As Panic and Fear of Losing Grows, Will Randi Play the Part of Nancy to Mulgrew's Biden?

As panic and demoralization grows inside the increasingly narrow level of support for Michael Mulgrew's leadership inside the Unity crumbling fortress, how close are we to an evacuation helicopter on the roof of 52 Broadway to take Mulgrew and key supporters to sanctuary in NYSUT or the AFT? 

Mulgrew did the usual desparate act of moving deck chairs with a top level shakeup. Co-staff director Anthony Harmon is already on the way to NYSUT sanctuary - was he pushed or did he get out while the going was good? LeRoy Barr's seeming power was also reduced by the return of the incredibly ineffective Ellie Engler, a known Randi operative who is considered the eyes and ears for Randi inside the UFT. And long-time operative David Hickey has been plugged in as a key advisor. Oh, and I hear Mike Sill is now something or other. 

Word is a number of Unity Chapter Leaders lost their elections, another bad sign for Unity.

Imagine Unity staff seeing the possibility of losing their jobs if the Mulgrew candidacy continues - compare them to the Dem faithful after the June 27th Biden debate disaster? The UFT equivalence was the June 14 RTC vote count and seeing the stunned disbelief on the faces of Unity honchos. 

Randi appeared a few days later at the final RTC meeting under Unity control for at least the next 3 years and said she "heard" us. What she really heard are footsteps coming for Unity control of the UFT in this year's election. And what might a Unity loss and its 700 AFT delegates mean for Randi's control of the AFT? Watch for her helicopter?

Now we know Mulgrew arrogance won't let him leave as Biden arrogance kept him saying he was going to run hell or high water? At that point Nancy Pelosi jumped in and laid things out in a way Biden seemed to understand. It didn't take long after that for Kamala to come into play.

So, in a parallel universe, as internal polls come in showing severe dissatisfaction with Mulgrew, can madame Randi/Nancy pull off a similar swap of Biden/Mulgrew for the UFT in time to save them? Some think Mulgrew would be a candidate to replace Randi at the top of the AFT, but given his performance would anyone trust this guy with the national teacher movement keys?

In this scenario, there is a fly in the ointment: Finding a Kamala to replace Mulgrew. Not all that much in the Unity coffers, though I know of a few. 

So until Randi can find her Kamela, Unity will continue to flounder, with a helpless Randi left dangling. And the election clock starts clicking this week. 

Mulgrew Offers Tepid "I Give" on Medicare Advantage, Bennett, Marianne and Arthur response

I disagree with President Mulgrew's analysis. UFT retirees are neither fearful nor anxious. We are clear-eyed and steadfast in our opposition to the privatization of our public Medicare benefits. We are not the panicked old fogies that President Mulgrew pictures us to be....Bennett Fischer, newly elected CL of the RTC/UFT responding (full text below) to Mulgrew's withdrawing support for Medicare Advantage

Dear Norm,
I cannot believe the letter I got from Michael Mulgrew.  He is trying to put forward that only the City and the Mayor were pushing this plan.  After everything, he still thinks we are stupid sheeple.  What a lack of respect.  It would be funny if we didn’t know about the Herculean struggle the retirees waged to save their healthcare.  How does he have the chutzpah to say these things.  I cannot believe it.  It makes Unity’s credibility even weaker.  They really do think the membership is brainless.  It is such an insult. 

Susan Steinmann, UFT retiree

Monday, June 24, 2024

I'm getting ready to leave for a Retiree Advocate retreat today to try to make sense of what just happened. People are reaching out from all over and there is lots of talk about what it would take to defeat Unity in next year's election. But RA is going to focus on how best to run the 70k chapter, with or without help from the official union. We have lots to talk about.

There is more than a bit of sweet irony in Bennett's election and response since the last time he communicated with Mulgrew on the healthcare issue, Bennett was fired from his part-time UFT job.

Yesterday Mulgrew sent out his announcement. Today there is supposed to be an emergency meeting of the MLC (Municipal Labor Committee) today - I wonder why? There are also leaks that MLC is going broke due to enormous costs associated with hiring healthcare consultants' high fees for giving advice on how to create an abyss. MLC should ask for their money back.

Here is a video response Marianne made. She is somewhat magnanimous thanking the UFT for relenting. I find it funny that Mulgrew called me a liar at the May RTC meeting when he refused to take my leaflet. Mulgrew time and again claimed MedAdv was no different from Medicare -- "It's Medicare Part C," he would say - time and again. Exactly who is the liar?

Please read through the fantastic analysis by Vincent of the RTC meeting at the end of this piece.

The Final Unity RTC Meeting: Kumbaya, Deconstructing Randi

We heard you. Michael and I heard you.... Randi Weingarten

...as my friend Norm Scott likes to say, “Watch what they do, not what they say.” You can be sure, Randi, Mike, et al—We are watching.... Arthur Goldstein

 Sunday June 23, 2024

Did Randi and Michael really hear us? I'll get into the weeds down below.

 

But let me also mention the after party at a local bar attended by 50 supporters. Everyone is so excited. 

 

6/24 UPDATE: I hung out with Vincent Wosjnis, former CL and newly elected delegate who happens to live in Ghana but is in for a few months. I'm inserting his FB comment on the meeting.

Vincent C. Wojsnis

Yeah, we heard her too. After listening to Weingarten speeches over the years I've learned to "listen between the lines." Randi is a talented orator. In her speech, she emphasized the importance of electing Biden over Trump in order to protect Medicare and Social Security, which I agree would face an existential threat if Republicans were to take control of the government. We can all agree on that. But let us not be fooled here. Randi, Mulgrew, Unity all support Medicare Advantage. They haven't moved from that. They continue to maintain that Medicare Advantage IS Medicare just as she has been on record defending UFT/AFT support for charter schools as "public charter schools" (while the only thing "public" about them is the public money they take to line their private pockets.) I HEARD HER TOO, when she pointed out that cities across the country are moving their retirees to MA. It's true that more than half of all Medicare enrollees are now enrolled in MA plans. How is this a good thing? Why isn't the AFT fighting this? In her speech, Randi referenced lessons from history. She wasn't wrong. As a former history teacher I can appreciate that. I too have a history lesson to share with Ms. Weingarten. In the 1960s big insurance companies opposed the creation of Medicare. "Socialism," they called it. They had Ronald Reagan do media spots warning of the "slippery slope." Unable to kill it, with the aid of both Republicans AND Democrats, in 1997 they found a way to "embrace" it. Embrace it, much like the way a python "embraces" its prey. And so, Medicare Part C was formed. That hasn't changed. I also agree, there were many "gracious" moments at the RTC meeting. But the vote wasn't even close. THAT'S what they heard. Years ago, as a new chapter leader, I never formally joined Unity (Thank you, Angel Gonzalez.) but I almost did and I was close enough to witness how they viewed the opposition. I can assure you whatever "unity" they're projecting here is not what they're saying among themselves and they will be actively planning how they can stop us. Kumbaya? "Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do." (Thank you, Norm Scott.)

I haven't had a chance to share my impressions of the historic final Unity controlled Retiree Chapter meeting this past Tuesday, as Retiree Advocate prepares to take control of the chapter for the next three years. 

 

I was elected as part of the 15 member RTC Exec Bd, along with the 10 officers. I was also one of the 300 elected delegates to the DA -- my first time there since I retired in 2002. I may have to revive Ed Notes print edition. The first meetings of the RTC chapter and the DA will be in October.

 

(We held a zoom orientation meeting on Thursday and all 25 were present and it's quite a team of experienced UFT activists, but we all still have a lot to learn about the mechanics of running a 70k plus chapter. Will the UFT/Unity hierarchy help or hinder the transition? Maybe we should do a poll.)

 

The 63% majority opinion had a major impact on how the meeting was run. Bennett Fischer was invited up to speak and RA decided to take a moderate approach at this final Unity meeting and be nice. Unity tried to act nice too, despite a few sour looks. A bit of humility. They still seem in shock.

Note - yes we won on the healthcare issue, but don't discount the democracy angle as members heard 3 years of lecturing and hectoring and attacking critics.

 

Randi Weingarten was the featured speaker and contrary to people who think she was rushed in due to our victory, she had been advertised for some time. Let me say up front. I disagree with Randi in numerous ways but I never viewed things personally and her personality can be piercing to some but for people like me I'm quite comfortable with her and had no problem going up to sit next to her for a brief chat about what I felt was wrong with her speech. And by the way -- the good thing about Randi is you can do that.

 

If you read Ed Notes since it began (in print since '97 and blog since 2006), you know I've had a complicated relationship with Randi as a hopeful supporter when she took over in '97 to great disappointment by 2001. But Randi is a master at managing relationships and has always been outwardly friendly. 

Right up front I was impressed that Randi and Michael had heard us. So I expected she would say we are immediately abandoning our support for replacing Medicare with a Medicare Advantage plan in NYC. 

 

But instead what we heard was that we must re-elect Biden so we can lobby him to push for legislation to protect Medicare. OY! Dem Party Central message.

Sure. Congress has been so willing to pass such legislation. This proposal I immediately branded as bullshit and my hand shot up to ask a question and stayed up for much of her speech, with Tom Murphy in his final meeting being true to his form of not calling on me.

Will Mulgrew Flip Flop on Mayoral Control Like Randi did in 2009?

Randi and Bloomberg do the flip in mayoral control renewal 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deja vu all over again?

Mulgrew at the Feb. 2024 DA on Mayoral control – 

-----when it sunsets, know what our position is. Want to be a little bit more. Position mayoral control, went through Cleveland’s, Boston’s, New Haven’s – they have mayoral control, the mayor chooses the final decision making panel (i.e. PEP), but the Mayor may only choose from people selected by nominating committee, of which they often have little control. Once put on these boards, they’re on a fixed term, mayor can’t do anything about it. Not saying what want, but have to dispel myth that changing mayoral control from way it is here—with mayor picking majority of PEP—is only version of mayoral control. People here fired for not doing what they’re told – that’s crap. Goal of last week was to tie different things together. Has the mayor supplanted school funding (yes), was there a financial reason (no)... How do you give the mayor any sort of control, who supplants funding, who removes money from funding despite being bound to lower class sizes by NYS law. One thing in that law that allows process to be stopped. Happens in a year in a half. Had all the money we needed and since then 2.5 billion dollars have been taken out of the capital plan, because trying to use financial review period to stop the law. ... Nick Bacon Notes at NAC

 Let me take you back to the 2009 battle over renewal of mayoral control:

Chalkbeat/Gotham Schools: The frustration began with a May 21, 2009 New York Post column, in which Weingarten indicated that she is open to allowing the mayor to continue appointing a majority of members to the citywide school board. A union task force recommended in February that the state legislature reverse that majority as a way to strengthen the board, known as the Panel for Education Policy or PEP.

Weingarten’s Post op/ed dismayed some members of her own union. “I was quite disappointed and angry, actually,” said Lisa North, a teacher who sat on the union’s task force to consider revisions to mayoral control.

North said the task force never seriously considered recommending that the mayor keep his majority of appointments, and so when union delegates ratified the committee’s final recommendations, she expected Weingarten to promote them. “The delegate assembly is supposed to be the highest authority of the union, and it voted for it,” she said.

I wrote this in June, 2009 - Weingarten Didn't Flip on Mayoral Control-- UFT positioning is akin to planes spreading tin foil to try to fool radar.

We opposed the very idea of a phony UFT task force dominated by Unity Caucus that would give cover to Randi's doing what she intended to do anyway over the past 7 years. (I have been a lone voice in ICE urging boycotting these farce task forces.) I spoke to Philissa (Kramer of Gotham) and made the point that Randi's flipping on the constitution of the PEP panel is just flack covering Randi's consistent support for mayoral control. More egregious, I told her, is her modifying the report of the UFT task force that spent a year addressing the issue that was voted upon at a delegate assembly. One of the few good things the report recommended was taking away the mayor's ability to appoint a majority of the PEP. That is where Randi has flipped. The task force was c0-headed by UFT VP Carmen Alvarez, who has been racing around the city representing the UFT on panel discussions and trying to give the impression the UFT supports checks and balances. Tsk, tsk, Carmen.

“I do feel betrayed,” said Michael Fiorillo, another chapter leader who sat on the union’s task force. “I just wish I could say I felt surprised.” He said Weingarten has veered away from members’ consensus on other topics in the past, and so he had early doubts that she would hold firm on the task force’s recommendations. (Fiorillo ultimately voted against the recommendations, saying they weren’t aggressive enough curbs on mayoral control.) “My guess would be the sense of betrayal would be stronger among people outside the union,” Fiorillo said, noting that union members were accustomed to watching Weingarten change her mind.

Weingarten doesn't exactly change her mind. What she does is throw up lots of tin foil like those planes trying to foil radar detection do in manipulating public perception of where the UFT stands. It is necessary to see through the flack and keep one's eye on where the real plane with the bomb is.

Why does the UFT leadership love mayoral control? Because it allows them to negotiate in back rooms with one person instead of opening up the process to democratic scrutiny. Totalitarians behave that way. When Obama was talking in Cairo today about bringing the light of democracy to places of darkness he might has well been talking about mayoral control and the UFT.

As I said then I do support the UFT current position of opposing the mayor choosing a majority of members on the PEP but will they stick to that position? Mulgrew still claims to be for mayoral control. If the mayor can't appoint a majority is it really mayoral control? Yes in the world of UFT machinations.

 

In 2002 I Warned the UFT About Evils of Mayoral Control and they still only want Tweaks as Hochul calls for 4-year extension

Ed Notes, Sept. 2002: When UFT leader Randi Weingarten floated a proposal to give the mayor control of the school system in May 2001, Education Notes took strong exception, arguing that giving politicians control would only result in a system of education by the numbers in a corporate style system. Did Weingarten sell out our educational interests for a pot of gold? The next few years will allow people to judge for themselves.

I did some satire on UFT capitulation:

Late breaking news: Bloomberg says he needs to take over UFT (some say he already has) to make school system work and will ask the state assembly (a UFT subsidiary) for control.

Well, in essence it was not satire as for most of his tenure the UFT put up a faux resistance, while fundamentally agreeing with most of the Bloomberg ed deforms: high stakes testing, closing "failing" schools, charters, etc. Their support for the horrendous 2005 contract enabled the Bloomberg assault.

You judge given the past 22 years of mayoral control. I love to say I told them so. And I will continue to do so. Ed Notes was warning them about the consequences in the first tabloid edition which had a print run of 10 thousand after I retired in 2002.

 

But they never learn. Or rather they don't really care about the impact on members and students. What they care about is power and their allegiance to center/right Democratic Party allegiances. And big cities with mayoral control are often run by Democratic mayors who want the power of control over the schools - and the patronage it brings. What does the UFT get out of mayoral control? They only have to lobby and deal with one person instead of messy alternatives, like elected school boards. Plus who knows what else? Well actually we do know but I leave you to guess.

Knowing the membership is not happy with the job done by any of the mayors who controlled the NYC schools so far - Bloomberg, de Blasio and Adams -- UFT leadership maintains a fiction they want change, when all they want is minor tweaks.

Mulgrew/Weingarten/Unity Healthcare Lies and misinformation exposed by Daily News Op Ed and Marianne

The MLC has never bargained for or represented retirees, and surely not for me as a non-union City Council employee.... Gary Altman, lawyer for City Council for 38 years.

Monday, August 21, 2023

This Altman piece is a dagger Mulgrew's heart. But just like Trumpies back him no matter what the crimes, watch the Unity Caucus hacks stay on the gravy train and shill away for whatever crap Mulgrew makes up. What's coming next is an assault on working member healthcare to make up the money not being saved by screwing retirees. He will try to put working members against retirees -- it's the rich boomers, not UFT leadership that's screwing you.

Here's the quick skinny before you watch the videos. Mulgrew, Garrido are lying openly about the retiree healthcare issue and are exposed in this op ed by Gary Altman, who was a legal Council on the City Council for 38 years and goes back through the history of how the UFT testified more than once to the very opposite of what they are claiming now. Marianne reads the op ed below with emphasis. 

Mulgrew has been claiming the City Council can't pass bill 1099 which would offer retirees a choice of healthcare options.

Altman points to previous legislation to protect healthcare via City Council and not once was there a claim that it hurts collective bargaining. Somehow Mulgrew has been dragging the Taylor Law into this issue, claiming that by passing 1099 they violate the law. Utter bullshit.

Gary Altman

 Marianne reads the entire op ed.

https://youtu.be/jrl2BPZWhOk

Here's the link to the article, which is behind a paywall.

And here she exposes DC 37 Henry Garrido.

 

https://youtu.be/EFD47wGGr18

EONYC chimes in

Educators of NYC

@educatorsofnyc

This is not a drill. @dc37 and

@uft

leadership is making their threat to the rank and file PLAIN. Now that their BIG LIES are being dismantled concerning any amendments hurting collective bargaining, the talking points are more honest and bare in their threat to active city workers. And even as their actions are ruled illegal in court… There is another nuclear campaign afoot to scare members to act on lobbying city council members to not protect retiree choice of healthcare. Translation: They are saying if we can’t screw retirees … we will need to screw you, active city workers. And yet the choice is not binary for our city unions. It’s not force retirees into MAP or we will need to agree with the city to charge healthcare premiums on city workers. Henry, Michael, and Alan know this. They want to path of least resistance. And the one that preserves their welfare fund patronage system. There are various paths and solutions that help all workers and keep costs manageable. And QUALITY, PREMIUM-FREE.

Randi has done it again - maddening playing all sides of the field with people who were OK with teachers giving up their lives to save the economy

They will debate this and hold multiple positions, but never a forum on something like union democracy or class size solutions... A NYC teacher

She and Leo Casey said the same thing about Bill Gates – saying it’s always good to discuss and bring people to the table.  I agree with that. But not give them a public forum to transmit their toxic ideas!  That’s completely different.... Parent activist

Randi working with the Open Schools Movement people - and a guy who said teachers dying was the acceptable cost of opening schools. The message to him should be FUCK OFF! But she is saying FUCK OFF to teachers risking their health in overcrowded schools.

She wants dialogue with our enemies but ignores the progressive voices in her own union. 90% vaxed but she and Mulgrew cater to the resisters. There's an entire resistance movement in the UFT but too progressive for Randi and crew --- she may be the Kyrsten Sinema of our union. I put her closer to Joe Manchin than Bernie Sanders.

See https://twitter.com/rweingarten/status/1443237326172442625?s=20 See thread and responses

She invited Dr. Jay Bhattacharya co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, to speak at her Town Hall tomorrow. 

Bu

https://gbdeclaration.org/

Yet she just tweeted that the Great Barington Declaration was “reprehensible”.  Reminds me of when she invited Gates to speak at the AFT convention.

 

The Future AFL-CIO Leader - why Randi is an unlikely choice

Richard Trumka fit the profile of a traditional union leader. He got his hands dirty as a miner before he ever gripped a podium and addressed a crowd... The Nation

One of Trumpka's most important positions was opposing the job sucking trade agreements, including the Hillary backed Pacific Trade Agreement in 2016, which Trump used to help beat her. Where was Randi on that issue? Supporting anything Hillary backed. In essence, Randi heading the AFL-CIO would be like inserting a Clinton operative - the Clintons who were fundamentally anti-union --- and if you doubt that just look at the record in Arkansas and the White House.

Sara Nelson actually worked her way up by working on the job. Randi was handed a job to buttress her rise to lead the union. Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.

Nelson has been a flight attendant with United Airlines since August, 1996.^[6] Soon after beginning her career, based in Boston for United Airlines, Nelson became an activist in the Boston AFA Local. She served in a variety of roles including the elected position of Council Representative. In 2002 Nelson was selected by AFA leaders at United Airlines to serve as Communications Chair.^[7]

She previously served as AFA's international vice president for a term beginning January 1, 2011. AFA-CWA represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines. [She] worked four jobs to pay off her student debt, including as a substitute teacher, waitress, linen salesperson, and temp at an insurance agency.^[5]

Funny - Nelson may have as much teaching experience as Randi.

Happy Friday, August 6, 2021

I must have temporarily - or permanently - lost my mind yesterday when I speculated about Randi Weingarten replacing Richard Trumpka as head of the AFL-CIO. [AFL-CIO Trumpka Dead, Is Randi in play to succeed? Implications for AFT/UFT? Flight Attendent union leader and progressive Sara Nelson in running]

Then I watched Randi's appearance on Morning Joe yesterday and video of Trumpka, who headed the Mineworkers union. Would miners and other workers accept a teacher union head as their leader? My brainstrust convinced me I was being delusional. Just watching how Randi waffles and obfuscates and is often so cloying convinced me.

We considered Sara Nelson and as head of the Flight Attendant union with a very public face during the pandemic, she seemed more likely to be accepted. The third option is Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer and designated successor. Thus we will see the first woman to head the AFL-CIO in history -- unless a dark horse emerges.

The first ever woman elected to the position in 2009, Shuler also holds the

distinction of being the youngest officer ever to sit on the federation's Executive Council. Coming from Portland, Oregon, Shuler has been at the forefront of progressive labor initiatives like green job programs and the fight for workers' rights for many years, starting as an organizer at her local union.Prior to her election as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Shuler was part of the Executive Leadership team of the Electrical Workers (IBEW)....Shuler first became active in union work after college. Her first job was as a union organizer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125, working on a campaign to organizer clerical workers at PGE.^[3][5][7] She became a lobbyist for the IBEW in 1997, representing the union before the Oregon Legislature.^[3][5]

OK. Shuler may be the favorite now and actually comes across as more progressive than Randi - for those doubters -- watch what Randi does, not what she says.

But here's something that makes Sara Nelson more legit and more Trumpka-like than either Randi or Shuler  -- she actually worked in the industry she represents, just like Trumpka was a real miner. 

But wait you say -- doesn't Randi claim to have worked for 6 years as a high school teacher - she mentioned her teaching on Morning Joe. We've reported many times that Randi only worked 6 months on a full schedule at Clara Barton HS, a school hand-picked for the lawyer from the UFT who had to show some in school creds in order to become UFT president. Everyone at the school knew what her future was and she was treated accordingly. That's not real world experience.

Sara Nelson actually served drinks in the aisles and dealt with unruly customers. I bet Randi never had to deal with an unruly student.

As for Shuler, she functioned as a union organizer and lobbyist, which give her some creds. And coming from the IBEW probably rates higher than the AFT, which is still not the largest teacher union. Now if Randi were heading a merged AFT/NEA with almost 4 million members, that might have bolstered her case.

But I also am thinking about the power as AFT leader of a union versus heading the AFL-CIO which is a coalition of unions with no actual power. I could also make a case that Mulgrew as head of the UFT actually has more real power than Randi as head of the AFT -- but the UFT is the tail that wags the AFT dog --- both need each other to maintain their position. 

The brainstrust also speculated as to whether Mulgrew would even be taken seriously as a potential AFT leader. I heard from my old buddies in Chicago after they won their election 11 years ago that they had developed a good working relationship with Mulgrew, though politically, the Chicago leadership was more aligned with MORE.

Here's The Nation with a Trumpka obit

Richard Trumka, 1949–2021

The labor leader practiced “true solidarity”—from his days as an anti-apartheid activist to his bold embrace of immigrant rights and Black Lives Matter.

By John Nichols

 https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/richard-trumka-afl-cio-death

AFL-CIO Trumpka Dead, Is Randi in play to succeed? Implications for AFT/UFT? Flight Attendent union leader and progressive Sara Nelson in running

Maybe I've been wrong on Mulgrew becoming AFT president. Imagine the scenario where Randi runs for AFL-CIO and wins (not so sure about that) and Mulgrew moves up -- Mulgrew wariness in the UFT might just make that enticing. Who would replace Mulgrew? Inside betting is on Leroy Barr. A former UFT president has been AFT president for 43 of the past 47 years.

This is a very disjointed piece based on old published and unpublished info I've been storing until the election was announced - which was in 2022. These articles are from pre-pandemic times mostly when the election was scheduled.

May 16, 2019 - Is Randi After Trumpka's Job? Would that make Mulgrew AFT President? .. Ed Notes - 

If she wants to be AFL-CIO president, she's going to have to break Trumka's kneecaps.... A source

For the record, Trunpka died of a heart attack, not knee capping, but check alibis.

Speculation has already begun. Will Randi run, as there have been indications in the past? Will Sara Nelson, a Bernie wing union leader also run? Does this set up another battle of progressives vs center/right Dems? And if Randi runs and wins who heads the AFT? Does Mulgrew follow the historic pattern since 1964 (other than 1966-74, 2006-10) where a UFT President runs the AFT? And if there is this chain reaction, who runs for president of the UFT in 2022?

Breaking News: Richard Trumka, the longtime A.F.L.-C.I.O. president and an influential voice in Democratic politics, died at 72 after having a heart attack

Under the A.F.L.-C.I.O. constitution, the federation’s current secretary-treasurer, Liz Shuler, will take over as president until its executive council can meet to elect a successor. The federation’s next presidential election was originally scheduled to take place this year, but was delayed until next year because of the pandemic.

Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, is a contender.
If it's Randi vs Sara, that's the repeat of the Biden/Bernie or any of the internal Dem Party battles.

Sept, 2020 - Jacobin: How We Can Elect Sara Nelson as President of the AFL-CIO

 The Guardian reported in July 2019 that Trumka intends to back current AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler. Many labor activists, however, hope that the militant and charismatic president of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), Sara Nelson, throws her hat in — meaning that for only the second time in its history, the AFL-CIO might have a contested race for its presidency... When voting for AFL-CIO president, however, each delegate will get to cast a number of votes equal to the number of members they represent. So an international with a million members will get a million votes, split equally among the twenty delegates.

The Jacobin article, which doesn't address a Randi candidacy, has good historical analysis. 

Here's a piece from Bloomberg Law May 2019 that does:

Punching In: A Game of Thrones at the AFL-CIO (1)

Must read from Tarbull - Medicare Advantage and the Privatization of Medicare An Advantage for Insurance Firms, Not Patients

This is much bigger than us -- it is part of the 30 year project to destroy medicare and public options.  There's a lot of useful info in this article and extracts could be the basis of a general leaflet for education purposes --- we have to convince our own union members.

Both parties are complicit - this goes so far beyond Mulgrew and the UFT -- but the key is that they are part of the process of pushing public  money into private corp hands -- it is really a similar issue as charters as the ed equivalent of Medicare Adv -- with the same slick advertising. 

"If Medicare Advantage plans were in truth better or were better deals financially than traditional Medicare Parts A and B, plus Part D, the companies offering them wouldn’t be resorting to the aggressive and costly promotional campaigns they currently employ, with sales reps calling older people’s phones day and night endlessly and making major ad buys on TV networks and the internet. They wouldn’t be resorting to costly come-ons like offers of free gym memberships and dental and drug insurance coverage either (which Congress in its “wisdom” bars government Medicare from doing in its traditional plans). The health care industry is the biggest advertiser on television and ads for Medicare Advantage are a big part of that spending, especially on networks whose viewership skews heavily toward older persons, like CBS."

Some naive UFT members think Mulgrew/Weingarten are just misinformed. They are not. They are avid supporters of private insurance over the public option -- as is the people in control of the Dem Party.

I extracted a few more quotes --

This is a biggie: 

"The annual fees alone for signing up 24 million elderly and disabled people into MA plans and keeping them or luring them off the traditional government Medicare rolls came to $288 billion in 2020. Total spending on Medicare that year was $776 billion, meaning that the payment to the MA industry for patient care to their covered patients that year represented more than a third of the total federal outlay on the program!, not counting the fraud for subscriber medical condition inflation."

Private insurance wants the entire $776 billion.

“Starting next year,” she warns, “the government is talking about testing something called ‘The Deal,’ where whole Medicare-eligible populations in certain geographical markets will be put into Medicare Advantage plans whether they want it or not.” The idea is presented as a test to see how that system works.

"In 2019, for instance, President Trump signed an executive order — one that was slipped by without the usual Oval Office media show — which allows the government to involuntarily enroll people in MA plans rather than the old default of government Medicare. It also ordered the Secretary of Health and Human Services to actively encourage MA plan sponsors to offer marketing deals like gym memberships and dental plans to attract healthy subscribers, while banning Medicare itself from including such offerings. The order also makes it easier for physicians to opt out of the Medicare program."

https://tarbell.org/2021/06/medicare-advantage-and-the-privatization-of-medicare

Medicare Advantage and the Privatization of Medicare