DA Takeaways: All About Control as Mulgrew talked and talked and talked and talked and... and loads of UFT Staff on the Dole

Did Mulgrew lie at the DA? Marianne has the answer. 

 

Michael Mulgrew - Leaders Should LEAD, not LIE

  

Mulgrew insults retirees by accusing them as using healthcare issues as a campaign issue.  

Sure I don't really care about my medicare. When Mulgrew claims MEDADV is the same as Medicare, just Part C I should buy it.

...it’s presumptuous and offensive of Mulgrew to assume that retirees who are at the DA for the express purpose of saving their healthcare are merely candidates seeking further political office. Absurd. Election season is not a bad way to frame Mulgrew’s own conduct, though, who took out the Unity playbook this DA to use our dues for his own party’s campaigning.... Mulgrew controlled the DA by going so long with the President’s report that it seemed like there would be no further business - Nick's Notes

 

Monday, October 21, 2024

I had the best time at the DA - before and after the meeting. About 70 retirees attended in person and another 100 remote. The meeting itself? Eh. 

For me the best part of the DA Wednesday was seeing so many old pals who were elected in the retiree election.  And hanging out after. A poll of attendees asking for their reaction? "Hearing people name themselves as one of the 300 new/proud Retiree Delegates," was a major response. The enthusiasm in the responses to being a delegate was palpable. If Mulgrew thought he would drive retirees away, it didn't work.

By the way, there is another big meeting coming up tomorrow - the first Retired Teacher Chapter meeting of the year and we control the agenda. Unity is flipping out over the appearance of Marianne and her lawyer to report on the court cases. Mulgrew should show up and engage in a discussion rather than just make charges. If you are a UFT retiree, come on down - but register first. I can promise Bennett Fischer won't talk for an hour 13 minutes.  We gave him about 10-15 minutes.

Arthur was remote:

In the first DA I’ve attended since I stepped down as chapter leader two years ago, Michael Mulgrew spoke for an hour and 12 minutes. When someone objected, he claimed the majority of people wanted this report. However, there was no vote on this report, and no way to know whether or not this was the will of the majority. Mulgrew said so, and clearly believes that should be good enough for anyone.

The first question in the brief question period, ten minutes I think, as opposed to the unlimited time for Mulgrew, was about health care. Mulgrew doubled down on the false narrative that UFT is the only union that opposes the MA plan. He repeated the same lies, established to be absolutely false in court, that he’s been using about the MA program.

----It's the Mike Mulgrew Show!

Arthur Goldstein

At one point in the 1 hour and 13 minute Mulgrew talk, newly elected retiree delegate Lois Weiner called a point of order:

Nick's Notes: After an hour of Mulgrewspeak, newly elected retiree advocate delegate Lois Weiner had had enough and called a point of order asking him to stop, please stop. He ignored her and kept going but you could see she forced him to go faster. Still, he ended around 5:40 when he opened up for questions.

I want whoever runs against Mulgrew to promise a 10-minute limit on president reports. Here's an idea, reverse the agenda and do the business end first and the president report last. Watch the exodus as people vote with their feet. (Mulgrew could also issue his report on video or in writing.) 

His filibuster left little room for the rest of the agenda.

It's all about control. Packing the meeting with paid staff is a control mechanism. As is the Covid excuse cap on attendees? Nahhh. The other day I asked this question:

• UFT Delegate Assembly - Why the 400 In-Person Limit? Hint: It's About Control, not Covid

And of course we saw the answer played out in real time.

 

DA Attendance limits on school-based but not on UFT staff: The place was crawling with them.

In a packed room the answer to the limit was obviously not Covid protocols. Some retirees who showed up were turned away. But I bet no UFT staff was turned away. Entire rows were reserved by some district reps. When there was applause for Mulgrew it came from staff and other Unity acolytes. So, another method of Unity control of the DA is district reps corralling the people in their districts in one area and keeping an eye on how they vote.

Note: the agenda for DA haven't changed from the Shanker days but Shanker had the confidence to allow oppo challenges. Randi, less secure, began to manipulate the DA and Mulgrew, the least confident and most paranoid, has taken things to a new phase of control. 

 

After Pres report comes Staff Director - LeRoy Barr, who is mercifully short. (Not LeRoy, the report.)

 

The 10 minute Question period:

Nick: Chris Balchin, another proud RA delegate asked the healthcare question: Now that you've withdrawn support for MAP and given that courts have found in favor of facts as presented by NYC Retirees. Will you submit amicus brief in support, send resources to UFT, etc.

Chris is super sharp -- he better wear a disguise next time to get called on.

Nick on Mulgrew response which prompted the Marianne video response above.

I said this in the executive board minutes already, but I’ll say it again: Mulgrew appeared deceptive when he claimed that the UFT was the only union officially against MAP (or, probably better described: this most recent MAP negotiation). In fact the Unity-led UFT led the charge for MAP and was one of the principle reasons we were in a financial hole (which we’re still in) that required us to find ways to make healthcare savings. For an article showing a vote in which many unions, but NOT the UFT (i.e. Mulgrew), went against the MAP decision before Unity lost an election, see here. Notice, Mulgrew seemed to defend the original MAP contract in today’s DA, which should make us wonder if it might appear in a new form if/when the City resumes negotiations.

Wait a minute: one of the principle reasons we were in a financial hole (which we’re still in) that required us to find ways to make healthcare savings. 

 

Who required us to side with the city against member so make healthcare savings? YOU - MADE THE DEAL.
Mulgrew tries to escape accountability  - like some god-like entity made that deal.

 

There was another interesting question:

CL from D24: Shortage of paraprofessionals. Is there any plan about the hiring freeze?

Nick tries to decipher the Mulgrew word salad:

Mulgrew: Sorry, sent this out but didn’t report. Yesterday, we sent an official notification to the commissioner, DOE, mayor – under corrective action plan for almost – can’t count COVID – roughly four years. Four years it’s gotten worse, not better. They’ll talk about two things that have gotten better – 1, more of the evaluations, especially for outside referrals, other thing is gonna tout that they’ve started increasing NEST programs. But now have more out of compliance. Not fighting with them.

Mulgrew's meandering no solution response made me want to call out:

Fix Para Pay

I saw one spineless anonymous Unity slug actually ask how the oppo intends to fix para pay? 

How about fuckn contract negotiations, the actual way we fix pay? But Unity slugs no longer think contract negotiations are a way to win anything much, which makes sense when you accept the city claim of not having money. The anti-Unity para vote in the election last spring shows they are not buying the "let's throw up our hands" Unity position.

 

New Motion period - 10 minutes - began at 5:52 with 8 minutes before 6PM automatic adjournment.

 

No dental resolution for you or any resolution not coming from leadership

I knew exactly what was coming - a reso from leadership that could very well have been on the main agenda but was designed to use up the new motion time and prevent the RA motion on improving our dental plan. A major ploy used by Unity is to occupy the 10-minute New Motion period that should be reserved for non-leadership resos. This was a reso pandering to retirees calling for a COLA -- interesting that the new leadership of the 70k RTC were not included. Wouldn't it be nice if they allowed the RTC meeting to discuss the issue BEFORE going to the DA? Which was the heart of my objection where I called for the item to be moved to the November DA. And btw - the Unity slugs have attacked me for opposing the COLA - a typical slimy move that only alienates people - so please, keep em coming.

 

Nick explains the tactic:

Unity executive board members monopolized the new resolutions period, despite the fact that they can automatically get resolutions on the agenda via the executive board – whereas most of the UFT’s thousands of delegates only have this precious 10 minutes a month to do the same.

The resolution both Unity members pushed was a resolution that pandered to retired voters. Specifically, they spoke of campaigning to increase COLA reimbursements. This is a common tactic by Unity – signal support for something that technically the UFT has no direct role in negotiating, so that if it succeeds, they can take credit, and if they don’t, it’s not really their fault. Notice  they wouldn’t put their money where their mouth is in terms of supporting the lawsuits that have kept UFT retirees from being forced onto MAP.

This has become a standard tactic and you know when you pick up the official lit on the table coming in and find an unlabeled leaflet on the "official" UFT lit table. It's time to demand their resos go through the normal exec bd process of approval. Their claim they have the same right to use this ten minute period is bogus when the entire scenario is pre-planned.

It's almost irrelevant what the reso is. It is designed to use up the new motion time. This time they were pandering to retirees by calling for an increase in the COLA. Mulgrew looked down at the first row in the planned exercise and called on Rosemary Lee, a member of AdCom as the UFT Treasurer and also a UFT pension rep. Staffer. Later in the debate he called on another staffer, Brooklyn Borough Rep Elizabeth Perez to move the item to number one on the agenda so we could pass it and of course immediately start collecting our new COLAs. 

 

Here is a breakdown of recent DAs time spent and it was worse this time.

 

When I used the opportunity to raise an objection to this tactic, Mulgrew said Lee was a delegate. Sure, because she is on Adcom and the exec bd - all exec bd are delegates and with 95 Unity, another way to pack the DA.

Some Unity slugs certainly have tried to give the impression that I was opposed to a COLA while I opposed voting on this reso at this meeting but instead suggested we put it on the agenda for November so we have time to possibly amend it to make it a better reso.

 

Unity tries to sell that by passing a reso on Wednesday, COLA magically appears on Thursday

I pointed out that a delay would have no impact since just by passing a reso doesn't make a COLA appear. But my main point in getting the floor was to expose the leadership tactic of taking the new motion time for themselves. Mulgrew talked over me to drown out my point. Some of my own colleagues criticized me and I think missed the point that we must attack the Unity control of these meetings by starting with their occupation of the New Motion period. Sometimes I think there's too much of a feeling of let's look for accommodation with people trying to stab you in the back. They seem to think the dental reso has a chance in November. Wanna bet? 

 

Watch for a Nov hidden leadership reso calling on everyone to eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

 

Daniel was in the house:

The Big Lies keep mounting up as Unity seeks to cover up their misuse of our UFT Welfare Fund for their patronage machine. It's time to start asking more tough questions.....three new Orwellian Big Lies originating from the Imperial Palace at 52 Broadway about their quixotic campaign to protect us all from imaginary windmill dragons endangering the Welfare Fund — even as our families’ healthcare and dental bills become insurmountable...

 

Hiding behind anonymous internet posts, Mulgrew’s bureaucratic, administrative Unity caucus is hoping that they can deflect serious questions as to how they are mismanaging our UFT Fund by painting concerned hard-working, everyday dues-paying members and whistle blowers as “out to destroy it”....

UFT Mulgrew’s Unity Caucus vows to protect our Welfare Fund from themselves?

 

I don't think the patronage machine is a key issue here. Way more than that.

 

Daniel had Marianne and Ronnie Almonte on his WBAI program last night with a deep dive on the lack of oversight of the UFT Welfare Fund. A must listen.

What’s going on with the UFT Welfare Fund?- with Marianne Pizzitola and Ronnie Almonte

Notes

Daniel speaks to UFT executive board member and high school educator, Ronnie Almonte, and Marianne Pizzitola, President of NYC Retirees, about serious questions surrounding the massive growth of the United Federation of Teacher’s Welfare Fund in the last decade while members are seeing their benefits seemingly diminish.

The Welfare Fund now has a net worth of 800 million because of bulk transfers from the City’s Healthcare Stabilization Fund but teachers and other union members are seeing their healthcare and dental benefits erode.

It’s causing quite a controversy within the union among educators and has ramifications for taxpayers and all city workers and retirees.

They have almost a billion dollar surplus. How did they get that surplus? I won't say anything is wrong here but how about showing us the books?

But I will say this -- Welfare chief Geoff Sorkin at least has the guts and fortitude to openly dispute Daniel's points and slug it out. That removes him from Unity Slug category.

 Here is more of Nick's notes:

UFT Election Season is here – UFT DA Notes, 10-16-2024

Summary/Analysis:

Mulgrew said it himself – it’s election season. Of course, he used this phrase to mischaracterize the speech of retirees who had just won a completed election to control the UFT’s Retired Teachers Chapter (RTC). No slate, in fact, has been announced to run against Unity this year, though some talks are occurring, and  Step one:

You heard a lot from Mulgrew campaigning about curriculum. What Mulgrew won’t do, however, is fight curriculum mandates in the first place. One thing Unity does well is demonstrate anger for failings they tie to the City or the DOE hoping that members don’t realize that UFT leadership could be doing a heck of a lot more. Curriculum is a good example. Ed Calamia wrote an interesting article that suggested a possible reason why this is here: “As a case in point, we can consider the grant-funded Teachers Centers. While it can be said that they are supporting teachers, it must also be said that they are ‘supporting’ the difficult work of implementing mandated curricula that teachers had no role in designing or choosing. With the money flowing in, the focus subtly shifts from fighting against the curriculum mandate to fighting for “supports.” The grant blunts the edge of the union’s struggle, diverting the union from what members want and toward the agenda of the grantor.

And a comment from a newly elected retiree delegate who fought Unity officials for not supporting his battles with his prncipal when he was chapter chair.

I remember John Soldini, the high school vice president back in the 90s, used to run his meetings the same way. He would run his yap almost the entire time and leave just a few minutes for questions. You have your designated person to ask their question to eat up time, so in effect, there’s no time left for any meaningful Q&A. Even our Unity chapter leader at Murry Bergtraum would do the same thing with chapter meetings. It’s a Unity tactic and it goes back decades. Mulgrew could email his report to the delegates in advance. It would take 15 minutes to read  and  just start the meeting with Q&A on the report. And then allow another half hour to 45 minutes for resolutions and questions and answers. Trump is bored with questions too. 

Former Chapter Leader

Murry Bergtraum High School

 

 

Recently, anonymous Unity slugs have begun to target the oppo people with the loudest voices like Daniel and Arthur by just making up shit. You know slander. I see a cease and desist coming from the ghost of Stroock and Stroock which will expose the ghost identity of what is obviously a UFT staffer. 

 

But the funniest thing is that some of these slugs are apparently claiming I am a leader of the oppo - which is causing peals of laughter coming from the real oppo leaders. 

 

I'm more popular with some Unity people than I am with the oppo, which tolerates me because I am old.