Detroit Union Election - Is Randi guy in trouble? 38% to Steve Conn 30% - Note GEM banner

Detroit Federation of Teachers Schedules Runoff Election For January

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1814&section=Article


Rich Gibson - December 05, 2010
In a key US school election, members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) gave only 38 percent of their votes to incumbent Keith Johnson, key negotiator of what may be the worst school contract in US history, and 30 percent to long-time Detroit Cass Tech radical teacher and union activist Steve Conn of the By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) group.


Detroit teacher Steve Conn (above center) spoke to the Peace and Justice Caucus of the American Federation of Teachers on July 10, 2010 (above) during the AFT convention. Conn is now in a runoff against incumbent Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.There were a total of 4,237 votes cast; 240 votes were voided. Two other candidates, Greg Johnson and Mr Victor, who insiders say will shift their support to Conn, split the remainder of votes. The United For Teachers Rights Caucus, led by Keith Johnson, won all the executive board seats including three vice-presidential spots. In the DFT, candidates must win 50 percent plus one votes. A runoff election is scheduled for January. DFT officials were not available for further comment on Sunday (December 5, 2010). More details are expected by Monday afternoon.

It is only speculation to take a stab at who might win the runoff. While insurgent candidates won with CORE in Chicago, as Substance readers well know, the winner of the District of Columbia election, while opposing the old guard, can hardly be called someone who is promising significant change inside the union or out.

In Baltimore, the traditionally hide-bound American Federation of Teachers had to make the rank and file vote twice in order to ram through a concessionary pact. In the broad sense, there are cracks in the sclerotic AFT empire.

Even so, Steve Conn has never gotten more than 30 percent of a DFT vote, having run repeatedly over more than a decade. He was the rank and filer who, a decade ago, called on assembled DFT member to march to one side of an auditorium or another, backing a strike or not. The mass moved to strike — and did so, heroically.

Johnson and the UTR caucus go back twenty years and more to the days of [long-time DFT President] Mary Ellen Riordan. More than any other local DFT official, Johnson is responsible for the grotesque concessions package DFT ratified earlier in the year, giving up in every conceivable area of bargaining — massive wage and benefit cuts, loss of seniority, merit pay, the union split by school workers in "priority" schools and "neighborhood" schools.

Johnson joined district boss, Bob Bobb, a Broad Foundation puppet, with AFT's president, Randi Weingarten, in convincing the rank and file Detroit members that the sellout was the only alternative, resistance futile. Substance covered that debacle in detail, here: http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1063&section=Article

Race will play a role in the runoff, as it always does in Detroit. Johnson is black in a 90 percent black city. Conn is white. Conn's record of fighting racism may or may not win him balancing votes.

The Conn caucus members say they will be joined by members of Greg Johnson's and Mr Victor's caucus in campaigning against incumbent Keith Johnson in the next two weeks.

Incumbent Johnson's caucus recently released a statement on the DFT web site complaining about the horrors that describe life in Detroit Public Schools, conditions that they themselves created. The statement is linked in an earlier Substance article, here: http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=1801&section=Article

Whether the majority of school workers, who ratified the recent contract, see Johnson as safer, as job protection, or the more radical Conn, as a better alternative is, at this moment, guesswork.

What is clear, however, is that in the context of an international war of the rich on the poor, everywhere, U.S.school workers and the schools themselves, students, are the next in line for an even harsher concerted attack from elites: an assault not only on wages, but ideas, a key product of capitalist schooling in America. If teachers can be convinced there is no alternative to retreats (which have never historically saved jobs), then what of the students they teach?

So far, if the recent NEA and AFT conventions are any indication (and they are), school workers have been willing to accept the promise of endless war, and to make concessions, taking leadership from Quislings like Weingarten, Keith Johnson, and the National Education Associations $450,000 a year president Dennis Van Roekel, all urging educators off the picket lines and into voting booths — the latest ruse being Obama.

That may not play well the next time around. The Keith Johnson/Steve Conn runoff may give us clues of things to come.

Rgibson@pipeline.com

Detroit Teachers Recall of Weingarten Ally Ignored

With UFT elections coming I've always maintained that if we were to win, Unity wouldn't let us take office. That they would find some way to invalidate the results. Watch what's going on in Detroit as we received this email from Steve Conn. If they do actually remove Johnson as Pres watch the AFT put the local into receivership and take over the local. - Norm


Fellow AFT members and defenders of public education!

Links below will take you to videos of the February 11 general membership meeting of the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

Detroit teachers have been fighting to recall DFT President (and major Randi Weingarten ally) Keith Johnson as part of the fight to stop the Arne Duncan / Rob Bobb dismanteling of public education in Detroit.

Watch as Johnson illegally rules all members' motions out of order to avoid the Recall Vote against him.

Watch as the Detroit Police Gang Squad tries to carry out Johnson's plan to remove a female teacher.

Watch the membership meeting erupt in anger and demand Johnson's recall.

Detroit Federation of Teachers union meeting of February 11, 2010: According to the DFT constitution, this meeting was supposed to hear the charges against President Johnson (brought by 1300 members' petition signatures on January 7), allow him an opportunity to respond, and then take a vote on removing him.

Instead of following the union constitution, Johnson asserted that he had the right to summarily dismiss the petitions, and came to the meeting seen here with his own agenda. You can watch and listen as Johnson rules out of order all our motions to include the trial in the agenda, further evidence of how he violates members' fundamental rights and why he needs to be removed.
Detroit teachers want to remove Johnson for failing to represent us in this summers contract negotiations with state-imposed Financial Manager Robert Bobb, as Bobb works to privatize and dismantle public education in Detroit, including school closings, mass lay-offs, and converting public schools to charter schools. Johnson and Bobb have been working together to carry out the Arne Duncan/Randi Weingarten attack on public education in Americas major cities.
Teachers and students demand resources and support to achieve equal, quality, integrated education!

http://www.youtube.com/user/DFTmembers

Also listen to a Michigan Public Radio report about the meeting that has been broadcast across the country:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1611414/Top.Stories/DFT.Meeting.Breaks.Down.Amid.Accusations.of.Vote-Rigging

1300 DFT members signed the recall petitions

The members alone have the right to decide whether the charges are valid

From the DFT Constitution & By-Laws:

Article VIII Recall of Officers

(a) Petition for the recall of any officer for violation of his obligation of office shall be initiated by a recall petition clearly stating the specific charges and signed by not fewer than one thousand (1000) members in good standing from not fewer than twenty percent (20%) of the schools or work locations.

(b) No officer shall be subjected to recall proceedings without being given at least 30 days written notice of the charges preferred against him and an opportunity to appear before the membership at a regular or special meeting. Two-thirds of those present and voting at the meeting shall be required to recall the officer.

Weingarten Ally, Detroit Teacher Union Leader Recalled After Disastrous Contract, updated

See comment 2 by Mike Antonucci of the EIA who checked the Detroit Fed of T web site which says the recall was illegal. Read on to where I say that Randi and the AFT would not allow this to happen.

With urban unions under severe attack in Washington, LA, Chicago, New Haven and New York, the Detroit teacher contract may be the most severe. And of course, Randi Weingarten and the AFT were handmaidens. (And for those of you who are impressed by Michael Mulgrew's rhetoric as somehow making him different than Randi, come back and talk to me in a year or two.)

Detroit teachers union activist Steve Conn sent this out.

This is some reasonably accurate tv reporting on our fight in Detroit to defend public education and reclaim our union: http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/22177639/index.html

Detroit Federation of Teachers (AFT 231) members voted overwhelmingly tonight to relieve Keith Johnson from his duties as DFT President until a recall vote is taken at the February 11th membership meeting. The membership also voted for the DFT to join the lawsuit against the $250 TIP "loan", and urge all members to immediately file State of Michigan Employment Wage Complaint Forms.

Early in the meeting, Johnson declared all efforts to recall him or support the lawsuit "out of order," in spite of a clear majority vote that these questions be placed on the meeting's agenda. When members refused to allow him to continue the meeting undemocratically, he walked out of the room, later returning to try to adjourn the meeting. Refusing to adjourn, the members passed three motions: (1) supporting the lawsuit against the $250 TIP; (2) setting the recall vote for the February 11th General Membership Meeting; and (3) relieving Johnson of "his duties and obligations as DFT President pending the recall vote."

DFT members are determined that the question of Keith Johnson's recall be decided by democratic membership vote and in accordance with the DFT Constitution.

The recall of DFT president Kevin Johnson, a Weingarten ally, is an early warning sign for the AFT and Weingarten, who praised the contract and was involved in the negotiations.

One report says:

"In a paid advertisement in the Sunday New York Times, Randi Weingarten, the president of AFT, praised the Detroit contract, saying it was “much more than a collective bargaining agreement; it is a covenant between educators and administrators…”

Weingarten makes clear that the AFT and DFT want to be full partners in Obama’s school restructuring plans. She boasts that the agreement includes “several reforms that will drive the enhancement of student achievement, including school based bonuses, peer assistance and review and a new, comprehensive teacher evaluation system.”

At the same time, the AFT president said, “both parties recognized the severe financial conditions of the district and sought innovative approaches to save money,” including the pay and health care cuts “that will save the district millions.”

In a separate press release, Weingarten said the educational provisions in the deal “would make it one of the most progressive big-city teacher contracts of our day.”

Given past oppressive actions by the AFT and Weingarten in Portland.

See ed notes exclusive reports:
Education Notes Online: AFT Hack Attack

Randi Goes to Portland

Education Notes Online: Randi In Portland (OR)

I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of similar attempt by AFT goons to subvert the anti Johnson movement. A complete takeover of the union is not inconceivable. These people don't give up power easily.

With Nathan Saunders running for President in Washington DC and CORE challenging in Chicago some trees might be shaking at the AFT convention in Seattle this summer. Some activist groups from around the nation are talking about attending to force the AFT and Weingarten to confront the assault on public schools.

Steve sent this a few days ago:

Please email or call me about what is happening in your city or AFT local!

I will be reporting to our regular weekly citywide teachers' meeting.

We need to communicate and coordinate!!

Steve Conn

313.645.9340

AFT Local 231

P.S. Our latest plan is to run for delegates to this summer's AFT Convention: We must do everything we can to get the convention to turn around the AFT and begin a national fight to defend public education!

Interested in, or planning to be, a delegate to the convention?