Unity Blinks, and Falsely Accuses ABC

Does this mean the pension funding scheme is over? Let's not jump to conclusions.

Unity has our email, but they don’t have our number. Well, they may have our phone numbers, but they don’t get us at all. Last night they responded to our questioning their “smoothing” of the pension fund, as they call it. Weeks ago, I was the first to bring this to the direct attention of UFT retirees. Unity did not much care for it, and I’m told they expressed something of that nature at an Executive Board meeting.

I wrote about it again yesterday, and my friend Katie Anskat, candidate for UFT Treasurer with ABC, wrote about it on Sunday. I believe she posted something similar on Facebook days earlier. This is what Unity had to say about it in an email they sent yesterday evening:

While we understand the reasoning behind the legislation and we support the process, it requires a viable partner in City Hall that understands the intricacies of crafting pension legislation. We determined last Wednesday that we were no longer confident in the city's ability to be this partner. For this reason, on Thursday, we notified the city actuary that at this point in time we are not willing to support the legislation. Sadly, three days later, a group of people tried to use this issue to cause fear and anxiety among our members, especially our retirees.

There’s a lot to unpack in that paragraph. The first sentence is important. They still “support the process.” They don’t reject the notion of postponing pension payments now and catching up later. So let’s not assume that this is finished. If we aren’t vigilant, it could rear its ugly head at any time. This is yet another reason we need to defeat Unity at the polls.

Next, they blame the city as a bad “partner.” This is typical Unity playbook. When Michael Mulgrew saw the city wanted to impose premiums on the new, cheaper health care for in service he agreed to, he feigned shock. It didn’t matter that he had, in fact, agreed to premiums as a way to finance savings, savings for the city instead of membership. Just like this time, he blamed the city, ignoring his own poor judgment. At least he concocted an excuse. This time, they don’t even bother telling us exactly what the city did to make them come to this conclusion.

Unity offers no detail, but shifts the blame. They deem this leadership.

If you look at the link in the quoted paragraph, it says they’ve decided to “suspend the process.” This suggests to me that the process is now stopped, at least for the moment. That said, I trust Unity as far as I can throw them. If you’re a regular reader, you know that Unity has paid much valuable lip service to opposing Medicare Advantage. Still, they’ve done nothing whatsoever to stop the city from trying to impose it upon us.

A suspension is not a rejection. It’s a pause. Mulgrew still supports Medicare Advantage, and has accepted none of what’s been demonstrated in court. The trustees don’t reject this process, but rather cast nebulous aspersions on the city as a partner. Were they to change their minds about the city, this could change. And don’t forget that DC37, as far as I can tell, still supports this unreservedly.

The last part of the paragraph is my favorite. In typical Unity fashion, they accuse ABC of trying to “cause fear and anxiety” among members. Perhaps they exercised their psychic powers to reach this conclusion.

Generally, when people come to conclusions via faulty mind-reading, I advise them not to give up their day jobs. In Unity’s case, I can’t say that. They aren’t doing their day jobs well either, and that’s precisely why ABC is opposing them.

In fact, we’re trying to inform our members. Unity doesn’t see that as productive. They make deals behind our backs with no input whatsoever from us. This is precisely what they did with Medicare Advantage. When an uproar ensued, Mulgrew responded with juvenile name-calling, very similar to what’s contained in the email.

He suggested his critics produce “self-righteous crap.” He harped on how dishonest we were. He said we “spew lies.” He cited our “lack of empathy.”

He also said we spouted “fairy tales” and made everything a conspiracy. That said, NYC Retirees established in court that Aetna Medicare Advantage resulted in the death of a patient due to disapproval of treatment. Aetna argued it was only one person. That was too much for me, and evidently for the court as well. The judge ruled that dumping us into Mulgrewcare would result in irrevocable harm. Mulgrew, evidently, hasn’t gotten the memo.

Unity sneaked Appendix B into the 2018 contract. They failed to inform us of its implications. They made a series of backroom deals specifically designed to facilitate the diminution of health care for all of us. Given this pattern of behavior, we’d be remiss if we didn’t question any and all deals made behind our backs.

This deal is just part of an overarching pattern of caucus behavior. Just like 11 people in Retiree Advocate surreptitiously voted to align with MORE and Arise, this was done with no consultation. This was done behind our backs. And while the RA 11 may boast they shut out only 288 of us, a mere 96% of their constituency, Unity shut out hundreds of thousands.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. It’s time to say no to caucuses and their secretive, undemocratic nonsense. Unity can point fingers at the city, but there’s no way to prove they wouldn’t have simply plodded on with this scheme if we hadn’t exposed it.

In fact, there appear to be ways to save money, without cutting services to members, or taking unnecessary risks with pension funds. Why isn’t Unity making that their focus?

When major changes are contemplated, ABC will run them by membership. The notion of union rests upon it being member-driven, and it’s high time we started practicing unionism in our United Federation of Teachers.

Join us tonight, to discuss this and other matters, in a retiree forum. I’ll be hosting. Meet the retiree members of the ABC Executive Board, our presidential candidate, Amy Arundell, and maybe other surprise guests.