Our UFT

The United Federation of Teachers is NOT the property of UFT Unity. It's not the property of Michael Mulgrew. It is OUR union.

We just won two big elections, but we have not waved any magic wand. The Fix Para Pay slate won, but ran so few candidates that Unity retained virtually all positions by default. Retiree Advocate won, but alas, holds sway only over the chapter, not general union policy. There will be significant changes in RTC meetings, and we now hold 300 votes in the UFT Delegate Assembly.

Despite our victories, Michael Mulgrew sat mute as copays were imposed on us beginning next January. He thinks we will simply forget this in the general election next year. He has another thing coming. Despited what his advisors may be telling him, we are not all afflicted with Alzheimer’s, and we want our union back.

Sometimes, at the UFT Delegate Assembly, people say the UFT did this or that. Michael Mulgrew, from his literal bully pulpit, will interrupt and say, “You are the UFT.” He’s right. I say it too, sometimes, when people fail to differentiate between the union and leadership.

But there’s a problem when Mulgrew says it. To wit—he doesn’t really believe it. Michael Mulgrew does whatever he feels like, whenever he feels like. He doesn’t feel constricted by little things like elections or DA resolutions. When people oppose him, he labels them enemies of the union, even if they are part of the union.

How on earth could fighting to defend your health care make you an enemy of the union? Mulgrew does not appear to know what union is.

Michael Mulgrew doesn’t care whether or not UFT employees do a good job. Otherwise, there’s no way he’d have exiled Amy Arundell to count paper clips (or whatever they have her doing). I was a long-time chapter leader in Queens, and there was no leadership there before Amy came along. That never mattered to Mulgrew, and clearly doesn’t now either.

We can change this next year. This is OUR union. Its function, the reason it exists, is to represent us. In Mulgrew’s mind, it appears, we’re just a vehicle to pay him three times the salary of any working teacher. We’re a vehicle to let him surround himself with an army of bootlickers who will say or do anything so as not to have to go back to classrooms and do actual work.

That’s offensive to me. I loved being a teacher, and I’m still working a few days a week F-status. Some friends call me crazy, and they may be right. But I’m doing what I was born to do (albeit not as frequently as I used to).

I’ve just been elected by the retirees as vice-chair of the chapter. This means something to the people who voted for me. It means something to me. But it means nothing to UFT Unity, sitting at 52 Broadway, collecting our dues money, and working directly against our interests.

Make no mistake, this is our fault, because we keep voting for them. But this year we’ve made considerable progress. It is on us to build on that.

I’d very much like to be doing actual union work. However, I’m fortunate enough to not need money from the union. I’ll continue to work from here. I thank the thousands of you who read my work. Please share it, spread the word, and let our sisters and brothers know there’s an alternative to Unity’s status quo.

Whether or not elected members get to represent their constituents at 52 Broadway, there’s an army of people, paid with our salaries, and their Prime Directive is to be loyal to Michael Mulgrew and his agenda, whether or not members support it. Our current RTC Chapter Leader, Bennett Fischer, is the only elected RTC member with a job there. They couldn’t manage to keep him away.

That said, Fischer was fired from previous union job because he wrote something Mulgrew didn’t like. If a principal tried that against a member when I was chapter leader, he’d have a war on his hands. Basic union principles, like due process, do not apply to Michael Mulgrew.

It doesn’t matter to him, for example, that the Retired Teacher Chapter voted against Medicare Advantage (back in the good old days before UFT Unity simply eliminated our vote). The UFT Delegate Assembly, theoretically the highest body in the union, opposed it at least twice.

UFT Unity does what it wants. Michael Mulgrew and Unity sell out our health care because they lack the will or imagination to bother with tough negotiation. They ignore mandates from the DA. That, in itself, means they must go.

The paraprofessionals have made a statement, defeating UFT Unity 3-1. The retirees have made a statement defeating UFT Unity 2-1. Michael Mulgrew, surrounded by paid sycophants, has not gotten the memo. He still takes us for feeble-minded rubes who will be diverted by an empty statement. Look at this shiny piece of paper and forget I’ve sold out city workers with my boneheaded deals.

Sorry, Mike. We are not fooled.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent decades working in front of dozens of teenagers. I’ve heard all the stories. My first week, many fooled me. My second week, I started to catch on. And honestly, I’ve faced some very smart kids.

Once, I was in class with a girl from El Salvador. I’ll call her Maria. I asked, “Maria, was that the second bell?” She said no. I sat for a few minutes, waiting to start. Then I realized that Maria had lied to me.

“You see what happens when you’re not nice to me?” she asked.

I don’t recall what I did to offend her, but she was very smart, and I was very charmed. I’m impressed by cleverness, by a quick mind. Most kids can’t fool me like that.

Michael Mulgrew and Unity can’t fool me at all. In 2014, they could have simply demanded the pattern. The cops and firefighters got this, and we want it too. Instead, they said, give us what we earned years ago years from now. Screw everyone who resigned or got fired. Also, let’s impose a crap pattern going forward, including a year and a half of nothing. To top it off, here’s more than half of our health stabilization fund, and let’s work at cutting health care.

These are the “very smart people” Mulgrew loves to reference,

That wasn’t enough. In 2018, he said let’s get a raise around cost of living, and decided to pay for it. In fact, he decided to make retirees, who don’t even get the raise, pay for it. He underestimated us then, and continues to do so.

Even after we overwhelmingly rejected him, he continues to think that by saying he opposes the Aetna plan, and doing nothing whatsoever to stop it, we’ll rally to him.

I’m not fooled, and I know you aren’t either. We have it in our hands to create a union that really functions as a union. We have it in our hands to create a union that respects the will of the members. We have it in our hands to create a union that will put boots on the ground rather than capitulate to unacceptable demands from our contractual adversaries.

This year, paraprofessionals demonstrated that will. This year, retirees demonstrated that will. UFT Unity has shown itself incapable of adjusting to new circumstances. They’ve shown themselves incapable of change.

We have no alternative but to take our union back. Unity can make their Prime Directive kissing the ring of Michael Mulgrew. Ours needs to be creating a representative and activist union.

And our one path to achieve that is by defeating UFT Unity next May.

Let Randi take Mulgrew’s entire UFT Unity Patronage Cult and set them to work at AFT. Fine with me. Because we’re coming for them next.