CSA Forever
Alice Roosevelt's grave -Greenwood Cementary
The person who is supposed to be my union rep stopped by today. I know that there are a bunch of people in my district and she should not have to remember everyone's story, but I am in a rather unique situation and I have been asking the union for help for the past year. You would think she would remember something about my situation. She knew nothing at all. She talked to the principal behind closed doors for ten minutes and then she asked me how I was doing. She knew nothing about me or my situation. Evey question I asked was answered by saying email Bob. Of course I have done this almost every day since the end of August.
Unions were created to help their members. Somewhere along the line they seemed to have lost sight of this function. Service is not something they seem to care about. They run all these seminars that give the appearance helping their members. They are just noise. The seminars exist to tell you things you could figure out on your own if someone would take the time to write them down clearly.
My union feels that any problem I present to them is not worthy of service. Most of the people say they will look into my problem and then they stop returning your calls. If I was managing the type of problems Bob is supposed to deal with I would have a list of when I inquired about the problem. If I did not hear back from the DoE in a certain period of time I would call again. I would certainly get back to the member periodically to tell him what was going on. I would at least have a secretary email him and say the problem is still being worked on.
Of course the problem is that unions in the DoE are monopolies. I can't take my business elsewhere. This would be OK, because all governments are essentially monopolies but unions are also structured in such a way that there is no opposition and almost no chance to elect opposition members to the union governing body. This takes away the one thing going for democratic institutions. The throw the rascals out ability that usually exists.
We have a new leader of the CSA, it is time for him to clean house.
4 comments:
You wrote
> Of course the problem is that unions
> in the DoE are monopolies. I
> can't take my business
> elsewhere.
So you propose that varied unions represent the same workers at the same time?
How could that possibly benefit workers?
- - - - - - - -
> This would be OK,
> because all
> governments are essentially
> monopolies but unions are also
> structuredmin such a way that
> there is no opposition and
> almost no chance to elect
> opposition members to
> the union governing body.
This is probably true of CSA but is not true of the UFT.
- - - - - - - -
> This takes away the one
> thing going for democratic
> institutions. The throw the
> rascals out
> ability that usually exists.
Again, this is true of CSA but is not true of other municipal unions that include the UFT, Transit Workers and 1199.
The mess your life is in is a goddamn shame. The principal sits in her office letting a despicable,hateful,unethical APO continue to run roughshod over her and the school. This APO told everyone in June that she was leaving and she called the principal every foul name you can think of. The principal knew this and still APO came back in September. You she got rid of. Her she keeps. What a dope.
Your problems at the school revolved around your looking out for students and teachers...that other AP is just bitter and angry at the world and only nice to those she needs in her corner for support. You have to hear the daily nastiness to know how much she hates the world and almost everyone in it. She can't help herself. It really is an injustice that you had to pay the price for so much less drama.
Lots of people in the rubber room go through these union problems every day. That's why we say that the unions must be in bed with the DoE. Or maybe it is just that the unions are just inpotent. They just keep telling us to sit tight and grow our nails long.
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