Real Union Leadership

Compare Fran Drescher to Michael Mulgrew and his army of Unity hacks.

It’s amazing to watch a real union leader at work. She’s out there demanding more money and better conditions for her members. Imagine if Fran Drescher were out there saying, “There’s a pattern and that’s the best we can do. Sure, we’re effectively making less money, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” It would be a lot less impressive, wouldn’t it?

She’s up there saying no pay, no labor. In marked contrast to our leadership, she’s not saying her negotiators have no input on potential income, and should take whatever they’re offered. I wouldn’t imagine we’d be seeing her face all over the internet if that were the case. It’s very tough to be an actor. Drescher is up there saying it’s tough enough already, and they need to make things better.

In fairness, it’s tough for Mulgrew and the Unity Caucus as well. They have to get up there and defend what is an effective pay cut. They can’t really stand out there and shout to the mountaintops that inflation was 8.9% last year, and that by taking three they’re cutting our pay by 6%. They can say it appears inflation is around 3% now, but we’ve already taken the hit. So they do other things.

Trash the opposition.

That’s Unity’s big gun, their go-to tactic. I saw a recent Unity handout entitled, “The Loyal Opposition.” This was, of course, sarcastic. They’ll happily suggest that any variation from dictates on high is heresy. They’ll imply it’s anti-union to demand raises that keep up with inflation. Nick Bacon is doing a great job offering commentary, as well what actually goes on at the Delegate Assembly and Executive Board. In these meetings Mulgrew makes a point of either insinuating or outright declaring Nick’s a liar. This was their prime tactic during the awful 2005 contract. When you can’t defend what you do, insult those who question it. That’s logical fallacy, and it’s referred to as ad hominem.

Change the Subject

You may be upset that your raise doesn’t keep up with inflation. You work very hard at a demanding job that taxes you physically, mentally, spiritually, and every way conceivable. You don’t deserve a pay cut. UFT Unity is working to get you health care that is cheaper, and you can’t figure out how a plan that’s 10% cheaper will be as good as the flawed plan you now carry. You already have doctors dropping you. But Unity says you’ll get a $3,000 bonus. So will everyone. So suddenly you aren’t focused on the main issues. This is called a red herring, and it’s another logical fallacy. You got a short term boost, once, so forget about the fact that you lose more than that every year.

Lie

It’s not our fault that health care is being degraded. The Municipal Labor Committee made those deals, so we were stuck with it. The fact is, though, that UFT Unity has a vote there, in the form of Michael Mulgrew, and pushed these things through with no input from rank and file. They chose to do that. As for money, we did the best we could, they say. The pattern was set by DC37, and once it was set, there was nothing we could do. That’s not completely untrue. Pattern bargaining has been the Ten Commandments of NYC negotiations for some time. However, it’s outlandish to suggest that MLC can negotiate health care, but can’t come together and agree on a minimum acceptable compensation increase for all city unions.

Only We Can Do This Job

That’s another much-used battle cry from UFT Unity. We've always done this. No one else has ever done it. That, in fact, was pretty much their slogan. “We do the work,” they said, as though those of us in classrooms teaching children were on perpetual vacation. While it’s true they’ve been in power for sixty years, we know that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. They are doing a terrible job, but they claim to have experience, and therefore no one else is capable. We’re the experts, they say, although years of bad deals suggest their expertise is less than valuable. Their argument is somewhere between a lie and an appeal to authority, another logical fallacy.

There are good people in Unity. I know some. However, there are some awful ones as well. I know people who will say anything, support anything to protect their patronage gigs and rise to new and better ones. I’ve seen people who were not all that bright rise to full-time union work simply because they kissed the ring when needed. This is a serious flaw in our leadership, and it won’t be remedied until we vote them out.

As chapter leader, I had no expectation of good service from union offices. I always told people when they had problems beyond those in the building, “Call the UFT. If you don’t get someone good, get back to me and I’ll find someone good.” It’s really discouraging, when you’re in deep trouble, to have some hack tell you, “Well you still have a job.” I knew someone with cancer, under attack from admin, and a Unity member told her, “Well, you’re alive.”

We can do better.

If You Don’t Accept This, You’ll Never Do Better

That’s something I’ve heard Mulgrew say quite often. If we don’t take this offer, we go way back to the end of the line, and it may take years before we have an agreement. And this time, I suppose, you won’t get that three thousand bucks. That’s an appeal to fear, another logical fallacy. The only time I recall us turning down a contract was 1995. While the pattern was crap, double zeroes I think, the original offer had us hitting maximum pay after 25 years. We sent them back to the table, and maximum pay was reached in 22 years instead. And the new offer did not take years.

Shut Them Up by Any Means Necessary

You have to hand it to Unity. Sure, they don’t feel they need valid arguments. Sure, they revert to logical fallacy to sell us their bad ideas. But they have come up with new ones. Recently, members who disagreed with Unity have been getting cease and desist letters from union-paid lawyers.

After I parodied Mulgrew, I got one. I didn’t answer, and a few weeks later found my domain blocked at Blogger. Blogger is owned by Google, but it’s been largely abandoned, and you can’t really contact them with issues. If you want to read my old blogs, they’re available at the original blogger address, right here.

I don’t know for sure whether or not UFT lawyers sent Google a cease and desist, and had my domain blocked. I contacted a UFT official, who told me, “I don’t think they would do that.” But that’s not a denial. And they certainly sent me one.

The fact is, though, that UFT Unity pays a law firm to quash opposition. I parodied Mulgrew, they called it impersonation, and threatened me with civil and criminal penalties. Parody is protected under the First Amendment. But that didn’t matter to them. I’m going to repost the legal letter I got, just to remind you who controls our union, and the lengths they will go to squelch opposition.

It’s disgraceful that our dues are used to support the suppression of our free expression.