The Unbelievable Pettiness of Michael Mulgrew

Among other things, he excluded retirees from yesterday's Town Hall.

It’s quite clear that the Unity Patronage Cult, the opposition (and yes, we won, so they are the opposition), does not wish to cooperate with us, the elected representatives of the Retired Teacher Chapter, let alone the chapter itself. For years, they took us for granted. They thought we’d lie down as they dumped us into an inferior health plan.

They were sorely mistaken, completely out of touch, and should have known better. It was their job to know better.

We took a stand. We demanded a voice in our own health care. We demanded democracy, a concept alien to Unity. Mulgrew made spectacularly boneheaded deals, and concealed or misrepresented what they would mean to retirees. Rank and file are in for a rude awakening as well. I suspect Mulgrew hopes to wait until after the election before dumping an inferior plan upon them.

It’s entirely possible the city could cooperate. After all, where will they find another partner willing to sell out member health care for sub-inflationary contracts? There are a lot of union leaders who’d demand cost of living for working members, and screw the givebacks. There are a lot of union leaders who’d refrain from selling out retirees for compensation increases they will never receive.

Retirees knew this, and spoke up overwhelmingly.

Unity, having been in power forever, does not know how to deal with us like grownups. They were wrong, and reacting appropriately to change is not in their vocabulary. Sure, they’ve lashed out at others who weren’t part of their caucus. They harassed and ridiculed Melissa Williams for the egregious offense of demanding her members get parity with teachers. She quit, so they made fun of her.

Then they went after paraprofessional Migda Rodriguez. She didn’t quit, so they made fun of her. How hilarious that a working mom can’t get by on a paraprofessional salary and needs a second job to make ends meet. The official position of the UFT Unity Patronage Mill?

In fact, yesterday, in a fashion he likely deems subtle, Mulgrew continued to belittle the notion of fixing para pay, suggesting those who call for it are ignorant of how things work. On the other hand, Mulgrew appears incapable of processing the fact that 3 of 4 paras voted against his patronage cult. It’s who he is.

While Mulgrew cannot conceive of ever being wrong, paras need a raise, not a tip. You’d think, hearing him, they were stuck forever because of the pattern, as are the OT/PTs.

What happened to imagination? To creative solutions? To unionism? The pattern, the pattern, the pattern. And as for that frigging pattern, what would it take to get Municipal Labor Committee together and agree on a minimum pattern that keeps up with cost of living? They’re certainly adept at selling out our health care.

What is it that makes Unity talk down to us? Why is it ridiculous, contemptible, that members want a say in their salaries and health care? What goes on in Mulgrew’s mind? Paranoia? Contempt? Outright pettiness? Call it what you will.

It’s clear that, even as our RTC chapter leader attempts to interact in good faith, Unity cannot, will not treat him or us with respect. They waste his time, and in doing that, waste ours as well.

We’ve been seeing signs for some time now. Mulgrew, at the last minute, makes sure we can’t broadcast our message at the Labor Day Parade. Not only that, but there was a banner for every UFT chapter except ours. There’s an official UFT retiree Facebook group that was supposed to be turned over to us weeks ago. As of this writing, it remains in limbo.

The message is consistent. Yesterday there was a UFT Town Hall. Grand Poobah Mulgrew made it unavailable to retirees. That’s 70,000 dues-paying members who were specifically excluded.

It’s great that Mulgrew says they’re exploring improvements to our crappy dental plan. But why did they wait to lose two elections before even condescending to pay us this valuable lip service? Why didn’t they begin last April, when many of us noted the near-billion dollar surplus upon which the Welfare Fund was sitting? And why on earth are we not entitled to hear about our dental plan? I say our dental plan, of course, because it applies to retirees as well as in-service members.

There are, of course, many ways the Unity Patronage Cult could rationalize this. Perhaps I ought not have posted a list of questions for Mulgrew the other day. Maybe they’re too fraidy-scared to answer. Regardless, it’s incredible that Unity would exclude us from a Town Hall we had the privilege of paying for.

I’d have wanted to ask Mulgrew why, when we discovered the Welfare Fund was sitting on a rather large pile of cash, his Patronage Cult didn’t see fit to work on dental. Why did they vote down our motion to do so? Do they understand, with our newly gained 300 votes, they can’t do it again? Welfare Fund Boss Geoff Sorkin told us, though there’s never been such a huge surplus, we needed to save the money for prescription benefits or some such thing.

Here’s another thing—if you’re a Medicare-eligible retiree, you don’t actually receive the same prescription benefits as in-service members. Paying 25% of actual prescription cost can run into some real money. Even if Biden’s $2,000 2025 cap survives the next election cycle, that’s quite a bit for, say, a retired paraprofessional to spend.

It’s pretty clear Unity thinks they can treat us with contempt and we’ll go away. We will not. We’ll step up. We’ll speak to the media. Bennett Fischer clearly articulated our cause in this Work-Bites piece. The headline echoes Mulgrew, but if you read the piece, Bennett’s responses make Unity’s position seem hollow and meaningless (which it is).

We pay Unity members to represent us, but they don’t fret over our needs. It’s about their need to remain in power and protect their jobs. That’s it. You don’t think they want to stand around in classrooms, facing not only students, but also those Danielson evaluations, do you?

I went through Danielson evaluations for years, and even with a supervisor who is not insane, they are pretty stressful. I’ve seen and represented members, particularly those with crazy supervisors, stressed out of their minds over them. Michael Mulgrew has never faced a Danielson evaluation. Now that he’s faced an unsuccessful election, we’re seeing more of exactly what he and his patronage cult are made of.

Mulgrew can’t seem to register that we’ve rejected him and his paid lackeys. Excluding us from the Town Hall suggests that we, retired teachers, have no interest whatsoever in matters pertaining to our in-service brothers and sisters. Curious, then, that we’re asked, for example, to support drives to improve Tier 6. Curious, then, that we’re asked to support UFT-endorsed candidates who, according to Unity, might support better education policies.

You can’t have it both ways, Michael. We’re in or we’re out.

The best solution? We put you out, and replace your self-serving patronage cult with people who work for us instead of themselves, instead of Eric Adams—people who elicit and value member voice.