Ethics-shmethics

UFT-Unity--a cult with no moral center.

Cult is not a positive word. People in cults hate when you refer to their cults as “cults.” But no matter how negative or hurtful a cult’s beliefs are, there’s usually a moral imperative, misguided though it may be, that members passionately believe. Evidence to the contrary means nothing to them. They just know.

A big thing that makes Unity different from your run-of-the-mill cult is that there is no core belief. Certainly it isn’t unionism. Unionism serves members. Unionism pursues compensation increases that meet or beat cost of living. Unionism battles to improve health coverage, not to degrade it for the benefit of our contractual adversaries.

The Unity cult is held together, at its lowest level by free trips to conventions. With those, there’s always the possibility of a part time gig sitting in a union office. And the next step is the Holy Grail—giving up all this teaching stuff altogether to go to 52 Broadway and serve the Leader. It’s not about a cause. It’s all about self-interest, and the way to pursue it is by doing whatever the Leader says to do, and saying whatever the leader tells you to.

If you look at the above cult warning signs, the “leader” mentioned suits Michael Mulgrew perfectly. No one in the Unity cult dares to speak his name in vain for fear they will lose those precious gigs. If they’re part time, they lose their shot at full-time. If they’re full time, they risk being shoved into some corner with no influence, wearing a Unity dunce cap. If you’re an actual Unity member, they don’t fire you, because they know you’d run off, spill their secrets, or (gasp!) oppose them.

Of course, if you’re already opposing them openly, they fire you. I have two friends who were fired from part-time gigs. While they were, from all accounts, good at their jobs, that didn’t matter. If you’ve ever called UFT to receive outlandish advice, or none whatsoever, if you’ve ever gone to a retirement consult that was a waste of your time, you know that competence is neither here nor there in Unity hiring policies.

Competence isn’t unacceptable, but it isn’t necessary either. We all pay for Unity’s hiring policies.

Yesterday, someone forwarded me a UFT email in which they were told to vote for the Unity candidate for Trustee. This, evidently, went to all rank and file UFT members. Now it said that the candidate was UFT endorsed, and that’s true, technically. This notwithstanding, it’s blatantly unethical that UFT bosses utilize their monopolistic email system to hype their would-be political appointees.

In case that is not enough to offend you, the fact is that the email is inaccurate. (Remember, competence is not a hiring factor.) The UFT email states the election is in schools on Wednesday. The DOE, in fact, has proposed a two-day electronic election. An electronic election takes place online, and location is not a thing.

As I’ve written before, this electronic election is in violation of city rules. As such, it’s likely to be stopped in one fashion or another. Certainly, if Unity loses, they will appeal. That’s what they do. This is because the voice of the actual union means nothing to them. Otherwise, retirees would vote on Medicare, and rank and file would have a voice in whether or not Mulgrew gets to demean their health care.

Recently, a group of uppity paraprofessionals decided they wanted a voice at their job. They decided to run for union office without bothering to kowtow to Michael Mulgrew. Even worse, several of them went and won their elections. Migda Rodriguez, I know, was never given a chance to do her job.

Before that, the OT/PT elected an opposition member chapter leader. She was never given a chance to do her job as she saw fit. This is the thing—UFT Unity controls the entire union apparatus, and has no issue using it to maintain their control. If this comes at the expense of member voice, they couldn’t care less.

As educators, it behooves us to set examples. It’s embarrassing to have a self-indulgent, paranoic, power-mad demagogue setting the course for a union of educators. This is exacerbated by his history of negotiating deals that are dumber than dirt. Worse, perhaps, is the army of bosses dead-set on carrying out the visions of such a person, lately more often than not at the expense of members.

It’s election time.

If you’re a retiree, make sure to vote for Retiree Advocate. If you’re rank and file, vote for Ben Morgenroth, and make sure your school CL is NOT Unity. If you’re a paraprofessional, vote the Fix Para Pay slate.

Send a message to the Unity Patronage Cult that it’s OUR union and WE want it back.