Mulgrew Holds Court at the Delegate Assembly

Michael Mulgrew says whatever he wants, as long as he wants, and responds to a planted question designed to give him even more time to pontificate.

My friend Michelle says I need to highlight positive things, so here goes—having sat through many phony C-30 hearings, I liked Unity District Rep. Adam Shapiro’s idea to improve them. Also, though I’ve been a tad critical of RA’s Jonathan Halabi of late, I liked his comment even more. Jonathan pointed out that “substantial weight.” a nebulous definition, does not equal having a say. I kind of wish he’d moved to amend, but he did not, so I voted no.

Communities needs a real say in who leads our schools, not just a free crappy meal and hours wasted in a pointless meeting.

That said, UFT endorsements are run much the same as C-30. A committee gets a bunch of pre-selected questions and may not ask their own. It’s worse than the C-30 in that these are all pre-determined.

Mulgrew spoke long and longer on the para bill. However, he neglected to point out that Mayor Mamdani has pulled his support for it.

Perhaps he forgot. More likely, he wants to continue the narrative that we can trust Mamdani to continue to oppose Medicare Advantage (which Mulgrew, incredibly, repeatedly called Medicaid for All). That is a huge omission.

Mulgrew once again sang his own praises on class size. I write this from a men’s lounge at Francis Lewis High School, where I teach F-status a few days a week. I have not seen class sizes reduced here. Despite the fact that we now have an annex, we have very little space. I have no notion whatsoever as to how we can reduce class size unless we build another annex, or three. We cannot be the only school in the city in this position, but Mulgrew would have you believe we don’t even exist.

Mulgrew pontificated for over an hour, so if there’s anyone to blame for not passing the UFT birthday resolution, he need only look in a mirror to see who it was. In a clearly planted question from a Unity Exec. Board member feigning confusion, Mulgrew took yet another opportunity to trash 1096, which would eliminate co-pays and protect us from his meddling, not Bloomberg’s.

Mulgrew provided wild scenarios of politicians bringing acts to nullify contractual agreements as things that would happen if we passed 1096. News flash, Mulgrew—these things could happen anyway. You yourself proposed that we dump 12-126, which offers a minimum we pay for retiree health care. The City Council voted you down.

You also sent an email to active members. I was one at the time. It said if we didn’t amend 12-126, we’d pay about a 1500 annual premium. Mulgrew actively encouraged working members to throw retirees under the bus. And for the record, that threat was another lie. City Council rejected it and no premium was imposed on active members.

While Mulgrew boasts of the para bill, and how wonderful it is, and how they made sure it doesn’t interfere with collective bargaining, OLR claimed it did at the hearing. Also, if Mulgrew’s Very Smart People can figure a way to do the para bill without violating collective bargaining, why the hell can’t he do the same for 1096?

I can answer that. It’s because Mulgrew wants retirees in his vest pocket so he can sell us out, even though we have neither vote nor voice on collective bargaining.

Mulgrew then speechified, again, about how fabulous the UFT is to retirees. Why then, does our Welfare Fund not cover the $180 per month premium (360 if you have a spouse) that we are charged for prescriptions? NYPD does. FDNY does. DC37 does. Sorry, Mulgrew, but $4320 per annum is a lot for retired couples to pay, even if we get 900 back, for the member only, at the end of the year.

Sign our petition to end this premium, if you haven’t already done so.

Another thing Mulgrew failed to point out is that the Retired Teacher Chapter voted 82% to support 1096, or whatever follows it. Basically, Mulgrew told retirees we could all go to hell. So much for the tremendous respect he pretends to have for us.

There is a statewide equivalent to 1096, and we are going to Albany to lobby for it on March 24th. Join us!

Finally, I’d like to point out that the planted question, every motion, and every resolution came from Unity Big Shots. Mulgrew knew who he was going to pick at every juncture. He can lecture about democracy all he wants, but he’s certainly not practicing it at the UFT Delegate Assembly.

Although one member got a follow up to Mulgrew’s obviously planted question, only Unity Royalty, not rank and file, was represented at this meeting. That doesn’t represent democracy at all. It represents a privileged class, the Unity Caucus, doing whatever they golly gosh darn feel like.

Notes—unedited

For the second month in a row, I did not receive a call from UFT. I waited until 4:20, and dialed in. Mulgrew was talking about Medicaid cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” for tax credits for the rich. Says he’s not passing judgment.

Will have profound effect on midterms. Every state has people on Medicaid. Unlike infrastructure, you can’t fund in some states and not others. States facing massive budget cuts, big issue. Smart strategically, left gray areas for guidance and regulations. Waiting at this moment.

All states saying federal government cannot affect Medicaid. States get massive cuts, will deal in next year’s budget. Will be many unhappy people, used by everyone. Have to wait for language, will continue to push. Working with folks we normally do not, have comment interest. No such thing as permanent friends, we have permanent interests.

Other piece with no language is voucher/ tax credit. People can donate up to 1700 each to educational institutions. Most people think you can do it as long as they aren’t public schools. Back door voucher bill, we know from Florida. It’s always Florida. Was down there. Craziest anti worker, anti public education, giving public school space to voucher schools.

Will draft language in June. You are leaders. We are looking at this.. Will continue to watch and lobby. Will be on states to decide whether they want to participate. We are against voucher bill, not officially, haven’t yet done resolution.

Retirees from FL say thank you, hope you enjoy the winter. Met day after storm. Were very happy. Do they take joy in a bunch of teachers being stuck in snow? Everyone can earn same right to go down there, sit in sunshine, have good old time.

State—Thank you for rally Sunday. How long have we been talking about it? Was joy in auditorium. Sold out. Saw all different unions across state. Has been very effective. We know what Tier 6 has done. More now understand how pensions are created and have to be fixed. Not negotiated. Campaign of sixes on 6th of every month. Albany knows this is not going away.

Three budget proposals at state level, governor’s, assembly and senate, then joint two house proposal. If not there, won’t get done. Governor’s had nothing about tier 6. We kept momentum, coordinating. Had legislative reception. All elected officials loved fact we have to fix tier 6. Waiting on next budgets.

Governor came to rally to support fixing tier 6. Carl Hastings says must be fixed, Andrew Stewart Cousins, Tom de Napoli, say so. One house bills both support Tier 6 reforms. Activities in schools, thank you, all works together. Not done yet. Have Lobby Day Monday, will push it. Majority of DOE folk start before age 22.

If state budget not done on time, will be a mess. Holiday starts right away in April. Supposed to be done midnight March 31st. In past, have waited until August. State budget affects everything.

Increase in education funding in one house budget. Increased weights in student funding. We have many kids in poverty. Same % as 8 or 9 years ago. Now more in rest of state. More money will go to other districts. Also have to fund homeless and ELL services. Costs more money, proposals include that in Foundation Aid, think it will stay.

Teacher Center, thank you. Constantly doing openings. Constant fight. Ineffective consultants make everyone angry. Don’t understand these principals.

Community schools have taken off. Data showing in toughest schools in city, data shows everything is up and this actually works. Now spreading across state.

Mayoral control not included in any bills. Senate and assembly sent signal they do not want it in budget. Many have primaries. More time in legislative session. We have our distinct opinions on mayoral control, will lobby.

City budget—New deficit is 5.5 billion, was 17 went down. Same thing always, they say we’re broke. During Cuomo’s term, besides tier 6, many things were shifted from state to city. City didn’t say anything for four years. Current admin says we need to get some funding back. Few hundred million every time. Congestion pricing, MTA, other things.

City economy doing well, state is growing, in black. 60% of it comes from NYC. City represents growth, and gets only 40%. 20% goes somewhere else. Asking for fairness. All of this goes out the window if Medicaid isn’t funded, state will go into red. Taxing rich is one thing, but we’ve written legislation for pied a terre tax. People with real estate over 7 million get better tax rate than those of us who live in our homes.

Appreciate what governor has done. Never seen one hand NYC 3.5 billion, as she did for pre-K. Unheard of. Have to go forward and try to navigate this.

We’re looking at para bill. Last year had all those candidates, speaking on tier 6 and para bill. Cuomo said we need to undo it, that was then this is now. Other one was respect check. We follow path, don’t stop. We know speaker blocked it last time. Said it was illegal, we said we know what Taylor Law is, not in collective bargaining.

We focused on elections for City Council, won all we endorsed except one. Asked if they support para bill. Chose Julie Menin as speaker, an original sponsor of para bill. Wanted to change it and make it bigger and stronger, give the city an option. Put in if city chooses to engage in collective bargaining that doesn’t use pattern to make other workers pay, this could cease.

Want city to pull head out of anal canal and see they’re doing a disservice. Losing millions in litigation for lack of paras. Bill introduced, brought to hearing quickly. Paras lobbied, met with PACs, now have 45 of 51 sponsors. Para fest on Saturday. Speaker of city council came. Told city no way budget gets done until we fix para crisis.

Important because we are creating our new negotiation committee. Don’t want to say if you give money to one title, others have to pay. Have done all the research, looked at every case. OLR guy sounded like idiot, couldn’t answer questions. Said pattern bargaining hurts workers and city’s ability to provide services. Why would they make a decision, stand by it, knowing it hurts ability to provide workforce that provides what city needs?

DOE reorganized. Every chancellor does that. Doing pretty well, and we’ll see what happens. At all times, when you get a new leader, you try.

Class size—getting down to last few years. Nobody has space. We said if you apply, and say what staff you need, we’ll give you money for staff. Principals didn’t trust them, because they’ve lied before. 700 principals were approved, and actually got their money, paying for all staff, coming back every year.

Rest of schools all of a sudden had space. When they can actually get money, they find space. Major construction needs to be done, School Construction Authority involved, school facilities and utilization come with this. SCA does whatever they want and seem to get away with it. Senator wouldn’t approve mayoral control without a timeline. Don’t like construction when school is in session. Better in summer, avoids dust and noise. School utilization, generally fight closings. Bloomberg created mess of mini schools all over the place, very low numbers, and have to address them.

Refers to “the liar,” I think Steyer, who just lied about everything. Doesn’t say name.

Introduces plant managers for NYC DOE. Came to us and were more than happy, some things they treat you nicely, some they don’t. City of NY and labor relations will never do it.

Audio breaking up very badly. 5:02

Talked about class size, Much less construction needed than predicted. Every prediction dead wrong.

Calendar next year unavailable. Look at where holidays fall. Fully prepared, but can tell we are barely going to reach 180. Fully prepared to be disrespectful of cultures no matter what calendar comes out (?)

Thought we’d never have snow day again. Wanted waiver, We helped; Have relationship with Regents, got waiver. You were overjoyed. Then, school’s open tomorrow. What the hell is wrong with you? Mayor said he needed waiver because kids didn’t have equipment. Despite that, he opened. We said if you don’t feel safe, don’t go in, we’ve got your back. Other unions don’t get paid. Don’t think we’ll have another snow day again, mayor learned his lesson.

Now talking about how we know we’re always ready for remote. Everything we do in curriculum will be digitized and every student will need working device and wifi. We currently have emergency situations, flooding, electric, where schools go remote. If one part of city hit worse than other side, should some go virtual?

Policy for providing equipment to kids is hey, figure it out. Some schools don’t have devices. I look at budgets. If you have 500 kids, 10 APs, and no digital devices, it’s fault of whoever hired APs. Have to hold people accountable. Used to be ratios, Bloomberg got rid of them, only cared about test scores, which became suspect.

Special ed committees need to meet. Focus on support services. Meet and document, how many paras, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists you need. DOE says they don’t know how many they need. They know but don’t want people to know they aren’t hiring. Principals abuse budgets. Can’t have one speech therapist for 84 kids. Committee needs to look into this and look at budgets. Document now so you have baseline in September.

PreK 3K—Working with City Hall on that. We rep home day care providers. Pay scale, reimbursement rate disgusting. Market rate needs to be increased. We’ve have decrease in providers. Will have to do big push for stipend or something. Mayor will not fulfill promise unless we figure this out.

Will be competition for teachers after budget.

Not time yet, but CLs think through SBOs. We don’t see each other until April 22nd. Most utilized portion of our contract. Gets CLs in trouble the most. Must think through process and negotiate. They need something, you need something.

Wishes us all a break. Thanks everyone. Still have a way to go. 5:18

Mike Sill—March tomorrow, Friday 50 bway, UFT players. Friday 13, Lockla 195 montage, Functional weekend White Plains, Herstory, bronx sold out. UFT Pride March 19 Sangria Cafe bronx. NY Aquarium teacher overnight, March 21-22. 26, Boleyn, Labor Seder. 28 8-3 counselor conference. CL 3, same days, TWA hotel. April 25, early childhood conf UFT. May 22 UFT Asian American banquet. May 28 AFT Latino spring soiree. Nominate for Trachtenberg awards Be brave against bullying UFT website. Daniel Dromm scholarship available. If you want to put resolutions downstairs, email them to me, not for caucus literature, will print with union print shop. Happy woman’s history month.

Mulgrew—Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Not official holiday. Shows shirt, says UFT, Tier 1 for everyone. When union was fighting to fix tier 4. These folks got it done, now we have to get it done,

Questions 5:24

Exec Board member—Explain about Intro 1096 and why we oppose—clearly planted.

Mulgrew—Will make sure all current retiree benefits come into effect, takes it out of collective bargaining. But we have an issue. Had to make sure we didn’t break law. Taylor Law says we can’t strike. If you can’t get along with mayor, can he say contract is null and void? No. We like that. Bloomberg said teachers got raises anyway. Other piece says no elected body can change collective bargaining agreement. That’s a good thing. State can’t change teacher contract. If we didn’t have that provision, they could change health. Even though Union position is we will not agree to medicaid for all, if we allow city council to change, any mayor could say NYC shouldn’t pay for any health care and without taylor law would be true.

Didn’t want to get into it. If I want to pass legislation that city will give us 25% pay raise, consultation committee can’t negotiate. Provision of law that protects us changed, and we’re not protected. No Medicaid for all—Medicare Advantage—we can’t pass that. I get frustrated because no union has system like ours, make retirees part of our union, are daytime army, doing phone banks, traveling to other states.

Have different programs no other union has. Proud of that, and must guard those things. Goal is for everyone to be retiree. Have had lawyers look at it, all said same thing, would violate Taylor Law, reduce protection. Can you imagine Bloomberg, though every one of us should pay premiums. Have done things differently. Have a way to always pull back, Listened to our retirees.

Have an insurance company agreed to contract no other has, can’t negotiate with hospitals unless we say it’s okay. We did a great job. 12% increase five years on a row, have 60% increase. If that bill passes we would have to sue. I know you’re the leaders. Not as simple as the rhetoric always flying around. At the end, decision is our union’s.

Someone asks for rebuttal, Mulgrew rules her out of order. Everyone else wants to continue, I am here to inform you. If you want to listen to someone else, that’s your business. I know that lawyers have come in here and said this is a violation that hurts us.

Q—Sarah Shapiro, retiree—Have question about what you mentioned, what is bargaining unit for retirees? Taylor Law is for Collective Bargaining Unit.

Mulgrew—MLC has right to bargain. In our interest or every group would have to bargain their own.

Is our bargaining unity UFT bargaining unit?

Mulgrew—No, every union, all NYC workers under same health plan collectively bargained through MLC. Repeats about how each union would bargain separately. 1.3 million in plan. You would lose access if you don’t knock off your crap. UFT only is significantly less, and smaller unions have no power. If you get information that refutes that is dead wrong, misinformation.

Motions—5:38

Adam Shapiro, District Rep—Resolution for next month—On insuring fairness in C-30 hiring process. Complete theatrical farce. Decisions have been made prior to meeting, Superintendents ignore committee. Members left with people who shouldn’t have gotten job. If you believe there should be more transparency, more say, vote yes.

Jonathan Halabi—against—was on phony c-30 committee, and others. Agree with background, love spirit, asks they come with a resolved to give committee a say, not substantial weight. Will vote against. Asks others to do so.

online y— 606 n 230 room—y—166 n-74 72% passes

Elizabeth Perez, Brooklyn Borough Rep, in honor of UFT 66th anniversary March 16th. for this month. reads resolution in full.

online y—643 n 153 room—y 191 n 50 80% passes

Resolutions—

Gabe Barry—delegate Point of information—How can someone extend time?

Mulgrew—Could’ve done it during motion period. Just passed resolution we won’t get to. No one raised it to number one. Will celebrate Monday’s birthday next month. Spirit is to celebrate, but will sing happy birthday.

Venicia Wilson Exec Board—supports Carl Wilson in City Council District 3. Speaks of what a great guy Carl Wilson is. Encourages members to support. Will be special election April 28th.

Mulgrew—This is special election, day after next DA.

Point of info—Susan Herzog—Has questions about this candidacy. Did UFT interview him? What questions did you ask? did you ask about destruction of public housing in that district.

Wilson—Eric Bocher not running, in Senate. Called special election, held screening

Marquis Harrison, exec board—interviewed many candidates, Carl involved in every level of discussion, about paras, relationship with housing and schools was impressive.

Mulgrew—If you want to speak against, you may. You cannot just stand here and yell stuff out. Main focus for streaming is education. No candidate gets 100%. That’s democracy.

Stephanie Laquer, retiree, worked in two schools where most parents lived in projects about to be demolished. Although Bocher was good about most issues, didn’t take stand on that. People in senior housing already being forced out. One candidate has been working to preserve housing. Layla? At some point, maybe can move back.

Servia Silva—exec board—was part of panel, on snow day. Interviewed all. Asked about housing. Carl did show concern, was very clear about how he was going to protect everyone in those projects, had knowledge about districts, knew schools, knowledge outstanding.

Exec board member rises to close debate.

online y—654 n 69 room—y—195 n 25 90% debate closed.

Resolution—

online y—450 n 155 room—y—165 n 65 resolution passes 75%

Mulgrew asks everyone to sing Happy Birthday. The voice of our Dear Leader is mellifluous beyond belief.