Get Moose, Squirrel, and Arundell

Unity kills state bill to retain Medicare, vilifies ABC, and fervently hopes you aren't paying attention.

Say goodbye to the state bill designed to protect us from the machinations of our union bosses. Unity’s managed to intimidate yet another politician who wanted to help us. (I’ll come back to that.)

The last few years have taught us we can no longer afford to have petty, small-minded, unimaginative demagogues leading our union. Unity will tell you that these are tough times, and we have to pull together. They’re right, but the way to do that is by electing leadership that will represent us and our interests. It’s well past time we dumped the caucus that threatened to punch our faces out if we didn’t protect Common Core.

Common Core was a disaster, and the President of the United Federation of Teachers ought to have known that. Those of us who actually worked in classrooms knew all too well. But Mulgrew’s threat was worthy of a cartoon villain, very much like those pictured above.

What’s their main argument? It’s “look at this, not that.” We’ve spent years battling them, our own ostensible leaders, to preserve our health insurance, but they want us to forget about it. They want us to focus exclusively on national issues, and forget that we are still battling union leadership for our very lives. We can’t and won’t give up the fight for our lives.

If Unity wants us to focus on national issues, they can support us instead of fighting us.

The folks above don’t look precisely like Mulgrew. But looks aren’t everything. They act very much like him, and very much like Unity. Boris and Natasha are always after moose and squirrel. We never know exactly why, but Fearless Leader pushes them.

Unity comes after us in ABC personally, relentlessly. They will scrape the bottom of the barrel, twist every fact, misrepresent and lie about whatever. But this is not a beauty contest. It’s a contest of competing ideologies, and all our opponents can muster is, “You all suck.”

Beyond that, what’s their prime directive? They do whatever Fearless Leader says, without question. They revel in it. Because, of course, their jobs are at stake. They’ve signed a loyalty oath promising utter fealty to the Unity Caucus. King Mulgrew fires whomever he wishes, on the spot, with no due process. If Unity’s interests don’t reflect membership needs, well, too bad for us.

On our issues, like health and compensation, Unity is a loser. They avoid them assiduously. There’s no question that Unity has worked to demean and diminish retiree health care. There’s no defense either. They cite ballooning costs, but the fact is retiree health care costs relatively little, at least for those who are Medicare-eligible.

There’s also no question that Unity’s negotiating techniques have failed everyone but the City of New York, our ostensible adversary in negotiations. Mulgrew set the absurd precedent that we should give up health care for raises that fail even to meet the cost of living. He did this under a relatively union-friendly mayor. What on earth is Mulgrew gonna do if anti-union Andrew Cuomo is the next mayor? I shudder to think.

Unity says it’s risky to change leadership, but we can’t afford not to.

I don’t go out of my way to read Unity’s posts on social media, but when I do, they’re overflowing with personal attacks. Aside from changing the subject, that’s all they’ve got. Anyone who opposes them is evil, and they’ll say or concoct anything to support this outlandish premise. For months I was a favorite target, but alas, my star has dropped. While they haven’t altogether forgotten me, Amy Arundell is the presidential candidate, their biggest threat, and has thus overshadowed me. Sigh….

There’s no argument to defend Mulgrew’s actions. There are only lies, starting with him and trickling down to the patronage cult members. Mulgrew is out there claiming to oppose Medicare Advantage for us. Meanwhile, on our dime, UFT lobbyists are battling our efforts to preserve our health care. NY State AFL-CIO helped. (Thanks again to Mulgrew, who sits on NY State AFL-CIO Executive Committee.)

As a direct result, NY State Senator Peter Harckham has withdrawn his support for our state bill, The Health Equity for Retirees Act (S3607). This bill would do for us exactly what the city’s Intro 1096 would. It would preserve our health care as it is now, except it would also do away with The Mulgrew Tax, AKA his recently enacted co-pays. Furthermore, it would have protected all state retirees from cuts, not just us.

Mulgrew’s moving up in the world—screwing retirees statewide!

No wonder Unity doesn’t want us focused on local or state issues. We need a new state senator to sponsor our legislation. We need a state senator who is not fraidy-scared of UFT and DC37 bosses. Of course, if we were to dump Mulgrew for ABC, it would be far easier. You won’t read about this on Unity’s social media. They’re too busy tripping all over themselves to attack ABC, change the subject, or both.

Unity has the audacity to profess support for us, yet opposes both city and state bills that would help us. They do this on blatantly false pretenses. Under Unity’s influence, Senator Harckham now proposes, rather than support something that would give us the health care we need, opts to give corrupt union bosses more power.

The new suggestion is that if the union bosses reduce retiree benefits, they must reduce in-service benefits as well. How does that support members? If you are once again screwed by Mulgrew, will it make you feel better if everyone is? How on earth is that helpful to anyone at all? What does Unity’s argument then become?

Unity—We’re not screwing only you. We’re screwing everyone.

I just saw some Unity handout in mailboxes. It says Unity is the only slate with a plan. That’s patently false. We all know what the Unity plan is. Let’s stick it to absolutely everyone. YOU get a health care cut. And YOU get a health care cut. EVERYONE gets a health care cut.

Maybe things like that sound better when Oprah says them. Still, that doesn’t get me any closer to voting for Unity. What we need is a new plan. We need a plan that involves seeking raises that meet or beat cost of living. We need a plan that entails improving our health care rather than abridging it.

We need a plan that entails listening to members rather than dictating to them.

And that is the ABC plan in a nutshell.

We’re focused on asking members what they want and need. That’s step one. Step two is figuring out how to achieve it. A big part of that will be repurposing the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC). Right now we seem to use it to diminish health care.

We need to reorient the MLC so it can be used for good instead of evil. We need to take a look at the cost of living, particularly here in Fun City, and we need to index raises to that. We need to come to an agreement with our brother and sister unions about what minimum increase is acceptable. That’s not part of the Unity plan, and I recall reading on some Unity blog or other that this isn’t what the MLC is for.

If the MLC is not for improving working conditions, why do we need it at all? And if Unity can’t think outside the box, why do we need them at all? These are rhetorical questions, of course. We have an opportunity, the first such opportunity since the inception of our union to stand up and demand a change.

Unity’s message is bereft of specifics. They sold us out, plain and simple. For four years, we’ve battled them in court, and they’ve lost every single time. Now they say, between personal attacks—oh, this person, that person hurt my feelings. And based on that, they ask for your vote.

Now they say focus on Trump instead of the union election. Pay no attention to that man behind the screen trying to strip you of health care. They can project their shortcomings on me, on Amy Arundell, on Marianne Pizzitola, or any number of targets.

I don’t know about you, but I’m bone weary of being sold out. I’m tired of hearing, “That’s the best we could do.” But I believe them when they say it. It’s time for something better. It’s time for A BETTER CONTRACT with the city, and A BETTER CONTRACT with our union.

That’s why I’m running with and voting for ABC. When you get your ballot, vote for better leadership, a better contract, and a better union. We can’t afford Michael Mulgrew and Unity’s patronage mill anymore.