Unity Scuttles Its Big Interference Resolution

UFT Delegate Assembly February 12, 2025

Tonight, Michael Mulgrew spoke for a full hour, made a lot of jokes that failed to amuse, and suggested, falsely, that Intro 1096 was illegal. The wasted time, of course, seemed there to preclude us making any progress, and we voted on only one resolution in two hours.

The nonsense about 1096, I suppose, was designed to rationalize his name on a letter arguing against its passage, as well as the lobbying UFT has been doing against it. It’s absurd to declare they collectively bargain for us when we don’t vote on contracts, and have limited voting power for officers.

If Mulgrew wanted to help us retain Medicare, he’d do something about it instead of wagging his mouth.

The big kahoona tonight was the absurd resolution Unity brought forbidding outside interference with our union election. It’s utterly unenforceable, and I suppose even the great minds in Unity have finally figured it is a lose-lose proposition for them. Had they lost, they’d have lost. Had they won, they’d have basically forbidden those of us battling to retain Medicare to work with the people doing it—and make no mistake, that is NOT Michael Mulgrew or his Unity Caucus. He’s offered nothing but lip service.

Tonight he admitted he’s lobbying against us.

In any case, had they won the interference resolution, they’d look like the authoritarians they are. Mulgrew can terrorize and threaten UFT staff, basically at will employees, but he can’t threaten us, much as he tries. He suggested anyone who questions the WF is a liar, and that anyone who questions his opposition to bills that would actually protect Medicare are liars. Someone here is a liar, but it’s not us.

There was a resolution to battle federal interference with our jobs. The presenter spoke a little fast, but it is indeed awful to work without collective bargaining. I’ve spent time with teachers from Florida and Texas. In one red state, I met a guy who quit teaching to work at Jiffy Lube.

I’m an ESL teacher, and I’m big on protecting my students. If God forbid ICE comes into my classroom they’ll have to take me before they lay a hand on one of my kids.

Notes—unedited

Michael Mulgrew—Welcomes us. Lots going on. Won’t be fast report. Albany, situation with mayor. Will try to keep it organized. Speaks of slides he will put up.

Para campaign—Respect paras. Have seen significant increase of para reps on school consultation teams. Bill called respect check for paras. Important not just to paras, but all of us. Did press conferences, have four main sponsors, waiting for bill drafting. Over 20 years of pattern bargaining paras harmed unduly and need to close equity gap.

Only way city will fix is if alI other workers paid for it. Imagine we tell everyone you all have to chip in and give a raise. At times we have done it, is rigged game, has to stop. Would be separate program outside of collective bargaining. If it affected bargaining, it would be illegal.

Teachers choice, not part of collective bargaining, so why not create a formula. City will say it’s illegal, we say no. Had para weekend last weekend. Petition growing. Will visit council people to lobby for bill.

Important for rest of us because it has nothing to do with collective bargaining. Would be illegal, can’t be pensionable or subject to union dues. Once we set precedent, we’re not only union in this position. Everyone else had this issue. We will start to push other unions to do this.

We want to say to city, to arbitration complex, rules must change. If you don’t, we’ll just keep using this process we’ve created. We want it pensionable, but we can use this to set leverage to change pattern bargaining rules. We and others have tried to overturn it. Not right, rigged game, we have figured this out, and then we will change rules of collective bargaining.

15-20 years from now, paras would have same pay gap, so we must get it changed. When people say they don’t want to sign petition, say it’s in your own interest, money not from labor fund.

Does everyone get this? For paras at first. Is everyone good with that. Then everyone has to start talking online and in room about how we have to change rules of collective bargaining.

Immigration ICE—President signs order does not include buildings of sensitivity. These buildings covered by law. Can’t enter without judicial warrant unless they are local. Mayor did not answer about whether ICE could enter. We did our work, went to schools with many migrant students. In NY every child has right to free basic public ed.

That’s the law, we follow it. Mayor didn’t answer. We thought things were okay, visited schools—attendance is down as result. Teachers call parents who say they aren’t comfortable with child leaving house. Mayor sent memo last Thursday, under guise of protecting workers—if you feel threatened let them through. Got many calls.

Our job is to educate and protect. Don’t need it made harder by mayor. Mayor cause undue harm, anxiety. State lawyers confirmed schools following regs. Mayor caused damage we still have to undo. We have to go very, very hard, but get info to parents.

Doesn’t matter if UFT writes stories about us. We’re getting criticized for sharing DOE info DOE won’t send out. We’re not lawyers, but get info out. Not one confirmed act of ICE agent trying to enter NYC schools. I hear false stories.

There’s a UFT QR and a DOE QR, they are essentially the same.

Class size—Big thing is three years ago we fought with city, said it would never happen. It’s happening, and quickly. This time next year we’ll be in this room and more than half of classrooms will be in compliance. Was done with CSA, DOE and UFT.

There are good plans. How much money do we get from the state? If we could fund all the applications, we’d be at 80% compliance. This is not pipe dream. We’re going to Albany for lobby day. Spend six hours on a bus to walk around Albany and get box lunch.

Half foundation aid to NYC for class size. Have 300 million distributed by need. Poverty index. Will be over half. Mayor said we couldn’t do it, no space or money, were full of crap.

Special ed.—Trying to solve biggest problem. No. 1 issue not enough ICT teachers. If ICT teacher absent, or anyone, first person they pick is ICT teacher so they don’t pay sub. Schools say can’t pay subs. Ask what the plan is when people are out. Some schools have lots of subs. Why can’t others?

Subs tell me, “They like us in this building.” treated well, as professionals. Does anyone ever ask what their sub plan is in school? Do we talk to them? Subs say they won’t go to some schools. They talk about which ones to avoid, that can get you red-flagged in the system. Please put this in consultation.

If you can’t get subs you need to figure out why. If admin isn’t nice to you, how do you think they are to subs? Let’s document it.

Executive orders—We said this would start. Utah will completely lose right to collectively bargain. They don’t want teachers to do it. We take care of kids, keep them safe. You can’t take union or collective bargaining rights for granted.

They talk about radical indoctrination. You can go to jail for that. It’s like we’re all Florida. They’re telling us what we can and cannot teach.

Expanding ed. freedom and opportunity means vouchers. Charter industry afraid of this. Charters have nosedived in voucher states. No line, no lottery, no expulsion. Parents can take vouchers where they want.

Protect Americans against invasion—talking about NYC, Chicago, LA—if you’re a sanctuary city, we’re removing fed funding.

Keeping men out of women’s sports—This is their issue, about transgender athletics. Permissible In our state.

Defending women, restoring biological truth to fed govt.—About word other. All forms should say male, female, no other. Will cost a lot to change forms, in billions.

DOE—I understand and can get behind fight to keep US DOE. They want to dismantle it because of funding. We need focus in right place. Have to follow money. IDEA and title programs must be maintained. That must be our priority. Was brought into existence to manage these programs. Will try and diminish or block grant. Block grant will mean states have to apply. Means they choose which states get grants.

There are lawsuits ready to go. We know who votes on these things. Congress and Senate—That’s where we put pressure. Have to visit every congressperson in NY with NYSUT. Are they for or against? Local public schools important to all. They want us to debate them over whether DOE should exist, so they can screw the money while we debate. We need to tell pols we’re watching them and where they stand.

Whatever Elon Musk and his kid are doing—AFT sued yesterday. No one supports inefficiency. We don’t argue about criminals—we oppose criminals. We want to protect kids, not criminals, don’t want fear in communities. We have criminals right up the street. I read what Justice Dept. wrote.

We have to be smart over what they do. They want us to argue about things over here so we don’t focus on things over there. Social media wants people’s information and that’s what we sued over. This is putting the fox in the henhouse. Pay attention to Utah.

Legislative agenda—Lobby day Mon. March 10. Virtual lobby day also. Both at same time. Big pieces on agenda—fix tier 6. We need to keep school funding up. We need our own revenue and state revenue. Most unions thing tier 6 is next year. We think you should not wait. Pols are also in tier 6. We don’t stop, we never back down.

We want age 55.

Cell phone ban coming soon—there are those opposed. Our position is

1. cannot be burden on teachers

2. has to be at egress when they come in and leave.

3. If it costs school money, can’t be in school budget.

Superintendent association opposes it. Some parents will be upset. Have been through this in city. Has been done. Have visited many of these schools. Works when done on egress. Students adamantly opposed. In end, five months later, they feel better, fewer distractions. I understand parents want to be in contact, but kids are in class. In case of emergency, they can call school. We need a line or text at every school.

What if a bad incident happens? Don’t like to talk about it but NYPD has been good about preventions. Last thing we want kids doing if this happens is use cell phone. Have caused bad situations. We might not want kid to pick up or say anything, according to law enforcement. Says they’ve done damage.

Also it helps instruction. Mental health pros say it harms children.

Other priorities you’ll get on bus.

City going through massive change. Mayor had charges dismissed. Can run for mayor and support president’s agenda. City Council needs change in leadership. Not like state legislature. Controller office open, should analyze what mayor and council say about budget.

We still don’t know everyone running for mayor. Petitioning starts Feb. 25. You all know name that’s been out there. For us, when you have this massive change it’s an opportunity to set agenda. One mayor we attacked policies. Afterward, candidates said all policies must be undone. Bloomberg wanted to close schools, policies were changed.

Candidates said DOE sucks, but it’s still there. Instead of attacking, we need to say what we want. Maybe use planning process, small groups, then implement, roll out only in third year. Better than rollout this year with spreadsheets and fidelity. Imagine HR that worked. Gives examples of happy talk.

We have long wait time, payroll issues, DOE not functioning as it should. Will be a lot of interviews. If you get on committee, you have to live or work in district. When we vet, we vet education and workers. How will you support that? Not with political issues. People have different ideas, position on this or that. Let’s find out about ed and workers first. These races matter.

I understand anger and apathy, but races make difference.

Putting together health care committee since you passed resolution. Have to give 90 minutes monthly. Will first learn about insurance co, hospitals, groups. Then all health care issues will go through this committee. They will make recommendations to DA, which will vote.

Mulgrew has asked, “You all GOOD?” more times than I can count.

I don’t believe there will be any fed intervention, so need plan to keep us premium free for four years. If we can’t meet that challenge, we won’t be. We need larger group that understands this stuff and will make recommendations.

We increased dental panel, did many things, HSS connect very nice. Many members have used. Went to right place, got best care at really good price. Starting March 1st, hearing aid reimbursement will go up. We already had best hearing aid benefits, but got so expensive. Not just a retiree issue. Went from 1500 to 4K every three years.

Makes many jokes about hearing.

Wore red all day. But today paras wore blue. Now I’m wearing to support paras.

Ends 5:14

LeRoy Barr—Fri, HS awards nominations due. CTE awards Feb 26, 28 lunar n y banquet, March 7 iftar meal, 15 HerStory celebration, 22 21 annual counselor conference 52 BW, Para luncheon NY Hilton that day. Next DA March 19.

Mulgrew—Some paras are CL. Due process not same for them. Have to deal with. Had nasty fight over one para CL terminated. Has won case, please applaud.

Questions—

Q—Welfare Fund, Over last few months heard about funds hidden, things said, have benefitted from WF, asthmatic, had to find right meds. Was WF that helped me get comfort when most meds would have been denied, Please give clarity to propaganda of money being hidden, we know for a fact that all money put forth is available to us.

A—People can ask questions. Let’s start w facts. We’re a union WF. Documented and public, Under more scrutiny than most. NY Post reads it the most. Supplies many drugs. People don’t understand intricacies. Bennett says we had great presentation. Will do it here next month. Always striving to do more. People talk of reserves, we spend 500 million a year.

Very clear our goal is not to deny a drug. More and more difficult with AI drugs. Once past experimental we get charged. You have to keep a reserve so we don’t tell people they can’t get drugs. We’re not denying anyone’s drug, covering some no unions cover. No limit like other unions. People have to understand it’s a serious business to manage WF. Only because of people who’ve run it for years.

What if someone in house loses job? You have to build a reserve. Also you have to spend. Stop saying hidden money. All publicly reported, and if you say that you’re misleading and lying you have to stop saying those things,

Q—Thank you for calling on me, haven’t been for some time. Can you explain why, as vice chair of MLC, your name is on letter trying to persuade cc to vote against bill that would save members from MA plan, when DA voted against doing so, and you withdrew support.

A. My name was there. UFT is in direct opposition on this issue. Only ones who said no. But, bill could not touch any collective bargaining agreement. Took long time to craft bill that meets that goal. We have to fix the bill, because as written it clearly touches collective bargaining agreements, like we hide money in WF, (you’re lying), no yelling out. People in bill said please tell people in room we’re here to listen and get info, no yelling out. I have engaged in what you’re asking.

Q—Mentioned Utah in report. Banned collective bargaining. What can we do to protect our union more.

A—Go to lobby day. Will have all stuff on priorities. Are you prepared to act if feds try to diminish our rights and benefits? Sooner we get that in their head, better off we’ll be. We need to have these discussions with elected officials. First line of defense is state legislature and governor. Union created at state level, and state is final legal authority for school system, not feds.

Sorry for not taking q online, online now.

Q—CL at dual lang school w newcomer population, want know your rights training for families. Admin worried will alarm community. Legally, is there a problem with me organizing that? Can it be anonymous, on Zoom?

A—You as CL can present info, but there are organizations in resource guides you could contact. Don’t give legal advice. Chancellor says this too. Would love to help. Reach out to a resource group for help. They have ability to answer legal questions.

Motions—

Mike Langley, Patricia MacNamara—res for next month, reclaiming unused space from charters. We are VHS, colocated with three schools. Our school 72 over max, other 92, Success 62 under. Are ten empty rooms for Success. If corporate charters want space, easy, if public schools want space, it’s a problem. We need the space. Public school buildings for pub school students. We want to reclaim unused space, should be process based on numbers.

MacNamara—Has QR code, passing out.

No speakers against.

930 y 15 n online 399 y 2 n in room PASSES 99%

Priscilla Castro—next month. Support for respect check for paras. Step in right direction. Doesn’t replace commitment to reg raises. Asks all activist to encourage members to sign legislation. Stand together and fight for respect we deserve.

10K not what—step in right direction Collective bargaining has failed us. 10K great supplement. 2027 paras will get living wage.

828 y 41 n online 400 y 4 n in room PASSES 97 %

Peter Lamphere—resolution to defend us against feds. Motion to extend for five minutes.

575 y 257 n online 75% passes, I don’t hear in room vote.

Olivia Swisher—If you’ve ever taught in right to work state, raise hand. We know what it’s like to work in these places. 7 whereas, whereas UFT has always defended students and right toe quality

Will actively support resistance of labor siblings if protections weakened we could be next, will defend immigrants, trans, have campaign hands off our schools. color days, flyering rallies, pickets, will culminate in actions w congress in spring.

For today—Sorry she spoke a little fast and I missed much.

Point of information—Any discussion before we vote.

Mulgrew—discussion happens if it comes on agenda.

628 y 192 n online 275 y 135 n in room, on agenda.

Anna Wanang—About returning tenured teacher observations—based on year before if HE, but two years otherwise. Many formulas. Teachers on maternity miss observation window. Get no rating, come back, and get 4 observations, one formal. Impacts teachers on leave, not their fault. Should be based on what they did last year they worked.

Mulgrew jokes for a long time.

745 y n 44 online 386 y 12 n room PASSES 96%.

Request to extend meeting 15 minutes—

414 y 389 n online 146 y 248 n 47% FAILS

Mulgrew wishes us good break, thanks us.