Unity Has No Argument

That's why they indulge in juvenile attacks.

It’s painful to see our ostensible leaders personally attacking a working paraprofessional. From what I hear, the attack is written by a District Representative making well more than any working teacher. In any case, it’s written by a UFT employee hired for loyalty. The nature of the attack makes it abundantly clear he wasn’t hired for his wit.

Attacking a UFT paraprofessional like Migda Rodriguez, rather than addressing her argument, is called argumentum ad hominem. It’s a logical fallacy. Another fallacy they employ is guilt by association. According to Unity—we, Retiree Advocate, support tireless Medicare advocate Marianne Pizzitola, so we’re no good. Or MORE, a UFT group which Unity deems no good, supports Marianne, so she’s no good either. The fallacies come fast and furious, but they’re all nonsense

Here’s the thing—fallacies are all Unity has. They absolutely don’t want to address the truth. The paraprofessionals are running because their pay is too low. Unity is not out there arguing their pay is not too low (although they’ve as much as said so in meetings). The fact is, though, that para pay is the issue. Unity makes it all about how one paraprofessional didn’t come to their meetings.

Let’s talk about those meetings. I spent years going to almost all of them. For six years, with rare exceptions, I attended the Executive Board twice a month, and the Delegate Assembly once a month. For all Mulgrew’s talk about how the DA is the highest body in the union, the fact is it’s a tightly scripted event designed to push Mulgrew’s agenda, not the union’s.

The DA has strict limits on question and motion periods, but Mulgrew can talk as long as he likes, and preclude whatever needs precluding. Just ask Daniel Alicea, who spent a full year trying to introduce a motion to oppose mayoral control. At the Exec. Board, whatever Unity wants, Unity gets. If they don’t feel like supporting motions in support of class size reductions, well, they vote them down overwhelmingly.

Meetings are not what I’m focused on right now. My focus is the Retired Teacher Chapter election. I’m running with Retiree Advocate. It’s an apt name, because the fact is the Unity Caucus is not advocating for retirees. The Unity Caucus is fighting tooth and nail to save money for Mayor Eric Frigging Adams.

To help realize Michael Mulgrew’s boneheaded ideas about sacrificing our health care to earn contracts that were nothing to jump up and down about, Unity threw retirees to the wolves. (I originally wrote dogs, but I love dogs.) Take this “Advantage” plan and trust us. Alas, we have reasons not to.

You sacrificed our health plan to win raises that we will not get. You got up in front of the DA and claimed every doctor who took Medicare would take this plan. Who told you that? The “very smart people” you love to cite? In any case, when members went to their doctors, they found it was not true.

You also added a bunch of pre-approvals we would not need with standard Medicare. While you covered your ass by temporarily putting some on hold, we all know what “temporarily” means. We have every reason to believe once you dump us into that plan the agreements will end, and we’ll be left with more of your empty promises.

So go ahead and vilify Marianne Pizzitola, who’s beaten your asses in court over and over. She’s made your “very smart people” look like the unprepared clowns they are, over and over. Call her a “puppet master.” Make it even more abundantly clear you have no respect for those of us who fight to protect ourselves.

Some unionists you are.

Try not to dwell too much on the fact that it is your job to protect us, to improve our lot, and in that you have failed utterly. You make fun of us for being activists. You make fun of paraprofessionals who unite to earn a living wage. You make fun of an opposition OT/PT leader who demanded parity with teachers.

This is precisely why we need new leadership. Eric Adams is our contractual adversary. We need to fight to improve our health care, not demean it.

We have little need of leaders who advocate for our adversaries. We have little need of leaders who offer nothing but shallow, fallacious arguments. I do not accept such arguments from English Language Learners trying to pass the English Regents exam. Can you imagine these folks making this sort of argument during contract negotiations? No wonder rank and file can’t keep up with cost of living.

That said, the problem with UFT Unity is not primarily the weakness of their arguments. The overarching problem is that they do not represent us. They’ve sworn to support the caucus, whether or not it’s working for the members.

Unity runs a big old contract committee every few years. They all go to Top Secret Meetings to negotiate. There are, however, two things they are not allowed to negotiate—salary and health care. Those are among the most important issues to most members, myself included.

If those issues are important to you as well, you need new leadership.

Don’t forget to vote. If you have a ballot, fill it out and get it in a mailbox TODAY. RIGHT NOW.

I’m running with Retiree Advocate, and when we win, we will represent retirees, not Eric Adams. Make sure you vote for a caucus that will represent you.