SAVE OUR UNION!
SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!
Recall Keith Johnson!

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Since our August membership meeting we have been fighting to change the policy of our union--to stop Keith Johnson's collaboration with Rob Bobb to degrade public education and charterize the district, and instead, to stand for the defense of public education. Our fight is now at a critical turning point. Johnson's collaboration policy has resulted in a disastrous contract that threatens the foundation of our union. We must remove Johnson now or our union will crumble. There is no middle ground.

We have collected 1300 signatures from more than 60 schools, to recall Keith Johnson. At today's union meeting, the DFT membership must continue our drive to recall Johnson by setting a recall hearing date, and by taking action against the illegal TIP program and the whole Bobb/Duncan privatization plan.

Johnson will undoubtedly attempt to continue his bullying dictatorship over our membership meeting, ignoring democracy, ruling opponents out of order, insulting members, and so on. What matters today is that we continue to vote on the motions and policies that we know are right, and run the meeting as effectively as possible in spite of Johnson's tirades.

The stronger we act now, the more quickly we can remove Johnson. There is nothing we can do to make Johnson respect the democratic process or the views of members, because if he did, he would lose every vote. That's why we must remove him. The membership meeting is the highest authority of our union. We must decide that the recall charges are valid, we must give Johnson a hearing and we must decide to recall Johnson. No subcommittee or Executive Board vote may substitute for our authority. We, the members, must do what is right today.

Teachers Don't Work for TIPs! Void the TIP Program

The TIP program, insultingly and truthfully named the Termination Incentive Plan, illegally gives forced loans of $10,000, interest-free and unsecured, removed at $250 per check from our next forty paychecks, to pay for Rob Bobb's high-priced consultants and charter school companies.

Teachers are signing Wage and Hour claims to get our money back, and we have filed a class action suit to get an injunction to stop Bobb from withholding any more of our wages. We will seek union endorsement for the lawsuit and wage claims. Our fight against the forced loans can make it virtually impossible to enforce the rest of the contract. If we win invalidation of the illegal loans, the cornerstone of the wage agreement, the whole contract will be on shaky ground.

Johnson is pretending that the recall drive is strictly personal, that some people just don't like him. The truth is that the fight to remove him as President is strictly political. Johnson is incapable of representing our interests because he won't stand up to Arne Duncan and his privatization/charterization scheme for public education.

The Duncan policy used to be only a Republican plan, but now it's embraced by both Republicans and Democrats. Johnson won't oppose Duncan's ideology, so he is forced into the position of endorsing it. Since the Duncan plan is thoroughly unpopular, Duncan needs to rush it through with as little examination, explanation and discussion as possible. Those are the methods Johnson has had to adopt in order to get our union to sign on to the plan.

Johnson has betrayed the interests of teachers and the fundamental principles of our union

Johnson allowed Rob Bobb to publicly insult, demean and degrade teachers daily, providing no defense to Bobb's teacher-bashing attacks. Never have we been so vilified, blamed for every problem the District faces, and viciously scapegoated in the media.

Johnson demobilized us, and gave Bobb free reign to demoralize and demonize us. Then Johnson slammed us himself, using Bobb's threats of bankruptcy and layoffs against us in order to get this horrible contract passed.

Johnson has ignored and abrogated union democracy from the Cobo Hall meeting forward, refusing to allow membership votes, usurping the power of the Election Committee, and using that stolen power to write a misleading contract ratification ballot. Johnson misled the Executive Board on the content and the character of the contract. He rejected the Election Committee's own findings of irregularities in the ratification election.

Although the TIP forced loan is the highest-profile attack, the Priority Schools clause is an even greater danger to our union over the longer run. This clause allows an unlimited number of “priority” schools to be run as charter schools, with teachers being treated as “at-will” employees, on one-year contracts which may be terminated by the principal at the end of each year. This clause would undermine the foundation of our union—protection from principals' favoritism and discrimination. The priority schools plan is a plan to further degrade and dismantle our public school system and replace it with private charter schools.

Bobb's privatization plans are completely unpopular in Detroit. Standing with our students, parents and the community, who have repeatedly opposed privatization and charterization of our district, we can defeat Bobb's plans.

Detroit Can Lead the Nation If We Refuse to Knuckle Under to Duncan's Plan

We can lead the nation by taking a stand against privatization here in Detroit. Arne Duncan is trying to force the hugely unpopular privatization/charter school plan on urban districts across the country. Duncan needs our union to sign onto the plan, or he can't implement it. A plan this unpopular is not viable; it requires lies, deception and strong-arming to get it through. Our resistance can expose the truth and stop the charterization plan everywhere.

A number of school districts in Oakland County, including Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Novi, Lake Orion, Walled Lake and South Lyon have voted not to participate in Michigan's Race to the Top application. The Michigan Education Association is also urging its locals not to sign on to the application, which no one can even review; only a summary is available. The districts want to protect the integrity of public education and the capacity of their teachers to act as teachers, not as test-preparation robots. This is a great opportunity for us to unite with the suburbs, break down the division between city and suburbs that has reinforced separate and unequal education, and move toward an integrated Metro Detroit-wide school district that can solve the crisis of education for Detroit students.

Organize a Slate of Candidates for this Summer's AFT Convention who will Fight Duncan's Policies; Nominations Open Tomorrow

A fight is brewing at the national AFT union convention this summer to overturn AFT President Randi Weingarten's policy of compliance with Arne Duncan's privatization/charterization plan, and replace it instead with a strategy of fighting to defend public education, and demanding equality and integration in education as envisioned by Brown v Board of Education.

President Randi Weingarten is intent on pushing through a teacher evaluation plan that ties teachers' assessments to student test scores, and expedites teacher firings for “ineffectiveness” or misconduct. Weingarten is attempting to jettison one hundred fifty years of teacher tenure law in her zeal to collaborate with the Duncan plan. Weingarten named Detroit as one of the districts that has a trusting and respectful labor-management relationship! This deliberate misrepresentation must not go unanswered. We need our union to represent our interests, independently of our employers or the Democrats.

What happens in this fight will determine everything, including whether we have a union that represents our interests and whether public education survives as more than the worst-alternative catch-all for the poorest students. Teachers from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other big cities will be there. They are fighting back, and they face the same problems that we have in Detroit. They need our leadership to win. It is urgent, therefore, that we organize a slate of candidates for this election.

If you are interested in running with us, or in helping the campaign, come to the next meeting at Gracious Savior Church this Saturday, 4 pm, 19484 James Couzens, just north of Seven Mile (on the Lodge service drive).

Vote No Committee

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for

Equality By Any Means Necessary/Equal Opportunity Now (BAMN/EON)           www.bamn.com

Civil Rights Now           marquette6@hotmail.com           January 14, 2010