Unity Prohibits a Dangerous Sign

At the Labor Day Parade

Above you see the sign that Unity nixed for the Labor Day Parade. Scary, ain’t it?

Personally, I love the Labor Day Parade, and I go whenever I can. Alas, this year a friend had an emergency—he had to go to the funeral of a lifelong friend. So I spent Saturday playing fiddle with his band at an ice cream social in Brick, New Jersey. Sometimes in life you have to go to Jersey. There’s just no getting around it. But I had a great time (and I got paid for it too).

The parade is usually fun. We leave caucus politics behind, and we all wear UFT shirts. We are one, marching in the city we serve. The first time I went, I was working in John Adams High School and David Dinkins was mayor. We were disappointed with him that year, and wore black shirts that said, “Shame on City Hall” on the back. We all planned to turn our backs to him, but Dinkins got advance word and ran off to a tennis match.

This year, here in Fun City, other things were happening. Bennett Fischer, newly elected RTC Chapter Leader, had been working for weeks to get signs printed for the RTC. He had to get them approved here. He had to get them approved there. They had to be this size, not that size. You have to make sure this person knows about it. Also, don’t tell that person until that person knows. Red tape galore.

On Friday, UFT Snowflake-in-Chief Michael Mulgrew told Bennett that the signs would not be acceptable. He contended all signage must be on message with the Central Labor Council's theme for the parade. So the RTC, the leadership of which was elected on the basis of opposition to Medicare Advantage, was blocked from expressing what we stand for.

It’s curious, because Mulgrew himself said he opposed Medicare Advantage. And it’s even more curious, because, as I just mentioned, we once marched together with the message, “Shame on City Hall.” Was that the Central Labor Council’s message that year?

Here’s the thing—there are two classes in today’s UFT. There are the peasants and the aristocrats. More specifically, there are those of us who pay dues and work, and there is the elite, privileged, invitation-only Unity Caucus.

Even though the RTC voted overwhelmingly to oppose Medicare Advantage, and even though we gave thumbs down to out-of-touch union bosses, Unity prevented us from sharing our message with the city. As older New Yorkers are preyed upon by Joe Namath and the parasitic corporations that take our money and dispense inferior service, we couldn’t give them a heads-up. We couldn’t even tell Eric Frigging Adams we opposed his scheme.

Petty tyrants like Mulgrew aren’t anything new to teachers. We’ve faced them, in the form of bad administrators, all our careers. They exercise their personal grudges wherever and however they can. Mulgrew fired Bennett from a part-time UFT job for the offense of sending him a critical email.

When I became chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School, I put together an email list. A teacher gave me the email addresses of her entire department. I put together the rest and sent my first message to members.

The next day, I was approached in the hall by a young teacher who said, “I feel like I’ve been raped.” I said oh my gosh, what happened? She told me I’d sent her an email and she’d never given me her address. I told her I was very sorry, and I’d never send her another email again. She said no, that’s fine, keep sending me email. Of course, months later, they made her an AP. She made members miserable. Young, enthusiastic teachers jumped ship.

Leadership is not lording your power over people and restricting them just because you can. Leadership is setting an example. For instance, Mulgrew could have opposed Medicare Advantage before RTC dumped his high and mighty caucus. Instead, he went and paid lip service to opposing it, but has done absolutely nothing to prevent it.

Mulgrew went to the AFT and made a big deal over some resolution supporting Medicare. First, this resolution depends on Democrats retaining power next year, far from a sure thing. Second, it does not at all address our current struggle with the city. The city is going to court to take real Medicare away from us.Unity, as part of the MLC, has filed a friend of the court brief against us.

We’re older, but we’re not stupid. Oh, and did I mention we leave caucus politics behind at the parade? This year, Unity didn’t do that. Nor did they restrict themselves to the Central Labor Council message (whatever on earth that may have been).

That’s Tom Murphy, deposed RTC chapter leader. Instead of wearing the union shirt at the Labor parade, he advertises his privileged status as part of Unity’s patronage mill. While our chapter rejected him, he’s got some kind of AFT gig doing Very Important Stuff. And for all I know, our dues are still paying him to do Whatever It Is he does.

Perhaps we’re paying him to wear that shirt. And sure, anyone can wear any shirt they like. But Unity doesn’t make a move without consulting Dear Leader Mulgrew. (Or it’s no more paying gig for you, pal.)

So here is the message I get—We lowly duespayers may not express ourselves at the parade. But they, the few, the hand-selected, the elite Unity Caucus—they can do whatever the hell they feel like, as long as they have the blessing of the Esteemed Leader.

It’s a caste system. It’s “Your message doesn’t matter, but ours does.” It’s a ruling party doing whatever they feel like while restricting us, the lowly serfs. It’s an antiquated, outdated system that’s anathema to democracy, let alone union.

And it’s high time we did away with it. They’ve got some damn gall sitting in air-conditioned offices and claiming, “We do the work.” That’s offensive to each and every one of us who does the very real work of supporting the children of New York City.