How Mulgrew and Unity Betrayed Retirees AND Paraprofessionals

Let me count the ways.

We, retirees, are in a holding pattern. Strictly because of Marianne Pizzitola and the New York Organization of Public Service Retirees, we still have real Medicare, for now. Mulgrew has paid valuable lip service to opposing Medicare Advantage, but has retracted none of his juvenile invective against those of us who worked to block it.

Meanwhile, as we try to hold him to his word, legally, he battles us tooth and nail. He not only relentlessly attacks our 1096 bill in every forum he can, but also uses our union funds to lobby against it. His rationale is that it somehow interferes with the Taylor Law. This, of course, is absurd. We are not working and haven’t got the capacity to strike. Just how stupid does he think we are?

Meanwhile, the Taylor Law has crippled our ability to keep up with inflation. Paraprofessionals, teachers, and even retirees are making considerably less money as a result. While the Triborough Amendment to the Taylor Law protects our ability to maintain expired contracts, the law as a whole is a noose around our collective necks. Here’s a quote from UFT President Michael Mulgrew:

“We’re very protective of the Taylor Law, which is why we made this part of a program and not collective bargaining,” he told The City Reporter.

Not the Triborough Amendment, but the Taylor Law. A real unionist would be working to repeal the Taylor Law. Michal Mulgrew, though, is protective of the city’s right to take two days of pay for every one we strike. He’s protective of the city’s right to repeal our tenure and make us at-will employees, subject to arbitrary and capricious dismissal.

That’s some union president we have right there. Is he too stupid to know the difference? Does he think we are?

Mulgrew’s other rationale is, if possible, even more absurd. He says protecting our health care would somehow interfere with collective bargaining. If the legislature can protect our health care, they can also take it away. Here’s the thing—the legislature can already do whatever it wishes. Whether or not what it does will withstand scrutiny and/ or legal challenges is another matter entirely.

Let’s also be clear that we, retirees, have absolutely no standing in collective bargaining. We have neither vote nor voice on collective bargaining agreements. Should Mulgrew and his BFFs in the Municipal Labor Committee decide once again to sell us out, we will have no recourse, other than taking them to court again.

We needed Marianne’s outside group to protect us, because our union bosses, whose salaries we pay, declined to do so. We’ve made it clear we want 1096, resolved it not once but twice, and Unity still lobbies against us. If that isn’t thoroughly undemocratic, tell me what is. When is Unity going to respect our collective voice?

Sit while you wait. Meanwhile, Mulgrew and Unity have been working for over a year to give paras some money while evading collective bargaining. There’s talk of how this bill does this and that, but doesn’t interfere with bargaining. Yet, for retirees, there have been no efforts to reconcile 1096 with anything Unity will support. Why?

Well, Unity managed to get more votes from retirees than ABC and Retiree Advocate (RA) combined last year. The margin wasn’t high, but it was there. ABC bested RA by a three to one margin. Despite that, RA has been thus far unwilling to align with us in the next election. Should their recalcitrance persist, it will be harder for us, Fix Retiree Benefits, to defeat Unity. Regardless, we won’t sit down and shut up.

Nor should paras. From The City article cited earlier:

Marie Wausnock is a paraprofessional on Staten Island who also co-founded Fix Para Pay, a union caucus slate that opposes Mulgrew. Some paras leave for other city jobs that require less training and have better pay, she said.

“How do you give respectable pensions and dignity to paras when you want to give them non-pensionable money?” she said. “Paras are so underpaid. We get crumbs every time.”

She’s absolutely right. Still, it’s challenging for paras. When you’re making so little money, every bit helps. Paras, like all UFT members, get a lot of their direct info from UFT bosses. Many may not be aware just how many times Mulgrew and Unity failed to bother giving them raises beyond the 0-3% they generally earmark for everyone.

Thus, even the staggered payments, if they ever happen, could seem like manna from heaven. When you need money to feed your family, you may not be inclined to closely question how and why you got it. That said, any additional monies that goes to paras will be the direct result of Fix Para Pay. Unity would’ve never, ever bothered with this bill if paras had not stood up.

The only message Unity understands or responds to is the one at the ballot box.

Ever since paraprofessionals voted against them by a three to one margin, It’s important for Unity to appear to care about them. However, half a century of “take the pattern or go to hell” suggests Unity doesn’t care about paras one way or another.

It’s important to note that, during the last round of contract negotiations, Michael Mulgrew and Unity had enough money to grant paras a 10K pensionable raise. They chose not to, and that was fine as long as paras were willing to sit down and shut up, Unity’s peculiar approach to unionism.

If you look at the ever-shifting paraprofessional “respect” bill, you need not look far to see that it’s far from what was originally advertised. While Daniel Alicea has extensive details right here, I’ll just say that it was supposed to be a recurring, non-pensionable 10K payment for paras. They were supposed to pick it up and take a vacation with it after Mulgrew bought their votes with it last year.

Of course, no one has done that. No one has the money. And if any of them retired, they’re never going to get it, ever. If it passes the City Council, which it likely will, and if it is funded (Who knows?), it will be divided into four payments, and only those working next year will get it. Despite Unity’s extensive and ever-evolving promises, there is no guarantee of renewal.

There is an answer for us, the members, and that is the defeat of the Unity Caucus. No one, no one at all, should run anything forever. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and the Unity Caucus is long, long past its expiration date. They care about nothing but maintaining their own power.

It is the duty of those of us who care about not only ourselves, but also those who follow us, to do everything in our power to re-democratize and rejuvenate our sleepy union. That’s what’s kept me going all these years. Join us, and let’s create a better union together.