UFT Unity: Paraprofessionals Can Work for Free
Also, they aren't responsible enough to choose their own representation
I’m a big proponent of union. The idea is an offense to one is an offense to all. That’s why we have a contract. It specifies how we are to be treated and compensated, for better or worse. It’s a great system. Of course in most systems, there are aristocrats, people to whom rules do not apply. In our union, those people are the “leadership,” really the bosses, and they are called the Unity Caucus.
You have a pension. They have two pensions. You have a salary. They have two salaries. You have specified work hours. They come and go as they please. You buy your own lunch, but your union dues pay for their lunch as well, as they take their friends out to this or that restaurant. You don’t see that because you don’t see them too much.
Sure, you see them at the Delegate Assembly, if you bother to follow that, where they pretend at democracy. But even when the DA, supposedly the highest rule-making body of the union, decides something, Michael Mulgrew, our effective king, gets to exercise a personal veto. That’s why we, despite the DA having twice expressed support for the NY Health Act, oppose health care for all in NY State.
This plays out more perniciously when, say, paraprofessionals dare express a contrary opinion. Who the hell do they think they are, selecting their own leadership via an open vote? Priscilla Castro, the Unity Chapter Chairperson, has an office at 52 Broadway, where she does Whatever They Do over there. Renee Freeman, the Unity 1st Vice Chairperson, also has an office at 52 Broadway, where she also does Whatever They Do over there.
However, the 2nd Vice Chairperson, Migda Rodriguez, is not Unity. She is an activist paraprofessional. That’s why she ran against the Unity candidate. She thinks that UFT Unity is not doing such a great job. After all, living on the salary of a paraprofessional is a daunting (if not impossible) task. And Migda should know. She’s been trying for over 20 years.
Her predecessor had an office and a salary around twice what paraprofessionals make. But Migda doesn’t have an office. In fact, she doesn’t even have a UFT email. I know part-time staffers who get UFT email addresses. Now in a democracy, the voice of the people is, theoretically at least, paramount. But the UFT Unity bosses at 52 Broadway decided otherwise. Their position is screw her, and screw the people who elected her.
Because UFT Unity is the Party. Therefore they are privileged. It’s like being a member of the Communist Party in China. They probably don’t advertise they are an elite, invitation-only organization (and neither does UFT Unity), but you don’t just raise your hand and join. Someone has to invite you. Well, no one invited you. No one invited me. And no one invited Migda Rodriguez.
In fairness, the Rodriguez agenda has to do with improving the lot of paraprofessionals. The UFT Unity agenda has to do with perpetuating itself and its stranglehold on controlling the union. These days, that entails pretending Michael Mulgrew is a god. Who cares if he squanders our health care, and that of all city workers, to make idiotic deals that benefit no one but Mayor Eric Adams, our contractual adversary? Unity says he is God Almighty, and that ought to be good enough for you, duespayer.
So when the voters dare to defy the will of UFT Unity, the bosses don’t need to abide by such trivial inconvenience. Sure, Rodriguez can have the title. But UFT Unity, which covers the DOE salaries of patronage recipients from Michael Mulgrew right on down to the district and special reps they’ve hand-selected, doesn’t have to make it easy for her.
While her colleagues sit in air-conditioned offices and pay obeisaince to His Holiness Michael Mulgrew, Migda Rodriguez is working full-time as a paraprofessional. Unlike the other elected officials, she has to live on the salary of a paraprofessional. Unlike the other elected officials, she is given absolutely no time to carry out her professional responsibilities. She is specifically precluded from doing the work her brother and sister paraprofessionals elected her to do.
And make no mistake, Rodriguez was not elected to tell Michael Mulgrew how smart, how handsome, how clever he is. That’s why UFT Unity told her okay, go try do your job on your own time, in your own place, with your own email and no access to members, after you work full-time as a paraprofessional. That’s why UFT Unity offered her no salary, even though her predecessor got one.
UFT Unity expects her to do a full-time job for free, treating her as though she’s nothing. They also spit in the face of the paraprofessionals who elected her, letting them know their choice means nothing.
It’s disgraceful, but it’s business as usual for UFT Unity, which has unilatereally declared itself royalty. You and me? We are peasants. We can vote, but if the aristocracy doesn’t like our choices, they render them meaningless.
We should run them out of our building on Broadway, the one we paid for, with torches and pitchforks. In lieu of that, this spring, we can vote out all the Unity chapter leaders, beginning with RTC stooge Tom Murphy, and concluding with every bought-and-paid-for chapter leader in every school in New York City.
The United Federation of Teachers is our union, not Michael Mulgrew’s, and not his corrupt, entrenched, cynical caucus’s either.
It’s our job to let them know that.
So good! I want to support our paraprofessionals! And you didn't even mention how hard the job can be. At least in the D75 schools - it is extremely difficult there.
“Bought and paid for chapter leader” 👏🏾👏🏾 I love reading your posts. 😊