I'm Bennett Fischer and I am the chapter leader of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter. I am also an avid reader of (and paid subscriber to) the Union Matters Substack. The RTC does indeed have the UFT's Political Director, Vanecia Wilson, scheduled to speak at our meeting on Tuesday. I think it's important to hear from our political director about actions UFT retirees can engage in to oppose the Trump-Musk administration's horrible attacks on the labor movement, federal employees, the Veteran's Administration, our social safety nets, education funding, and on the civil rights of all Americans (to name only a short part of the list). And because we have questions about the city's proposed changes to its schedule of payments to our pension systems, the TRS trustees will be at the meeting too.
The RTC newsletter I sent out on March 4th listed actions that our members can engage in to at least get the ball rolling in pushing back against DOGE's chainsaw attack on the civil fabric of our society. I also wrote about actions that our members could take in support of Intro 1096, to strengthen the law protecting our health benefits.
But you never saw that in the newsletter.
You may recall that at our December meeting, the RTC passed a resolution, written by Arthur Goldstein, in support of lobbying for Intro 1096. In my March 4 newsletter to the RTC, I wrote about the importance of lobbying our City Council members and I included contact links to the City Council offices. But if you read the newsletter, you didn't read about Intro 1096, because that was censored by UFT Legal Counsel, Beth Norton. She advised me that the union would not allow me to print something, using union resources, that encouraged members to support legislation that the UFT deemed to be in violation of the Taylor Law and which, in the union leadership's view, impinged on the union's collective bargaining rights.
I will speak about this censorship at the RTC meeting on Tuesday. As I mentioned, there will also be discussion of the city's plan to change its schedule of payments to three of the city's pension systems: TRSNYC, BERS, and NYCERS. Arthur is right. There are many important things for our chapter to do, beyond hearing reports from the political director.
The censorship of the RTC newsletter is outrageous, to be sure. There are oodles of obstacles, large and small, that are placed in the RTC leadership's way every day. Retiree Advocate knew coming in that this was what to expect. I'm not letting myself be bogged down by the small stuff. I'm more interested in letting the small stuff slide off my back, and working together with people, rather than pulling apart. I'll make an issue of the important things when I need to, but I'm not going to amplify every little slight into the "outrage of the day."
What overcomes the small obstacles, are Retiree Advocate's 300 new delegates in the Delegate Assembly. That's caused a huge shift in DA dynamics, and that is where we can affect the most change. That's the kind of people power that beats Facebook posts, Substack articles and online petitions (though those also have a valuable place in the discourse of our union).
Unity leadership can delay and censor RTC newsletters. They can yell at me, ignore me, all of those things. But they cannot ignore our 300 DA delegates, who are well organized and doing a great job.
That's why we were able to pass the resolution "No Changes to Healthcare Without Delegate Assembly Approval" at the December DA. Not without amendment, and not without some political shenanigans, but we accomplished it nonetheless because we have an organized bloc in the halls of power.
We have had other accomplishments as well. We started a new retiree Facebook page where people from all UFT caucuses are welcome and can engage in discussion of union and retiree issues. And we can provide real, "official" information from the union about union benefits and union events. Is that so bad?
Does it suit everyone's taste? No. Arthur, for one, has told me that he is not a fan of our new Facebook page. And I understand that. It is too oppositional for some, and too conciliatory for others. Any UFT retiree may express their opinions and discuss issues - such as Intro 1096 - on our Facebook page (as long as they follow the simple, commonsense rules for posting comments).
So yeah, I'm going to be doing whatever I can to ask our members to support Intro 1096, though I can't do it in quite the same way I could if I was outside the union halls. I'm going to make sure issues affecting our pension systems are discussed in our meetings. I'm going to continue to invite UFT leadership to our meetings, not to give speeches, but to answer hard questions. I'll call out bad behavior when I see it, but I'm going to choose my battles. And I appreciate the diversity of opinions among our members, among the RTC executive board, and among the UFT leaders with whom we try to work, every day, for the good of the union.
The RTC executive board works together as a team to set agendas and come up with solutions to problems. As you may have discerned, we have a fair amount of (I hope) healthy dissention on our team. With the help of the team, and all our members, hopefully I'll get better at thinking outside of the box. We have a great group of experienced political strategists on the RTC executive board, including Gloria Brandman, Norm Scott, Michael Shulman, Bobby Greenberg, Jonathan Halibi, Marian Swerdlow, Bruce Markens, and Arthur Goldstein. Working with such a diverse, opinionated group of people ain't always easy, but it's always interesting, and well worth the hassle.
I’m glad, Bennett, that you value the 300 of us who worked for, ran with, and supported Retiree Advocate. The fact that you and your friends on the RA “steering committee” denied 96% of us votes, though, strongly suggests otherwise.
I'm Bennett Fischer and I am the chapter leader of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter. I am also an avid reader of (and paid subscriber to) the Union Matters Substack. The RTC does indeed have the UFT's Political Director, Vanecia Wilson, scheduled to speak at our meeting on Tuesday. I think it's important to hear from our political director about actions UFT retirees can engage in to oppose the Trump-Musk administration's horrible attacks on the labor movement, federal employees, the Veteran's Administration, our social safety nets, education funding, and on the civil rights of all Americans (to name only a short part of the list). And because we have questions about the city's proposed changes to its schedule of payments to our pension systems, the TRS trustees will be at the meeting too.
The RTC newsletter I sent out on March 4th listed actions that our members can engage in to at least get the ball rolling in pushing back against DOGE's chainsaw attack on the civil fabric of our society. I also wrote about actions that our members could take in support of Intro 1096, to strengthen the law protecting our health benefits.
But you never saw that in the newsletter.
You may recall that at our December meeting, the RTC passed a resolution, written by Arthur Goldstein, in support of lobbying for Intro 1096. In my March 4 newsletter to the RTC, I wrote about the importance of lobbying our City Council members and I included contact links to the City Council offices. But if you read the newsletter, you didn't read about Intro 1096, because that was censored by UFT Legal Counsel, Beth Norton. She advised me that the union would not allow me to print something, using union resources, that encouraged members to support legislation that the UFT deemed to be in violation of the Taylor Law and which, in the union leadership's view, impinged on the union's collective bargaining rights.
I will speak about this censorship at the RTC meeting on Tuesday. As I mentioned, there will also be discussion of the city's plan to change its schedule of payments to three of the city's pension systems: TRSNYC, BERS, and NYCERS. Arthur is right. There are many important things for our chapter to do, beyond hearing reports from the political director.
The censorship of the RTC newsletter is outrageous, to be sure. There are oodles of obstacles, large and small, that are placed in the RTC leadership's way every day. Retiree Advocate knew coming in that this was what to expect. I'm not letting myself be bogged down by the small stuff. I'm more interested in letting the small stuff slide off my back, and working together with people, rather than pulling apart. I'll make an issue of the important things when I need to, but I'm not going to amplify every little slight into the "outrage of the day."
What overcomes the small obstacles, are Retiree Advocate's 300 new delegates in the Delegate Assembly. That's caused a huge shift in DA dynamics, and that is where we can affect the most change. That's the kind of people power that beats Facebook posts, Substack articles and online petitions (though those also have a valuable place in the discourse of our union).
Unity leadership can delay and censor RTC newsletters. They can yell at me, ignore me, all of those things. But they cannot ignore our 300 DA delegates, who are well organized and doing a great job.
That's why we were able to pass the resolution "No Changes to Healthcare Without Delegate Assembly Approval" at the December DA. Not without amendment, and not without some political shenanigans, but we accomplished it nonetheless because we have an organized bloc in the halls of power.
We have had other accomplishments as well. We started a new retiree Facebook page where people from all UFT caucuses are welcome and can engage in discussion of union and retiree issues. And we can provide real, "official" information from the union about union benefits and union events. Is that so bad?
Does it suit everyone's taste? No. Arthur, for one, has told me that he is not a fan of our new Facebook page. And I understand that. It is too oppositional for some, and too conciliatory for others. Any UFT retiree may express their opinions and discuss issues - such as Intro 1096 - on our Facebook page (as long as they follow the simple, commonsense rules for posting comments).
So yeah, I'm going to be doing whatever I can to ask our members to support Intro 1096, though I can't do it in quite the same way I could if I was outside the union halls. I'm going to make sure issues affecting our pension systems are discussed in our meetings. I'm going to continue to invite UFT leadership to our meetings, not to give speeches, but to answer hard questions. I'll call out bad behavior when I see it, but I'm going to choose my battles. And I appreciate the diversity of opinions among our members, among the RTC executive board, and among the UFT leaders with whom we try to work, every day, for the good of the union.
The RTC executive board works together as a team to set agendas and come up with solutions to problems. As you may have discerned, we have a fair amount of (I hope) healthy dissention on our team. With the help of the team, and all our members, hopefully I'll get better at thinking outside of the box. We have a great group of experienced political strategists on the RTC executive board, including Gloria Brandman, Norm Scott, Michael Shulman, Bobby Greenberg, Jonathan Halibi, Marian Swerdlow, Bruce Markens, and Arthur Goldstein. Working with such a diverse, opinionated group of people ain't always easy, but it's always interesting, and well worth the hassle.
I’m glad, Bennett, that you value the 300 of us who worked for, ran with, and supported Retiree Advocate. The fact that you and your friends on the RA “steering committee” denied 96% of us votes, though, strongly suggests otherwise.