Gee, Doug, everything I know about how to respond to this type of LBO exchange I learned from you. Do you consider this method of response to be proprietary, something of an Henwood intellectual property right? Do I need to pay royalties?
About the other thing, there is really not much of a story here. Guiliani is being a prick because... he is a prick by nature. He thinks he is going to go out of office by taking on the municipal labor unions, and the UFT is not only the largest, and depending upon your assessment, perhaps the most powerful, municipal labor union, but -- and this is key -- the one which has been taking him on publicly and with the most vigor. While the others have been rightfully complaining about the lack of real contract negotiations, we went further, and put 20,000 teachers outside of City Hall the day after our old contract expired. Also Guiliani is a misogynist prick of the first order, and teachers are the most heavily female sector of the municipal labor force, with a high profile woman head of the union. The only thing that Guiliani hates worse than the prospect of losing, is the idea of losing to a 'girl.' The _NY Times_ thinks he blames the UFT for Hillary's rather strong victory election, since the UFT and 1199 are the major electoral forces of labor in NYC, but I think he is too much of a egotist to care about other Republicans -- it is his ass -- and his ass alone -- which he values.
It would be easier to just wait until he passes into the dark with term limits, but for two things: 1. there is a real critical shortage of cdrtified teachers, and without a new contract with a substantial raise, many more will retire this year, exacerbating that problem; Guiliani could give a flying fuck about what happens here, but the UFT is not so cavalier about what will happen to children as a result. 2. there is always the problem of when the downturn in the business cycle kicks in, and how that will effect negotiations, even with a far more favorable mayor.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/