Fossilization

The Unity playbook hasn't evolved in the 20 years I've been following it.

First, I thank you again for your kind comments and messages yesterday. I had a minor surgery, but it went very well. I’m in a little pain, but still kicking. I’m not at work today, but my head is clear and I’m very happy I can write. In fact, I may be back this evening with a report on the Delegate Assembly, which I’m attending remotely.

Those of us who study language acquisition have terms, just like everyone else. When a language learner ceases to learn, and stays wherever he or she is, we call their language “fossilized.” I think Jack Nicholson said when you stop learning, you’re dead. People don’t die when they stop studying English (or any language), because there are a lot of other things they could be learning—but their language ability remains stuck wherever they left off.

We have something Unity doesn’t. We have the truth on our side. By speaking it, by spreading it, and by preaching it, we threaten their very existence. They know it.

The truth, that Unity made awful deals for years on end, is not something they can work with. They also lack the ability to apologize for mistakes. They have to go with something, though, and I see clearly what it is. I don’t envy them.

Unity is fossilized. They have a number of coping abilities, a big bag of tricks, but they didn’t work last time. They won’t work this time either.

What are they?

Refuse to address the issue.

This is their go-to. Again, Unity sold us out on health care. It’s really not a great look, and there is no defense. They had precedent to think they could get away with this. They fooled us before. Way back around 2005 or so, Randi Weingarten agreed to cut our TDA from 8.25% to 7%, so as to compensate for just one of the grab bag of goodies she gave the city in 2005. To this day, every other city union gets 8.25%. This really adds up over the years. But retirees just voted for them over and over. Unity thought they could pull it off again, gambled, and lost.

Look at this, not that.

Boss Mulgrew has tried to get us to focus on his newfound opposition to MA, even though he refuses to take any action to prevent it. He further put forth a resolution at AFT, which will do nothing to help our cause. Unity thinks we are all too stupid to notice. Last year, we proved them wrong. And while we may see even more elaborate smokescreens, they don’t work anymore.

Lie

Unity is still suggesting that all doctors would accept Aetna MA. Plenty of members heard firsthand from their doctors that was not true. Unity further contends that there would be no pre-approvals that deny neeeded care, despite the fact that Aetna itself admitted in court it would deny procedures. After Tom Murphy finally allowed Bennett Fischer to speak at a meeting last year, a Unity member stood up and falsely claimed there were no pre-approvals in the Aetna plan.

Unity is complaining that we support the New York Health Act. However, the UFT Delegate Assembly supported it as well. Interesting the bosses now think it’s a terrible idea. As I understand it, employers would have to pay into our insurance just as they do now. Costs could be negotiated, if MLC had the inclination to do so. We could also negotiate membership for retirees who moved out of state. Unity prefers to keep making our health care worse, and has unilaterally gone against the will of the union to oppose NYHA.

They also complain that we suggest consolidating welfare funds, instead of dumping retirees into Medicare Advantage. However, it was they who agreed to it, in a menu of options in 2018. Sorry, but I’d rather see that than have my health care depend on Aetna. Private insurance companies are parasitical, taking our money and adding nothing. Their plan to revamp health care for in-service members, while saving 10% for Eric Adams, doesn’t look so great either. Mulgrew complains it may have premiums, but he agreed to them.

Their big go-to, as usual, is name-calling.

Our enemies are too dangerous

When Bloomberg was mayor, the talking point was we need to stay together, and no one can afford to criticize leadership. Make no mistake, Unity never likes criticism, and will do whatever they can to preclude it. Were Unity responsive to our needs, they might not be facing this sort of criticism.

Unity now complains we have this crazy idea to improve our crappy dental benefits. If they don’t like our approach, let them come to us with a better one. Given their crap record with negotiations, I no longer trust them at all. What’s dangerous is leaving them in charge.

Our opponents are crazy.

There’s a lot of that. Anyone who disagrees with the Unity line is “angry.” When I opposed the crappy 2005 contract, I got tons of abuse on the now-dead Unity blog, Edwize. Evidently, Unity finds it unacceptable for members to be angry when our working conditions deteriorate. Unless, of course, His Holiness Michael Mulgrew deems our anger justified. Then it’s fine. But if you’re angry about losing your health care, and Unity has agreed to give up your health care, you’re out of your mind and should swallow a bottle of Prozac ASAP.

We have a right, an obligation in fact, to stand up for our rights, whether Unity likes it or not. We are unionists, and that’s what union is for.

Our opponents are extremist

I recall getting an expensive mailer calling a UFT presidential candidate a socialist. That, evidently, was why you should vote for Randi Weingarten, who’d just delivered us one of the worst contracts ever back in 2005. You’d think red-baiting had gone the way of Senator Joe McCarthy, but it thrives here, in our union. It’s ironic they demonize the left, because where the hell do they think unionism came from?

A while back, a Unity acquaintance of mine warned me not to associate with Marianne Pizzitola because she was a big Trump supporter, too far right. More recently, they tie her with the MORE caucus, which, I suppose, they deem too far left. The real problem, of course, is that Marianne revealed King Mulgrew has no clothes.

Whether you lean left, right, or adhere closer to the middle, we need leadership that will work to improve things, not one that sells us out.

Our opponents are stupid.

I’m reminded of Animal Farm, where the pigs needed to eat all the apples. It was brain food. Only the pigs, like Unity, understood the Very Important Things. They needed to eat the apples so they could work filling all these ledgers with information so they could be burned in the furnace. When Unity makes some crap deal, like trading retiree health care for a mediocre contract, no one who opposes the deal is smart enough to understand the delicate and precise negotiations required to sell out member interests.

These last four techniques are all part of an…

Appeal to fear.

Those other people, whoever they may be, are too dangerous to trust. Sure we’ve screwed you over, again and again, but trust us. We’ve controlled your union since its inception. Change is risky. Let us keep making crap deals, because we know how.

An appeal to fear is a logical fallacy, and when you haven’t got the truth on your side, that’s where you go.

Unity uses these tools, but they are conflicted.

They take us for fools, and why shouldn’t they? We’ve voted them in over and over. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unity is hopelessly out of touch. Every Unity member either has a part-time gig, a full-time gig, or is scrambling for one. Are these people interested in helping us, or helping themselves?

Every contract that fails to meet cost of living is an answer. Every health care giveback to the city is an answer. Every time they mislead us, every time they neglect to tell us what they’re doing, we get an answer. Every time the MLC pushes something through without our approval, we have our answer.

Clearly, we have a problem. And just as clearly, the answer to our problem is voting them out of office next May.