The Battle for NYSUT: Iannuzzi was made in 2005 and unmade in 2014 - By the same people

It's like they just found any warm body to run for president of a 600,000 member union... NYSUT member on Karen Magee

...it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for any one of NYSUT’s nearly half-million members to make a leadership run. Oh, except the endorsement of NYSUT’s dominant internal caucus has already gone to sitting vice president Richard Iannuzzi, ensuring his election. Better luck in 2037! ... Mike Antonucci, March 21, 2005, EIA

Nine years ago Mike was referring to the ending of Tom Hobart's 32 year run as NYSUT President, figuring as a conservative estimate Iannuzzi would get a similar run. Guess not, even though the fat lady hasn't sung.

In his post today Mike joins me in pinning Randi to the wall on her supposed "neutrality" which she heralds in tweet after tweet. He may be coming from one political direction and me from another but we both can see through the fog.

A NYSUT member sent in this comment:

The Revive people have been defending Randi like crazy... and now she is coming to their rescue as well.  Mike Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten... grassroots unionism at it's best!

[Ed Note: During the 2013 UFT election whenever we brought up Randi, knowing how unpopular she was with so many teachers, the Unity slugs left comments like, "Who's Randi?"] Back to my NYSUT commenter:

The last line of the article is one Karen Magee should pay attention to [Iannuzzi was made in 2005 and unmade in 2014. By the same people.]  Of course that is assuming she has a pulse.  Nobody has heard anything from here.  Not a word.  I haven't seen a quote in any article, on any blog, she has a dormant Twitter account, etc.  It's like they just found any warm body to run for president of a 600,000 member union...

I'm waiting for an update as to whether Karen Magee has a pulse. But I think we were saying the same thing about Iannucci in 2005. We knew that Exec VP Alan Lubin was really running NYSUT then. What has happened is that the pressure on the unions to cave to RTTT and all the crap that comes with it has created these rifts and tensions.

The 2 Iannuzzi theories are:
1. Facing reality he moved towards resistance as a political move to gain whatever support he could. But if he should win he would go back to being his same old compromised self.

2. He could have gone along with whatever Mulgrew and Randi wanted -- endorses Cuomo, etc. and not faced a challenge. He moved because there was real pressure on him from around the state and he was caught in the middle and increasingly moved away from the UFT pressure. I believe he probably tried to find some way of working things out with Mulgrew -- hard to believe he wouldn't -- but Revive NYSUT killed any chance of that once hostilities were in the open. Now totally freed from the UFT he is going where he could never go before.

Iannuzzi would have a puncher's chance of winning if Phil Rumore comes to his senses and realizes that even though Iannuzzi may have acted somewhat dickish when Buffalo resisted the pressure, Mulgrew was totally absent in support. I certainly didn't see anything coming out of the UFT supporting the Buffalo teachers. Rumore's complaints about Iannuzzi look downright "playing the winning hand" given his savvy and understanding that Revive NYSUT would not resist the Tisch/King/Cuomo axis.

Rumore should move from leaning towards Revive to neutral and watch how this plays out. If he and the other big cities joined with the 100 or more local presidents to create a block that will not support Cuomo, they have an outside chance of pulling this off. But even if they lose, they form a considerable block in NYSUT to counter the UFT me, me, me attitude on the state and national level.

And if Iannuzzi should win who would own him? Mulgrew or people like Rumore who "made" him this time?

Afterburn:

Here is a PJSTA blog post of interest regarding Andy Pallotta who is seen hobnobbing with anti-teacher ed deformer John Flanagan. Andy Pallotta and Reformy John Flanagan. (photo on right).

And below the break is the complete EIA piece.

Randi Defends UFT

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:20 AM PST

New York State United Teachers president Richard Iannuzzi did the only sensible thing if he wants to remain in office: state for the record that New York City’s United Federation of Teachers is the puppet master pulling the strings of the slate of candidates running against him.
Members of the Revive NYSUT slate immediately responded that Iannuzzi’s claim smacked of desperation, and they were backed by an unusual source – American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.
Weingarten has scrupulously avoided taking sides in the NYSUT campaign, but she derided the idea that UFT president Michael Mulgrew is the mastermind behind the challengers:

“There is no U.F.T. president I know, including myself, who ever would want to take over NYSUT,” she said. “And so, when that becomes the argument, that means that this has become not about the issues.
“It’s not about a U.F.T. takeover,” she continued. “No U.F.T. president would ever want that. It is about different slates with a different sense of how to move the state union forward, and they have a right to make their arguments. They have a right to make their case, and then the people at the convention have a right to make their decision.”

This is a newfound love for contested elections indeed. How did Iannuzzi become NYSUT president in the first place? Let’s charge up the flux capacitor and return to March 21, 2005:

NYSUT Prince of Wales to Assume Throne. Thomas Hobart, president of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) for 32 years, is retiring next month. So, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for any one of NYSUT’s nearly half-million members to make a leadership run.
Oh, except the endorsement of NYSUT’s dominant internal caucus has already gone to sitting vice president Richard Iannuzzi, ensuring his election. Better luck in 2037!