When So-called Union Caucuses Resist Activism

Wearing blue on Wednesday doesn't cut it anymore.

The notion of union is pretty basic. We stand together to improve conditions. By doing so, we not only help ourselves, but also set a standard for others to follow. People say, “Hey, how come they’re making that much, and we’re only making this much?” The hope, of course, that other fields will unionize, and those who don’t wish to support workers have their feet held to the fire.

These are odd times indeed. We have entrenched union leadership that’s been moving us backward for decades. Not only that, but they’ve established an insane premise that the only way to negotiate contracts with the city is to somehow finance them ourselves. Instead of unifying to negotiate a minimum acceptable compensation increase, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) spends its time trying to cut expenses for the city, our contractual adversary.

The city’s lucky to have the MLC. Members? Not so much.

Our UFT leadership has not only failed to negotiate contracts that keep up with inflation, but has also, repeatedly, sold out retirees in order to finance the inferior contracts they negotiate.

Common sense suggests that, unless there’s a dire emergency, there ought to be no givebacks for simply keeping up with cost of living.

Of course, I’m not a UFT boss. There’s a saying in Spanish that, translated, says, “Common sense is the least common of all the senses.” I certainly don’t expect it from Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Patronage Cult. They rarely disappoint.

A recent post by Fix Retiree Benefits applauded Marianne Pizzitola and her organization, NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. You may or may not know of Peter Goodman, a retired UFT District Representative, a Unity stalwart who writes columns that agree with Anything Unity Says.

Goodman is not only a proud, longtime member of the patronage cult, but also a master of the run-on sentence. As a result, he’s receiving two pensions while the rest of us get by with one. For Peter Goodman, what’s not to like about this system?

Goodman was not happy that we lauded Marianne for getting us 53 million dollars back.

Goodman has no issue libeling Marianne, accusing her of being a “scammer” and keeping the settlement money for herself. He doesn’t need no stinking evidence. Just throw mud and hope that it sticks. (Try doing that as a teacher and see how long it takes before DOE presses charges.) In this, Goodman is less subtle than the other Unity member who writes without AI, Leo Casey. Leo refers to Marianne’s org as a “business,” and thus merely implies she’s a crook.

I know Marianne pretty well. She’s not what I’d call wealthy, and she’s not stealing from us. More to the point, and what really makes petty, ineffectual union voices get all upset, is she does what they cannot. She acts, and protects us when they try to sell us out.

What entrenched voices will never, ever admit is that Marianne and her org were responsible for protecting Medicare for tens of thousands of city retirees. They fought Goodman’s bosses and won, on our behalf. They managed to delay the co-pays, which were illegal, right up until Mulgrew and his BFFs changed the frigging rules to pocket our money.

Someone is fleecing us, but it’s certainly not Marianne Pizzitola.

The last time you saw Goodman (if you ever did) was likely at the last RTC Meeting. Goodman was there, and he made the outlandish suggestion that if we, retirees, were to have an actual vote on who represents us as a pension trustee, we would somehow open the NY State Constitution and our pensions would be in peril. He managed to frighten enough members that it got voted down.

The appeal to fear is a regular Unity go to. They love having us too afraid to stand up for ourselves, and instead entirely dependent on their Very Smart People. Unity wants us to continue to have no voice whatsoever on who manages our pensions. This is another example of their resisting real union voice.

Another call to inaction stems from a more surprising source. Before we get to that, Daniel Alicea, Marianne Pizzitola and I spoke with retired paraprofessionals Anthony Delgardio and Edith Housni on WBAI. Both were contacted by TRS and unceremoniously told their pensions would be halved. If you missed it (I did.) , you may listen here.

Sheila Zukowsky is a longtime Retiree Advocate member. She’s part of their controlling group, whatever it’s called. While 300 of us ran with them, only 13 were considered actual members. (Like most of us, I only learned that after the campaign.)

Zukowsky, labeling herself as representing RA’s RTC Labor Solidarity Group, saw fit to use an image created by Fix Retiree Benefits. However, the image was altered before she posted it.

Here is the full graphic and you can find it on our Facebook page:

Note the bottom. It urges action. Zukowsky’s post removes the note to sign the petition. It removes the petition address. It removes the request to tell UFT leadership, as well as the request to tell TRS to protect their pensions. In fact, It deliberately blacks out the QR code, which would enable those who view it to sign easily.

I’ve got nothing to hide. If you wish to sign the petition, you may do so right here (and I’d very much appreciate it).

I’m not sure what Zukowsky was trying to accomplish, but lifting our work, altering it without our permission, and removing every suggestion to take action is certainly not helping our cause. And make no mistake, it is our cause. We brought this to the attention of union leadership. We brought it to the attention of the press.

UFT, which was previously advising paras they were very sorry but there was nothing they could do, is now threatening to sue over TRS ineptitude. We are very happy to see our ostensible leadership getting on the bandwagon, and we’re not through with our own efforts to help these paras. We are very hopeful this can get done, but we aren’t resting on our laurels.

Union is about action. It’s not about sending the same dozen staffers or friends to this event or that and pretending. If we are going to protect ourselves, my friends, we must stand up and be heard. That’s precisely what we plan to do. Join us!