Union Interference Is in UFT Unity's DNA

This has been the case almost since our inception.

Last week, a Unity member addressed the UFT Delegate Assembly at length about the evils of union interference. How dare non-Unity folk get involved or take positions that Michael Mulgrew deems inconvenient? To them, this was absolutely unacceptable.

Yet Unity has a storied tradition of union interference—real, tangible examples. You may or may not know that, very early on, UFT undertook a battle to essentially steal already unionized personnel from another union. Let’s just take those people from your union, and place them in ours. Way back in 1973-74, Albert Shanker battled with DC37 head Victor Gottbaum over 10,000 school aides.

Aides were already repped by DC37, but that didn’t bother Shanker. He seemed to feel poaching members from another union was business as usual. AFL-CIO disagreed, and ruled it violated their “most basic law and morality.”

Of course, that plan failed, and school aides are still part of DC37. But it’s certainly part of the UFT history cited in the resolution, whether or not Unity sees fit to acknowledge it. Now you could argue that school aides aren’t paid very well, and you’d be correct. Would they have been better off under the UFT?

That’s doubtful. While school aide pay has remained low, you could say the same of UFT paraprofessionals.

Mulgrew and Unity have failed for decades to Fix Para Pay, and that’s why paraprofessionals, by a margin of three to one, rejected them at the ballot box last year.

Here’s a more recent example—Michael Mulgrew unilaterally bargained for health cuts for all city unions back in 2014. He strong-armed this plan to the MLC, and every city union was stuck with the awful precedent of having to surrender health care for raises that may or may not have met cost of living.

This was exacerbated in 2018, when Mulgrew and his BFFs got the bright idea of dumping city retirees into Medicare Advantage. They did this because they’d made an insane agreement with the city. In exchange for a three year contract that hovered around cost of living, they would save the city 600 million dollars a year, in perpetuity.

If Michael Mulgrew had a conscience, this would keep him up at night. Whether or not that is the case, this boneheaded move cost him the retiree chapter. Its aftermath has got even Unity members deserting him. Retirees didn’t win last year’s election without Unity votes.

Poor Michael Mulgrew. Despite all his threats that Unity members would lose positions, despite bullying them over their loyalty oaths, even he cannot control how members vote in a secret ballot.

UFT employees are tired of being bullied by Michael Mulgrew. They’re tired of hearing they’ll lose their jobs when ABC wins this year’s election. They’re tired of having no job protections, and being at his mercy. They’re tired of working for a dictator who values fealty over competence.

Mulgrew is losing control, not only of the union, but also of his caucus, and he knows it. He’s resorting to desperate measures to plug the leaking Unity boat. He wants to now instruct union members not to associate with non-UFT entities. Mulgrew isn’t bound by contract, by morality, or by fundamental reason. He’s decided to make things up as he goes along.

As usual, Unity fails to note a fundamental truth—We don’t work for Michael Mulgrew.

Michael Mulgrew, ostensibly, works for us. That’s what he should be out there doing. Is he working to retain retiree health care? Is he working to reverse the insane deals he and MLC have made with the city? Is he working to improve health care or lower exploding co-pays?

No. Instead, he’s trying to pass rules on whom we may and may not communicate with. He seems to think, rather than advancing our interests, he should restrict who we interact with, so we don’t get all uppity. He seems to believe we aren’t adults, capable of making our own decisions.

To Mulgrew, it doesn’t matter that his caucus has explicitly messed with other unions. It doesn’t matter that retirees affiliated with NYC Retirees because Michael Mulgrew decided to fund the city rather than those he ostensibly represented. All that matters to Michael Mulgrew is that those of us who criticize his miserable performance sit down and shut up, by whatever means possible. Make no mistake, that’s what the “union interference” resolution attempts to achieve.

In-service members have yet to mobilize around health care changes made necessary by Michael Mulgrew, because no one even knows what they look like yet. Mulgrew feigned outrage when the city approached with a plan that imposed premiums, but he and the MLC specifically agreed to them as a possibility. PSC, the city college professors union, opposed this plan and envisions tiered care as a result. If you think premiums are high now, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Every retiree in NYC knows that Michael Mulgrew has sold us out. In-service members are next.

We all know that, were it not for Marianne Pizzitola and NYC Retirees, retirees would currently be dumped into an inferior Medicare Advantage plan. Every retiree in NYC knows that Mulgrew’s machinations bankrupted the Stabilization Fund, and that he wants to balance it on our backs.

Now, they muster the gumption to attempt to forbid us from associating with Marianne’s organization. They post sketchy ad hominem attacks on her, and expect us to ignore the fact that her organization is doing the work city unions failed to do. Unity revels in ageism, and takes retirees for fools. Not even last year’s crushing defeat has taught them to stop trying to pull the wool over our older eyes. Still, we aren’t blind.

Why are they attacking Marianne Pizzitola? It’s because she holds enormous influence over those of us who appreciate what she’s done for us. It’s incontrovertible that she has represented us where Michael Mulgrew has abjectly failed. It’s incontrovertible that she’s worked to help us, even as Mulgrew actively worked against our interests.

To fanatical devotees of the Unity Caucus, that’s heresy. They will do or say anything to divert attention from their colossal failure. Thus, they resort to juvenile name calling and ad hominem attacks. These tactics may have worked for them in the past, but are certainly not going to work now.

If our union leadership turns their backs on us, we have to turn elsewhere for support. As others save us from the blithering incompetence of our leadership, we need to support them. Where our health and well-being are concerned, we can’t afford to rely on the words of those who’ve failed to support us in that past.

While Unity pays lip service to supporting us, Marianne Pizzitola is in court, at the legislature, and on the streets battling for us.

Rather than support these court cases, Mulgrew and his ducklings try to pass rules saying we may not affiliate with people actively working to help us. Rather than work to pass legislative remedies to correct their blithering incompetence, UFT Unity tells us not to talk to the people who are actively protecting us.

Unity has been in power so long that they don’t even remember what their job is. They’re right in one sense. Ideally, Marianne Pizzitola and NYC Retirees wouldn’t need be in court. Ideally, they wouldn’t need to push legislation to protect UFT retirees, and all city retirees.

Michael Mulgrew and Unity should be doing all those things. Instead, they waste their time and ours pushing unenforceable restrictions on us. The job of union is not to restrict us, but rather to free us—They accomplish that by improving our working conditions.

Unity does precisely the opposite, and marvels that they continue to lose everything, They’ve learned nothing from two crushing defeats, and appear determined to never learn anything.

That’s an unacceptable attitude for people running a union of educators. Their time is gone. We need new blood, new attitudes, and new leadership.

That’s precisely why I’m working for A Better Contract, and that’s why we’re going to win the UFT election in May.

Thanks to Daniel A.