Working
Conditions and Protections Worsen
but the UFT Leadership Takes a
Pay Raise
Did you know?
UFT president Randi Weingarten recently secretly orchestrated a 15 percent raise for herself and her fellow officers. Before the raise she earned $240,000. Her 15% increase is almost equal to the annual salary of a first-year teacher. Our dues pay for a double pension for her and other officers. These select benefits are the product of a union that for 40 years has been run by the same small, secretive group (Unity Caucus).
What about the members?
The new contract is a disaster for UFT members: extra days and time, added assignments, loss of grievance rights, confusion and uncertainty. The loss of our power in the schools is more palpable by the day. Teachers and other school staff must come together in new ways to reverse this sickening trend.
Who are we?
The Independent Community of Educators (ICE) is a group of teachers and other school workers trying to improve the lives of everyone in the school community. ICE helped lead the campaign against the current contract and has been a voice for openness and democracy at the UFT Executive Board and a forum for creative and independent thinking about teacher unionism and education.
We believe that the UFT, the largest and richest local union in the world, has vast potential to improve the lives of teachers and students. But to do so we must discard the secrecy, complacency and inertia of the present leadership, which has created a closed and conformist patronage empire for itself while conditions in the schools deteriorate by the day.
The threats to our working conditions, job security and public education itself are too great to passively rely on a self-serving elite! It's time for a major change.
What can be done?
As the first step ICE encourages like-minded UFTers to run for chapter positions. We will provide you with support and information. Contact us with questions and issues your school is facing. Join other teachers at ICE meetings or the ICE email forum. Let's take back our union!
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Independent Community of Educators
P.O. Box 1143, Jamaica, NY 11421
www.ice-uft.org / http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com