Across the USA, AFT teachers say 'No f______ way!'
[Substance Editor's Note: Our mailboxes have been filling up with comments and screams against Randi Weingarten's cynical behind-closed-doors endorsement of Hillary Clinton on behalf of the 1.6 million members (including this reporter/editor/parent/activist) of the American Federation of Teachers. I'm going to be publishing more and more comments as they come in here at substancenews.net, but this one just screamed to be put up this morning from a sister in Local 6, the Washington D.C. union. Candi Peterson is WTU General Vice President, and reminds us that Local 6, the Washington Teachers Union, has a long history of militancy within the AFT and in the face of attacks such as those from the D.C. administration, which, among other things, had Michelle Rhee as their schools chief until the teachers helped unseat Rhee's sponsor, Mayor Adrian Fenty, six years ago. George N. Schmidt, Editor, Substance].
Despite some pirouettes, AFT President Randi Weingarten hasn't really changed her position on the major issues confronting the unions' locals across the USA. This has been true since feted feted Bill Gates during the union's 2010 national convention in Seattle, while ignoring Gates's own unioin busting in the tech industries and the history of militancy in the labor movement in the "Northwest." Also, Randi had her loyalists from Baltimore and New York boo Chicago (and other) teachers who walked out when Gates took the stage with Randi. Substance photo from the July 2010 AFT Seattle convention by George N. Schmidt.Teachers Say No Freaking Way to AFT Endorsement of Hillary Clinton, By Candi Peterson, WTU General Vice President July 12, 2015 The Washington Teacher
Even though AFT's press release explained the process of how members were polled, including several town hall meetings, multiple surveys and a "you decide" website, the announcement of the endorsement erupted a firestorm of outrage from AFT teacher members nationwide on twitter.
On Saturday, July 11th - the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President, Randi Weingarten came under fire after her executive council voted overwhelmingly to endorse Hillary Clinton for the democratic primary for President of the United States. AFT is the parent organization of Washington Teachers' Union, Local 6 and has 1.5 million members. In an AFT press release, President Weingarten said "Hillary Clinton is a tested leader who shares our values, is supported by our members and is prepared for a tough fight on behalf of students, families and communities. That fight defines her career." Weingarten added that Clinton is a "product of public schools and believes in the promise of public education.... Hillary understands that policymakers need to work with teachers and their unions. She's ready to work with us to confront the issues of children and their families today, including poverty, wage stagnation, income equality and the lack of opportunity."
Even though AFT's press release explained the process of how members were polled, including several town hall meetings, multiple surveys and a "you decide" website, the announcement of the endorsement erupted a firestorm of outrage from AFT teacher members nationwide on twitter.
In the course of hours, many teachers hurled questions at @Rweingarten and @AFTunion twitter accounts asking, when was there was a poll of the membership and requesting links to all of the polls. Renowned NY Teacher *blogger, Arthur Goldstein (known as NYC Educator) said "...AFT Link says they used telephone town halls and a web-based survey, I didn't even know existed."
Katie Osgood, a special education teacher from Chicago said "I know many AFT members too and have not heard one person polled either." Mary Ahern called it "B.S. and queried how many of the over 1 million members responded?�
Activist teacher members and others lamented that the AFT endorsement of Clinton was a clear reminder of President Randi Weingarten's autocratic leadership style that treats teachers like passive herd-driven professionals rather than independent thinkers with a voice.
Phil Soreneson tweeted to President Weingarten, �glad I�m NEA, u don�t speak for me, u just made teachers� look politically inept. Thanks for nothing.�
Naturewoman tweeted to AFT, "guessing you did not poll your members! No to Clinton who promotes Teach for America and charters!" Mr. Stevens echoed "Clinton endorsement is a joke & local union voices are being silenced to retain AFT union funding."
Minnsanity added, "AFT tried to shove NCLB, common core, PARCC and now Hillary on us - we ain't buying." Barmak Nassirian ?summed it up best in his tweet, "sad day when political expediency trumps legitimate representation of members' real priorities." Within hours teachers demanded fellow members to contact AFT and demand they rescind the Hillary Clinton endorsement. Teachers began adding their comments to Diane Ravitch�s education blog where she posted AFT�s press release on the Clinton for President endorsement. So far 147 comments have been posted, to date.
Given no one could locate AFT�s poll of members', the Badass Teachers Association (BAT) took matters into their own hands by conducting a poll on Face Book. So far 1240 teachers endorsed Bernie Sanders and only 84 endorsed Clinton. One teacher said "Weingarten has this thing about giving false information via polls... It's scary." Some of our AFT members are taking matters into their own hands and have created a petition to demand AFT rescind their Hillary for US president endorsement. Click on LINK for the petition. So far 1,109 had signed on. I too was up in the wee hours of the morning watching all of this unfold. Right here in DC, as an active member of WTU local 6 and elected General Vice President- I wondered how I had never been polled or invited to participate in AFT�s web based town hall or knew of members who had?
I concur with Aixa Rodriguez�s tweet, �it is 2:23 am and I am so mad at AFT�s ?#prematureendorsement I cannot sleep. And so I tweet. And all my friends are up too�.�
Don�t get this twisted, in the words of Lace to the top, �The story isn't ?Randi Weingarten and AFT�'s endorsement of ?Hillary Clinton. The story is all the amazing teachers saying no freaking way!!!!�
Comments:
By: George N. Schmidt
AFT robo calls, dishonesty
One of the most obnoxious things about this fascist version of "democracy" on the part of a faction of the AFT leadership (led obviously by Randi Weingarten) is the use of the claim that answers to a "survey" using robo-calls means anything. Like many many people, those of us who answer the phone here when we receive a robo call often either hang up immediately or answer with a serious nastiness before hanging up. Anyone in Chicago who was deluged by the barrage of political phone calls during the last election cycles (we had the "Chuy" thing plus a contested aldermanic election in may ward, the 45th) became more and more angry with the number of interruptions per day -- yes, DAY! -- in our home with these invasions. To pretend or claim that a "survey" is the same as a vote of any kind is dishonest. Very dishonest. And that helps explain the furious reaction on the part of thousands of us to this manipulative, opportunistic and mendacious move by, as I say, a faction -- yes FACTION -- of the current AFT leadership!
By: Kent Joseph
Endorsements shouldn't matter
Any teacher that does not vote based on their conscience and doing their homework, but instead blindly follows their union's endorsement deserves the leadership they get. Maybe if Hillary keeps colluding with the fat cats (and a teacher's union endorsement carries that taint theses days) she will finally be stripped of her "people's candidate" image.
By: David R. Stone
AFT endorsement - why it matters
AFT actually did run a survey (though it was flawed) before making the misguided, premature endorsement of Hillary Clinton. Many AFT members say they were never surveyed, so I might be in a minority � but I got a robocall survey from the AFT a couple of months ago about my preferences among the expected Democratic candidates for President.
At that time, there was an active �Draft Elizabeth Warren� movement, and she was my first choice. The AFT�s automated survey (with choices like �push 1 for Hillary�) gave me no way to express my preference.
At that time, it could have made a difference. Early evidence that some union members were leaning toward such a progressive candidate would have kept pressure on Democrats to keep workers� concerns in mind.
By contrast, the AFT�s early endorsement of Hillary Clinton lets her think she now can safely ignore our concerns, so she and other Democrats will continue to move politically to the right (which they call the �center�).
For unionized workers to have any hope of gaining anything in the next election, let�s keep loudly protesting the undemocratic �endorsement� by the AFT Executive Committee.
-David R. Stone
CPS teacher & member of Chicago Teachers Union (AFT�s Local 1)