Here is a follow-up to my recent comments on the TRS election.
Saturday. May 30, 2026
The more I delve into the inner workings of Unity Caucus, the more Trump-like actions emerge. Absolute loyalty is required. John Cornyn is only 99% supportive. Gone. David Kozansky and Ashley Rzonca were considered loyal enough to run and win on the Unity Exec Bd slate. Gone.
While we all see the Trump admin as a disaster, many see Mulgrew's 17 year tenure of the UFT as at the very least, a semi-disaster. Yet watch as henchpeople of both Trump and Mulgrew rush to praise them endlessly and claim it is the best of times while vilifying their critics.
Trump is ruining the Republican Party by making it about loyalty to him, not the party and Mulgrew is ruining the Unity Caucus by making it about loyalty to him. Again, witness the firings of D. 30 rep Ashley Rzonca for not denouncing her friend and mentor Amy Arundell plus para rep Hector Ruiz Jr. and David Kazansky. To show you how crazy and weird the Unity operation, Ashley and Hector were elected to the UFT Ex Bd on the Unity slate and David as an NYSUT and AFT delegate. Do you think that Ashley's long-time work as a DR in that district hasn't inspired loyalty from CLs and rank and file teachers, which we say in their demonstrations?
Similarities don't end as Trump's actions build an enormous opposition
to him and Mulgrew helps broaden the base of the usual opposition to
Unity by adding Unity refugees (witness Unity's lowest total ever 54% in the last election) and independents who used to shun the
legacy op caucuses but are open to new groups that contain Unity
refugees like ABC. From internal sources there are still a lot of resentful and pissed
off Unity people, but they are frightened. Frightened over losing their job
for hanging out with the wrong people is like water getting into rocks
and freezing in winter and widening the cracks. Eventually the rocks break.
I wrote about how Mulgrew met his goal of total control of the pension dept, one of the most respected areas of the UFT and an essential area to be well-run and free of politics for every UFT member who one day hopes to retire. If members are concerned that pension reps are chosen on the grounds of loyalty to Mulgrew instead of their level of competency, they may end up paying hundreds of dollars for private pension consultations. Already people have told me they are choosing that option.
Look at the process I described about the formerly semi-autonomous pension dept. in my previous post:
- and the one before that: TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis
One long-time Unity high level operative said:
Mulgrew did the same thing with Teacher Center. In the old days, the teacher center budget was kept separate and very apart from the UFT. Some tension there. Once Evelyn DeJesus (who was promoted to AFT and is now second to Randi) and current VP Mary Vocarro got the reins, things changed. I believe Dave Hickey and Mulgrew now have their hands on those dollars. Same with the Welfare Fund that was long-time head Artie Pepper’s domain. Then Geoff Sorkin was made director (in name only).
Look
through the dredges of why Mulgrew opposes the NYHealth Act --he's lose
control of the Welfare Fund which would no longer be necessary. Have
you noticed there was a big surplus there? How is it being used? They do
worry about exposure. A few years ago when oppo people exposed this
surplus and the poor dental plan, some minor improvements were made.
And don't forget dumping the old response system to calls for salesforce.
Mulgrew and Bari Weiss, separated at birth? Insecure people at the top have a need for total control. And those not viewed as loyal enough, are fired. Leaders feel they have to put their mark even on successful operations. Bari Weiss is a Trump installment.
A recent article in the NYT:
“60 Minutes” has a long tradition of autonomy within CBS News, a source of tension for generations of network executives. The show, which debuted in 1968, is still the country’s highest-rated television newsweekly, and its viewership this season was up 9 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen. Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison was pulled abruptly in December, said that CBS News and its top editor, Bari Weiss, had let her contract expire. Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist whose tenure has drawn enormous scrutiny, is readying a significant shake-up at “60 Minutes,” her network’s flagship news series. The fate of Tanya Simon, the program’s executive producer, is also unclear. Ms. Weiss is considering hiring an outside journalist to oversee or work alongside Ms. Simon. Her other signature initiative, the remaking of “CBS Evening News,” has suffered from low viewership and some embarrassing errors.
People in charge resent leaders of semi-independent
groups, often run by strong figures that transcend changes at the top.
In my research on the TRS elections even an old dog like me can learn something. Patterns of Mulgrew attempts to gain total control - politicizing what were semi-autonomous operations - meaning his loyalists in charge - emerged as long-time Unity contacts filled me in.
Now as an outsider tracking Unity for the past 56 years, I assumed Unity was pretty monolithic but according to old-timers, Shanker and Feldman, once they found someone who could to the job, pretty much trusted them to pick, yes people loyal to the caucus, but also competent. And on the whole, members felt at least the union was competently run even by those who disagreed with the political direction. I can only remember one guy who was fired - for engaging in a sexual encounter at a NYSUT convention at the NY Hilton.
This brought to mind that soon after his first election in 2010 (after a year serving as Randi's replacement) Mulgrew took control of the NY Teacher operation:
Dots are getting connected in this old brain as I see how cracks in Unity have begun to emerge, cracks I've been waiting for over decades. BTW -- when Randi took control in the late 90s there was loads of resentment from the old-time warriors from the 60s's who had gone on 4 strikes and looked at Randi as an interloper.
Randi came out of nowhere in the mid-late 80s with no history of building the union and they put the recently deceased strongman Tom Pappas as her top lieutenant to coral the troops. Randi was so insecure she even reached out to me for some support and I, naively, thought there was a chance to reach a more progressive wing of Unity. No dice. It took me 3 years to realize it.
Randi began to make personal loyalty a factor in running the UFT. When there were multiple competent people to replace her (it was a no-brainer she was going to the AFT once Feldman came down with cancer) as UFT president, she plucked Mulgrew out of obscurity. How would the UFT had looked with universally respected Michelle Bodden as the leader?
Mulgrew rose as Bodden faded as Randi's successor and she seemed too independent and smart to serve under him. It's worth sharing what I wrote then considering the unhappiness with him:
June 2008 - Michelle Bodden to Resign as UFT VP
As reported in an ednotes online exclusive, Michelle Bodden, who many people were betting would be Randi Weingarten's successor as UFT President, will take over the UFT's troubled elementary charter school.
We raised the question as to whether a UFT VP for elementary schools could be in that position. Now we have been informed that she has sent a letter telling people she will be resigning her VP position. (Will she also be resigning from Unity Caucus?)
The signs have been there for a long time (I saw signs in 2003) that Bodden was not in the running and I had to convince even people inside 52 Broadway that she would never head the UFT. Perhaps she was getting too popular. "She's really an educator," said one insider. "Not a politician like Randi. You can actually have a conversation with her about real things. Some people can't wait for Randi to be gone so we can start solving the real problems we face."
I won't go into the details, but long-time observers can tell a lot about the UFT by who stands where, what kinds of events people get to represent the UFT at, and other signs. The surprise appointment of Leroy Barr as UFT Staff Director in January made it clear that another African-American had superseded Michelle in the UFT hierarchy.
Well, they ended up with the Mulgrew administration creating more problems than he solved. And the more political he made what was already a political operation, the more problems were created - Medicare Advantage, anyone? Retiree and para vote in 2024? 54% Unity vote in 2025?
Under Mulgrew, even more insecure than Randi (and half as smart politically and intellectually) and over his tenure, resentments grew until things broke in 2023 with the removal of Amy as Queens Borough Rep which led to Amy Arundell running against him last year and getting some key Unity people to join her, some behind the scenes. Mulgrew's vengeance was to fire or try to intimidate any staffer who had been friendly with Amy with a bunch of firings coming in June 2025.
Now the reaction of loyal Mulgrew Unity hacks has been to attack their critics and even threaten them with some court action due to what they claim is bogus use of the UFT logo. Prime in their sights is the ABC group, made up in part of Unity defectors, who come under the heaviest attacks for leaving the cult.
In the "great minds think alike" category, Arthur has a similar piece this morning:
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