THE PATRIOT RETURNS |
Vol. 36, No.4 April 17, 2007
BARBARA BOWEN CAN'T PRINT SIMPLE BALLOTS CORRECTLY, The chapter elections currently in progress have been conducted by the PSC in a totally incompetent fashion. Or in a deliberately dishonest fashion. You decide. There are 3 contested chapter elections this year, and there have been serious errors made on printed ballots sent to members' homes in each of those elections. Curiously, the New-Caucus controlled elections committee made these "mistakes" only on ballot information for slates opposing Bowen's New Caucus group. At BMCC, the slate name of BMCC FACULTY SLATE was incorrect on the ballot (appearing instead as "BMCC Caucus Slate", designed to confuse the voters?) For the HEOs, the HEOS NOW SLATE appears on the ballot as the NOW SLATE (also designed to confuse). At KCC, a member of the non-New Caucus YOUR FACULTY SLATE was omitted from the ballot, and another person's name repeated instead. How hard is it to copy a short list of words and names, anyway!? The PSC has been conducting Chapter and General elections every year since its inception - for over thirty years! By this time, they should know the mechanics of conducting an election by heart! The PSC gives the final copies of slate and candidate names to the American Arbitration Association for printing. We believe that before printing, the AAA must send final copy back to the PSC for proof reading for accuracy. Unless the PSC submits wrong information to the AAA, these types of errors do not occur. How could this happen? Shouldn't the blame rightly be placed on the doorsteps of Bowen and London? Are these not Bowen's dirty tricks? Is this happening because several chapters have candidates opposing Bowen's New Caucus candidates? Of course, Bowen and London might blame it all on Election Committee Chair Frank Deale of CUNY Law School. But it's more likely they'll blame the "staff" or a secretary. The staff members depend on Bowen for their jobs, so they'll be forced - like hostages in Iran - to say that they are guilty. But THREE MAJOR ERRORS - and NONE for New Caucus slates!???? Come on! Those guys truly believe that they can pull one over the CUNY Faculty, but we of the instructional Staff weren't born yesterday!
WHY NO SIGNATURE? We also wonder about the absence of signature requirements on the Voting Instructions sent with the ballots. By not requiring members to sign their names on the outer envelopes, a practice used in earlier years as a guarantee against stuffing the ballots by the Union leadership, Barbara can now print more ballots, have them marked for candidates she favors, and mail them herself. One need not be a rocket scientist to figure out what Barbara is up to when you see the absence of Signature requirement on the outer envelopes in the balloting instructions. Again we ask: WHY NO SIGNATURE? WHY THIS CHANGE FROM PAST PRACTICE? MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD We recommend that all members send letters or emails expressing outrage at this corruption and at the disgraceful treatment of PSC members in the elections process by the Bowen-London team. Write to: And to: American Federation of Teachers (AFT) For email, go to www.aft.org, click on "Contact Us" & address your letter to Edward McElroy, President
THE RUMOR COLUMN O'MALLEY TO SEEK CUNY JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR LYNN STEWART'S DAUGHTER ACCUSED OF FAKING SICK LEAVE It has been rumored in CUNY circles that Susan O'Malley, Community College officer on the PSC Executive Committee was in contact with Brenna Stewart, 45 year old daughter of Lynn Stewart, long before the news hit the papers on April 12th that Brenna has been accused of faking sick days and is about to be fired from her job as a gym teacher in a Bronx high school. According to the Daily News, from October 2005 to January 2007, Brenna submitted "false notes" for eight absences "including one in which she altered the date on her aunt's death certificate so that she could take a bereavement day three years after the woman actually passed away." Unconfirmed reports indicate that O'Malley has obtained Brenna's resume and made copies for distribution at the next Delegate Assembly. Similar to the appeal she made for terrorists Mohammed Yousry and Susan Rosenberg (The Patriot Returns Vol. 35, no. 3 and The Patriot Returns Vol.35 no. 4,) she plans again to use her PSC position to make a personal appeal to the DA to alert members to her wish for a job for Brenna in one of the CUNY units. Richard Condon, the school's investigator, has called Brenna's alleged crime "fraud and larceny" and has recommended that she be fired. But according to our sources, O'Malley intends to find a lucrative job for Brenna at CUNY. College Presidents, Department Chairs, be on the lookout. Brenna will be on your campus this summer, courtesy of the Queen of Released time, and you may be singled out as O'Malley's patsy. DUES INCREASES? In the inner circle of the Bowen/London camp at PSC offices, there are hush hush, but serious discussions about the appropriate timing and the amount of soon-to-be-increased dues. Although the PSC in its Demand #29 asked for 250 additional released time hours for themselves (equivalent to 9 to 12 full-paid positions!), and although the cost of these positions comes out of members' potential salary increases, they think even this is not enough. Increasing membership dues so they can buy even more released time is easier. They can get it approved by a spineless, rubber-stamp Delegate Assembly faster than through negotiations.
WHAT BARBARA REALLY WANTS Demand No. 11A) Reassigned Time: All members of the instructional staff shall receive substantial time to engage in discussion pertaining to world issues, especially polygamy, monogamy, boycott of chocolate and asparagus, etc. organized by Jim Perlstein, Chair of the Peace and "My-Idea-Of-" Justice Committee. The cost of this time will be deducted from instructional staff salaries. Demand No. 21A) Pet Medical Leave: Employees will be allowed 15 days a year to take care of their domestic pets' illnesses, and other emergencies. The cost of funding these leave days will be deducted from projected instructional staff salaries. Demand No. 21B) Pet Care: While dogs and cats are generally already cared for, this provision will require colleges to establish, on each campus, a licensed Pet Care Center for the use of heretofore unrecognized pets, including sparrows, pigeons, snakes and rodents. Colleges will provide 10 minutes of "Petting Break" every three hours for faculty with pets in the Pet Care Center. The cost of maintaining these facilities will be deducted from already-pitiful projected instructional staff salaries. Demand No. 31A) Yet More Reassigned Time for Union Officers. This time will be exclusively designated for protests, marches and vigils at the residences of the Chancellor and College Presidents, and for marches in support of such venerated celebrities as Hugo Chavez and Osama Bin Laden. The cost of this time will be deducted from already-pitiful instructional staff salaries.
Sharad Karkhanis, Ph.D. Forthcoming issues of The Patriot may be accessed at http://www.patriotreturns.com |
