Unity Spends over $1.5 million to send over 700 Delegates to Control the AFT Convention -AFT Needs Direct Elections

In 2024, UFT sent an incredible 734 delegates to the national convention in Houston, even though its voting strength is not dependent on how many delegates it sends. UFT delegates to the convention had a voting strength of 16% of all delegates, but sent 27% of all convention delegates. This was an overwhelming show of force. No other AFT local even sent 70 delegates. Meanwhile, the bottom 90% of union locals and state federations represented at the 2024 convention sent less than 10 delegates each.

How much did UFT spend to send 734 delegates from New York City to Houston for 5 days and 5 nights in 2024? A probably too modest $2,000 per delegate would come out to at least $1.5 million. And the bill was likely much higher than that.

Needless to say, most union locals don’t have that kind of money. And even if they did, their leaders would have to justify to their members why they would spend their dues for this kind of expense. If the national AFT election is already locked up, why bother? And so the de-mobilizing, demoralizing cycle of rule by political machine repeats itself every two years.^[i]...  The Future of Our Schools Collective

Late BREAKING - Randi Re-elected 

 

Those who think the UFT/Unity leadership is corrupt, don't know the half of it. Trevor Griffey just published a piece on Jul 15, 2026 on the current AFT convention that reveals a lot of truths.

This is Not What Democracy Looks Like: The AFT Convention and the Future of the US Labor Movement:  Trevor Griffey, a lecturer in Labor Studies at UCLA and US History at UC Irvine who serves as Vice President of Legislation for UC AFT, comments in our newest post about the upcoming AFT convention.

I commented the other day at Ed Notes on the convention:

• 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention

I pointed out that Unity received 54% of the vote in last year's election but gets 100% of the 750 delegates, thus shutting out the points of view of a significant proportion of UFT members from national and state educational policy debates (those 750 are also NYSUT reps).

 

So not only are the almost 20,000 teachers who voted against Unity denied representation, the entire union is snookered over the massive expense. AFT delegates will debate as many as 108 resolutions and constitutional amendments including voting on whether to increase the dues paid by AFT’s 1.8 million members. I can guarantee this dues increase will pass because Randi wants it passed and that means our dues here in NYC will also go up as a major portion of our dues goes to the AFT.

 

You will see headlines today or tomorrow announcing Randi's re-election

I pointed out that Randi Weingarten would be elected with 95% of the vote - if she has any opposition at all - Randi loves it when she has no opposition - see her deal with New Action for the 2004 election:  New Action/Unity in Corrupt Bargain - Why I Left New Action!!! by James Eterno, UFT Executive Board.

 

85% of AFT Locals Do Not Send Delegates to Convention while our dues fuel the UFT spending a million and a half on covering expenses for Unity members.

  

A way toward democracy is to have the entire AFT membership vote instead of the Unity dominated delegates. This major change occurred in the UAW which led to Shawn Fein's election. Chris Bohner recently wrote in Labor Notes, “Direct Elections for Labor Leaders Make for More Militant Unions.”

 

You can see why the threat of losing the NYC local election is such threat to Randi and the AFT/NYSUT/UFT union hierarchy, one reason why ABC's insurgency has made them nervous. Don't think the recent 10k para bonus designed to weaken para anger at their situation is not connected to the threat. ABC had over 100 paras run with them and the para functional chapter is the second largest with 27k members to the 70k retiree chapter, which Unity lost. If the insurgency in these two groups aligned with the growing dissatisfaction among working members, there would be a massive shift in educational unions, especially with both Chicago and LA being progressive unions. Why haven't the revolted after a decade or more in power? Randi has the power of the purse to support them - or not - in their local struggles.

 

Trevor:

......leaders of AFT locals, including mine, would be more open to subsidizing convention delegate travel if they thought convention business was directly tied their union members’ needs, and if they thought their delegates’ participation would make any difference whatsoever on decisions made at the convention.

The fact is, once delegates elected by their locals arrive at an AFT convention, they find themselves operating within a one-party state run by the Progressive Caucus, which in turn is run by the Unity Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)— the largest AFT local in the US.

UFT delegates have dominated AFT conventions through slate elections at the local and national level for over half a century. Every AFT President for the last 62 years emerged out of UFT leadership, except for four years from 2004-8 when Edward McElroy served two terms as a “transitional president” following Sandra Feldman’s diagnosis with breast cancer..

The AFT has been controlled for over 50 years by one caucus - a national version of Unity called The Progressive Caucus. Of course our beloved 750 local Unityites are the main instrument of control. They also control the NY State Unity.

 

Lois explains:

The Unbeatable Slate: Progressive Caucus Dominates AFT for More than 50 Years

The issue that shapes union leaders’ decisions to effectively boycott the convention is the perception of a lack of democracy within AFT.

Financial barriers to sending delegates thousands of miles away for five days of convention deliberations are significant, and union leaders who express concerns about the costs of convention attendance shouldn’t be dismissed as simply lacking solidarity.

But leaders of AFT locals, including mine, would be more open to subsidizing convention delegate travel if they thought convention business was directly tied their union members’ needs, and if they thought their delegates’ participation would make any difference whatsoever on decisions made at the convention.

The fact is, once delegates elected by their locals arrive at an AFT convention, they find themselves operating within a one-party state run by the Progressive Caucus, which in turn is run by the Unity Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)— the largest AFT local in the US.

UFT delegates have dominated AFT conventions through slate elections at the local and national level for over half a century. Every AFT President for the last 62 years emerged out of UFT leadership, except for four years from 2004-8 when Edward McElroy served two terms as a “transitional president” following Sandra Feldman’s diagnosis with breast cancer.

Today, the three top officers of AFT and every one of the 43 national Vice Presidents are all members of the Progressive Caucus. They run as a single slate that depends upon bloc voting. The leader of the caucus is the President of the union, who is also at the top of the slate. A recent google form to join the Progressive Caucus even called its slate “Randi Weingarten’s slate.”

One can’t simply declare one’s intention to join the caucus as a candidate for elected office, as candidates for elected office do in the US. You have to be invited. And most of the people invited are representatives of the largest labor unions in the federation. Inclusion on the slate provides direct personal access to the President, who can provide favors in the form of spending and staff support for causes that officers care about. But inclusion also requires supporting every candidate on the slate. Failure to do so will get you kicked off the slate and effectively lock your union local out of national power.

Once most of the leaders of large unions pledge to turn out their delegates to support the union President, the election is all-but-over. Support has been traded for access before the votes have even been cast. Slate voting— which allows a delegate to simply check one box for an entire slate instead of voting separately for 46 different officers— tilts the scales even more by creating a disincentive for even thinking about the merits of individual officers.

Anyone in AFT who dares even exercise their right to participate in union elections outside the Progressive Caucus has to position themselves against the entire power structure of the union— including the President— whether they want to or not. Unless the Caucus splits, which so far it never has, such challenges (recently by small groups like By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN) are dead on arrival. 

 Since so many locals can't afford to send delegates to the AFT conventions, not only 46% of NYC teachers are left out, but the small locals all over the country too.

 

 Read the entire article on the substack: https://futureschools.substack.com/p/this-is-not-what-democracy-looks and note the disparity in delegates attending - ie Chicago only 68.

Top 20 largest union locals that sent delegates to AFT 2024 Convention.

 

For Immediate Release July 19, 2026

Contact: Alexis Lopez 305-878-9836 alopez@aft.org

AFT Re-elects Officers, Hears from Union and Political Leaders, Passes Suite of Resolutions at 2026 Convention   National Teachers Union, at Highest-Ever Membership, Caps Four-Day Confab that Drew 3,000 Delegates to DC

WASHINGTON—The 1.88 million-member AFT wrapped its 89th biennial convention today, with union delegates voting overwhelmingly to re-elect President Randi Weingarten, Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram and Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus to new two-year terms.   In six packed sessions over four days, more than 3,000 delegates debated and passed resolutions on a range of pressing issues—from reclaiming the promise of public education, to protecting immigrant communities, to rebuilding public health, to preparing for the age of artificial intelligence, to tackling the affordability and student debt crises. Dozens of breakout meetings and receptions covered rural issues, faith and religion, international solidarity and more.   AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “Our convention theme was ‘fighting for a better life for all.’ That’s not a mere slogan—it’s the promise and potential to be together, to work together, to bargain together, to protest together, to vote together, to act together to bring about change—real, lasting, life-improving change for every person in America.”   The union heard from a bevy of high-profile guests and speakers, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, Democratic nominee for D.C. mayor Janeese Lewis George, Pennsylvania state Rep. Jen Mazzocco, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, IAM Union International President Brian Bryant, and IAM Texas State Council President and Texas state Sen. Taylor Rehmet.   Outgoing American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders, the first African American to lead the union, received the AFT’s Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award, and labor leader Dolores Huerta was honored with the AFT’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her decades of work with the United Farm Workers. And after a rousing Saturday address from Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, delegates unanimously passed a motion from the floor pledging support for the campaign to unionize Delta flight attendants.   At the onsite Activist Hub, delegates signed more than 1,000 “Free D.C.” postcards addressed to state governors to demand they recall their states’ National Guard from their deployment in the District of Columbia.   Weingarten, who taught social studies and civics at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., was re-elected to a 10th term Saturday night, while Ingram, a high school band director in Miami, and DeJesus, an early childhood educator and reading specialist in New York City, were elected to sixth terms. The union also elected 43 vice presidents from around the country.   AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram said: “There is only one way we all win and that is working together to push back against the forces that are so eager to tear us apart. That is why I have made union work my life’s work and why I remain committed and ready to serve this union as an officer. It is a distinct honor to work with the best this country has to offer, in order to ensure everyone has a real shot at success, happiness and security.”   AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus said: “As the onslaught of ICE attacks against Latino communities continues, today I stand prouder than ever to be the first Latina officer elected and re-elected six times to serve the 1.88 million members of this powerful union. We must look out for, show up and protect one another, because only together can we make a better life for all. Sigamos luchando por la democracia, la libertad y una vida mejor para todos.”   “Our delegates and committees tackled the issues keeping families up at night, from the affordability crisis, to defending immigrant communities, to the reassurance that AI won’t take our members’ jobs, to the protection of democracy as a whole,” Weingarten added. “To create an America where everyone has the education, economy and opportunity to build a good life; an America where everyone’s dignity and rights are respected; an America whose democracy not only endures but finally lives up to its noble ideals, will take all of us—standing together.”   Click HERE for more convention highlights. All passed resolutions can be found HERE.

Para Pay on Agenda, 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention, American History - Always Oligarchy

I have a few brief items for you today. Celebrate my rare briefness. 

Monday, July 13, 2026

Council Sets Vote on $10K Perk for Paraprofessionals

Para Pay Raise bill at City Council, Mamdani switcheroo - really, if he wants to talk affordability, para pay should be a prime factor. But there is also the factor of bonus vs pensionable salary and we are in contract negotiation territory with a cast of thousands negotiating committee. 

Leah Linn infographic on history of para bill:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DawC3M3Ry_g/ 

One comment:  

 

Nothing like an ad for your caucus:

A UFT Leaflet for labor day

 

 This City Reporter article mentions Fix Para Pay.

Some paraprofessionals, though, feel the payment isn’t enough and doesn’t address longstanding issues that they say have been ignored by the union.

Marie Wausnock is a paraprofessional on Staten Island who also co-founded Fix Para Pay, a union caucus slate that opposes Mulgrew.  Some paras leave for other city jobs that require less training and have better pay, she said.

“How do you give respectable pensions and dignity to paras when you want to give them non-pensionable money?” she said. “Paras are so underpaid. We get crumbs every time.”

 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention: They got 54% but get 100% of delegates - ABC and ARISE should have 46%

In last year's UFT election we voted for 750 AFT/NYSUT convention delegates. And I bet a batch of non-delegate Unity staffers added - call it over 800 and maybe 900. 

Unity received 54% of the vote but in a winner take all system they get 100% of the delegates as 46% of UFT voters are shut out of both the AFT and NYSUT. And of course, all 750 will vote as told on every reso - all dictated by what Randi wants.

This perversion of democracy will enforce the alliance between the UFT leadership and the Dem Party corporate center. Note the speaker list below. I see one progressive - the next Mayor of Washington who is a social-democrat. You won't see many SDs at this convention. 

Watching Hakim Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and the awful Neera Tanden disparage the SD movement is getting to be LOL - how close are they to Trump reactions. They are threatened and rather then lose control of the bailiwick they'd rather see Republicans - and billionaires - win.  

The rise of SD as a challenger to the Dem Party - see the drama being played out in Maine  is also a threat to Unity hegemony. Too bad the SDs in the UFT have had a decade long failure to show any similar organizing chops that SD has had. Ironically, the closest I've seen to an SD organizing model has been ABC and hopefully the Fixed Retiree Benefits group can also show some organizing chops. Both are a work in progress. 

 From AFT PR:

Thousands of Educators, Elected Leaders and Advocates to Gather in D.C. for AFT National Convention   Delegates Will Hear from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, US House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Labor Leader Dolores Huerta, Former US Attorney General Eric Holder, Former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams, Democratic Nominee for D.C. Mayor Janeese Lewis George and more to be announced

WASHINGTON—The 1.8 million-member AFT—representing teachers, school staff, higher education workers, nurses and healthcare professionals, and public employees—will host its 89th national convention July 16-19, bringing together over 3,500 delegates from across the country. Note that almost one third of the 1.8 million are from NY State delegation controlled by Unity Caucus, which at the national level is called the (once in a blue moon) Progressive Caucus. Oh, and let me announce that Randi will win re-election either unopposed or by 95% if there is an opposing candidate.

Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

 My most recent blog exposing the Mulgrew machine has been getting some notice.

---

The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy

What exactly has changed all that much in 250 years?

I'm a big fan and paid subscriber to Sam Seder's The Majority Report where I get great interviews and commentary and a lot of fun every weekday at noon-2:30. 

For history buffs, this interview, especially for a history major like me who took courses in the American Revolution, this interview with Jeffrey Winters was fascinating. The theme is that the founding fathers were fundamentally oligarchs who believe in small d democracy - very small d. That the constitution was designed to protect their wealth. And in this interview he goes into detail. They had a problem in their new system which had a level of democracy never seen before. How to control that democracy so their wealth would never be threatened. 

We are taught about checks and balances as one branch of government checking the other branches. In this interpretation, C&B were designed by the oligarchs leading the revolution to check the rabble who might get too much democracy and take away some of their wealth -- in case they want to tax the rich. So what else is new? 

https://www.youtube.com/live/3j7Y-w-XhVk?si=GzVwfqgVfXjlakkE&t=1863 

Here's an article about Jeffrey Winters (Author)

An urgent and shocking examination of how the ultra-rich dominate democracies, hoard political power, and maintain inequality—and how we might chart another path.

The wealthy and powerful few have dominated the many throughout most of human history. This is now more starkly visible than ever—a time when, with politicians bought and paid for across the political spectrum, the gulf between oligarchs and average citizens is larger than any gap that existed during European feudalism or the slave society of Imperial Rome. One thing is clear: the world is heading into an even deeper state of inequality, one that oligarchs of past eras could only have dreamed of. The strange thing is, for the first time in history, this domination is accomplished through democracy. Yet we aren’t in open revolt against the system. In fact, we seemingly keep voting to prop it up. Why?

In The Blind Spot, political scientist Jeffrey Winters delivers a timely, incisive account of how we reached this era of in-your-face oligarchy. Tracing the evolution of wealth power through the modern democratic era, he demonstrates how domination by oligarchs isn’t just a flaw in our democracy, but a foundational feature—allowing the wealthy to limit the agenda, control the marketplace of ideas, and rewire the law to defend, hide, and increase their money and power. Now, in an extraordinary paradox, we exist in a state of “participatory inequality,” a world in which the 99.99 percent of us participate openly, freely, and democratically in our own ongoing exclusion and exploitation.

But The Blind Spot ultimately sounds a clarion call for change, arming us not only with a vital lens through which we can understand just how bad our political reality has become, but also with bold ideas for how we might shift the balance of power. While powerful oligarchs do not cede power willingly, this period of shocking inequality is nevertheless an opportunity for change.

The Winters interview on you tube:

Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

I chronicled Mulgrew's move to make every aspect of the UFT based on loyalty in Part 1: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-mulgrew-undermined-uft-pension-dept.html 

The point of my recent articles is that something is going on inside the tent that is getting some people to give up the money. And while the number is low, there is a lot of people seething but not willing - yet. I do know that a number of Unity people voted for ABC in the election. Will we see more breaks in the next few years? My contention has been that Unity can be beaten when there are enough defectors with school-level networks that ally with the opposition to break the Unity monopoly at the school level. There were signs in last year's election.

Part 2 focuses on the TRS elections as a function of the pension department and how Mulgrew installed his operatives who put political loyalty over competence in a crucial area of the UFT where every member ends up using on the way to retirement. I include the story of one of the UFT's top pension consultants who was in much demand until he was sent back to teaching at the end of August 2025, seemingly a threat due to his attempts to run for TRS rep in the 2026 election. He ran anyway.

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 

The recent Teachers Retirement System election put a focus on former Unity loyalists who have been cast out of the cult.

 

Frank Panebianco and David Kazansky ran against Unity's Tom Brown. Both had been fired from the UFT.

TRS elections have been neglected by the forces aligned against Unity for way too long, thus allowing Unity to control all 3 pension reps who are elected to 3 year staggered terms. For years I've been urging people to not let Unity escape any election without being challenged and to use elections as an outreach and organizing tool as prep for the big enchilada - the general union election. 

 

In March 2024 Mulgrew dumped David Kazansky, who had served for 9 years as TRS rep because David was known to be independent and willing to ask questions at TRS meetings and not subject to automatic loyalty to Mulgrew. 

 

David was given a job as an AFT pension rep, with Randi Weingarten having the AFT pick up his salary. That led to the first TRS election in decades with Brooklyn Tech math teacher Ben Morgenroth running against the unknown Christina McGrath, David's replacement, an election that shocked Unity and the DOE which had to run the election. Frank Panebianco, the UFT's leading pension consultant, was also shocked as he had been waiting for almost a decade to run for TRS and was denied once again.

 

Since the DOE never had to run a real election, there were many screwups that led to both the union and the opposition raising legal objections. 

 

In June 2025, Kazansky was fired from the AFT job and had his UFT leave rescinded and went back to teaching in an elementary school in the Bronx that September. He announced sometime in February 2026 a run for TRS rep.

 

Frank Panebianco was also shocked when he was notified by UFT HR department in late August 2025, just a day before school began, that his leave was not being renewed and had to hustle to get back to his old school from 13 years before. 

 

Everyone I spoke to, including people in the opposition, have good things to say about Frank as one of, if not the, top pension person at the UFT, someone that even the top officials at the UFT have used for their final pension consultations. Frank also has a background in finance, qualifing him to be an effective TRS rep.

 

A time-line of recent TRS elections and changes in the pension department at 52 Broadway

• 2013: Frank Panebianco is promoted from an after school Bronx pension rep to full-time at 52.
•  
• 2014: Tom Brown becomes TRS rep when Mona Romain retires. Frank is alternate.
•   
• 2015: Long-time pension expert Mel Aaronson, who fundamentally had free reign to train and promote pension reps, retires from TRS and tells Frank that he deserves the job but there is worry at the top the opposition would complain and they are going with David Kazansky instead. Why the oppo would complain about Frank given the oppo never had comments on TRS elections, is a mystery. Frank is alternate.

• 2016: Sandy March retires and tells Frank he would be best for the job but they can't have 3 white men. Debra Penny, UFT Staten Island Borough Rep replaces her. 

With strong pension figures like Aaronson and March out of the way, the 2016 TRS election is Mulgrew's move to take control and politicize the pension/TRS process.  Frank is alternate. Debra Penny immediately takes over as the boss of the pension department as Mulgrew's agent.

• 2017: Tom Brown runs for second term. Frank is alternate. Frank is asked to recruit a minority woman for a full-time pension position. Only Victoria Lee from Queens pension is available. She moves to full-time at 52. Some in Queens question the decision. 

• 2018: David runs again, Frank is alternate.
• 2019: Penny runs again, Frank is alternate
• 2020: Tom Brown runs again, Frank is alternate

• 2021: David runs again. Mulgrew supposedly tries to replace him but RandyWeingarten and Mel Aaronson intervene. Frank is alternate.

• 2022: Penny runs for second term but it is known she will resign before her term is up. Victoria Lee is her chosen successor and is the alternate, the only time Frank has not been the alternate. 

As expected, Penny resigns mid-term and Victoria Lee is chosen to replace her. Some in the pension department are not happy with the choice.

• 2023: Tom Brown starts another 3-year term and Frank is once again the alternate.

To this point there has not been an opponent, so no TRS elections. 

• 2024: Mulgrew removes Kazansky as TRS rep who is offered a special pension job paid for by Randi at the AFT but leaving him working out of 52. David did not want to leave the TRS job and word leaks he was afoul of Mulgrew and possibly Lee and Brown because he asked too many questions at TRS meetings of pension consultants, questions that should have been asked.   
•  

See: TRS Passport Funds Underperform Over Last 10 Years: TDA investment options cost members hundreds of thousands in lost returns

Pensions with Ben Morgenrath

Jun 10, 2026

Frank is passed over again

There is shock that newcomer Christina McGrath, an ally of Victoria Lee, is brought in to run in 2024. Ben Morgenroth declares his candidacy, forcing the first TRS election in decades. The election, run by the DOE through school principals is a total mess. Unity leadership is forced to engage in a campaign for the first time. Ben gets about a third of the vote in very low turnout. 

 

Frank is once again the alternate, and is now pissed off after being passed over for so many years. The "3 white men" argument no longer works since McGrath would be the second woman. UFT people were asking Frank, "How could Mulgrew pass over you for Christina?" 

 

March, 2024: Frank asks to Meet with Mulgrew after McGrath is endorsed by Unity 

 

Frank tells Mulgrew he wants out - "send me back to the Bronx." 

 

Mulgrew wants him to stay and apologized for playing politics. Frank asks Mulgrew to agree to a raise, allowing him to work two days remote and to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown retires. They shake on it: 

 

Mulgrew: "You have my word and my word means everything. He praises Frank - "You never asked for anything. I didn't know you wanted the job. I want to make it up to you."

Weeks later Mulgrew asks Frank:
“How is that raise I gave you?" 
Frank: I never got it or the remote days either.

Going into summer '24 - still no raise.
 

Oct, 2024  

2 days remote finally comes through for Frank but no raise. 

Mulgrew tells Frank is was a tough battle to get him the remote and it took 7 months of battling. 

Frank asks "Why? Aren't you the president?" 

Mulgrew shrugs.

Victoria Lee who is also UFT Treasurer, and most likely had to approve the raise, tells Frank: "There's no way you will ever make more money than me."

Frank never gets the raise.

 

Jan 2025 - Frank and Victoria Lee air things out. She says "You need to be by my side - people see you with me - that's the way to get promoted."

She brings in Jeff Novzen to 52 Broadway full-time, a friend of her husband, who is a school principal, as a pension rep trainee despite Frank's objections that Novzen didn't have the knowledge or experience. 

 

Frank is shocked and tells Lee: “All the senior consultants that have years of experience and Jeff Novzen has not even done a final consultation. You picked a trainee over all the experienced special reps?"

 

Over the past few years Frank has been impressed with the work of some borough pension reps and recommends a few for promotion to central but is blocked by Penny and Lee. Leah Linn out of the Queens office is one of those reps. A prolific social media presence, she signs up to run with ABC in the 2025 election and is fired by Mulgrew in June 2025.

 

Word spreads in the pension dept that Novzen is being groomed to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown is supposedly retiring.  

 

May 2025 - Victoria Lee runs for re-election and Ben Morgenroth runs against her. Lee challenges his petitions and Ben is disqualified due to a minor technicality.   

 

June 2025 -UFT pension retreat - Lee celebrates her victory at the June 2025 UFT pension rep meeting bragging how she got Ben Morgenroth disqualified. "I won, I won. It doesn't matter how you win as long as you win."

 

She knew she wasn't well-liked inside the caucus and among the pension consultants and was nervous about her getting the kind of support Tom Brown ends up getting a year later, so disqualifying Ben on a technicality  avoids an election. Her next election, due in 2028 at the same time as the next general UFT election may not be so easy.

 

At the same meeting she publicly castigates and humiliates Tom Brown telling him he should retire. She wanted him gone so she could put her husband's friend Jeff Novzin to replace him at TRS a year later. 

June/July 2025 - Tom Brown to Frank: "My dream is to retire and you to replace me." Apologizes for not standing up and allowing "them" to politicize the pension and TRS department and says he will retiree. Frank is the most qualified to be on TRS and should run because no one thinks Jeff Novzen is competent to be a TRS rep and Frank would win easily. Says Frank is the best choice and should run for TRS as he is knowledgeable, popular and has a lot of contacts. Frank decides he will run and starts touching base with people. 

 
July/August 2025 - Frank begins a behind the scenes campaign for the 2026 TRS election by contacting his network. 

August 2025: A day before school began, Frank received a notice from UFT HR that his leave was being revoked and if he wasn't back in a school the next day he would not have a job. This was a major shock and he called Asst. Secty Mike Sill to find out what was going on. Sill told him he had no idea and knew nothing about it. When Frank reached Mulgrew he was told that Mulgrew would look into it. 

 

Sept. 2025: A few days later, Frank was back in his old school, where he hadn't been for 13 years, teaching science in kindergarten.  HR tells Frank, "We were just told to do this by your supervisor, Vicky."  

 

Nov. 2025: Mulgrew spends about 2 months looking into what is going on in the pension department and after doing his own inquiry he has a meeting with Frank and tells Frank: “I asked people all over and found out that they said, When it comes to pension we only go to Frank, we don’t even waste our time with anyone else because Frank is the most knowledgeable and he gets back to us.

Mulgrew also says he found out Frank is doing all the work (an indication that the HR rationale for terminating his leave was bogus), everyone loves him and he has a big tier 6 push and that he needs him back because he needs his best pension person there for that.

Frank agrees to return but tells Mulgrew only if he holds to his word about the trustee position and the raise. 

 

Jan. 2026

Mulgrew offers Frank his job back, agreeing to a raise and two days remote but  Mulgrew says he cannot agree on the TRS election, despite his previous handshake.  (Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen is being groomed for the TRS rep). Frank walks despite suffering a 50K pay cut.

 

More details of that meeting:

 

Frank reiterates his requests that Mulgrew shook his hand on: two days of remote, a raise and running for TRS. 

 

Mulgrew says “he can’t" and Frank says, "you gave me your word" and Mulgrew repeats, "Well I can't."

Frank responds, "I am not coming back to do all the work and be the one who runs all the projects and be the most qualified but instead in the spring I’m supposed to sit there at the DA again and watch you endorse someone else for trustee that has no experience. I’m sorry I’m not doing that again." 

Mulgrew says 
"I can’t believe you made me do all that work finding out everything for nothing."

Frank:  "You did all that work and found out the truth that I have been the one who keeps getting screwed because of politics."

Tom brown calks Frank begging him to come back, promising him if he came back he would talk to Mulgrew and tell him to endorse Frank. 

 

Frank tells him,  "Absolutely not Tom. There is no way I’m coming back because you have never stood up for me before and I don’t trust that you would now. Besides you are afraid of Victoria and she will boss you around pushing her guy Jeff and you will let that happen so I will not come back."  

 

Feb 2026: David Kazansky announces he is running for TRS. Mulgew, nervous he'd beat a newcomer like Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen, gets Tom Brown to run again. 

 

Tom Brown: Mulgrew is telling him he has to run.

 

Frank, feeling he has been slighted over a decade in his quest to run for TRS also announces he is running, with a number of people telling him they are secretly voting for him. David Kazansky reaches out to discuss the problems of two people running. Nothing gets settled even if it clear that neither of them could win. 

 

A massive Unity campaign for Brown is organized like a military operation with lots of pressure on the Unity faithful to get out the vote. They get 30k petition signatures when they only need 1k. Frank thinks he can carve out a piece of the Unity votes for Tom plus his own contacts.

 

May/June 2026: TRS Campaign Results:
A smashing victory for Tom Brown with 35k votes. 66%. The Unity campaign has won big, a model for future campaigns.

David gets over 15K with the support of the ABC network plus his own. If the legacy caucuses like RA, MORE and NAC hadn't sat this out (though a few individuals backed them) the vote would have been higher. 

 

Frank gets almost 4k votes, pretty good since he had his own personal network with no institutional support. 

 

Combined, they hit about 19k, about 34%, which would probably be a bit higher with the legacy groups involved, a rising proportion of anti-Unity people in any UFT election at this point. Let's put it at the high 30s. Their shortsightedness in not seeing TRS elections as a building block for the oppo is endemic to the legacy groups, some of whom are more focused about fighting for BDS on Israeli bonds than actually getting Unity out of power.

 

I will effort to get spreadsheets with election outcomes school by school. 

 

Will there be repercussions for Unity people in areas where David or Frank had more votes than Tom Brown? 

 

2027 TRS Election

Christina McGrath should be running for re-election but she began to rebel over Lee's bossing her around and they end up in screaming matches and are no longer speaking. Debra Penny is also upset with Victoria Lee and tells her that she is one of 3 trustees that are equal and she is not Christina’s boss. Victoria snapped back, “Yes I am!” 

 

Inside betting is that McGrath won't be the Unity candidate in 2027 if Lee gets her way. There is also the specter that Tom Brown, at age 75, decides to retire this year, thus adding a second election. 

 

Either way, expect there to be an opposition candidate, in both 2027 and 2028 when Lee runs again, hopefully one united campaign. David, Frank and Ben, all very capable, in the mix.

 

And that the legacy caucuses will get the message that TRS elections are a building block to defeat Unity and support any campaign against Unity.

 

Afterburn - 

 

After speaking with my resources and learning about what had gone on over the years I was able to have someone connect me with Frank to hear what he thought about the results of the election and this is what he wrote:

I wish Tom the best of luck, he was like a big brother to me and I hope he stays the 3 years for the term, because that is what people expect from him when they voted. It’s too bad he was ‘forced’ to run. There are people who actually cared about the position and wanted to be able to use their knowledge and experience to help members and not make this political.

 

 ====

 

The mess at UFT HQ is not all that new.

  

Some background on politicizing at the UFT: 

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Mulgrew Removes Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos - Was She too aggressive on certain abusive principals?

UFT Update: Internal Wars - Engler and Schoor

Engler is still employed and makes $215,447 a year... NY Post - UFT director sends scathing emails with typo to secretary

Engler is the power behind the throne at UFT & Mulgrew defers to her .... anonymous

The NY Post has a story about emails from a year ago from Ellie Engler complaining about Howie Schoor's comments to Bronx staffers.

“I had a disturbing meeting with the Bronx folks about what you said to them,” Engler wrote last August in an e-mail to Schoor that was copied to UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and other top personnel. “They reported that you said, everyone hates Ellie and I am getting in your way to do the work you want to do.” 

 

How Mulgrew Undermined the UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election - Part 1

 

July 6, 2026

I am seeing things in a new light. I always assumed Unity was monolithic and there was little internal debate - that since Shanker the person at the top controlled everything. But an interesting perspective is emerging as current and former higher level Unity reveal the internals. This is Part1. Part 2 is here: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/nepotism-and-cronyism-mulgrew.html

Despite serious disagreements, activists within the usual suspect legacy caucuses opposed to Unity managed to have some working relationships with the leadership. In a sense, the active Unity and oppo people became a sort of sub-class in the union of people who were involved beyond the regular membership - a sort of synchrony of common interests, which comes undone for a few months every 3 years during UFT election. These are the people you are likely to see in early September at Labor Day Parades where all sides greet each other with some warmth. 

We knew which officials were competent, such as Amy Arundell. Appointees to union positions has always been political and based on loyalty to Unity Caucus and the leadership but being capable and competent was part of the equation. 

Yet, over the past few years there has been a shift as we saw less and less competence  and internal and external unhappiness with the Mulgrew leadership and we see major purges within the caucus and threats to those who don't conform.  

The theme of this post delves into this Mulgrew shift - total control of every aspect of the UFT, total loyalty expected and valued over competence, as evidenced by comments from current and former Unity and union officials. That has led to fear and resentment among the Unity faithful. 

UFT full time and part- time staff were threatened with their jobs if they didn’t get the votes from their school for Tom Brown in the TRS election, a pattern Mulrew has set since The Friday Night Unity Purge/Massacre of June 27, 2025. The Queens Borough Rep, who replaced Amy Arundell, held meetings telling pension consultants, “If you don’t get the votes for Tom, you are replaceable." In areas where Tom Brown votes were weak there may be some nervous district reps.

I use the Frank Panebianco story as a case study of the loss of competence at the UFT, not to mention David Kazansky, both of whom ran against Tom Brown, their former colleague, in the recent TRS election. Shedding these two, along with Amy, D. 30 Rep Ashley Rzonca, Leah Lin, paras Hector Ruiz, Jr., and Migda Rodriguez is a serious brain drain. A Unity insider commented:

Downgrading competence: The essence of internal UFT policy: Never pick a successor who might do a better job than you. Always pick someone less competent than you so they won't do better.

UFT members have been noticing. 

More Words from inside Unity:

• No one is a free thinker anymore. Mulgrew controls every aspect of the union. When I started and was recruited to Unity, there were spaces for debate, conversation, dare I say suggestions. All totally gone now. 

• Mulgrew makes everyone have a fear-based mindset so even if you’re good at your job you don’t really do it the best it can be done because that’s not what’s wanted.

• The entire union. Teacher center, and welfare fund are cash cows.  

• Numerous Unity oldheads told us that under Randi, it was also a dictatorship, but that she at least not only tolerated dissenting voices, but wanted a couple of them in the room when an issue was being considered. When she made her decision that was that, but at least she heard both/all sides before she did. Under Mulgrew all of those dissenting voices have been pushed out. 

• Don't forget the ouster of Maria Niera from NYSUT Leadership a decade ago and making sure we all voted for their endorsed candidates by checking the ballots before we submitted them. 

• The firing of pension expert Frank Panebianco days before the end of summer because he was telling people he was going to run for TRS because Tom Brown told him he would retire. When he asked Mike Sill and Mulgrew about it, they said they knew nothing about it. So who fired Frank? Read the surprising answer below. 

• Mulgrew shook hands on it: "I give you my word and nothing means more to me than my word." Soon after, Mulgrew went back on his word. 

Like Trump, Mulgrew seems to have the ability to unite more and more people against him, even those with differences.

 

My mantra over the past few decades has been that Unity will not be defeated until the oppo organizes in enough schools to challenge their control. Yet, as elections have proven, other than high schools, there has not been much of a dent in Unity control with the exception of the 2024 retiree win, which is proving that unless you win the entire union, not a lot changes. 

 

The 2025 general union election showed that there are defections from Unity but many defectors did not feel comfortable landing in one of the existing legacy caucuses but did feel comfortable with ABC, a new entity. The question is can humpty-dumpty be put back together again where legacy caucuses and ABC can come to some form of accommodation? 

 

Their combined total of 46% offers the possibility of victory in 2028 but the resentment towards ABC upstarts is palpable, from the legacies and Unity, where we see them at times working together as both are threatened. As legacy groups fade in influence, the future oppo to Unity may hold the irony of Mulgrew's actions are helping form that opposition. 

 

Let's look at some of the growing cracks in Unity by focusing on the Teacher Retiremee election and how it is linked to the pension department S candidates and the impact on the pension department.

 

My recent blogs on the TRS election leads to bigger conclusions on the way the leadership has politicized the formerly semi-independent areas of the union. 

• David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election as Fear and...
• TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis
• TRS Election Count - No Final Results Until June 2...
• Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA     

Mulgrew wants tight control and total loyalty from every corner of the union. Current and former Unity insiders point to:

• Pension/TRS: Victoria Lee acts as boss in Mulgrew's name.
• Welfare Fund: Geoff Sorkin in name only.
• Call Center: Salesforce replaces UFT staff.
• Teacher center: Mary Vocarro turns it political.
• Grievance: Mark Collins. There hasn’t been a real grievance chair since Howie Solomon. There is no institutional knowledge and a fear to take cases. So much is non-precedential, so it’s wack a mole.
• Political action: The director is there just as a figure head. Cassie Prugh and Mulgrew make all the decisions. (Witness the decision to endorse Dan Goldman over Brad Lander, exposing Mulgrew's true politics.) 
• Borough offices: Amy Arundell fired from Queens office, along with Leah Linn, not the first time put in someone under his thumb. In 2016 Mulgrew replaced the popular Brooklyn Boro rep Debbie Poulos with a political hack according to some staffers. Some point to changes in the Bronx office too.
• NYSUT - Mulgrew's total takeover 2014 NYSUT Election Update: Message to Revive: Now that...NYSUT Election Update: Julie  Cavanagh Defeats Mulg...  NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen Stands Up to Bul...

All politicized. The removal of institutional knowledge and so similar to Trump.

 

Coming Next: Part 2 - Genesis of the 2026 TRS Election.

The TRS election put a focus on former Unity loyalists who have been cast out of the cult. Recent history of TRS elections. How Mulgrew undermined trust by politicizing the pension dept and putting loyalty over competence.

 

 

Election Mania: Mamdani Wins Big, UFT Loses Bigger, The State of DSA in the UFT

I hold this truth to be self-evident: 

The UFT leadership continues to be in bed with the establishment political machine that often is not aligned to our values and not held accountable for making decisions that affect us.  The uft is the democratic establishment and Mulgrew will try very hard to keep the Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Grace Meng, Hilary Clinton, Randi weingarten etc etc etc power going along with his own.

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Before I get into thoughts on the recent election, tonight is a Fix Retiree Benefits Zoom. Stop by and check it out. The goal is to do one hour from 7-8 but it might run a bit longer. I need to write a lot more on what's going on in the retiree chapter and might get a chance at the zoom tonight.

28 Jun 2026WEBINAR

Fix Retiree Benefits Launch Town Hall Meeting

7:00 PMZoom

RSVP

Congrats to all my still in-service friends on the end of the school year and another step to retirement. But I should point out that a number of my colleagues in ABC ended the school year writing about how much they still love teaching ever two decades in.

I'm about to head out to a DSA celebratory beach party that will last all day.  

Tuesday I speculated on the election outcome. I expected a closer race in 7 where Reynoso had the advantage of the Nydia Vazquez and his own machines, which turned out to be barely machines at all, a sign of the deterioration of the Dem Party generally and how non-competitive it has been nationally. National and local media were going nuts in shock over the big 3 wins by Mamdani as all losing candidates were backed by the Dem machine led by Hakeem Jeffries.  And if Mamdani had allowed Chi Ossi to primary him, guess what? 

Jeffries will face a primary next time and if he was smart he would take a run for Chuck's Senate seat, though DSA will probably go for that, though I'm not sure there is enough DSA muscle to win a state race. Or Jeffries might just do a turn around if he's a good politician. But DSA should also keep its discipline and talk of a 2028 candidate is fantasy at this point, though Ro Khana is beginning to look like an acceptable candidate along the lines of Brad Lander has been. Not as left but not center.

It was a smashing victory for DSA which also elected 16 members at the state level and is spreading outside NY. 

DSA Dominates Albany Elections Despite Super PAC Deluge:  The DSA made gains in New York despite super PACs spending $9.6 million in state legislative races — nearly five times the total from 2024... ny focus

Note this Jacobin headline: 

Socialists Won Big in NYC Last Night and Aren't Done ...

Reynoso was more embedded in traditional backroom political dealmaking and backed by the low-expectations wing of the labor movement, in which politics is mostly a matter of making safe bets on electing and reelecting traditional corporate Democrats — even in cities and neighborhoods where it’s clear that the horizons have shifted in a more expansive pro-worker direction. That approach to politics was decisively defeated.

Center Dems don't seem to have enough of a ground game left, relying on endorsements and ads but not enough of a GOTV game. 

I would apply the same idea to UFT elections where the only way to defeat Unity is with a ground game, which the oppo has never developed. 

I've been a fringe member of DSA for about 8 years even when I disagree with a bunch of their positions but love the energy and organizing ability. I attended South Brooklyn branch meetings until the pandemic. They live up to the democratic label with extreme democracy at local levels. I get to vote on so many issues and leaders. Recently I've hooked up with a group of DSA in Rockaway and we canvased for Mamdani. They are even having an all day beach party in Rockaway today. 

Tuesday was also a smashing loss for the UFT/Unity leadership. Look at this graphic:

An ABCer on FB commented:

Michael Mulgrew and the UFT leadership not only once again backed a losing political candidate, they did so:

a) when every single poll had him behind the candidate that ultimately won — at one point Goldman was polling nearly *thirty points* behind Lander, and

b) without a vote from the Delegate Assembly, the only body in the UFT with the authority to make political endorsements (unless the Delegate Assembly votes to kick the decision to the Executive Board, which to be clear in this instance they didn’t) 

Three out of four lost, though I liked the Bores endorsement which was interesting since the UFT endorsed Micah Lasher last time for the state assembly, as I wrote about a year ago:

Another Unity/UFT Sellout - Backs Micah Lasher, Bloomberg pro Tier 6, Charter School, Student First Acolyte - for State Assembly

What happened I wonder for them to abandon Lasher? Maybe the Tier 6 issue stuck?

Mulgrew endorsed every one of the three losing Congressional candidates. The UFT endorsed Goldman over Lander without an endorsement vote from the Delegate Assembly while Mulgrew lied, claiming NYSUT endorsed Goldman. Which means someone somewhere in the union (guess who?) made a decision to undemocratically exercise their political prerogative over the members. Doing this not only violated the UFT constitution, but more importantly it’s flat-out wrong and selfish, and made all the more so when you consider that whoever this presumed "expert" was backed a candidate that lost by nearly 30%.

The union leadership continues to be in bed with the establishment political machine that often is not aligned to our values or not held accountable for making decisions that affect us.

DSA has been a hot item in the mainstream press with the emphasis on the growing threat to the Democratic Party by both the right and the so-called "moderate" Dems, which is really corporate/AIPAC friendly. James Carville positively lost it, joining Trump in seeing a threat to the nation by DSA wins. 

Think of the Corp Dems calls for DSA to stay out of the Dem Party and form their own party. The James Carville off the wall comments. Imagine they replaced the Green Party in a much more effective manner and ran a third party presidential candidate, thus making the Dems a sure loser. Oh the howls of protest for them doing exactly what they are being told to do if they did not be part of the big tent? 

Most Dems still say the party is big-tent even with the extreme views expressed by some winning candidates. Now never forget that our own beloved UFT/Unity leadership are very much part of the anti-left Dem Party going back to the Shanker roots of supporting the Vietnam War. The Mamdani endorsement was forced on them by the stark choice of him or Cuomo - and the clear direction of the momentum. But make no mistake, the UFT fundamentally is where it was politically in the Shanker years. 

The UFT leadership engaged in a vicious red-baiting attack on DSA as recently as January, 2025:

 

How different is this from the Trump comments?

I blogged about that post: 

DA Chaos - Unity Goes Red-Scare Wilding In Dual Attacks on MORE Caucus and Arise - And also Aims Dart at Marianne

 I noted:  

A strong candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani is in DSA. Imagine the UFT, given a choice between Cuomo and Mamdani, will back Cuomo because of their 65 year history of vicious anti-communism and red-baiting. 

Well I was wrong on that as it was clear Cuomo was going down and give Mulgrew credit for hopping on board with a winner, though it may not help much in upcoming contract negotiations.

The Unity crowd toned down their critiques of MORE and ARISE with the rise of ABC, a big tent group that both ARISE components and Unity see as a bigger threat, as it proved in the election with their 32% compared to the ARISE 14%. 

How come the DSA crowd centered in the 14-year old MORE Caucus has failed to develop a ground game in the UFT, as evidenced by the 14% vote in the 2025 election for the ARISE slate? Remember, the other two caucuses in ARISE are retiree RA and the mostly retiree New Action, so MORE was expected to carry the load and clearly failed. The failure of DSA people in the UFT compared to the success of DSA on the larger playing field is worth exploring in a follow-up but here's my initial view: MORE began in 2011 as a big-tent operation but post-2016, the DSA/ISO (now defunct) leadership decided to narrow the tent with a move to the left that pushed out even fellow-leftists, many of whom have drifted to ABC. 

One of the keys has been the hemorrhaging of MORE members who leave teaching or jump out of the intensity of the regular classroom. Or jump from school to school. I came into my new school after 3 years of teaching when I got my full appointment as the resident big mouth radical and turned many people off. It took me 5 years to begin to gain the trust of my colleagues and yes, I modified my big mouth radicalism. I heard Hasan Piker last week make the point that newly organized often go over the top and it takes years to learn to temper things as you work with people not of your views. 

The internal big tent vs narrow tent struggle in MORE was between the older lefty ICE people and the younger International Socialists who at one point according to internal memos, considered giving up on the MORE project until they came up with the idea of going to DSA to recruit teachers into MORE - and they were so successful they were able to dominate by 2018 and push the ICE people out, this cementing MORE as a hard left caucus, which meant they could never win a UFT election on their own, as they found out when they ran alone in the 2019 election, thus forcing them into alliances with United for Change in 2022 and ARISE in 2025, with increasing alienation from a strong minority that either doesn't want to run in elections or doesn't want to compromise with other groups that don't adhere to their rigid ideology.

Big tent vs narrow tent

Unlike the DSA in the big tent Dem Party, the DSA faction in MORE believes the caucus must remain small tent pure. I contend that if the original MORE as big tent that included people from ICE had been adhered to, MORE would be a contender. Let me give you one example of a hard-core MOREista I was friendly with a few years ago. She texted me asking where I stood on Israel about a year and a half ago and I replied I was still working things out due to my growing up in the post-holocaust era. I was Done. Ghosted. 

The DSA has proven it can be a major force on all levels of politics with a big-tent approach in the Dem party and internally there is some room for a variety of caucuses to operate. Is that a perfect solution to democracy? I had offered that type of idea at the very first meeting of MORE -- let ideas compete in an open way. But that's not the way of ideologues. 

In my final days in MORE I proposed they were more of a club or advocacy group in the UFT, which I was fine with -  just not a caucus in UFT elections and I have been proven right. My advice is to not run as a caucus in UFT elections but to be open to whatever members who do want to be involved do so. ABC would be the perfect place for them to land. If MORE followed my advice, ARISE would be dead, it it already hasn't died and we would have one group facing Unity head on, with an actual chance to win in 2028. But don't expect practicality to win out. 

Afterburn 

Check out Ross Barkan  

The New Socialist Revolution: Zohran Mamdani's remarkable night

Mamdani cannot impose his will on the Democratic Party like Trump has on the Republicans. The moderate, institutional Democratic faction lucked out; they will not, for now, be driven to extinction. They will not suffer the fate of all the Republican politicians who stood against Trump over the last decade. Luck, though, comes with caveats. Within the five boroughs—this beating heart of Empire—they are going to have to fight for their life.