The ruling “Organizing for Justice” faction in UTR cleaned house during the last executive board election. Myself and also several others who acted independently/assertively to some extent are now gone. The executive board is now 100% loyalists to the regime, with no meaningful opposition. There might be more open dialogue and debate in the Church of Scientology than in our union. The leadership was so desperate to remove me that when they couldn’t find any middle school people to run against me for the post of Middle School Director, they found someone who teaches upper grades in a K-8 elementary school. In spite of a campaign by the leadership to defeat me, I came within just a few votes of defeating the establishment backed candidate to maintain my seat on the executive board.

This was an unfair election where the president by his own admission violated the election standing rules by not sending out any candidate’s videos to our 1,400ish members. The claim was that the violation didn’t cause me to lose the election because it affected both candidates the same, so no election re-run is necessary. This is despite the fact that the entire political establishment was lined up in favor of my opponent. Not sending out either of our videos had the same effect for me as Biden refusing to debate his primary challengers. It benefits the person with the institutional advantage.

This is the same union president who said I was acting selfishly and like a fascist because I (God forbid) tried to have our MOU extended with the district which increased our period sub pay and kept covid testing at each site, amongst other things. This is how you are treated when you are a real threat to the corrupt system we face. How do we deal with unaccountable, out of touch union leaderships? Local union leaderships are almost always tied in to California Federation of Teachers (CFT) or the pro-charter California Teachers Association (CTA). CFT/CTA are tied in to the state Democrat Party and the state Democrat Party is tied in to big business. So, what exactly are we doing here? Where’s the path to change?

Joseph Glatzer

     WCCUSD Educator, site rep

and former UTR Executive Board member