Assembly Notes (11/18/09)

Proposed Assembly Notes (11/18/09)
By Andy Libson

Attendance: 45 - 50


The first thing to note about this Assembly is that it is the first Assembly to be publicized through the UESF E-Mail blast. It did not have a dramatic effect on attendance, but it is a direct result of the EDU resolution passed on the E-board and I think it is a step forward for making more of our members aware of the Assembly. Also, there were a number of new EDU members who came to the Assembly meeting and really made a difference on its outcome.

There were 5 resolutions discussed at the Assembly.

1) The Budget crisis: sticking with labor

2) Employee Free Choice Act

3) Representing UESF

4) For a Public Health Option

5) School Secretaries: Part of the Village

The first resolution “The Budget Crisis” was a curious resolution which said the “UESF will participate in and honor the democratic decision making process of the CFT and CTA” and “UESF will be in accord with the actions and positions adopted and promoted by…our affiliates.” On the surface, this seemed just a restatement of things UESF was already doing. In reality, it appears with the resolution Dennis and Co really hoped to get support for giving a "blank check" to the leadership of both the CTA/ CFT and therefore, have a policy which they could use against any local initiatives with which they disagreed (including the March 4th statewide action against budget cuts) .

Lita added an amendment which inserted language that UESF could also reserve the right to act independently is it chose to. The amendment passed overwhelmingly and if there was anything more pernicious than ‘restatement’ of union policy, it was neutralized by the amendment.

The next big discussion was the Resolution which again seemed a simple restatement of union constitution that “The UESF president shall be the official spokesperson for UESF…and shall be responsible for the representation of UESF whenever and wherever required…”. “Therefore UESF members whose representation at non-affiliated bodies is designated by the president shall speak on behalf of the union.”

At the Executive Board, EDU members saw the potential for this to have a chilling effect on members feeling free to speak in forums outside the Executive Board and Assembly. Lisa added an amendment encouraging members “to speak as individual if they chose”.

At the Assembly, Linda Plack affirmed the overall intent of the resolution to get UESF to “speak with one voice”. Adrienne (from EDU) spoke against the resolution and essentially affirmed that there were indeed debates within the union and differences of opinion about how to fight the budget cuts and we should not be afraid of that and not seek to silence UESF voices in any forum. Secondly, based on the Executive Board, there was some indication that the resolution had been produced in response to socialist conference flier that had mistakenly not clearly identified Adrienne as a “member of UESF”. Adrienne acknowledged the mistake made on the flier (despite other publicity having made the designation) and said it would be a simpler matter to just pick up the phone and call her and tell her to fix the mistake. The need to produce a resolution was unnecessary overkill. Other EDU members spoke to the same effect and said this resolution seemed unnecessary and even a little petty. Ken Tray said this resolution was not inspired by the mistaken socialist conference flier but was merely a restatement of UESF policy that he and the other authors (Linda Plack, Susan Soloman, et al) had intended to introduce anyway.

Most interesting, was that after Adrienne spoke no real effort was made to vigorously defend the resolution by other Executive Board authors. The resolution failed 16 – 19.

Last, Dennis Kelly announced that UESF Executive Board had given $1000 to NUHW (National Health Care Workers), the legitimate representative of 1000s of health care workers that SEIU is very undemocratically looking to get control of by marginalizing the elected leadership and replacing them with appointed representatives. He also talked about SEIU had actually picketed UESF’s attempt to support NUHW. Dennis reported that SEIU was getting increasingly belligerent and controlling and even went so far to toss eggs at UTLA (United Teachers of Las Angeles) who intended to show similar support to NUHW.

EDU has criticisms of the PLC leadership, but here the action of Dennis Kelly and Executive Board leaders is great. It is not an easy thing for a union to take a stand in a seemingly internal union fight. UESF is doing that and that is excellent. We need to support all rank and file unions when possible. Secondly, Dennis was explicitly critical of SEIU’s lack of democracy and bottom-up organizing and SEIU’s move to a top-down corporate model. Dennis Kelly’s leadership on this issue has to be acknowledged and supported by EDU and by all UESF members.