Do you want a union leadership that runs like a private club with a few voices making our most important decisions? Or do you want a growing union organization that works with full committees to hear from you, keep you informed, and address your concerns?
For five years, I have been our union president. I have accomplished much: one of the important accomplishments is that the UFF UCF chapter membership grew from 18% density of due-paying members in 2015 when I became a President to 518 due paying members representing 30.5% density by June 2020. But I have been held back by a few in the council who disrupted our union work. Otherwise, we would now have even more complete and powerful union organization. I will host open forum times for questions and candid conversations.
I am interested in serving, only if you are interested in electing a full council of 40 colleagues who will follow union rules, unlike a few who have violated these for the past year. Fortunately, after December 2019, a few of us ignored the disrupters, and despite them, have been able to accomplish all of the business that you witnessed. I have a record of integrity and fighting for others, not myself. I am not afraid to stand behind everything I say, because leadership in our world is in crisis, and you have two very different leadership choices.
When I meet our new UCF President, I call him Alex. I don’t ask permission. He calls me Scott. Same with our BOT chair, Bev. Our respect for one another is based not on titles, but as individuals concerned with solving problems in education. I gain no professional advantage from union activity. I am union, because I want to fight injustice, and I care about our students’ public educations.
Re-elect me if you want a union that respects and practices it’s own rules for democracy, so we may increase our influence and collaboration with UCF administrators, BOT, BOG and Florida Legislature that our students would benefit from great working environment their faculty and UCF administration jointly create for them to enhance their learning capabilities. We have 1,700 BU faculty. We’re supposed to be powerful and we are powerful. Very powerful!
I don’t know my competitor. I’ve never seen him at a union meeting. He does not have enough experience and skill to run the union. We need a president with a proven integrity and record of union activity and accomplishment. Faculty working conditions are our student’s learning conditions and outcomes.
Union leadership encumbered by intentional disruptors no longer interests me. If you elect me as a President and a leader of the “Act Now” team, along with 40 council members who care about and follow our union’s rules, I will accept your call to continue leading. We will become a really powerful and constructive UFF UCF union chapter. Looking forward to working with all of you!
Webpage: www.uffucf-actnowteam.org
Twitter: @UCFActNow
