Unity 100% Focused on Election

Union business? Meh. They have more pressing concerns.

There are other worlds and possibilities out there. Unity is completely insular, indifferent and immune to what happens to us lowly commoners. As a lifelong teacher, I encourage and appreciate personal progress. Unity folk, though, are too fossilized to even consider the world out here. All they know is the terrible fear they’ll one day return to it.

I’m a teacher, still. I never forget.

Once, when I was teaching at John Adams high school, I had a very boastful student. He was from Haiti. I’ll call him Ernest. He was very tall, and often quick-witted, but not very considerate of the girls in the class. He was certain he was better than they were. I’d speak to him, or he’d stop when I gave him the look.

I had another student I’ll call Maria, and she was from Bangladesh. She was a chess champion, with professional points somewhere. Maria had grown weary of Ernest’s bluster, and she challenged him to a chess game. If she won, Ernest would stop making disparaging remarks about women.

I set a day for the match, in class. My students were excited. Maria brought her chess board, and one of those chess clocks you use to time the moves. It turned out Ernest did not actually know how to play chess, but thought he would win by virtue of being a man. Maria made short work of him.

Ernest, true to his word, never uttered another disparaging word about women (in my class, at least). I asked him why he took on that challenge. He said something like, “A man has to do what a man has to do.” Ernest had issues, but he had honor as well.

Despite his attitudes, there was a lot of charm in that young man. I saw a capacity to grow there, and I like to think Maria and I kind of nudged him to a better place.

At the UFT Delegate Assembly:

On Wednesday night, I detected neither honor, charm, nor growth from Michael Mulgrew or any of his Unity Patronage Recipients. Mulgrew said something about UFT election climate:

This is election year, shenanigan and hijinks year for UFT. Factual conversations more important than ever. People think we have right to disrespect each other, to yell at each other.

Mulgrew implied he was above the fray. And as he held the microphone to say whatever he felt like, however he felt like, for as long as he felt like, he had no need to yell. Only those who wanted to be heard (you know, the membership) needed to yell. Unity’s Patronage Cult granted virtually no voice to rank and file.

Mulgrew and Unity are 100% in campaign mode. This DA demonstrated they have no priority but maintaining their cushy patronage gigs. And what are these people doing for us?. As Daniel Alicea writes:

Hiding behind anonymous internet posts, Mulgrew’s bureaucratic, administrative Unity caucus is hoping that they can deflect serious questions as to how they are mismanaging our UFT Fund by painting concerned hard-working, everyday dues-paying members and whistle blowers as “out to destroy it”.

Maintain that gig at all costs. The alternative is a frigging classroom!

For all we know, they write this stuff while on the UFT clock, the one you and I support with our dues. One of the cool things about withholding their names (aside from the utter abrogation of personal responsibility) is no one can prove they aren’t getting paid, by us, even as they campaign.

As I’ve written before, the Delegate Assembly is a scripted event. It’s designed to meet Unity’s needs, and for all Unity cares, rank and file can go to hell. Mulgrew filibustered for well over two thirds of the meeting. He claims it was essential, but it’s tough to see why (unless you’re on payroll). Just like wasteful PD we endure, it could’ve been an email.

Unity could have run their COLA proposal by the Executive Board and gotten it passed easily. They chose to spring it at the last moment because they wanted to pose as saviors.

No one off payroll buys it.

The DA is supposed to amplify member voice. In fact, the only people who got business done Wednesday night were Unity members with whom Mulgrew works closely, UFT employees. Victoria Lee, UFT Treasurer, got up and made a proposal. And Brooklyn Borough Rep. Elizabeth Perez pushed it to the top, so that it would be the only business conducted in the entire meeting.

The proposal, to add COLA for retirees, was Mom and Apple Pie. Of course we support it. Just in case we missed it, Mulgrew sent an email to all retirees last night to alert us.

Why now?

The fact is, we could and should have committed to this years ago. But wait, in fact we already did that, way back in 2007. And over the past 17 years, has Unity fixed the issue? Not at all. In fact, Wednesday’s resolution amounts to a restatement of intention, and will require state approval, the very same approval that’s eluded us for 17 years.

Did Unity just forget about it for the last 17 years? Why wasn’t it a priority when Unity was winning RTC elections? Why do they need to do this, right now?

The proposal is a transparent effort to divert attention from the disastrous health plan that Unity has tried to inflict upon retirees. I would not be remotely surprised if they used it as a tool to disrupt the RTC meeting on Tuesday (particularly to preclude Marianne Pizzitola) and made outlandish insinuations that because we care about our health, we somehow oppose COLA.

Unity intentionally withheld this proposal from RTC leadership, a blatant attempt at one-upsmanship. Unity, as per usual, takes us for imbeciles. They fully expect us to forget they subverted our health care. They expect us to forget the newly-imposed Mulgrew Tax. They expect us to thank them.

They’re in for a disappointment.

We Pay Unity Employees to Campaign:

Note—Nick Bacon tells me he was sent the message below without the Unity/UFT note. However, it was sent to all chapter members at Francis Lewis High School. I believe our CL, who tells me it was included in the CL Update. If Unity wants to clear this up, and someone with a real name wants to do so, the comments are open.

Unity loves to talk up civility. But no rules, not even their own, apply to Unity bosses, our ruling class. Take a gander at what they inserted into the chapter leader update last week:

UFT Executive Board unanimously passes resolution calling for the closure of schools on December 23rd as number of signatures on student petition grow. UNITY/UFT Caucus is strongly advocating for a significant change to the NYC Public Schools calendar for the 2024 winter break.

Note the bold sentence. UFT employees, Unity members, while being paid with our dues, are electioneering. They’re promoting their caucus to our chapter leaders, who copy and paste this to us in newsletters. Never mind that other caucuses are represented (albeit far from proportionately), on the Exec. Board. Unity takes our money to promote themselves, whenever and however they can.

Ethics, shmethics.

Unity Screws Up Calendar, Congratulates Itself for Trying to Fix:

Note also that Unity boasted of resolving three years of DOE calendars. At the DA, Mulgrew suggested his Very Smart People ignored December 23rd on purpose. Why fix a problem now, or write a permanent fix into the contract, when you can simply freak out parents, children, and UFT members later?

We’re long overdue for leadership interested in eliminating recurrent problems and actually improving working conditions. It’s well past time we had leadership that would push for better, not worse, health care for members, be they active or retired.

Unity can dissemble and play make believe as often as they wish. They can promote themselves on our dime as much as they see fit. But we’re not remotely as stupid as they think we are.

They’re fooling no one but themselves.

Thanks to Daniel A. for the graphic.

Correction—The hybrid DA proposal was not to be introduced this month. It is to be revisited in June. I’ve revised the post to reflect that.