Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2:50PM
I've been remiss in trying to write about some of the meetings I attend - I finally did so the other day - UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS - and will try to do so after the DA later today, for which I have to leave pretty soon. If you are coming to the DA show your love for Unity by wearing red. Maybe Mulgrew will call on you. 
Unity rushed through the Tom Brown TRS election endorsement Monday night and made sure to put it up first at today's DA. I've contended for years that we make
Unity defend every single position. They got away with the TRS elections
free of charge for years and now we are making them defend it. I even
wanted someone to put an opponent up against Mike Sill for Secretary to
make them hold an election. Anyone up for Assistant Secretary? At the RTC EB meeting Tuesday afternoon Brown's name came up over his embarasing performance at one of our meetings and his pity me performance over his initial support for a Kathy Hochul pension refinement plan and the subsequent backtracking. Brown did not make many friends at that meeting but retirees can't vote so it may have no effect.
At the RTC EB meeting as usual there is some level of frustration over what I perceive to be a lack of militancy. Lots of complaints over Mulgrew's not calling on retirees who have passed numerous resos at their meetings yet are not allowed to present them at the DA. For instance, we have a dozen vacancies on the RCT delegates - we elected 300 in June 2024, this shutting out every Unity retiree. We now have a dozen vacancies (deaths, dementia, people who didn't expect to win) and people waiting to replace them but the Unity machine claims we don't have a right to replace them. By "we" I mean the RTC Exec Bd. Read this from the RTC constitution:
How about amending the constitution to protect democracy from Unity domination if they win next year's election? No sense of urgency. The focus is on the political battles outside the union. There is a front group of sorts called the Labor Solidarity Group and I support that work though I chose to engage in political activity with other groups. I think RTC needs to focus on the UFT.
Then I hear some officers argue that a major goal of ours is to pressure the union and suggestions to bring in union officials to address the RTC and give them a forum makes me want to scream. I see our purpose is to organize to change the union leadership - (and the decisions to align with ARISE and split the retirees was a massive failure. I don't have the time to go into the details but will follow up.)
Unity has hijacked our meetings either from the floor with their former retiree delegates or by taking time and not giving up the mic. Unity hates Marianne with Leo Casey leading the insane charge but they are joined in backbiting by some in the leadership of RTC who seem to resent the fact she not only made it possible for us to win but also helped ABC win retiree votes over ARISE by a 3-1 margin. This lack of unity among retirees will almost guarantee Unity's election next year.
See: Are We Union? I hear both sides - Arthur Goldstein
The RTC EB is dominated by New Action -- I'm guessing at least 6 or the 25 - maybe more. ABC has Arthur and me and a few neutrals. The upcoming election with 4 candidates will indicate whether the RTC leadership is interested in forming a united front for the chapter election. But either way, the Unity machine needs to be challenged and Bennett wants to play neutral. They clearly organize and all we do is react - and I react rather passionately by going after their throats and that seems to bother the "civility" crowd running RTC --- the old adage of bringing a feather to a knife fight.
I have other issues too over what has been a lack of transparency - almost more of a fear of our own delegates and supporters.
One bone of contention between the ABC crowd and the RTC leadership was over their initial support for the new healthcare plan with some of the leaders offering full-throated endorsement. It was the ABC people who pointed out danger signs and here Daniel Alicea at EONYC pointed out in this post today how part of the deal is giving our data to the United Health Monster.
One bone of contention between the ABC crowd and the RTC leadership was over their initial support for the new healthcare plan with some of the leaders offering full-throated endorsement. It was the ABC people who pointed out danger signs and here Daniel Alicea at EONYC pointed out in this post today how part of the deal is giving our data to the United Health Monster.
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