Okay, it’s not really a rubric. Still, I really liked this little checklist. Every teacher who’s worked for a crazy supervisor will appreciate it. I’m going to take it step by step.
Unity is failing. They’ve just had their asses handed to them by both the retiree and paraprofessional chapters. Unity Patronage Cult Leader Michael Mulgrew, having finally seen the writing on the wall, got up and announced a reversal in his positions. But he took no responsibility whatsoever. He blamed the city. How dare they demand the things to which he explicitly agreed?
Outrageous. It’s all their fault. Just like Donald Trump, he takes no responsiblity.
Mulgrew surrounds himself with sycophants. Very much to the detriment of members, he hires for loyalty, not competence. In fact, he fired RTC Chapter Leader-elect Bennett Fischer for the offense of opposing his plan to dump us into Medicare Advantage (See correction below). Mulgrew is invisible on social media, and every time I’ve emailed him anything remotely critical, he’s ignored it. He and his acolytes don’t hear us, and are unfit to lead.
Your people make you a leader, yet Mulgrew has ignored us for years. I’ve sat through meeting after meeting with Tom Murphy in which we were all supposed to pretend it was okay that Mulgrew and Unity sold us out to get an unspectacular wage increase for rank and file. Mulgrew is not our leader. Bennett Fischer is. Next year, Mulgrew and his entire patronage cult will be voted out once and for all.
Mulgrew likes to say we are the UFT. However, he ignores our voices. He surrounds himself with favorites. He does not value employees like Amy Arundell who work their asses off to help members. Instead, he places people who will never question his judgment, no matter how abysmal it may be. He surrounds himself with sycophants concerned only with their own advancement.
It’s pretty clear the UFT is an awful place to work. Only the privileged and elite Unity Caucus members get the jobs, and they’ve all signed loyalty oaths. If they express their opinions, they’re dumped, just like Bennett Fischer was. People there, if they dare to have their own opinions, are walking on eggshells.
Quality and competence are not valued in UFT employees. When I was chapter leader, every time I told someone to call UFT, I had to add, “If you don’t get someone good, get back to me and I’ll find someone.” Then I’d call Amy Arundell for recommendations. If we, the members, are the team, we’re not being developed at all. We’re being ignored utterly, right up to the moment when Mulgrew realizes we’re ready to toss him out.
Mulgrew’s UFT team is certainly afraid to speak up. In fact, they’ve pledged not to do so. Mulgrew fired Bennett for doing so, and likely as not reassigned Arundell for the same reason. The only reason he didn’t fire her outright is probably that she knows where bodies are buried and has endless stories to tell.
This one is very much like number one. Mulgrew has reversed his position on Medicare Advantage only because it’s about to cost him and his patronage cult their power. No longer will they be able to ease their spouses into gigs that get them second pensions, cushy offices, and lifetime gigs whether or not they have the ability to do whatever their jobs are. Mulgrew has not admitted he is at fault. And he certainly is.
We lead by example. Michael Mulgrew stands in front of the Delegate Assembly and tells everyone they need to get on Twitter, yet has never done so himself. He wants us to send UFT-approved messages, like urging the City Council to allow the city to pay less for our health care. Mulgrew is too thin-skinned to be on social media. He can only accept criticism when he’s at a podium, with a microphone and the ability to shut anyone else’s mike off. When I spoke at the RTC meeting last week, they didn’t let me hold the mike. Perish forbid I should say something out loud that offends the Great Leader.
I love this one. It is true that, in fact, Michael Mulgrew works for us. Yet he doesn’t consult with us. As of this writing, he has not even met with the officers-elect. He’s still shut Migda Rodriquez out of a job that would enable her to do the work for which members have overwhelmingly chosen her.
It was always disturbing to me to have an AP who did not actually teach. I understand that some have responsibilities that preclude that. I also understand that being President of the UFT doesn’t allow time to teach classes. However, for years Mulgrew has been selling out our health care, claiming to have improved it, and hoping we don’t notice. He treats us as though we are fools. That is not a role model, and he does not merit full release from the classroom.
Mulgrew has failed to take any responsibility for his blunders. He has made the most awful deals. He concealed them from us at the time. Who on earth makes a contract agreement that lasts three years and agrees to give the city 600 million a year forever? That would be Michael Mulgrew. Even if he manages to help us avoid the Advantage plan, he’s put us on the hook for a ridiculous giveback. Contracts that meet cost of living ought not to require givebacks. Contracts that do not ought not to be acceptable.
My advice to you, my friends, as they say in Spanish, is to sit while you wait for Mulgrew and his caucus to take any responsibility whatsoever.
Correction—Bennett Fischer was fired from his UFT job for writing a letter to Mulgrew protesting the OT/PT revote. UFT Unity decided, after the OT/PT chapter rejected the contract, to do nothing whatsoever to improve it. Instead, they fed them the same old thing and essentially told them to take it or leave it. That, my friends, is yet another failure of leadership.
Based on Mr. Mulgrew’s new position against Medicare Advantage, shouldn’t the UFT publicly endorse the bills in the City Council and the New York State Legislature to preserve Medicare and Medicare supplement coverage at no cost for New York City retirees and their dependents?
Don’t stop writing, Arthur. They have a lasting impact. More people read your words than the “like” buttons indicate.