Bits and Pieces

The good, the bad, and the absurd

Welcome, activist friends. It’s been a busy week here in UFT retiree land. As you’ve likely heard, this week the supremely superficial UFT Election Committee voted for Same Old, Same Old. This means no electronic voting for you, UFT. Voting by snail mail has kept Unity a veritable monopoly for over half a century. They’re not changing it until we drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

They met only three times and closed the book on facing the issue. They didn’t bother to study the processes of other unions that used electronic voting successfully, let alone why so few of us vote. This looks like nothing more than a setup with a clear, predetermined outcome. Apathy is Unity’s best friend, and they won’t risk giving the 72% of members who don’t vote a voice.

Instead, Unity bosses will enable live voting only in Unity strongholds, where their paid patronage cult members can tacitly remind folks where and how to vote. Most disappointing is that the two ARISE members on the committee, MORE’s Olivia Swisher and Retiree Advocate’s Michael Shulman, voted with Unity. Shulman is also a leader of New Action, which has been pushing electronic voting for a decade or more. What happened? You’d have to ask him.

Only ABC members Chad Hamilton, Daniel Alicea and Katie Anskat voted no on Unity’s restrictive voting plan.

Yesterday, I met with the Retired Teacher Chapter (RTC) Executive Board. There were a number of surprises, and some of them were good. The first good news was that several members we proposed were elected to replace Delegate Assembly reps who had either passed away or stepped down. 11 of the 21 nominees were elected. I expected zero of our five nominees to make it, but two of them somehow squeaked through. They are:

Michael Brocoum—a retiree activist who I first met on Facebook. He’s a supporter of ABC and a proponent for union democracy. He speaks with forcefulness and eloquence. He belongs in the DA, and I’m happy to see him there.

And coming in at eleventh place, the cutoff, was my friend Amy Arundell. I’ve written a lot about her. No one on earth supported me more when I was chapter leader. We did weighted voting and I chose her first. I was likely not the only one, and that’s probably how she squeaked by. Doubtless Michael Mulgrew can’t wait to see her again.

This is not, though, a done deal yet. Unity contends, in clear violation of regs we’ve read, that we are not allowed to vote in replacement members. Unity may very well go to the mattresses for the handful of DA votes we replaced. Unity will go to the mat for co-pays, battle to force their opponents legally to sit down and shut up, but increased union participation? Democracy? Bosses following rules? Those things must be stopped, whatever the cost.

The other good news is that RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer moved my resolution, demanding the UFT pay for our prescription premiums, up to number one on our agenda. I was pretty happy about that, and I’ve posted it below. It’s a mixed victory though, as the RA folks all voted to drop the second resolved, decoupling it from our online petition that’s already garnered over six thousand signatures.

This is a botched opportunity to build on a solid foundation and reach further.

It’s outlandish to leave six thousand signatures on the table.

Retiree Advocate is repeating an error they made early on. When we were first elected, they willingly surrendered the official UFT Retiree page, which had 6,000 followers, to a Unity Patronage Cult Member. After two years, they haven’t managed to recruit half that number. In failing to link to our petition, they toss away 6,000 signatures we’ve collected.

ABC is all about organizing. In September, we will take that petition into school buildings and build on it. No one in service wants to pay these exorbitant premiums. Members will read it and say oh HELL no.

It will be good to pass the resolution, but the RTC action that comes along with it, I’m afraid, could be as lackluster as that for 1096.

There were several rationales offered. Bennett said when he first saw it he thought it may have been created by teenagers who wanted to make trouble. It wasn’t my turn to speak. I really wanted to say I’m not a teenager, but yes I want to make trouble. Making trouble, you know, is how you get stuff done.

If you don’t believe me, ask Marianne Pizzitola, without whom we’d all have an inferior Medicare “Advantage” plan right now.

Several people asked who wrote the petition. I kept raising my hand to show I did, and it took a while before people understood. That said, I had considerable support from ABC’s resident computer genius Daniel Alicea. He knew how to get it online and design a webpage. Daniel’s love for and facility with computers originated with a former chapter leader of mine at John Adams High School (where I toiled and sweated for seven years or thereabout).

The chapter leader’s name was Nelson Sonshine, and my hat’s off to both he and Daniel. Nelson gave me some of the best advice I ever got—put 5% in TDA right now and you won’t even feel it, then raise it little by little. I followed his advice, and I am very glad I did. If you know a young teacher, give them the same advice. As CL, I told many (though not all listened. I once had to chase a 21-year-old new teacher all over the building, insisting she sign up for health insurance. It took me half an hour to persuade her that she was not, in fact, Supergirl.)

Another objection was you can’t put a “hot link” on a resolution. Several people seemed to agree, but I was not among them. Better to start with 6,000 than zero. What could they be thinking?

RTC has not been great with petitions. When I tried to have them start a petition in support of 1096, the RTC Executive Board voted to “table” the suggestion. That’s a polite way of saying we are doing nothing, and indeed, aside from one strongly worded letter, mostly written by me, we have done nothing.

Retiree Advocate is very proud of their Labor Solidarity Committee. They go to various events, but have never shown at a demonstration for 1096.

In fact, I recall one last summer in which they told us they were having a Zoom meeting and therefore could not come. I was kind of gobstruck they didn’t get off their laptops and drag their asses to City Hall. That’s what I would’ve done. In fact, that’s exactly what I did.

Alas, they have their own priorities. Too bad they’re not aligned with the 82% of us who voted to support 1096. Hopefully they’ll come around. Regardless, I’ll keep you posted right here.

Be of good cheer. We shall work this out one way or another.

UFT Welfare Fund Should Pay for Retiree Prescription Premiums

Whereas, UFT retirees are on fixed incomes, and,

Whereas, $180 per month is a high premium, and,

Whereas, many UFT retirees pay for other family members as well, and

Whereas, this rate went up a whopping 50% over a two-year period, and,

Whereas, this is a hardship on many UFT retirees, and

Whereas, other union Welfare Funds, including those of FDNY, NYPD and DC37 cover prescription premium costs for members, and

Whereas, UFT officers frequently mention “premium-free health insurance,” and,

Whereas, UFT officers speak of our Welfare Fund as the best in the country, be it therefore,

Resolved, that our Welfare Fund must cover retirees just as other Welfare Funds do, and be it further,

Resolved, that we actively support and encourage signing of the petition at https://stopchargingretirees.org/ demanding UFT Welfare Fund cover the costs of pharmacy insurance premiums for retired members.

At the suggestion of RTC Exec. Board member Alan Stein, who pointed out members get $900 back, I proposed the following addition:

Whereas this costs members a net $2160 a year, or members with spouses 4320 a year,