What is the UFT election about?

Unity has its own ideas.

Ask yourself this—This vital election cycle, where Unity faces its most significant challenge in its history, are we going to focus on issues that actually affect us or diversions? I know what I want. And it’s also clear what Unity wants.

There’s a new voice in the UFT. I know because I’m part of it. We envision a new kind of union, a union that responds to members, as opposed to the political druthers of Michael Mulgrew. We are ready to represent rather than dictate. And make no mistake, Unity is afraid of us.

How do I know this? I know this because they’re coming for us. They’re scared of Amy Arundell, and with good reason. She knows where some of the bodies are buried, and once she gets a good look at the books, she’ll see all of them.

I know what Unity does when they’re worried. Instead of facing what they’ve done over the years, they studiously ignore it and demand you be grateful because you have a job. This is nothing new. I’ve been hearing it for decades. I’ve seen our job degraded bit by bit, beginning back in 2005 with the advent of, perhaps, the worst contract I’ve ever seen.

You can’t grieve letters in file anymore. You’re on C6, maybe cafeteria duty or potty patrol, one period a day, essentially forever. You’re working more hours, and the various zeros and substandard raises we’ve taken mean, for all intents and purposes, you may be doing so for free. Health insurance costs are through the roof and, due to Unity’s idiotic deals, headed nowhere but up. Fewer doctors take Emblem, and I’ve been dumped by a few—another reason we need to hang onto real Medicare later on.

The observation process is like the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of classroom teachers. The little checklists you get back, assuming they’re effective at the end of the year, have little meaning. Who can even tell if the supervisors are listening to classroom action or the voices in their heads? I once sat with a member and a video demonstrating things the AP observed did not actually happen.

Compensation increases consistently fail to meet cost of living. That’s just one reason we cannot afford this leadership. We have no reason to expect better from them, and they tell us, repeatedly, we dare not even consider it.

If you think that’s moving in the right direction, vote for Unity.

I’m reading unsubstantiated tales from Unity. It’s not really new. My friends are terrible people, they say. It doesn’t much surprise me, because they say I’m a terrible person too. On Facebook, I see our friends from Arise buying into these stories. They don’t need any proof. What possible motivation could Unity have to trash us right before an election? They must be telling the truth.

Anyone who doesn’t support Unity Caucus is crazy, and needs to contact MAP. Someone sent me an article, months ago, suggesting that about me. Anyone who raises their voice at a Unity member is a lunatic and should be committed. Point your finger at a Unity member, and the offending digit may just drop from your hand. (Or it should, anyway.)

Unity members are very delicate. If you touch them, they might break. Yet they can say whatever they like about you. That’s fine. You are a liar, even if you say nothing, and their words are solid gold. That’s why they make so much more money than you do. But as they are so delicate, there are things you should not mention. I’ll list a few.

Michael Mulgrew went five years before securing his first contract. That’s what he calls leadership. Though the pattern is tantamount to the Ten Commandments when it’s crap, when there was a two-year pattern of 4% and 4%, he was unable to secure it. The cops and firefighters got it, but we didn’t. That’s not Michael Mulgrew’s fault though, because nothing ever is.

If you think five years without a contract is good practice, vote for Unity.

When we finally got a new mayor, Mulgrew saw an opportunity. After all, this was a labor-friendly mayor, finally, so labor-friendly the NY Post repeatedly portrayed him as a Bolshevik. Surely he’d give us what we deserved—the same two-year contract the cops and firefighters got.

Michael Mulgrew, though, decided to get creative. Why should we just do that? Why not fund the raises by giving the city one billion of our 1.8 billion dollar health stabilization fund? Why not make UFT members wait up to eleven years, with no interest for that money? Why not exclude all members who resigned or were fired? They don’t vote, so who cares if they earned the money?

If you think waiting ten years to get paid (with no interest) is a good idea, vote for Unity.

And hey, why not impose a crap pattern for years on the rest of the city? Why not take a thousand dollar bonus and go well over a year with no raise at all? Also, why not start with health givebacks, and set a precedent? After all, that way we can give back our health care in lieu of demanding pay that keeps up with cost of living.

That’s what Unity did with a friendly mayor. With a hostile one, he did nothing whatsoever. Our next mayor could be Andrew Cuomo, who first ran for governor on a platform of going after unions. Cuomo wanted to make it easier to fire teachers. Think of him with every Danielson evaluation. And given how Mulgrew negotiated with De Blasio, just imagine what he can do with Cuomo.

There’s so much more health care to give up. So what if he’s imposed co-pays on retirees that may well exceed what our Medigap would pay? So what if it’s a hundred bucks for in-service members to go to an Urgent Care? So what if they impose co-pays specifically to deter you from getting the care you need?

If you think selling out our health care for substandard contracts is a good idea, vote for Unity.

As a result of the 2018 deal that Unity buried in Appendix B, Mulgrew and MLC owe a shit-ton of money to the city—to wit, 600 million dollars a year, forever. For that, he and his Very Smart People extracted a three-year contract that may or may not have met cost of living. That’s a reasonable deal to Unity, so they want you to give him three more years.

Now I may have mentioned, once or twice, that Mulgrew wants to pull retirees out of Medicare and dump us into Medicare Advantage. And I may have mentioned, that despite his valuable lip service claiming he now opposes it, he’s part of an amicus brief against us in Bentkowski.

If you think talking about supporting members is the same as supporting us, vote for Unity.

If NYC Retirees (the org actually representing us as Unity betrays us) manage to win Bentkowski in the NY State Court of appeals, there happens to be a re-amortization plan. In fact, Victoria Lee mentioned this column in her PowerPoint presentation. She managed to accuse my friend Katie and I of pushing misinformation, because perish forbid anyone should actually know what our leadership is up to. (And if you think leadership should act in secret, you know who to vote for.)

In any case, if the re-amortization plan should happen, it will save the city about 600 million a year. Curiously, that’s exactly how much Mulgrew and his BFFs at the Municipal Labor Committee promised the city. Victoria Lee is correct that our pensions will be paid if this deal goes through. But if the deal goes south, someone else will pay, likely those who follow in our footsteps.

Maybe they won’t get that raise. Maybe Tier 6 won’t get fixed. There are a lot of things that could happen if the investments don’t go the way we hope. The market is nuts right now. I have a friend who just sold all his stock and bought gold. He could be wrong, of course. Who knows?

If you think we should risk the future of those who follow us, vote for Unity.

Furthermore, Mulgrew and Unity oppose Intro 1096, which would not only preserve retiree health care, but also eliminate co-pays. Mulgrew claims it’s because he needs to preserve collective bargaining, and it violates the Taylor Law. On this astral plane, we don’t collectively bargain for retirees, and the Taylor Law doesn’t apply to retirees either.

If you think lying to retirees is no biggie, vote for Unity.

They so want to protect collective bargaining, even for those not subject to contracts. Only they can bargain. The city cannot. Except, of course, when Unity wants it to. Having lost the para vote, three to one, Unity has changed its position. Instead of, “Screw you, paras,” they’re going with, “We care a lot.”

Never mind that, when Mulgrew and Unity had 450 million dollars to grant raises to hard-to-staff titles, they did nothing. Never mind that they have still done nothing for the OT/ PT chapter, and pretty much told them to piss off when they voted down a contract. Now, they love paras. Now, retirees can get back 105 bucks worth of co-pays they wouldn’t even have if Unity hadn’t sold us out. There are a handful of new dentists in NYC.

If you think the union should make a transparent show of opportunistic improvements during election season, vote for Unity.

In fairness, the whole issue of what is legal and what is not can be a little murky. Why can Unity legislate improvements for paraprofessionals, but not retirees? Why does there seem to be a double standard, or maybe a triple or quadruple one, allowing Unity to do what it likes, when it likes, and how it likes?

Honestly, this may be the fault of Michael Mulgrew’s lawyers. Maybe they simply don’t know the law. And to be fair, while they’re Mulgrew’s lawyers, he graciously allows us to pay their salaries with our dues. Why might I suggest they don’t know the law? For example, when Mulgrew hired UFT lawyers to threaten me with civil and criminal penalties, they were unaware that parody is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. But hey…

If you think your union should threaten members with lawsuits, vote for Unity.

I’ve been retired for about a year and a half now. Last school year, I attended all or most Retired Teacher Chapter (RTC) meetings in person. Having been a chapter leader for 12 years, and having taken copious notes at more DAs and Exec. Board meetings than I can count, I was kind of accustomed to at least a little bit of, oh, voting.

But at the very first meeting, there were no motions, no voting, and no questions. I was pretty surprised. I was even more surprised when, month after month, this pattern continued. Sure, there were questions sometimes. From time to time, then-Chapter Leader Tom Murphy even let us ask about health care, the number one thing on our minds.

But there were never motions, and there was never voting. Murphy was Unity on steroids. Instead of filibustering for 90 minutes, delaying and precluding member participation, Murphy just never bothered with it at all. He not only took Unity to the next level, but also managed to repeatedly lecture us about being “civil,” hardly the first quality of unionism.

If you think member participation is not important at all, vote for Unity.

But member participation is key. It’s what will turn our union around. And sorry, with all due respect, you don’t make that happen with a small, elite group on top making decisions for everyone. It hasn’t worked for us in the past, and won’t in the future either.

If you want the agenda to be keeping all power at the top, you have several choices. If you want your voice to drive the union, that’s why we put together ABC.

Join us, and let’s create the union we all know we can be.