UFT October 18, 2006 Delegate Assembly Notes

Summary Notes by Iris Zevin: Delegate from Queens High School of
Teaching.

Teacher Survey:


1. A report was presented on the teacher survey that went out during
the summer months. Over 18,000 teachers responded to this rather
lengthy survey, giving their own ratings as to what they felt should be
the union’s priorities for the next round of bargaining for the new
contract.(24% of all respondents were from our own regions 3 and 4).
In addition more then 300 teachers volunteered to spend some time this
summer discussing teacher concerns and possible areas of focus for our
union.
2. The total statistical survey, a summary of the date was presented to
the delegate assembly) has not yet been released, but the top 4
priorities were discussed. 79% of teachers for example, rated
maintaining pension benefits as their number one priority, and all
teachers who responded listed it was one of the top 3 priorities. The
second priority was a substantial salary increase. Included in the
salary area, teachers showed an interest in cost of living increases,
cost free courses at CUNY and SUNY, and a new salary differential for
those with Masters+30 credits.
3. The third most important result was for enforceable student
discipline codes and the fourth was lower class size (that does not
involve salary reductions to pay for it).
4. Other important issues that were raised were
a. The need to be sure that letters are taken out of teacher files and
that they are restored to their positions when unfounded accusations
are investigated and found to be false.
b. The need to reduce the paperwork burden on teachers ( 79% of
respondents felt it was excessive).
c. A demand that when new programs ( ex.: Reading programs in the
elementary schools) are implemented that the DOE should be paying the
cost of training and materials, and that teachers should be reimbursed
for any expense they are forced to incur.

Contract Bargaining with the Coalition: The UFT has been working for
the last 5 months with other municipal unions on preparing bargaining
demands on economic issues. This collaboration has produced a series
of economic demands that are going to be presented to the city. The
UFT will be bargaining on non-economic issues separately. If these
present negotiations with the city are not successful, the UFT will
proceed to bargain individually for our union. This coalition is an
attempt by the unions to prevent the city for using one union against
another in the bargaining process.

The bargaining proposals were strongly approved by the Negotiating
Committee on 10/11/06.
The delegate assembly approved the proposals by a large majority on
10/18/06 giving the prez, Randi Weingarten and the negotiating
committee, permission to proceed with the coalition. A discussion of
these proposals will be discussed in greater detail in our upcoming
chapter meeting on election day.

Note to Paraprofessionals:

Paraprofessionals who have obtained a Bachelors Degree need to fill out
an application for their salary differential at their school. They
also need to submit an official transcript with this application.
Schools should have the applications.

Resolution to Support the Transit Worker’s Union: This resolution
proposed making a substantial contribution ($50,000) to the TWU to
defray some of the fines and penalties that have been incurred by their
union, in their strike against the MTA. A speaker for the TWU came and
spoke to the delegate assembly thanking Randi and the union for its
continued support during their negotiations and the strike. The
delegate assembly voted to make this contribution to their union funds

Local/National Political Overview:

Two representatives from the political action committee of the AFL-CIO
came to present a report on the status of various campaigns in N.Y.
State, whose outcome may have an affect on education and teachers.
People were urged to take an active role in these last few weeks, in
talking to others at their schools, about the importance of voting and
also supporting the candidates that the UFT endorses. There will be
telephone banks set up at the various borough union offices, if you
have time to volunteer to man the banks and make calls. A list of UFT
endorsements will be posted for your information, on one of the
bulletin boards near the mailboxes.

General Announcements:

Various meetings will be held in the next months and those
announcements will also be posted on the bulletin boards.

Future Meetings:

The next delegate assembly meeting will be held on Wednesday November 8
and the following on Wednesday December 6. If there are any issues
that you wish me to raise or discussion with representatives of the
union leadership, please let Michael Lieber or myself know.

Respectfully Submitted: Iris Zevin