Teachers are feeling burned by President Obama. After accepting the support of teachers and our unions all across the country, his policies have been destroying our schools, our unions and our jobs. Part of the problem is that Democratic party politicians and many incumbents take UFT support for granted. We have to become more independent. As soon as Andrew Cuomo got the Democratic Party nomination for governor, he said, “Guess what, we’re going to be tangling with public employee unions going forward.” Now that Cuomo has made his intentions to battle against us known, we’d be crazy to support him. TJC has found the ideal candidate for us to endorse for governor. To read more and download our leaflet explaining our position, click here.
Last June, the Department of Education denied tenure to dozens of new teachers across the city who had no prior discipline or unsatisfactory observations. This “massacre of the probies” was based on changes in the D.O.E.’s policy for making tenure decisions. (To read the D.O.E.’s own F.A.Q. about its new policy, click here.) The union has no strategy to defend these teachers. This has to change. To read more and download TJC’s leaflet about this, click here. To read about how teachers at one school organized to save one teacher’s job, and its plans to build this into a movement powerful enough to succeed, click here.
In a shocking betrayal, the UFT leadership reached a back room deal with New York State on May 10 to change the way teachers are evaluated. A new TJC leaflet gives the details, and explains what we have to do now, before we lose even more rights and protections. To read and download this leaflet, click here. To get copies to give out at your school, email JustContract@yahoo.com, and give your address and the number of copies. To find out about your right to distribute union literature at your school, click this link: http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/union_materials/
The UFT Leadership Must Organize Us to Protect Job Security for All UFT Members! No Layoffs! No Concessions! Protect Seniority! Full Job Rights for ATRs! To read more click this link.
We ask you to make copies of this leaflet and distribute in the mailboxes of your school. You have the legal right to do this
(this link can tell you more! http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/union_materials/). For copies of this leaflet, email JustContractUFT@aol.com, with the number you need and the address.
On January 21, 2010, the State Education Department announced a list of schools it plans to close or restructure, 34 of which are in NYC. This plan is part of NYS’s attempt to win a grant from the Obama Administration’s “Race to the Top” funds. The members in these schools could lose tenure, due process rights, be forced to work additional time, undergo additional supervision, and be made into ATRs. Yet the UFT leadership has not even said a word to oppose these restructurings, let alone develop a strategy to fight them. To read and download our TJC leaflet explaining more and demanding the union defend these members, click here.
The Lobis decision,gives the UFT a short period of time to build the
movement against school closings it has so far failed to. If it seizes this
opportunity, the court decision is a victory. If not, it will be no victory
at all. To read the complete TJC statement on this court decision, click
here.
On January 21, the NY State Education Commissioner announced that 34 schools in NYC would be closed, turned into charters, or radically restructured. This was on top of the 19 schools the City plans to close. As part of a National Day of Action to Defend Education, there will be a protest demonstration at Governor Paterson’s Manhattan Office. To find out more, and to download a leaflet to advertise this protest, click here.
Teachers for a Just Contract (TJC) believes the UFT needs to build a UNITED citywide movement that targets the real power: the Mayor and the City Administration. To read our latest leaflet about why the present UFT leadership’s strategy can’t help us, and what we need to do to end school closings and win a just contract, click here.
Join the fight to protect us, our students and our schools from senseless and pointless school closings. Rally at Mayor Bloomberg’s residence to demand “Stop the Closings.” Thursday, January 21, 4 to 6:30 PM, 79th Street & 5th Avenue in Manhattan. To view and download leaflet, click here.
At the December UFT Delegate Assembly, TJC and two other independent groups within the UFT proposed a central, citywide rally to stop school closings. To read the full text of the resolution, click this link.
