When Is a Good Time to Oppose Unity?

The truth? Whenever they fail to represent our interests.

Unity is on the defensive after losing two major elections this year. And by on the defensive, I mean they’re out on the internet insulting people like me, telling lies, sometimes too fraidy-scared to use their real names. For my money, if you’re on the UFT payroll, or were, and want to come here, you’d better say who you are. Otherwise it’s a conflict of interest. I’ve banned two posters on that basis, so far.

There are a number of old chestnuts Unity can pull out of the fire this cycle. The one I’m betting on is, “With Trump as President, this is no time to oppose Unity. Trump is not what you’d call union-friendly, and his SCOTUS made union dues optional for public-sector unions nationwide.

You may recall this line of argument. It’s the one they used when Bloomberg was mayor. We need to stand together in these troubled times, they said. Andrew Cuomo was another political adversary for us, but I recall UFT sending mixed messages about him. However, he ran on a platform of opposing unions. I never voted for him.

Barack Obama, while not particularly anti-union, had awful education policies that still haunt us today. We failed to stand against those policies, and that’s why we’re still afflicted with Danielson today.

So when is a good time to oppose UFT Unity? By their logic, it’s never a good time. They can always find a figure we need to fight against.

We are always going to have enemies. Trump’s a Republican. Cuomo’s a Democrat. Bloomberg is an opportunist who runs with whatever party gives him a shot at winning. (It was a great moment when Senator Elizabeth Warren eviscerated Michael Bloomberg at a debate, absolutely killing his chances of becoming President, despite all that money he spent on glitzy ads.)

When the time comes to take a stand, though, Unity fails. The second or third time Bloomberg ran, we supported some guy who said the city couldn’t afford to give teachers the same raise cops got. When charter schools managed to make the city pay some of their rent, we didn’t raise a peep. When our good buddy Andrew Cuomo introduced Tier 6, we sat on our hands.

As readers of this column know well, UFT supported dumping retirees into an inferior health plan, or charging a rate beyond the means of many retirees to retain their health care. They also agreed to a cheaper plan (for the city) for in-service personnel and all non-Medicare retirees. It seems highly unlikely this plan will be as good or better than what we have now.

Don’t let Unity get away with it. Mulgrew will stand up and call those who oppose Unity enemies of the union. Make no mistake—those of us who advocate for effective leadership support the union. We demand better conditions for working teachers. We demand excellent health coverage for all.

When our ostensible leaders suggest otherwise, we will speak. We will shout. We will say the truth. Union exists to improve working conditions. Common Core was a disaster, and we don’t need a leader who claims he will punch people in the face if they take it away from us. In fact, we should award medals to people who take that away from us.

We’re still stuck with Common Core, even though they’ve taken away the name. The NY State English Regents exam is awful, teaching neither reading nor writing. The Global History Regents exam, which I reviewed on a day I had to proctor it, is essentially a reading test. I could ace it even though I’ve forgotten just about everything I ever learned about history.

It’s disgraceful that Mulgrew can dismiss our concerns about health care as fairy tales and conspiracy theories. It’s disgraceful that he’s made terrible deals, over and over again, and expects us to elect his Very Smart People to do more of the same.

Make no mistake—I strongly support union. However, I oppose incompetence. I oppose thoughtlessness. I oppose leadership that sells out membership for less than nothing, handing over more than half of our stabilization fund, a billion dollars, for a substandard contract that gave us a year and a half of no increase, and screwed those who resigned or were fired. I oppose even the notion of exchanging 600 million a year in health care funds, forever, for a three year contract.

Mulgrew and his Very Smart People should, I don’t know, read a frigging book about negotiation.

There are plenty enemies of union. It’s disgraceful that Unity applies that label to those of us demanding improvements. It’s disgraceful that Unity signs an oath demanding fealty to its caucus, and values their patronage gigs above welfare of membership. It’s disgraceful that Unity essentially takes the same position as Project 2025, which wishes to make Medicare Advantage the default.

It behooves us to support traditional Medicare, clearly the superior option. It behooves us to support teacher voice over scripted, gimmicky programs which, like all such programs, will be discarded in a few years in favor of newer gimmicky programs. (Anyone who’s been teaching long enough knows these programs come and go.)

Most importantly, it behooves us to support one another. It behooves us to come together and offer the best education possible for New York City’s children. Call me crazy, but I’ve known and observed a lot of teachers over the years, and I do not believe there is any secret sauce. We are human, with our own strengths and weaknesses, and our own voices.

As role models, we need to find what works for us, and demonstrate to kids that they can find what works for them as well. My AP is the best ESL teacher I know, and her style is nothing like mine. I couldn’t copy her if I tried. Sure, there are things kids need to know, and both of us teach them, albeit in very different ways.

Scripted lessons tell teachers they aren’t qualified or smart enough to plan. They tell teachers they are interchangeable cogs. I’m horrified, in 2024, to hear that they’re being used in city schools.

We need to think for ourselves. We need to model and encourage our students to think for themselves. And we need to assess what’s presented to us, in our schools, in our media, by our political leaders, and even by our union leadership.

That’s due diligence.

Unity has held unchecked power for over half a century. They’ve created a system that deliberately shuts out critical voices. They hang onto an antiquated voting system, and it’s high time we opened that up. Please sign our petition to make that happen.

The DA, ostensibly our chance to conduct union business, is a tightly controlled pageant that leaves only ten minutes for questions and ten minutes for motions. Mulgrew filibusters as much as he wishes, calls on whom he likes, pushes what he wants, and suppresses or delays forever what displeases Unity.

We can have an anti-union President. We can have an anti-union Governor. We can have an anti-union Mayor. However, we cannot have an anti-union union leadership.

It’s time for us to come together and demand a voice in our own union. We want better contracts. We want better health care. We want freedom to teach in the way that best suits us and our students.

And for all those reasons, we need new leadership, regardless of who’s running the country, state or city.