Big Dogs or Lapdogs?

On Arise carrying Unity's water.

Don’t get me wrong. There are few things in this world I love more than dogs. The shaggy guy in front is my buddy Toby. He’s from Puerto Rico, was a sato, a street dog, and lived through Hurricane Maria. How he did that I have no idea. Nonetheless, Toby is bilingual, and can ignore you equally well in both English and Spanish. Animal Lighthouse Rescue brought him here and gave him to us. I recommend them highly, and they’d gladly do the same for you.

Behind him is his cousin Julio, technically my daughter’s dog. She found him in a pet store, and made me buy him. After that, my friend Melanie lectured me a little on why I should go to rescues as opposed to stores, and I spent months searching for Toby. It was worth it though.

Though these guys are adorable, lapdog has a negative connotation. It kind of suggests you haven’t got a will of your own. It suggests you’re controlled by someone else. I was aligned with Unity for a few years, and doubtless plenty of people said that about me. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time. It felt like I could achieve something really worthwhile, particularly for the kids I served. But Unity let me (and those kids) down, right around their big move to sell out retiree health care. They lost me utterly.

The other night, at the Delegate Assembly, RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer proposed a resolution against the reamortization bill. The RTC Executive Board produced this resolution after Katie Anskat and I wrote about it. Bennett further said he wanted to bring it to number one on the agenda. Given Unity’s long, long President’s report, including the repeat presentation from the TRS reps, that sounded like a good idea.

Mulgrew said moving it up would require another motion. Later on, Arise’s Secretary candidate, Michael Shulman, got up and seemed ready to propose what Bennett suggested. However, he proposed it come up third. I was gobstruck. Given the amount of time Unity ate up, that was a certain failure.

I contacted two others who attended the meeting to ask whether I heard correctly, and both confirmed I did. One expressed surprise, just like me. I didn’t really understand it until I got the following comment from Arise’s number one advocate on Facebook, Nick Bacon:

While I felt Victoria Lee's presentation unfortunately was necessary given all the misinformation that's been circulating (by ABC as well as others), this meeting was a democratic farce. The reports were too long. The critical pension resolution that was put onto the agenda by the phenomenal RTC Chapter Leader (and ARISE candidate), Bennett Fischer, now won't be able to be debated until it's too late for the UFT to execute it. The TRS candidate endorsement was a merrygoround of Unity supporters endorsing a Unity candidate despite not even knowing if anyone else was running. And of all people, it wasn't Mulgrew who prevented more agenda items from being heard - it was ABC Presidential Candidate Amy Arundell who tried to force the meeting to cease before even the FIRST agenda item was completed, thus preventing us from endorsing candidates who are working to pass legislation to get payments of $10,000 to our hard-working and undercompensated paraprofessionals. Shame on Unity and ABC tonight.

There’s a lot to unpack there. First of all, I’m happy to take responsibility for being the first to sound the alarm about the reamortization bill, which I did right here. Katie Anskat and I have both followed up, and we are indeed ABC.

While Arise and Unity are free to label it misinformation, no one would have even known about it had we not brought it up. It’s abundantly clear the RTC Executive Board deemed it a bad idea, or there would be no resolution against it. The straw man arguments Unity makes, like someone is going to take our pension away, or Mulgrew is taking money out of it, are not at all reflective of things we’ve written.

Back in 2013 we were coming off of a fiscal crisis and pension costs were exploding. The only crisis I know of right now is Michael Mulgrew’s boneheaded agreement to save the city 600 million a year, forever, in health costs. And guess what? After the election they’re coming for rank and file. If you think hospital costs are high now, wait until you see what tiered care looks like. (You wanna go the the $300 hospital? The $500 one? Or do you wanna spring for a grand?)

This is yet another example of how Unity acts behind our backs and without our consent. We know this well because they are behind the Medicare Advantage debacle that cost them the RTC chapter. You know what they say—Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Unity has lost our trust, and we would be irresponsible not to question their actions.

Victoria Lee said a retiree asked why we weren’t notified of this earlier, given it was being considered for about two years. Lee told this person all their meetings were on tape somewhere. How the hell were members supposed to know that? Are we to monitor your every step because you don’t see fit to share your actions with us? It’s just like the UFT political event I wanted to attend that was posted nowhere. Victoria Lee may know, but it’s merely by chance the member found out. Arise may not agree, but It’s their job to keep us informed.

UFT sent an email stating that they didn’t support the bill. A source now tells me it has not passed the Assembly, but is rather in a bunch of bills that have not been objected to, but not technically voted on either. Does that mean it won’t pass? Should we believe the implications of Unity’s email? Do we believe Michael Mulgrew really opposes Medicare Advantage, even as he supports the bill trying to take traditional Medicare away from us, and opposes legislation that would enshrine our current coverage, sans copays, into law?

And hey—even if it’s dead, the fact is this—they don’t back it because they don’t like their current partner. News flash—there’s an upcoming mayoral election, there will likely be a new partner, and this could surely rear its ugly head again.

Bacon refers to the “critical pension resolution.” In fact, said resolution was informed by our writing, the very writing his Arise, like Unity, describes as misinformation. That said, I’m proud we sounded the alarm about this, and Unity’s been on the defensive ever since.

Bacon goes on about Amy Arundell being responsible for more agenda not being heard. It was time for automatic adjournment, and I understand all she did was point that out. Sometimes, even Michael Mulgrew has to follow the rules. For my part, I’m grateful.

The very next item on the agenda was the “union interference” resolution. Depending upon whom you ask, this is directed against NYC Retirees or Democratic Socialists of America. This is by no means a critical resolution. I’d call it not only petty, preposterous and unenforceable, but also an utter waste of our time.

After that, there are a whole bunch of City Council endorsements. Each and every one of these candidates will oppose Intro 1096, which Unity opposes as well. None of them represent RTC, none of them represent in-service members (as future retirees), and none of them should be endorsed.

Frankly, if Arise wants to oppose Intro 1096, they should just come out and say so. Our Retired Teachers Chapter defeated Unity because we are battling to retain our health care. Is Arise with us, or against us?

As for paraprofessionals, Michael Mulgrew had 450 million dollars he could’ve used to increase para pay, and opted not to. He could further have helped the OT/PT chapter, and chose not to do that either. While I will support any legislation to place money in the pockets of our hardworking paras, what they really need is a pensionable raise, not a non-pensionable tip. Mulgrew’s move to get them a last-minute bonus is desperation after having been rejected by paras 3 to 1 in last year’s election.

ABC supports a pensionable, living wage for paraprofessionals. That’s what they need.

The para resolution was never going to make it to the agenda no matter what we did. Not only that, but this bill does not even exist. No one has seen it. No one has read it. They’re still negotiating. What on earth are they negotiating? How has it worked out, in the past, when we supported contracts without having fully seen them? That’s how we got Appendix B in 2018, and the Medicare sellout we’re still battling today.

The fact is Unity and DC37 bosses are desperately lobbying against bills that would help retirees. UFT is pushing the para bill that doesn’t exist. They’re holding a rally for paras whether or not the City Council candidates who oppose retiree interests get nominated.

It’s disgraceful that Unity, which takes dues from all of us, fails to represent all of us. Union representation is not, and cannot be a zero sum game.

Is Unity presenting us with a choice—support us and screw the retirees, or oppose us and screw the paras? Whether or not UFT’s City Council candidates get endorsed, UFT has a lot of pull. They should be out there advocating for all of us. That’s what we pay them for.

If Arundell halted the meeting, I’m glad. Even Michael Mulgrew has to follow his own rules every now and then. Does Arise feel Michael Mulgrew should do anything he golly gosh darn pleases? If so, they should cut the pretense and support Unity.

This brings me back to Arise’s candidate for UFT Secretary, Michael Shulman. By asking that the RTC bill be placed third on the agenda, aside from the fact it would never have come up anyway, it meant that Arise’s Shulman wanted to preserve not only the preposterous union interference resolution, but also the endorsement of City Council candidates beholden to Michael Mulgrew to work against retiree interests.

Why is Shulman, a Vice Chair of the RTC, set on enabling Unity’s agenda before pushing ours? Why is Bacon parroting Unity talking points? Is this really what we need? And if we don’t, why do they need it?

Given Bacon and Shulman’s action, it appears Arise opposes RTC interests. It’s a shame they’d back Unity’s disgraceful, reprehensible practice of pitting one faction against another. That’s blatantly anti-union.

It’s a further shame they parrot Unity talking points. Of course they’re free to do that. They’re free to continue with their conciliatory, Unity-pleasing ways. Maybe they’ll get jobs or something if Unity wins.

Their other option, of course, would be to join us and stop Unity.

There are 300 retiree votes at the DA. There are a whole bunch of Arise votes. And there are whole bunch of ABC votes too. We’re ready to band together and stop Unity in their tracks.

Has Arise got what it takes to join us? Are they gonna be big dogs, or lapdogs? In a few short weeks, we’ll find out.