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October 15, 2008
UFT opposing Bloomberg on term limits, but not too strongly
The resolution before the UFT delegates — that any changes to term limits be made by voter referendum — passed on a voice vote this evening with no changes.
But an amendment to deny UFT PAC funds to City Council members who vote to change term limits was voted down. It read:
Resolved, that the UFT unequivocally oppose the city council’s bill to extend term limits and the UFT will seriously consider withholding endorsements and COPE money from any Council member who votes in favor of this legislation that circumvents the will of the people.
Supporters of the amendment said they were pleased by how much support it got. James Eterno, the UFT chapter leader from Jamaica High School in Queens who introduced the resolution, estimated 30 percent of delegates voted for the amendment. But someone else who was there said that less than 25 percent of delegates supported it.
UFT President Randi Weingarten said the union doesn’t want to make term limits a top priority.
“The core objective of this union has to be to ensure that the resources for children are sacrosanct,” she said, adding that electing Barack Obama as president and protecting working people during the economic crisis will be the priorities of the union instead.
A second resolution — calling on the DOE to give teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve pool priority interviews for open positions — also passed, as did a delegate-introduced amendment committing the UFT to hold a rally to support ATRs.
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October 15th, 2008 9:44 pm
The vote on the Eterno amendment was not a voice vote but a hand (or credential-holding) vote, which you’d have known if you were there and not secretly listening in via cell phone. Eterno may have indeed gotten 25 percent, but no more. More likely his reso lost 4 to 1, meaning he got 20 percent, which isn’t bad for an amendment that in effect ran counter to the logic of the motion and that was opposed by the leadership.
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October 16th, 2008 8:05 am
Eumenides is off on the count. I was in the back and almost the entire right side voted for it.
In a Unity packed Delegate Assembly, it garnered between 25-30% of the vote (there was no count,) signs that even some Unity delegates voted for it. Are they also getting fed up with the constant UFT retreats?
Reading Green’s post based on “listening in” as charged by Weingarten there is precious little there. The room was overcrowded and they were going to talk about term limits? You didn’t have to listen in to know that.
Green was seen outside interviewing ATR’s while the meeting was going on.
Weingarten’s use of the word “unethical” in reference to Green was totally unwarranted. She owes Elizabeth Green a public apology.
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October 16th, 2008 4:24 pm
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