is the most important item for any contract.

I hope the answer is no. The ATR time limit is not negotiable and never will be.

Pissedoffteacher said...

I agree with Chaz. I was just about to put up the same comment.

NYC Educator said...

Green Dot teachers have neither tenure nor seniority rights, yet the UFT maintains their "just cause" protection is just as good as tenure.

Has the "just cause" clause in any Green Dot school ever been tested? If so, how many teacher jobs has it saved? What percentage is that, when compared to teachers who lost jobs?

I've also heard UFT paraprofessionals have "just cause" protection. Does Mr. Mulgrew feel that protection is equal to that which tenured teachers have?

Also, when are we going to get free donuts and prostitutes in the teacher lounges? Weren't we promised that in 02?

Anonymous said...

What is the UFT going to do to safeguard the ATRs from the Kleinberg steamroller?

Anonymous said...

Will the union put teeth into articule 8i regarding excessive paperwork? Professional activities (circular 6R, article 7A6) has a default list. Will the union eliminate small group instruction(SGI) from the default list especially since teachers feel it is another teaching period, albeit only 10 students are assigned to the teacher. However, teachers are feed up with having to teach 3 periods in a row and the following period SGI. Will it will be negotiated to change circular 6R. Will the language of the contract change from "consultation" to "consensus". Will extended time for small group instruction be eliminated (article 6)? Will they reinstate seniority transfers and modify the open market option? Will there be more funding for those schools that are impacted by students incidents/crimes without the need of closing the school? Will the union negotiate with the city to reduce class size and enforce the Contract 4 Excellence because of the CFE?

Anonymous said...

Will they hire me a personal assistant to do all of my excess paperwork and data collection and curriculum writing so I can actually have time to plan rigorous and engaging lessons - especially since my principal has 3 AP's and 8 school aides (for 450 students) to do all of her paperwork while she runs around pointing fingers and making us feel inadequate because we are not using skill checklists?

Anonymous said...

I could not stop at just one.

Will the union negotiate a reduction in teaching loads for teachers to allow for the increased reports, parent communications, data entry, and curriculum writing now required?. Clearly, since the demands have increased lesson planning has decreased...there are only two ways to correct the imbalance - decrease the teaching load of each teacher or scale back on the new and growing demands. This will improve instruction.

A second suggestion: Will the union hire investigators to assist the NYSUT attorneys given the documented and continued disregard for due process and impartial investigation repeatedly demonstrated by DOE as part of the burgeoning 3020a process? This will protect your dues paying members.

Tom Joad said...

Mr Mulgrew,

Does the UFT plan on standing up to the Bloomberg/Klein attack on organized labor, or do they plan to stand by while labor unions across the city are dismantled and dispersed? See the attacks on DC 37 members and UFT members in the form of discontinuances and ATR's.

Anonymous said...

Does the fact that he will probably be elected with only 25% of the membership, since only about 30% bother to participate in general UFT elections, bother him at all? He says we are a "democratic" union.

ed notes online said...

Ask him how many ATRs there are. He will answer he doesn't want to tell you because the number would leak to the press and they would make the union look bad.

What a crock. BloomKlein could release the numbers any time they want to. What Mulgrew is worried about is letting the membership know these numbers.

ed notes online said...

To 1:20 anon.
The numbers are even worse than that. Only 22% of working teachers voted and Unity got only 21% of working member vote. Retirees come out to vote in higher numbers 0 almost 50% because of the bagels they serve at retirement meetings.

Anonymous said...

Why does the union continue to back mayoral control even now when the mayor is finding any loophole including hiring his own group of parents to serve? It really puts a knife in the back of public education.

Pogue said...

Mr. Mulgrew, what do the other Unions, (NYPD NYFD, Sanit.), think of the UFT's "lay down and do whatever you want to us" approach to labor negotioations? Do the other unions have a Rubber Room or ATR-type problem?

Mr. Talk said...

These questions were emailed to me by a user...keeping it anon since I don't know him:

1 Do you trust Klein's numbers on rising test scores and graduation rates

2 Do you agree with Diane Ravitch that state tests are "exemplars of inflation"?

3 Does the UFT have an ethical obligation to speak out re Klein's dubious statistical claims? If so, what is stopping you?

4 Is it UFT strategy to keep silent on the DOE's incredible claims and instead take credit for the increases in order to enhance contract negotiations?

5 Twenty-four of 27 UFT chapter leaders told me last spring that test tampering occurred at their schools. There are current cheating scandals in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Do you think that tampering by administrators and teachers a significant problem in the city system and a key factor in rising scores and grad rates?

6 The Chicago Teachers Union cooperated on a cheating survey with the Chicago Sun-Times. Would you support a similar survey of New York City teachers to determine the scope of cheating and the incentives involved (e.g., pressure from principals, bonuses, job retention, etc.)?

7 Would you support some type of blind grading to eliminate cheating?

NY_I said...

Amen to Philip Nobile's questions.

As I've argued in my blogpost today at,
the ATR issue is one instance in which the UFT needs to exert its top-down authority and essentially force an audit, and get the DoE to open up about actual hiring patterns during the purported "hiring freeze." Individual ATR teachers and counselors are too isolated and vulnerable to grieve this issue on a school-level basis.