Monday, February 22, 2016

When Mutual Consent Is Not Mutual When It Comes To The ATR.




























I keep hearing from "Unity" how they negotiated a wonderful contract back in June 2014 that also made the ATRs a "second class citizen".  To "Unity" leadership it was how they saved the ATRs their jobs and afforded the ATRs an opportunity to fill vacancies that could eventually lead to permanent appointments.  However, the truth is so very different.  First, it was then UFT Vice President, Michael Mendel, who proposed to the DOE the ATR rotation system that the DOE eagerly embraced it making the ATRs a "stranger in a strange land" as they rotate from school to school without a bathroom key, a place to store their belongings, and in many cases no place to park their car.  To add to the ATR misery, the UFT allowed the DOE to assign field supervisors assassins to unfairly give ATRs "U" ratings when teaching in a classroom where they do not know the students, have no ownership of their grade, little support from the school administration,and have no clue if they have an IEP or their academic abilities.  The UFT leadership encouraged the DOE to assign these field assassins to thin the ATR herd and the first few ATRs are in the process of awaiting their 3020-a termination decisions presently.

For elementary and middle school teachers, the UFT leadership also agreed to allow the DOE to assign these teachers to temporary provisional assignments outside their district and the DOE has made liberal use of this UFT concession by arbitrarily assigning many of these teachers from one district in the borough to a less desirable school in another school district despite the fact that there are ATRs available within the district.  Some of these ATRs who find themselves in temporary provisional assignments, lasting 6 to 12 weeks travel for two hours or more and affect child care, parking issues, and after school activities such as coaching and tutoring for per session pay.  Despite these major issues, the UFT leadership has refused to address these problems or file for any travel hardships on behalf of the ATRs.  Its almost as if the UFT leadership is in cahoots with the DOE in encouraging the ATRs to be abused and to resign or retire in frustration.

That brings me to the "Mutual Consent" that the DOE proudly proclaims as a success.  The Mutual Consent provision is only advantages to Principals as they can take or reject the ATR.  However, the ATR cannot refuse a placement even when it is not a "good fit" as long as the Principal insist that the ATR take the position.  .To me Mutual Consent means both the Principal and ATR agree not a one-sided decision by the Principal.  Where is the UFT leadership on this abuse of the Mutual Consent provision?  They tell the ATR its just too bad and must take the position, if offered.

A Foil request by Solidarity showed that there are actually 2,197 ATRs without a permanent position not the 1,083 that the DOE and UFT claim.  The 1,083 are ATRs still in rotation and not provisionally assigned.  The only ATRs offered permanent positions are newly excessed untenured ATRs, because they cost less.  As for the veteran ATRs?  They are only offered temporary provisional or provisional assignments which end no later than June 28th and will find themselves in the ATR pool the next school year.  How many of these provisionally placed ATRs were forced placed?  I bet, the majority as there is no Mutual Consent when it comes to being an ATR as you cannot refuse a placement without negative consequences.

With the UFT leadership as our alleged protectors the ATRs must realize that they care little about us except to collect our $1,300 yearly dues to fuel their patronage mill, while schools continue to hire untested "newbies" and untenured teachers as the UFT leadership twiddle their collective thumbs and eagerly collect their $1,300 annual dues from them while keeping the ATRs without a permanent placement which is just fine with them.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huge ads on DOE website looking to hire new teachers. New 'Bull' issued by their high excellencies Herr Wilhelm/Farina " Iudicio et Virtute" (Equity and Excellence) commands, inter alia:
All 2nd graders will have second grade reading skills
Algebra for All! (starting in 8th grade)
All AP classes by High School
Everyone computer/tech literate with copious hours of hands on practice

Sounds like lots of extra cheddah for principal pet ela, math and tech teachers. ATR's need not apply

Unknown said...

What happens to the ATR's when the current contract ends in 2018?

Anonymous said...

Unity is useless and a disgrace. Vote for Portelos, take out the bully of Mulgrew who is out of touch.

Anonymous said...

Portelos is the only way to combat these devils. Guy has balls and wont sell out. Weingarten tried to buy him out a few years ago and Portelos walked away. That who we need. A individual that values people over money. Really is a no brainer. Its a crucial time and we can't afford untiy or more to win who is soft. More is like a rich person that hasn't been through the grind. Unity is like trump who just buys their way to everything and its all about the $$$$. Solidarity is like a working class person that understands peoples' pain and has been through it all themselves. People bad mouthing him are fools that are jealous of his quick movement up the ladder. Why hate a REAL person? Oh yeah its human nature to become jealous of smart fearless guy like himself.

Anonymous said...

The fact that there aren't 3-5 caucuses joining forces to beat unity is bothersome with so many peoples careers at stake. We need the best punch possible to derail these unity crooks. How stupid are we? Unity loves this and is laughing their asses off. Wake people,wake up and stop thinking your going to take out a extremely well funded corrupt union like unity. If you combined forces and lost by a small margin...you damn sure know next election with proper tweaks will def lock it up. Especially because educators are coming together more than ever. That is the most practical approach here.

Bronx ATR said...

The whole thing is rigged from top to bottom. Why else would retirees be given the right to vote in elections? And they're voting at a much higher percentage than the active members! Couple that with PERB saying the other caucuses can't get their contacts (because they're not active members and aren't covered by collective bargaining) and you start to get a small picture of a very large corrupt machine. The cherry on the cake is that we pay for all of it, monetarily and with our diminished quality of professional life.

Anonymous said...

Solidarity needs to drop out

Pete Zucker said...

@Anonymous 7:42 Porty will sell out in a heartbeat. Randi never trued to "buy him" he offered his services to her. http://www.southbronxschool.com/2015/09/breaking-news-uft-solidarity-sought-job.html

As for someone who won't back down, from what I heard Portelos nearly crapped himself at the DA a few weeks ago when Schirtzer was letting him have it.

Anonymous said...

UFT Unity is in cahoots with the DOE practicing ageism, and engaging in systemic age discrimination by bringing the most experienced staff to phychological abuse and less protection rights while agreing to hire less qualified and inexperienced teachers.

Anonymous said...

Solidarity is a spoiler

Anonymous said...

Chaz interested to know your thoughts on :
1. Scalia death and the implications of the Friedrichs case
2. The real possibility that Donald Trump will be our next president

My thoughts are that I believe that the death of the JUdge means more time for UFT to organize and ready itself for a possible situation by which the case resurfaces even though this case is the biggest bull shit case in the history of the supreme court. OR, even better the case gets sent back to the lesser court decision which will mean the Koch bros lose.
Second.. I believe that the election of Trump will mean better conditions for us here in NYC. Trump is a hard core new yorker and he will take care of his own. Regarding unions, trump has already gained support from many other unions so he is not your typical republican. Hillary is just a complete liar and fake typical politician who has stated she would close schools.

Anonymous said...

No, Unity and all their useless reps should go away, they are defending abusive principals as Dwarka.

Anonymous said...

Get some therapy some therapy, Pete.