UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew

I was just getting passed around via the telephone... uft member

I am one of 4 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who have filed an age discrimination case against the UFT for replacing us with younger minimum wage workers... Getting rid of us, we think, was part of the overall plan to reduce health care costs and reduce services to retirees....UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well........ Fired UFT Retiree health consultant

There has been a response to our earlier post on Salesforce replacing UFT members. 

• UFT Staffer - The face of the UFT is Salesforce - Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon)

• Fuck Salesforce -- UFT Staffer

There are signs the Unity gang are not very comfortable with this story. An obvious Unity flack left this comment:

This is bs. The uft needed a way to be more responsive. No system is perfect, but the response rate now is vastly better than it was. UFT is basically understaffed. Getting a rep on phone b4 Salesforce was very hard. Often, nobody answered. Now, you get through and get a callback. 

My response:  

So you admit you guys are Bloomberg light in terms of farming out services? How nice you don't have to pay per session or hire people who know what to do. They may call back but often with wrong info. A much better system using clueless people.

My point? Unity is following the Bloomberg business model which decimated certain areas of the DOE by farming out work that was done by UFT members. We heard from some of the people replaced by Salesforce - and some are suing over age discrimination.

I just found out about this Medicare Advantage deal the unions are pushing through. I know there is some resistance from loyal UFT members but the hierarchy (Mulgrew and others) has joined the corporate mentality. They no longer value union ideals. 

They laid off all Retiree health consultants and hired younger minimum wage workers. Before they laid off all their retiree health consultants, they signed a contract with Salesforce. UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well.

I was one of the Health Consultants laid off so I saw the transition going on there. It is so sad what they have become. 

Here's some more:

I am one of 10 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who were laid off when the UFT eliminated all the Retiree Health Consultants in December 2020.

In September 2019 we were removed from our offices and put in a Call Center run by a company called Salesforce. Four young women were hired to work with us in the Call Center at minimum wage. We were told they were to direct calls to either a pension or health consultant.  However, we heard them answering questions about city health plans and Medicare and giving out wrong information. When we complained, these workers were moved to another floor.

We were furloughed due to covid in March 2020 but the UFT continued to hire Welfare Fund staff. We received an email from our former UFT supervisor in October 2020 who told us there was a stealth operation going on at the UFT. She said the calls we used to answer were redirected to another floor and she wasn't even told this was being done. She just noticed that there were no longer calls in the queque. In December 2020 when one of my colleagues asked when we would be returning, we all received a letter of termination.

I am one of 4 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who have filed an age discrimination case against the UFT for replacing us with younger minimum wage workers. Getting rid of us, we think, was part of the overall plan to reduce health care costs and reduce services to retirees. UFT retirees were not told we were being eliminated but if you attend the Retiree Chapter meetings, retirees are directed to websites to have their health questions answered.

The UFT has a facebook page for retirees but it is censored so I need to hear the unvarnished truth.

And another:

I know there is some resistance from loyal UFT members but the hierarchy (Mulgrew and others) has joined the corporate mentality. They no longer value union ideals. They laid off all Retiree health consultants and hired younger minimum wage workers. Before they laid off all their retiree health consultants, they signed a contract with Salesforce. UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well. I was one of the Health Consultants laid off so I saw the transition going on there. It is so sad what they have become. 

I'm not shocked to see Mulgrew taking the union in a classic neo-liberal direction even when touched by anti-union forces.

Are the Salesforce workers unionized?

At the moment, none of the major tech companies have a unionized workforce. Employees at Amazon and Salesforce have also implored their executives to stop selling technology to the US government.