The City University of New York and the Professional Staff Congress (AFT Local 2334) reached a tentative contract settlement. The proposal gives back very little, makes some gains, but failed to make some key gains for adjuncts and part-timers.

The Delegate Assembly recommended the agreement by 92-13-7 (yes-no-abstentions), but in the immediate discussion afterwards the PSC leadership agreed to open a “contract bulletin” where views of some delegates could be shared.

Over thirty delegates responded with statements of up to 500 words. You can read them all here. You can read a summary of the contract proposal here.

Barbara Bowen is the president of the PSC. Sándor John is the most outspoken opponent of the agreement. Alex Vitale wrote a statement that captures the complexity of the issue.

Blig Blug has it all. Math. Geekiness. A conscience. Some pro-union stuff.

Go, read. Groan. Read more.

So it’s really not too late to make summer plans, but summer has started and there’s only seven weeks left, so planning time is overdue.

There are already obligations. I must schedule my school. I started, but there’s a lot left. At least three 3-day weeks, maybe more (I handle the ‘more’ by extending the length of the weeks… I would try not to extend the number of weeks). Visiting family (a few days here and there. “Here” is a southern New England beach town with wild parrots. “There” is a small inland southern New England town with nice hills for walking). Reaching Fellows (if you read this blog, you probably already knew I was doing this).

What else? There are options.

1. Alaska. A former colleague moved there. Says I can come visit, hike, fish. But it’s a long flight and this may be a tough summer for company (as there’s other company on the way…) And the flight cost is high (but that’s true everywhere.)
2. Union Summer. The American Federation of Teachers is organizing a “union summer” where members go south and help organize. Sites are in Houoston, south Texas, Albuquerque, New Orleans, St. Louis, but you don’t choose. You just sign up for dates. Looks like 11 or 12 days (Aug 3 - 15 or 11 - 22). if I did it, might be conflicting with AMTNYS. Not really a vacation, but going away, and doing good. The weather, though. And I am already doing good Fellows stuff here. Why do more? Plus, I don’t know if they would take me at this late date. But I tried last year, and couldn’t. Maybe this is my chance?
3. AMTNYS. The Association of Mathematics Teachers of NY State has a one week summer thing outside of Syracuse (Onondaga CC, Aug 3 - 7). Tempting. Not too pricey. Vacation? Hmm. Not really. But it would get me back on the math horse (which I fell off of a while back).
4. Atlantic Canada. Commenter Sarai suggested visiting Atlantic Canada (she’s a math grad student who lives very very calmly in Nova Scotia). I looked at photos - gorgeous. There are some cool eco-hiking-very comfortable tours… but pricy! And I would need to plan more to do it on my own. Still tempting, for a bit a less than a week… But the money. Don’t know. Could try to figure out how to do it on my own, but I think that might be tricky on short notice.
5. Course here. I still need to earn some post-Masters credits to qualify for the last differential. If I’m stuck in the city, why not get 3 or 6 credits in. Good thing, right? More money later. But going this route feels like admitting defeat, quitting on the idea of vacation.
6. Extend southern New England. Can spend longer visiting family. Wander off to parts of southern New England I haven’t spent as much time in. Even up to Vermont. Easy. But feels like bailing on real vacation. Could extend the beach and hills?

So, I really should decide in the next few days. No decision means 5 and 6 just creep up on me with maybe 3 thrown in.

From time to time I attend Professional Staff Congress Delegate Assemblies. I belong to two AFT locals: Local 2 is the UFT, and local 2334 is the PSC (represents professors and adjuncts and higher education officers and a lot more titles at the City University of New York’s various campuses and non-campus locations).

This week, they brought a contract agreement to the DA, to be recommended back to the membership. It was striking that the expectations of the PSC are so different from those of the UFT. They hotly debated what is 95% a non-concessionary contract, and debated it hard and angry, because it did not make much progress addressing past inequities.

The past inequities are historic, not the result of union concessions. I believe (need to research a bit) that this leadership was voted in with a mandate to address exactly these issues, and that they made a dent in them in the previous agreement (I believe the first they negotiated). So the debate I heard was over not making enough progress.

I will dig, learn more, and post more. This all seems quite foreign to a UFTer.

Over the last week or so I posted five YouTubes of “Which Side Are You On?” Now, this wasn’t random.

• I like the song.
• I was writing about treating signing up new members (and Fellows) like organizing, like real union work.
• Two weeks ago Jose Vilson asked for an identifying sign-off (it’s a matter of poetry), and I complied with the “only two sides” line.

But five versions?

I grew up with Pete Seeger’s.

The two women on the banjo, with the cat walking by, just sounds good.

Dropkick Murphys? I was worried, with the loud, shouted version, that the audience just liked the noise. But which line does the audience shout at the stage? “will you be a lousy scab or will you be a man?” Hard to argue with that.

Rebel Diaz is some hard political stuff. But they choose carefully, and while I’m not in love with everything they rap, the thing, the spirit is right. Very right. And don’t miss the “teachers and lunch ladies” or “a world without borders and a better tomorrow.” There’s a cleaner version, but with images only.

And then the Natalie Merchant version is just so pretty.

In the end, I was going to say that I grew up with Pete Seeger, that I like his the best, but I have replayed the song who knows how many times over the last week, and know what? The two women on the couch with the banjos and the cat? I can’t stop listening to them.

This map shows where teachers unions are weakest (white). I mistook it for a map of lower educational attainment. Oops.

My original post was here.

AFT Ed is keeping a rolling log of anti-slime, here, with lots more blog posts.

A slimeball lobbyist launched a campaign against teachers and teachers unions, but it’s not too impressive.

You can read more details and find some links from

• Dr. Homeslice (vigilant for me and you)
• Mike Klonsky at Smalltalk
• The Columbus Education Association (CEA)
• Fred Klonsky
• Ed at the AFT (Let’s Get it Right, the AFT blog)

Ed suggested a few aspects of this sleaze I could blog about.

But I went, I looked, I saw a map. I love maps. The scum posted a map. Quick glance, educational attainment, I’ve seen it before. Mississippi keeps Arkansas from being #50.

Except I was wrong. It was a map of where teachers unions were too strong. Silly me.