Union vs. Union
NEA staffers strike against NEA, halting convention. What parallels does that hold with UFT?
This is about NEA and UFT. Let’s talk NEA first.
If you’re running a union convention, one of the worst things that can happen is for your staffers to call a strike in its midst. Yet NEA staffers did just that yesterday. I watched the headline change. When first I saw it, it was about the strike. Later, it was about President Biden declining to appear because he won’t cross a picket line.
Whatever the headline reads, it’s not smart for a union to allow something like this to happen. It’s embarrassing. And it’s beyond inconvenient.
Members of the union voted to authorize a strike in April amid bargaining over a new, potential three-year contract. The previous contact expired at the end of May, leaving the NEA and NEASO locked in heated contract talks. NEASO is still negotiating with NEA management over a new three-year contract. But NEASO has accused managers of the 3 million-member labor giant of using an “anti-worker playbook” at the bargaining table, including dragging out negotiations.
Well, that doesn’t sound good at all. NEA knew there was a strike authorization since April. They had two months to come to a resolution, and a little over one month knowing their staffers didn’t have a contract. Should they have anticipated this? Could be. Those accusations of using an “anti-worker playbook” have to hurt. Here’s something else:
NEA had previously “threatened to host its convention virtually to avoid a physical picket line,” NEASO President Robin McLean said in a statement.
That’s interesting. The NEA threatened to hold the convention virtually if the staffers chose to strike before the convention. It seems like the staffers, in a bind, considered this very carefully. They decided not to allow the virtual convention, and rather to strike in the middle of the ongoing convention. One side was playing checkers, while the other was playing chess.
NEA leaders didn’t bother to think things through. They clearly did not anticipate this. It reminds me of Michael Mulgrew, deeming himself invincible, buying a crap contract in 2014 by handing a billion dollars of our health stabilization fund to the city. Or in 2018, when Mulgrew pledged 600 million a year, forever, in exchange for a three-year contract that may have kept up with cost of living.
Mulgrew, and the “very smart” Unity people to whom he frequently refers, decided they would fund this 600 million a year by dumping retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan, or charging them 5K per couple, per year, to keep their coverage. The Great Minds of Unity grossly underestimated the impact of selling out the retirees. They figured we’d always vote for Mulgrew, or whoever they placed in front of us, no matter what. That’s what you call hubris.
Well, at least the staffers at NEA are unionized. We can’t really say that for those at UFT. I mean sure, they are union members. Many are UFT members. Tenured UFT members have due process in schools. The principal can put a letter in your file for a bad haircut, but he can’t reassign you, and he certainly can’t fire you.
Some aren’t. Back in 2010, a writer for NY Teacher, Jim Callaghan, was fired. The NY Post jumped on that:
In a move of stunning hypocrisy, the United Federation of Teachers axed one of its longtime employees — for trying to unionize the powerful labor organization’s own workers, it was charged yesterday.
The Post, of course, is not a great supporter of union. But they found it hypocritical that the leader of the UFT, which works to protect the jobs of members, would fire someone without due process. Not only that, but Callaghan claimed he was fired for trying to unionize UFT writers. That, for my money, would take it a step beyond hypocrisy.
Mulgrew claimed, through a spokesperson, that this was not the case.
“Mr. Callaghan had an escalating history of disciplinary and professional incidents and was dismissed because of that history,” a UFT spokesman said.
Union officials said Callaghan was suspended twice. Most recently, he was docked two days’ work on Jan. 5 and 6 for an “incident involving co- worker he accused of stealing his story idea.”
And what if you are a UFT member? So much of this depends on who you believe. Do you believe Mulgrew? I remember Mulgrew telling us, at an Exec. Board meeting when we demanded to know why he reassigned Amy Arundell, he did not discuss personnel issues. Despite that declaration, he told us he did not do it for the reasons many of us thought he had. So basically, he explained he would share with us whatever information he felt like. He certainly had no issues having his subordinates discuss Callaghan in public.
Patronage employees must live in terror of Mulgrew. We’d be a stronger union if employees were selected for competence, as opposed to unwavering loyalty. We’d be a better union if our employees were worthy of respect, and receiving it.
As a unionist, I believe in due process. I believe no one should be fired without just cause. But Unity’s Mulgrew seems like one of those awful principals who, if he could, would fire you “just cause.” For example, he fired a bunch of retiree health consultants.
Predictably, not a single Unity member raised a peep in protest. For one thing, they swore to never question the Great Unity Leader. For another, it’s very clear that doing so can place your patronage gig in imminent peril. Take a look at Paul Egan. I don’t know, really, why he was fired. I do know the story that was leaked to the Daily News back then was largely nonsense. Gee. Who do you think could have leaked that story?
And then there was Amy Arundell. Whatever you may think of her, Amy did a great job running UFT Queens. She was always available to answer my questions when I was chapter leader. She visited our school often. She helped many others. Within the outlandish parameters set by the great minds of Unity, she was as activist as she could possibly be. Now, for all I know, she’s off counting paper clips at 52 Broadway.
Amy Arundell isn’t the only person to be removed as a borough rep. Years earlier, they did the same to Debbie Poulos, who repped Brooklyn. Debbie was exiled to 52 Broadway, where she re-invented herself, creating a complaint procedure for chapter leaders that was much more direct and effective than standard grievances. As my UFT grievances sat, sometimes for years, moldering wherever grievances do, I was able to get quick resolution on multiple occasions using Debbie’s procedure.
Chad Hamilton used to work part-time at UFT. He was a Unity member. At some point, he decided that Unity was not serving members the way it should and dropped out. At that point, he was fired.
Newly elected RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer used to work at UFT. However, he was one of very few non-Unity members to have a part time gig there. (I know of two, counting Bennett.) However, Bennett saw fit to send a critical email to Mulgrew, and the response was, “You’re fired.”
Way back in the bad old Bloomberg days of 2010, I wrote in Chalkbeat (then Gotham Schools) about how celebrated grinch Joel Klein wanted to lower the standard for firing teachers from “just cause” to “arbitrary and capricious.” All of us who teach know what that would mean. I would certainly not have made it through 39 years.
And yet Michael Mulgrew, the veritable deity of the Unity Caucus, takes one look at a critical email and declares, “You’re fired.”
And it was not until Bennett and Retiree Advocate defeated him that he had to eat those words.
I hope Mulgrew and Unity didn’t fill up too much at that NEA Convention. There will be many more words for them to eat after the 2025 UFT general election.
Thanks to Daniel Alicea
Looking over my whole career, it was the old time Unity people who always solved any problem I had. When I retired, my pension was calculated wrong and had the wrong start date. It was Sandra March herself who got it fixed in days after 11 months dealing with the patronage crew. She even personally came to my house to tell me vshe fixed everything and was even sent a letter of apology from TRS. It saddens me what Unity has turned into, but it makes sense that it is us old-timers (and I hate that word) that will bring the UFT back to its original purpose and ideals. Never under-estimate a baby boomer.
The fact that UFT employees are not organized speaks volumes. You would think that Randi Weingarten would insist ,as a unionist, that these employees be represented.