NYC Teachers Hit Back... At Long *Friggin'* LAST.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Cross post from GD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022389218#post17


And they're not waiting for their sclerotic union leadership to get the ball rolling. ( Hint: that will never happen.)

New York, NY -- New York City teachers are under siege. In schools across the city, usually in hushed tones, teachers talk about their contractual rights, earned over many years of service: tenure; fair, objective and honest performance evaluations; the freedom to openly discuss educational issues without fear of retaliation. They worry that these rights are being usurped, corrupted, gradually eroded or simply given away. After 10 years of attacks from a relentlessly hostile, anti-union, and anti-teacher Department of Education, some educators have decided to confront this crisis head-on.

WHAT: A Public Forum on New York City Public Schools. This forum will include a panel of accomplished educators who have bravely chosen to confront the Department of Education directly on these issues. They will speak to the climate of mistrust that is spreading in the NYC school system as a whole. They will tell their own stories --- stories that, in some cases, involve putting their own careers in jeopardy by publicly advocating for their students and suffering vicious reprisals as a consequence. The discussion will include the importance of tenure and how it affects not only educators, but parents and students as well. Ways to address the problem will be considered: how to push back against the culture of fear; how to challenge individual hostile work environments; the role of the UFT and union chapters in fighting for freedom of speech and freedom of thought in our schools; ways we can all work together to protect our rights on the job.

WHO: M.O.R.E. (The Movement of Rank & File Educators - The Social Justice Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers) is sponsoring this event. Panelists include:

The rest at:

http://morecaucusnyc.org/


Including the date, time and place . ( Sat Feb 23rd, 3-5 pm, CUNY Grad Center, 365 5th Ave. @34thSt Room 5415)

Can we keep this kicked for a while? Just so it gets max exposure

[immoderate]

1. Kick

--imm

[elleng]

2. Kick. Looks good.

Taking examples from Chicago and Seattle???

[Teamster Jeff]

3. K&R

[HiPointDem]

4. kick/rec

[Squinch]

5. Kick!

(I forgot to yesterday!)

[HiPointDem]

6. Get Out the Vote

We need your help to get out the vote. Too many of our UFT sisters and brothers do not vote in our union election, we’re going to change that. The only way to keep our union democratic is for all our voices to be heard. MORE has created a bunch of ideas for you to share with your colleagues about a MORE positive vision for new union leadership.

1. Put MORE Election fliers in the mailboxes of your
coworkers. Choose 3 people to follow up with later in the week. Ask
them what they thought of the flier, MORE’s ideas, the union in
general.

2. Choose a school close by and deliver MORE election fliers. Get in touch with us and we’ll arrange to meet with ones we have already printed [e-mail]
During the election season, any UFT member can enter any public school
during your non-school hours to pass out election information. Ask to
put the fliers in teachers’ mailboxes. Make sure to take this document with you which states as per the DOE chancellor that any UFT member may freely distribute union election material

3. Happy Hour!!! We all know those teacher spots. . . you walk in on
a Friday afternoon at about 4:00 and it’s just packed with teachers
happy about the weekend. Grab a friend and some fliers and drop on
by! Let us know at [e-mail] we’ll publicize it for you on our facebook, twitter, upcoming events tab on our site and mailing lists

4. Like MORE’s Facebook page and send it out to other
teacher friends. Put a VOTE MORE post on your page and encourage
friends to do the same. Everyone’s got at least a handful of teachers
in their 500+ Facebook friend list!

5. Tell all your friends to follow our MORE blog, anytime the site is updated with a new article or event they will be notified via email. Go to morecaucusnyc.org click FOLLOW on the left side of page

6. Do you tweet- follow us on Twitter, tweet at us, we’ll retweet you. Share with us your favorite hashtags- we like #RealLeadership #RealReform #MOREUFT

7. Invite a MORE member to come talk with your staff about the
elections, our union, and MORE. contact [e-mail]

8. Organize a breakfast, lunch, or after-school meeting with a few co-workers that you know
are interested in union or social justice issues. Discuss our platform, our mission, and some of the articles we publish on our site . Form a book club-we suggest; education and union scholar Lois Weiner and of course the great pro-public school advocate Diane Ravitch

9. Come to one of MORE’s upcoming general meetings and forums. Bring a
fellow educator. Check HERE for upcoming events

10. Get ready to phone bank! MORE has a large list of members and
contacts that we want to call and remind to vote in the election.
Group phone banks are scheduled for the first week of April after
break. You can also make calls on your own. If you’re willing to
help out, please contact [e-mail]

11. Volunteer to help out, much of the work can be done from the comfort of your own home with just your computer. We need volunteers to help with our weekly email updates, write articles for our blog, update our social media with relevant articles, links, and upcoming events and proof-readers/editors are always welcome. Contact [e-mail]


http://morecaucusnyc.org/2013/02/19/get-out-the-vote/

[Squinch]

7. Smarmie Doofus, I'm in bed with a sinus infection and missed yesterday.

A few friends said they were going to attend but I haven't spoken to them yet. How did it go?

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. It went well.

The panel was outstanding. I mean: better than I ever thought they'd be. ( I'd never seen two of them speak in front of people.)

Engaging, smart, communicative, human, fun... and dead serious at the same time. One always has reservations about "whistleblowers"; maybe there's something weird about them; after all... most people won't take that kind of risk.

Actually, no. They take the extra risk because they're more ethical than most people. And/or braver. At least in these two cases.

I'll post video when it's available.

No msm... far as I know... but a number of freelancers including one very well known print journalist. ( I'll pm you.)

MSM was invited but apparently didn't show. Screw 'em. We're making our own online media.

On the down side.. we needed a bigger venue. Some ( undetermined #) late arrivals were turned way by bldg security because our room had exceeded fire-code limit.

We're going to try to find-out who they are and offer an apology. It was hard to predict the turnout and we had a bigger venue "change it's mind" on us about three weeks earlier.

Two hours and we just scratched the surface. There's lots MORE where that came from.

Take care of that infection. It's the season. Room humidifier seems to work for me. Sleep with it on all nite.