Today's DA and Yesterday Town Hall -- Ode to Hot Air Mike: President of Piffle, Sultan of Spin, Lord of the Loophole

Tuesday, July 8 -- a day I have to leave the beach and shlep into Manhattan for the DA.

Today is an emergency Del Ass to endorse a mayoral candidate and there is some speculation of some kind of deal between Mulgrew and Mamdani. Remember the Unity attack on DSA? I posted about this possible endorsement last week and speculated about how the UFT kiss of death may cause Mamdani to lose. 

• Will UFT Endorse Mamdani after their attacks on DSA? Will that be his kiss of death? Would Cuomo/Adams Odds Rise?

The orthodox Jewish group, which boycotted voting for ABC or ARISE because of Amy and MORE sympathy for Palestinians and chose Unity, is certainly not happy. They put out a statement somewhere but I can't find it.

 

ABetterContract.org put this out yesterday: 

Jul 07, 2025

We need a member-led process with transparency, healthy debate, and accountability. We stand on our platform position that members should vote for major political endorsements.This is not a democratic process. It’s a performance. And it’s insulting.... 

The UFT’s Endorsement Process Is Broken: 

 

ABC who show up are going out after so why not jump on the ferry? 

 

I missed most of the retiree town hall yesterday because I didn't get the time right and logged on around 3:25 and by 3:35, it clearly ran out of steam. Some focus on the stuck para bill. I give Unity credit -- pushing a campaign for 10k para bonus worked to drain potential para votes from ABC -- our chance to win would have required a big para turnout for ABC. But that gambit won't work again. I compare the success of the Mamdani campaign to pull out new voters. And that was the same idea of the ABC campaign - not to rely on the usual suspects from legacy caucuses, which have shown no real growth over decades of so-called organizing. Their 14% was even worse than the Cuomo campaign. We can all learn from Mamdani -- and a key is people in the schools. ABC ran 520 out of the 560 who ran with us in schools while ARISE ran around 350 in school people plus 140 retirees. My advice to ABC is to start asap to build an even firmer base, not just for elections but to become a constant force in the UFT. Recent firings by Unity will help in that effort, as I will point out in an upcoming post on the Unity purges.

 

Some comments on the town hall related to the stalled para bill.

He’s right this had to do with politics. Him wanting to get re-elected and him willing lie to get votes.

 

Everyone else’s fault.

 

Politics got involved in a bill??? Dumb. 

 

He comes up with the hair brained idea. Tells the paras it is as good as done, so the paras can have a vacation on the money coming their way, tries to sell it to the City Council with a massive $ tab and gets 47 to agree to it theoretically in the middle of an election but their bluff isn’t called because they only needed the election to be over, and then blames them for not doing as he said (forgetting that the City Council isn’t the Unity caucus). Did I miss anything??

 

Mulgrew has found a way to piss off the billionaire oligarchs and lowest paid rank and file unionists in the City with one bill. Truly remarkable.

 

 And a poem:

Ode to Hot Air Mike
President of Piffle, Sultan of Spin, Lord of the Loophole

Oh Hot Air Mike, thou mighty breeze,
Who fills the halls with empty pleas,
Your town halls soar with pomp and flair—
Yet leave us gasping for real air.

Great Chancellor of Chatter Vague,
Your titles mount like anti-union plague:
“Commander of Circular Replies,”
“Baron of Bureaucratic Lies.”

At 52 Broadway you reign,
With crafted scripts and well-worn strain.
We ask for truth—you dodge and dance,
A master of the vacant stance.

You float above with bloated grace,
Your words: a cloud, your tie: a face.
Beneath, the Unity crew looks glum—
Each nodding head, profoundly dumb.

So here’s to you, oh winded knight,
Who turns each grievance into light.
Our questions burn, our hearts are sore—
You answer us with metaphor.

Long may you drift, ballooned and bold,
Your speeches tepid, stale, and cold.
But know this well, dear Mike of Mist:
The rank and file are getting pissed.

 

ABC Celebrates End of School Year June 27 - Join in, ICE-UFT Does Election Dissection June 19

ICE-UFT is setting up an in-person meeting to dissect the UFT election on June 19th at a midtown diner - yes, rice pudding on the menu (this photo is from 2013). This will be a hard-hitting no holds barred analysis. 

Email me if interested:
normsco@gmail.com. There's limited space.

 

Saturday, June 14th, 2025

All 18 thousand ABC voters are welcome --- 

Good Afternoon, ABC People - and the rest of the alphabet.

Thank you so much to everyone one of you who supported and participated in the campaign for A Better Contract, and who voted for A Better Contract in the 2025 UFT General Election! 

We want to thank you all who had one-on-one conversations, flyered, texted, knocked on neighbors doors, and came to Zoom calls. WE are the UNION, and we showed the way to how we can organise, come together and fight! This does not stop at this election-- we are not going away!

As thanks and to celebrate, we are hosting an ABC Party on Friday, 6/27 at 6pm at 

El Vez (reflected in the RSVP Google Form) in Lower Manhattan:

Venue: El Vez

Event Address:   259 Vesey St, New York, NY 10282
Contact Phone:  (212) 233-2500
Menu: https://elveznyc.com/menus/happy-hour/ 

Date/Time: Friday, June 27th at 6PM

Let's celebrate our success and meet each other in-person! Thank you for believing and supporting ABC!

Google Form: https://forms.gle/8d8xT47HkZH7DACu6 

Best,

Also, please share with any ABC supporter and friend you know! The more, the merrier!

Let's continue to organize and hold Mulgrew/ Unity accountable as we prepare for chapter elections in 2027 and the next general election in 2028! 

 

 6/27 ABC Party RSVP

ABC-UFT Media - Mulgrew’s Election Tactics Spark Legal Consequences

For Immediate Release

Press contact: Mike Schirtzer

(917)683-7014

(New York, N.Y.) The "A Better Contract" slate is sounding the alarm on a desperate, undemocratic move by United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus in the upcoming UFT union-wide officer elections. Despite paper ballots being mailed out to members on May 1st, Mulgrew has decided to add his own election rules and block several attempts to increase voter participation.

After years of rejecting electronic voting—even though our sister AFT union, PSC-CUNY, already uses it successfully—and watching turnout plummet, Unity is now pushing a last-minute in-person voting plan at select, controlled locations. Meanwhile, they’re rejecting the one solution that would actually boost turnout and empower members: in-person voting at our own schools and worksites, the same way we vote for our union contract, Chapter Leaders, Delegates, and Paraprofessional Representatives. The fact we elect our building representatives in school, but not who leads our union is absurd.

Online voting would also allow for members with disabilities, such as those who are visually impaired, to cast their votes independently. This would be considered a “Reasonable Accommodation” under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

“They had no interest in increasing participation when members demanded real reform,” said Amy Arundell, UFT Presidential challenger. “Now that they’re losing their grip, they want to stage controlled, in-person voting sites where they can feed you, give you a gift—and convince you to vote again.”

Here’s the catch: if a member votes again in person, that vote overrides their mail-in ballot. That means your original vote—already cast —gets thrown out and replaced. It’s double voting with a twist: only the second vote counts.

Even more concerning, many of these in-person voting events are being held at special dinners and award ceremonies—mixing voting with celebrations in a way that creates the appearance of impropriety. This raises serious ethical concerns and calls into question the legitimacy of the entire process.

“They won’t let us vote at school or online—but they’ll hand out dinners, awards, and gift bags, then tell members to vote again. First vote tossed. That’s not democracy—it’s a scam,” said Daniel Alicea, candidate for UFT Vice President of Middle Schools.

“This is about one thing: control,” said Arundell. “Unity knows the only way they can hold onto power is by stacking the deck—selecting who votes where, while their loyal insiders run the show.”

To make matters worse, the so-called “nonpartisan” election committee is anything but. It’s filled with Unity Caucus members and paid union staffers, making this entire process biased from the top down.

The A Better Contract slate has filed a lawsuit to stop this manipulation and is demanding a fair election—where every vote counts, no matter how or where it’s cast.

“This union belongs to the educators in our classrooms—not to a political machine clinging to power,” said Arundell. “We’re not backing down.”

Link to full lawsuit here

verified petition2.pdf drive.google.com

A Better Contract is an independent slate of over 550 UFT members that will challenge the over six