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The Latest Collapse from the "Militant" Leadership of UTLA
Proletkult jpott0000@aol.com
The Latest Collapse from the "Militant" Leadership of UTLA
FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT be interested in such things, under the leadership
of the weak, whimpering and cowardly so-called "militants" from the
PEAC coalition, the membership of UTLA has just approved a completely
capitulatory contract that will guarantee that members of our
bargaining unit will take 12 furlough days, equivalent to a 6% pay
cut, over the next 15 months. The final vote was 79.27% voting in
favor of the givebacks versus 20.73% voting to reject such abject
surrender and to send the leadership back into negotiations or to
mount at least a token fight in defense of our members. Approximately
27,500 members voted, out of a total membership of around 43,000. The
only argument the leadership gave in promoting their sell-out was that
if we approved this contract, we'd save jobs and not endanger "the
future of teaching." Of course, implicit in this reactionary argument
is its stunning solidarity with the bourgeois fat-cats who are
currently in the process of using the state legislators (most of whom
are Democrats, endorsed and elected with union money and volunteer
labor) to take away teacher seniority rights. This leadership, which
has been called "open to radicals," (please...don't make me laugh),
has just taken one more step in its path toward the guillotine. The
state legislature has already made known that it intends to take steps
to abolish teacher seniority rights, limit teacher job security and
due process and push merit pay. By showing themselves to be so
cringingly fearful, so afraid to assert themselves as an organized
workers' union, so petrified of the strike that they will not only
accept but endorse and work to enact any and all givebacks the
District and its Democratic party masters ask of it, the PEAC officers
of UTLA has shown themselves to be even more a disaster for the
teachers of Los Angeles and the future of public education than the
old-school "bread and butter" unionist leadership they replaced.
Jeff Pott
UTLA co-chapter chair and member, UTLA House of Representatives.
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