UFT Resistance Caucuses: We Need Them, But Why Not One Big tent?

We really need to just merge the opposition caucuses into one United for Change caucus.... comment on a chat

 

That was original intent of MORE from the ice perspective in 2010 when talks began.  As time went on others in MORE did not want a big tent, more of a boutique caucus which alone cannot win power in the UFT. So I gave up now on one big caucus and went back to forming election coalitions of caucuses and independents ... Norm

Reply: As great as that sounds, I don’t think it’s realistic. There are some issues that I don’t see people agreeing on. The union is just way too big for that. Ideally there would be a few healthy caucuses, like most democracies have a few relatively strong parities

Even with healthy caucuses there is competition for those few activists and a focus on caucus building. Another model would be one big caucus with sub caucuses internally that allowed for internal debates. DSA has that. I actually made a similar proposal at the first big More meeting. Recognize we start out with internal factions....Norm

 

Reply: It seems like one opposition caucus and one caucus that maintains power would pose the same problems as any two party system.

I began this series on UFT caucuses with:

• The Caucus Role in UFT in Elections: The ICE Experience: The Caucus model works very well for Unity over 62 years. Not so well for the other caucuses.

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024

• Recent (past 30 years) caucuses in the UFT: New Action, ICE, TJC, RA, MORE, PAC, New Direction, TAC - When caucuses begin to fail they often look to merge or form new caucuses.

• How open is a caucus to new people? Does it have guard rails for membership? Do people have to agree to caucus fundamentals before becoming a member? Caucus discipline? Unity is known for its guardrails and discipline.
  

So why don't all the groups form one big caucus?  There are major differences in how each caucus operates.

 

I've been a critic of caucuses even when I was in one, some of which I helped found. I tried to see beyond the often narrow confines of a caucus, with their rules and structures, which often (and still does) drive colleagues crazy. That is why I was most comfortable in the more free-flowing ICE, which I and James Eterno sort of ran (I drove him crazy too). But let's face it, there can be no organized resistance to Unity Caucus without caucuses, so love 'em or leave 'em, we need 'em. In fact in today's UFT world, the more the merrier.

 

I'm constantly criticized for looking back to the past. But as an historian of sorts I don't believe you can move forward without learning lessons of the past. In UFT caucus history, there are loads of lessons to be learned. 

 

Currently, there seem to be 3 major caucuses beside Unity: New Action, MORE, and Retiree Advocate, with Solidarity and ICE considered minor compared to where they stood in the election 3 years ago. Daniel Alicea as EONYC last time was a sort of one man caucus but with tremendous outreach. Now he's joined New Action. But ICE and Solidarity still exist in some form.

 

ICE, which ran with TJC in the 2007 and 2010 elections fundamentally gave up official election caucus status to merge into the new MORE in 2011 with the idea to form a big tent. TJC went defunct while ICE continued with a blog, listserve and meetings. ICE was the biggest contingent in MORE at the beginning, with the International Socialists (ISO) being the second. But there were others: NYCORE, Progressive Labor Party, Teachers Unite,  TJC remnants, and non-affiliated.

MORE began with many internal factions and I proposed formal recognition of the factions which would allow differences but keep everyone together for the purpose of building a force to ultimately defeat Unity. That didn't happen.

Some of us in ICE noticed a certain segment of MORE that did not seem to believe in the vision of winning elections; having Unity in power as a foil seemed to fit their needs. Elections were not important, other than as a means to build the caucus and promote an ideology. I could see that point, though if you declare yourself a caucus how to explain not running? While mostly people were on the left, some see union work as a building block to socialism. Others  saw union work in more simpler terms - use power to improve conditions for teachers and students.

After a few years, it became clear there was a division: big tent vs. a narrow ideologically driven one. That faction didn't seem to want to win, arguing that winning was corrupting. Underneath it all was a belief that you must build a caucus with "the right kind of people" that can take power with a "unified vision". Reject people who don't agree with the dominant ideology and only make alliances with those you disagree with when absolutely necessary, but with the goal of jettisoning those alliances when the caucus is strong enough to go it alone.

Ultimately this faction did just that: It jettisoned the ICE members, actually branding the mostly leftists in ICE as right wing, and purified the MORE caucus.

But even that doesn't always work out and divisions over the 2025 UFT election have arisen, but in a new context of the possibility of winning this time, which has created new pressures throughout the Unity resistance movement.

The retiree and para massive victories created the possibility that a unified opposition can actually win. 

For most of the Unity resistance, that was a no-brainer. But the purists, a minority faction in MORE, do not want to win in a united front because that would dilute their political stances and violate their principles. And I respect that. In a recent internal vote, around 125 voted for a united front (but with specific conditions) and 35 voted against.

There is some irony in that minority position, given how often these very same people bow down to their "allies" in Chicago and LA as caucuses that actually took over their unions -- they obviously ran to win - and not initially with a very heavy social justice agenda. Win baby, just win, first and THEN change the union. As a fan of those movements who was involved with them from the early days of 2009, I have never gotten an answer to the contradiction between them and the so-called NYC version of them. I know a guy doing his PhD exploring this issue between Chi/LA and NYC. I hope he illuminates the differences - I see him heading in the direction I lean - Unity Caucus.

And here's the reality: At no point can one caucus actually win a UFT election without making alliances, so that subset of MORE will go on spitting into the wind endlessly. In my early years in MORE I urged the new caucus not to waste resources in running but to use the election to build outreach but the newbies were so excited to run. After the 2013 election, there was a year or two of stagnation - actually a slow decline over the next few years. That always seems to happen between election years.

One of the Retiree Advocate elected delegates, Lois Weiner, recently wrote an article appealing to these dissidents, an article I have some issues with but don't have the time to address them at this point. It seems the philosophy that has been driving MORE also explains the ICE expulsion:

...building the caucus then contending for power (a chronology I’ve advocated in my work about teacher union reform). To some, joining the coalition without having the caucus we want in place seems a violation of principle.

That's a standard position of the election purists in MORE - running in coalition with people not on the same page as you is a violation of principle. The theory of caucus building by reduction or purges, is very standard on the left but a philosophy that has been a proven failure in NYC and leads to a narrow ideologically driven "club" more than a caucus. Put out dog whistles to both keep people away and attract the ones you want. 

The winner is always Unity.

But here is where Lois Weiner makes her appeal to the "don't run" dissidents by differentiating NYC from the other cities:

The vulnerability of the retiree victory in its chapter election makes joining the coalition and building a progressive politics within it all the more urgent.

Proponents of union democracy and social justice teacher unionism should not wait out this election in anticipation of becoming stronger, more unified in shared principles, more democratic in functioning in time for the next election. The RA’s victory forces those who want a more militant, democratic union, in particular activists in the Movement for Rank and File Educators (MORE), a caucus inspired by CORE, to re-think the trajectory exemplified in CORE’s victory and its subsequent transformation of the CTU. CORE had and used the advantage of time we in the UFT do not have, time to build a unified caucus based on shared principles that fuse social justice with protection of economic protections for members, time to organize on its program to contend for leadership in a union election. Context counts. The comparative size of the school systems and their unions, along with decades of Unity’s rule, which has isolated reformers from possible allies in NYSUT, combined with the machine’s almost untrammeled exercise of power, its punishment of opposition and reward of those who take its orders, converge to make reformers’ task qualitatively different in New York than elsewhere, certainly in this country and possibly the world.

Credit to Lois, who I can't wait to see at the DA tomorrow, for seeing a new landscape. But let me point out a flaw that is a myth on the left - that CORE, founded in midst-2008 as a book club and won power in 2010, managed to build a unified caucus in a year and a half when they ran a campaign based on fighting closing schools and high stakes testing and defending teachers against attack and even attracting right wing supporters. MORE is now 14 years old since people first started meeting. If they haven't emulated CORE by now, then when?

MORE had to make an alliance in 2022 after their disastrous decision in 2019 to run alone (my opposition and reporting on that is what got me kicked out) and finish 3rd behind Solidarity and losing an enormous percentage of their 2016 vote. 

A few months later a key voice in that faction approached me at a DA and said, "you were right, Norm, we never should have run. As you warned it took a lot out of us even running a minimalist campaign." The 2019 lesson was learned and MORE joined UFC. And the majority still think that is correct. 

This time, as Lois points out, building a coalition to defeat Unity is even more imperative.

Next: A Way to Win: Offering a Different Paradigm for UFT elections: Less control by caucuses (not their elimination) and more from the rank and file. Plus the remarkable resurgence of the 30-year old New Action Caucus.

 

Stop the Steal - of UFT "Official" Retiree Web Page - Striking Back at Unity Caucus War on Internal Critics

Oh Susan Pulice, Puleeeeze!

The admin of the RTC’s Facebook group, along with her Unity caucus accomplices, remain embroiled in scandal as they seek to take away our union resource in plain sight. Arthur Goldstein digs deeper into the hypocrisy of the union’s ruling 1% party over this attempted heist of our dues. Calls for potential crowdsourcing to take legal action mount as the union counsel and top leadership drag their feet seeking to negotiate for their partisan agenda....EONYC

....there is the UFT Official Facebook Group for the RTC. That is run by one Susan Pulice, a Unity member. The most recent number I can find suggests our dues pay her in excess of 38K per year, along with perhaps a UFT pension.... they say, they don’t own the site. It’s in the name of Susan Pulice. There are compelling reasons why RTC should take over the site. They’ve been laid out, in pretty graphic detail, over at The Wire.... You could argue that every single person who signed up on Official RTC Facebook site, myself included, expected it to be a UFT site. You could argue that they did not, in fact, sign up for “The Social Spot—A Unity Community for Retirees.” You could, in fact, argue, that by walking with 6300 subscribers, that a fraud had been committed on those who signed up. You could argue they have stolen our built-in base, and that Unity is fine with that.... You could argue that this site represented itself as a union-sanctioned site. You could argue that the union announced as much in New York Teacher. You could argue that Pulice, by asserting ownership, was actually robbing the union of a resource created in the name of the United Federation of Teachers. You could, in fact, argue that ownership of the site was meaningless, and that the only important factor was who administrated the site....

....Arthur Goldstein, The Wire, Sept. 28

Call the FB police on Pulice.

Unity attacks Retiree Advocate for "consorting" with Marianne Pizzitola while the Unity hacks consort with the indicted Mayor Adams and other corrupt union leaders in the MLC to steal our healthcare.... The Norm.

Unity has a lot of damn gall lecturing us about whom we may affiliate with. We are fighting to make things better for us, and for rank and file. If our so-called leaders won’t help us, we’ll help ourselves....Arthur

There is real danger in taking a conflict-averse stance and rely on back door negotiating alone without bringing organizing muscle behind those negotiations. Yes, negotiate, but with force... Norm

Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024

 

I write here as an individual, not in my capacity as a member of the Retiree Advocate Organizing committee, nor as a member of the newly elected RTC Executive Board and Delegate Assembly, since neither body has decided formally on how to deal with the stolen RTC FB page issue. 

 

I hear there are negotiations between some of the newly elected officers of RTC and UFT/Unity officials over a bunch of issues. Why we have to negotiate what rightfully should be ours indicates the Unity agenda - to obfuscate and obstruct. I don't oppose negotiations to win what we can but I also am not for hiding the crap they do, though some may fear by exposing them we make them more obstinate and put them more in attack mode. I say screw them -- we won the election by exposing them. Democracy doesn't flourish in darkness. 

 

Michael Mulgrew is selling you something you don't really need. Debunking Unity attack dog Ellie Engler

One of the Unity negotiators is the Unity attack dog Ellie Engler, a non-teacher who was known as one of Randi's gals. Mulgrew recently brought her back into the inner circle, along with Dave Hickey, to escalate the attacks. Engler is not very popular. See Marianne expose the UFT concierge fake advertising scam for HSS and MSK call service only: Debunking Ellie Engler UFT (not a teacher). Ellie sounds a bit like J.D. Vance. And I did see a cat in Marianne's video.

And what a joke the UFT service is. I called the MSK call center directly on June 7 and she made a surgeon and oncologist appointment on June 11. She took all my information for getting my records and sent me what I had to do online and when I saw the docs 4 days later they had everything in hand. My operation took place on June 26. Instead of going through a UFT middle person I did it directly.  Who would you trust? An MSK expert call center person or some UFT service? Amen. 

Unity hijacks the RTC Facebook Page

When I heard details about the supposedly "official" UFT retiree Facebook page, obviously pro-Unity, where the administrator in charge was being paid out of our dues to run it, being turned over to private hands and taking its 6k members with it, I LOL. I just love it when Unity does the usual dumb stuff. I predicted that their strategy was to go hard after critics only to have it fall on their faces.

 

Retiree Advocate (RA) Shows Some Muscle at UFT Retiree Meeting: Mulgrew, Tier 6, Paras and Happy Retirees

UFT's Tom Brown kept declaring how happy UFT retirees are. I maintain it is Retiree Advocate retirees who are the happiest because we know we are figthing the machine that wants to change our healthcare and enjoying the battle. To me, the Unity crowd does not look all that happy. Maybe a bit depressed over the possibility RA can win the chapter election and their gigs at the UFT.

Check out the updated Retiree Advocate web site: https://www.retireeadvocate.org/

Saturday, April 20

 

Being ordered around by a 70 something and an 18 year old.

 

I'm taking a few minutes off from my wife ordering me around to prep for the 30 people coming for Passover on Monday night. The young cousins bring pot and that's the only time each year I take a few puffs. I start the seder stoned and then tune out. 

 

I'm also on 4 days of video duty (Thursday, Friday, Saturday night and Sunday matinee) at the Rockaway Theatre Company for these final weekend of the spectacular Urinetown 

which  saw for the 5th time last night - with two more to go.

 

I'm not a spectator for this weekend as I get to follow directions from an 18 year old college freshman film student who is one impressive young lady. I love learning from teenagers. And by the way, let me say that media has been trashing today's youngsters while the theater loving teens and young 20s I meet and work with are amazing. (Our stage manager is 21 and our sound guy about the same age.) My message to parents: Get your depressed child into a theater program.

 

Last Tuesday, the morning of the Retiree chapter meeting, I posited: Expect The Usual Fiasco, but I actually had fun - before and after the meeting. During, not so much. This post is about the before and after and a bit about during. I'll post the Mulgrew part later, but if you can't wait, here is Arthur's meeting report from remote.

 

A bit over 200 were there in person --- a usual crew of Unity loyalists who shun us when we try to hand them a leaflet, but it seems about half the people are not. There were over 4k on line. There was some noise when people pushed back against Mulgrew. It resonates with the online crowd to hear some pushback.  

 

Our Retiree Advocate crew showed up before the meeting to hand out our main leaflet - check it out here - along with RA buttons and did so with verve and enthusiasm. Bennett was called upon to ask Mulgrew a question and a few other voices were raised, but let me not get ahead of myself. I view these meetings as organizing efforts to grow the retiree oppo base and we inch forward.

 

 Many people put on our buttons and signed up for our emails. We always meet some new people at these meetings and we find very receptive people. 

 

We also handed out the notice we were having a meetup after the meeting at a local bar, where we ended up with almost 20 people. Only a little over 200 attended the in person, so that is not too shabby - and others told us they would have come but had some priors. Over the past year at the RCT meetings we have added people and lots were wearing our buttons. Some joined us at White Horse Tavern afterward for food and refreshments. Unfortunately I was due for a blood test for my newly discovered diabetes the next morning and had to avoid the beer.

 

Here's our chapter leader candidate Bennett Fischer saying a few words. I can't say enough about how capable Bennett is in almost any arena he takes on. I have enormous confidence in him -- but also our 10 officer and 15 chapter exec bd (I am the only one I have no confidence in) candidates. Plus the other 275 delegate assembly candidates who we are having a zoom with tomorrow night. If we win, it will be a new chapter in the history of the UFT.

 

The biggest Unity crew I've ever seen at an RA meeting also handed out a leaflet. I felt bad for them having to hand out a leaflet on how great a leader Tom Murphy is and they looked depressed doing so. 

 

Our organizing efforts have forced Unity to put out their own leaflet where found out for sure Tom Murphy is really running, and they actually had 5 people distributing, including former HSVP John Soldini and retired para rep Shelvy Young Abrams. But RA has about a dozen doing the work, a sign that if we win we will have an activist chapter driven by members.

 

Unity Caucus with Murphy leaflet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leaflet was LOL at points -- word was out that there were some people contending to replace him but he threw a bit of a fit and Mulgrew supported him. It's the king who decided in monarchies. Murphy's 75K retiree consultant  NYSUT gig might be threatened.

 

 

 

 Arthur has a few words on the Murphy leaflet:

The notion that Murphy is an independent thinker is absurd on its face. Clearly, the Unity notion of serving the union means fawning over Michael Mulgrew and stroking his fragile ego. (In fairness, Murphy is quite good at that.)...Murphy is a “guardian of civility.” Let’s first address the fact that it’s not true at all. Murphy shows blatant contempt for opinions that vary from Michael Mulgrew’s. He refuses to let passionate members speak at meetings. Then he marvels that members shout at him. (Why do people raise their voices when Tom doesn’t allow them to speak? Go figure. It’s a great mystery.)

The Tom Murphy/ UFT Unity Campaign: Hubris, Insinuation, Misdirection and Lies

https://arthurgoldstein.substack.com/p/the-tom-murphy-uft-unity-campaign?

Murphy is running a platform of civility -- don't dare call out during our meetings and if you have a postage sized sign he will be uncivil. Remember this?

• Retired Teacher Chapter Leader Tom Murphy Calls for Decorum - After screaming at people for posting signs in back of UFT meeting hall and calling security

Paras on agenda

Retired Para Chapter chair Shelvy Young Abrams is being handed a big role in the Unity RTC unit -- to try to organize and mobilize the 7k para retirees into a force of resistance to the growing influence of Retiree Advocate and she has a chance since few retired paras have gravitated to the opposition. The whys are worth examining -- maybe at an ICE meeting.

Tier 6 -Suddenly (I'm Tier 1 - I say, Smirking)

Aside from the Mulgrew appearance, which I will address in the follow-up to this report, we heard from UFT Treasurer and TRS pension rep Tom Brown, always an entertaining speaker, listed decades of UFT/Unity achievements and continuously pointed out how UFT retirees are the happiest people in the world. I almost broke out into song:

 

Happy days are here again

The skies above are clear again

So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again

 

Brown was followed by current Unity TRS candidate Christina McGrath - Unity has had to put out leaflets for her to counter our campaign for Ben Morgenroth. Before Ben was a candidate, he was pushing the UFT to do more to change Tier 6 --- and he has made Tier 6 reform a major part of his campaign. So of course Unity, which has done barely anything on Tier 6 for a dozen years, suddenly wakes up and McGrath was chosen to make a presentation on the changes they are asking for. 

 

RA's Bobby Greenberg asked a seemingly innocent question. I'll paraphrase:

It's nice to hear how many great things we've done over the decades. Congratulations. So if we've done so well, and everyone should be in Tier 1 but we'll take Tier 4. How did we go from Tier 1 to Tier 6? Or even Tier 4 to Tier 6? 

How uncivil of Bobby to dare bring up such a major failure of COPE and UFT Leadership which sat on its hands in 2012 when Tier 6 was foisted on us. Leadership realized that Ben and New Action had seized on the fact that 55% of UFT members are Tier 6 and that is a major campaign issue Unity is trying to get out from under. Ooopsie.

•   fumfering" --> "A Yiddish word meaning to "mumble", most often used to mean to be evasive; can also mean to putter aimlessly or to waste time."

I won't even waste your time with their lame response.

The Unity crowd was not only caught flat-footed in 2012 but actually told their people it wasn't all that bad. Now that 55% of UFT members are in Tier 6, and people like Ben Morgenroth are raising it time and again, they see the political danger, so they are putting on a campaign to make people believe they are fighting for them.

Daniel, in a brilliant feat of investigative reporting, lays waste to them with this post on The Wire. Here is a segment.

Mulgrew, and his Unity Political Machine, did nothing to STOP Tier 6.

They rolled over when it was proposed in 2011. And when finally enacted in 2012. Now, we are left to pick up the pieces. Struggling to glue back and fix the damage they allowed to happen.

Dan Alicea

 

... we are in the struggle of our lives to try to FIX Tier 6 because more than 10 years ago he did nothing to STOP TIER 6.

Lost in Mulgrew’s trademark verbal acrobatics and rhetoric about trying to FIX Tier 6, along with his snail’s pace, piecemeal lobbying campaign, is the fact that he dropped the ball. We’re here because he failed to organize us to use our collective union power to STOP the agenda to deplete our pension benefits. 

We were NOT caught off guard. Bloomberg and Cuomo telegraphed their Tier 6 intentions. It wasn’t a surprise. It was a long time coming. 

For the ten months before its passage in April of 2012, there were no organized UFT rallies. No large scale, coordinated lobbying campaign coming out of 52 Broadway. Not even a single UFT resolution was passed against it by the executive board or delegate assembly during the year before Tier 6 was enacted. Next to nothing in Mulgrew’s web communiques to members before — and only after the legislature passed the new pension reform.

There was no major UFT-centered action, mobilization or pushback whatsoever to STOP TIER 6 — which still threatens the financial futures of a generation of educators today and has led to a mass exodus within our profession. 

You’ll find little to nothing in the mainstream press archives containing any public remarks by Mulgrew against Tier 6 prior to its passage. No prominent mentions about it on our union website during this time. He skirted his fiduciary duties and let Dick Ianuzzi and Anthony Pallotta of NYSUT be the primary mouthpieces to speak out against the proposal while the UFT communicated little about a ‘Stop Tier 6’ fight. All while it posed an existential threat to our UFT union family. 

In fact, in early 2012, when Mulgrew shared his annual January testimony to Albany’s legislature about the proposed budget, Mulgrew only dedicated a small fraction of his time to say he only had “strong reservations” about the “idea that we need a new pension tier.“ 

Strong reservations about the idea? That’s it? 

That’s it. Mulgrew shrugged.

Unity insiders have confided, in hindsight, that they believed Mulgrew when he told them behind closed doors that the defined pension benefits were in jeopardy. They say there was a sense of inevitability about the looming draconian changes and so they maintained a business as usual posture.

Perhaps Mulgrew miscalculated that if Albany gave Bloomberg what he wanted, Bloomberg would finally negotiate contracts with the city’s unions once again? If so, the gamble failed miserably as Bloomberg left office while the city’s labor contracts, including ours, remained expired.

Even in more recent years, we’ve heard folks like UFT treasurer and TRS teacher-member Trustee, Tom Brown, continue to downplay the severity of the Tier 6 giveback, as evident in a 2022 executive board meeting where “Brown and other Unity-elected members made the argument that Tier 6 was essentially fine, better than what (the mostly non-unionized) rest of the country has, and that improvements are being made anyways.”

Brown went on to falsely claim that “Tier 6ers don’t have ‘less net compensation’ than Tier 4ers.”

After Tier 6 passed in April of 2012, Mulgrew, to his credit, refused to receive an award with Bloomberg and Cuomo at a SOMOS gala, shortly after. Something about the optics of attending a party and being really mad.

Daniel follows in the footsteps of the great James Eterno, who in March 2012 nailed the Unity leadership on Tier 6 with this post on ICE:

• James Eterno: TIER 6 A HUGE DEFEAT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, March 2012 - from the ICE blog

 James pretty much said what Daniel says a dozen years later:

No spin from NYSUT or Leo Casey or President Mulgrew on the legislation to stick anyone hired in April or thereafter with a Tier VI pension...No spin from NYSUT or Leo Casey or President Mulgrew on the legislation to stick anyone hired in April or thereafter with a Tier VI pension...What about those COPE contributions?  We don't seem to have much influence with the legislature these days.

For those yet to be hired, the legislature and governor wiped away virtually all of the pension gains we made over the last thirty years.  A new teacher or new state employee will have to work until they are sixty three to receive a full pension which will only be 55% of final average salary according to what I read.  Final average salary has been increased from the average of the last five years of employment instead of three.

I remember when I started working and all of the people who were on Tier I told those of us who were on Tier IV how horrible our pension was.  Now we will have to face the Tier VI people and tell them they are in it for the real long haul if they want to make teaching a career. It is the same for other civil servants across New York State.

It struck me that in 2012 James talks about those who were about to be hired. Now over half are in Tier 6 and have been hired since then - think of the massive turnover in a dozen years.

I'll get to the follow-up on the Mulgrew part of the meeting, the following day's DA whee Unity rejected reform of the dental plan.

Great news for the next RTC meeting on May 21: Randi will be there. Oh, the joy!

Expect The Usual Fiasco- Today 1-3 - UFT Retiree chapter meeting followed by Retiree Advocate Meetup at Local Bar

 Another fun meeting today. I'll report on the fun day tonight but if you are around join us after the meeting at 3 at the bar White Horse Tavern for eats and drinks.

 Here's our handout which will be included when the ballot goes out  

 

 

Question period at yesterday’s

@UFT

exec bd meeting. Exec board member, Ronnie Almonte asks: Welfare fund – our investment was 200 million a few years ago, now 600 million, but benefits haven’t increased. I’ve had the same experience as the open mic speaker. Joe Usatch: I will investigate. Investigate? Translation of paid bureaucrat: You’re being SHUNNED!

7:24 AM · Apr 16, 2024

·

 

UFT's 3 Consequential Elections: Petitions are in and the Game is On

Saturday, April 13, 2024

The UFT holds spring chapter elections every 3 years and 2024 may turn out to be one of the more consequential elections in its over 6 decade history. 

I've always maintained that chapter elections every 3 years are more important than the officer/exec bd elections which also take place every three years, a year later than the chapter elections (spring 2025). Chapter elections can be precursors of possible weaknesses in the Unity machine. I always have hope that we will see some changes, hope that is often unfulfilled. But there are always glimmers. 

Over the past few days, petitions were turned in for 3 consequential elections taking place in the UFT: TRS, Retirees and Paras, each one with some level of future consequences for the union. But together they represent a serious challenge to the 6 decade Unity Caucus hegemony. 

• ICE Endorses in TRS, Retiree and Para elections at March 26 Zoom Meeting

TRS Election

I've been covering the unexpected election in the Teacher Retirement System, the first in 40 years, with the challenge mounted by Ben Morgenroth to the Unity candidate.  I receive the mailed petitions and they came in from schools and people I've never heard of, evidence of surprising grass roots support. The campaign committee met the other day to review the petitions before handing them in and in a short campaign there were over 1600. We needed a thousand.

There are lots of reasons to support Ben's campaign - which I elucidated the other day: Teacher Retiree System (TRS) Pension Election - Why You Should Care and Vote for Ben.

What I didn't mention was the energy and enthusiasm coming from Ben himself and how he has galvanized an election that 6 weeks ago he wasn't aware existed. I've known Ben for a few years and he has made his bones on his fantastic analysis of the horrors of Tier 6 and has placed it front and center and has spurred the leadership out of its lethargy to try to make a few modest changes to undercut the threat to them given that 55% of the members are in Tier 6. Unity will try to take credit - despite the fact they put up no opposition when Cuomo instituted Tier 6 in 2012 with Bloomberg's support. I'm guessing in their thinking they were trading off the pensions of future members in exchange for a hoped contract. 

Read James Eterno comments from 2012: 

• TIER 6 A HUGE DEFEAT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

See the Tier 6 slides prepared by Ben.

Let's face reality. The incompetent DOE is running the elections in the schools and there is no institutional memory of how to even run an election and Unity has loads of chapter leaders in the schools. But the outcome will offer an insight to how strong that Unity machine is. Leadership is very much perturbed that they even have to bother campaigning. Since we rotate the 3 pension reps every 3 years, there is an election held every year. I hope there is someone running to challenge the Unity reps every time. Make them defend their turf on every field.

Remember, retirees don't vote in this election. Someone left a comment on Ed Notes asking how functional chapters will vote in this election on May 8 and here was the response to Ben:

We have not finalized the election process yet – we are likely going through qualified members directly rather than principals to avoid the issues that you’ve mentioned below. We do not have an obligation to have the final process in place until early May – when it is finalized, we will share.

Oy! This will go well.

A tale of the two largest functional chapter elections totaling almost 100,000 UFT members

Retiree Chapter election: A win for RA over Unity would be bigger than last week's earthquake - 7.0 on union political Richter Scale

 

RA turned in a full slate of 300 candidates, the first time we were able to do this. Ballots go out on May 10 and we have a leaflet included, which I will share in a few days. We are handing it out at the chapter meeting this Tuesday. And party at the White Horse Tavern after.

Three years ago Retiree Advocate ran against Unity in the Unity dominated retired teacher chapter, which with its 60-70 thousand members, helps decide the general UFT election. The health care changes, which leadership tried to keep undercover before the election, had just been exposed, but too late for us to campaign on that issue. Still, we received 30% of the vote, doubling from the year before. In the general election two years ago, 27,000 retirees voted out of 52,000 votes -- that is enormous and the UFC slate received the same 30% a year after the Medicare Advantage scandal broke, a disappointment.

Can we make up the difference this time? Unity seems worried that we have a chance to win this time, which would cause cataclysmic changes in the UFT and offer an opportunity to actually topple Unity and Mulgrew in the 2025 general election - if the opposition manages to get itself together - a big IF. 

 

Can we close the 70-30% gap? There seems to be a bit of apprehension in the halls of Unity, and even rumors Tom Murphy may be dumped as CL. I speculated about Carmen Alvarez replacing him last month when she gave a long presentation at the March RTC meeting. (Unity has not announced its candidates as of this date, but the betting is on Murphy because Mulgrew values fealty over competence). Carmen spoke mostly about paras, which is interesting. There were rumors lasts summer that Unity was so worried about the RTC election it considered removing paras from the RTC into its own retiree chapter but that clearly hasn't happened - yet. Instead they are moving to turn the 7000 retired paras into a force for themselves by gathering their contact info and all of a sudden taking an interest in them and pushing to organize working paras in the chapter election to counter the impact of a loss in the retiree election. (See para election story below). Arthur has a great report on the March meeting:

• Those Wacky UFT Bosses and Their Zany Antics: How they scam retirees, paraprofessionals, and every working member

Can we win and do we have to?

 

Assume a Unity loyalty vote of 16-18 thousand but add some erosion we hear from some people. Assume gains for RA over the last few years from their losses but also from new voters. Still a big gap. UFT pundits believe that even if RA doesn't win, closing the gap into a 55-45 range is still a game changer because it opens up the possibility of making up the difference in the general election a year later. Smelling a possible opposition win would shed some Unity supporters who don't want to be on a losing side.

The wild card here is Marianne Pizzatola and her massive outreach to retirees. The Chief did a big story on her the other day.

https://thechiefleader.com/stories/assured-and-intent-pizzitola-battles-the-city-and-a-few-unions-too,52243?newsletter=52246

 
She has the outreach to mobilize UFT retirees who had not voted before, which is crucial.

 

UFT Paras for A Fair Contract

 

Fix Para Pay Now - The Para chapter election: Say What? 

An election in the para chapter? Holy Cow. Well there was one last year with 5 candidates opposing the Unity gang and two were elected. I had a report on the election: Contentious UFT Para Chapter Election - Does Unity... and some updated info here.

 

So Unity for the first time instituted slate voting for the para chapter, pointing to the fact that this election is almost as major for Unity as the retiree election, with 27K paras in the system. If Fix Para Pay Now slate carves out a substantial vote, that can be another major threat to Unity in the 2025 general election. 

 

There's a petition - the Fix Para Pay petition - going around and signed by thousands of paras -- will they be a force in this election?

Arthur has some background: Those Wacky UFT Bosses and Their Zany Antics

Let’s go to another issue—[Unity's] abysmal treatment of paraprofessionals. For one thing, Unity thinks paraprofessionals are too stupid to select their own representatives. That’s why elected members of the Unity Patronage Cult have offices and jobs. That’s why Migda Rodriguez, an elected non-Unity member, is working full-time as a paraprofessional, with no office, no time off, no UFT job, and not even a UFT email. How stupid does UFT Unity think paraprofessionals are? Last week, they butchered a resolution at Executive Board. Paraprofessionals should demand change, but not “meaningfully.” They doubled down at the Delegate Assembly, saying paras already have it pretty good, and shouldn’t bother negotiating for a living wage. However, Unity has not totally neglected the paras. Last weekend, they gave them a fancy party. And their Unity leader has now given them a handbook. Who needs a living wage when you have a party and a handbook?

More from Arthur: Paraprofessionals Need a Raise, Not a Tip

Migda has a newsletter. Read it here.

Unity is on the attack and trying to recruit 300 paras to run on their slate. We hear they are not having an easy time of it.

To summarize:

If the outcomes don't go Unity's way -- like taking a big bite out of their majority, these 3 concurrent elections represent a threat to Unity and would encourage a united opposition in 2025. If not, it may be time for some golf.

 

AfterBurn

It's hard to judge where things are going at the 1800 or so schools where the chapter leader and at least one delegate from each school will be elected and can influence the delegate assembly, which is packed with Unity delegates and staffers and an big influx of delegates representing the functional chapters like retirees and paras. The caucuses are doing training for chapter leaders and delegates who want to run. But they have always done trainings and even brag about how many of their people are elected. But I go to the DA every month and the number of oppo people are very slim, though even these few can have an impact. 

And for a bonus:

Junket City

How Unity spends our dues from April Adcom:

 Motion:      To send 9 members to the National Association of School Nurses Conference on June 28-July 1, 2024 in Chicago, IL at a cost of $2,568 per person. (9x2568= 23,112)

 

Motion:       To send 1 member to the Early Educators Leadership Conference on October 16-19, 2024 in Washington, DC, at a cost of $3,030. (3,030)

Motion:       To send 3 members to the National Art Education Association National Convention on April 4-7, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN at a cost of $1,982 per person. (3x1,982 = 5,946)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 5 members to the Coalition of Labor Union Women National Executive Board and 50th Anniversary Gala on May 8-11, 2024 in Niagara Falls at a cost of $1,461 per person. (5x1,461 = 7,305)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 4 members to the IEL-National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference on May 29-31, 2024, in Atlanta, GA at a cost of $2,595 per person. (4x2595= 10,380)

total = $49,773

And this:

 Motion: To authorize up to 50 retirees to participate in the 2024 AFT Convention and retiree activities associated with the Convention.
                                            Carried
 Let's Estimate the cost -- plane fair, hotel, meals --- let's call it 2 grand per x 50 --- $100,000.

And Jonathan reports:

UFT Welfare Fund nest egg – bigger than most nests

Do you smell the rot?

RTC Chapter election in the media: In the New York City teachers union, anger over a plan to privatize retiree health care could send a longshot campaign over the edge.

If it’s successful in this year’s election, Retiree Advocate has its sights set on a bigger target: the overall UFT elections next year, when the long-serving president, Michael Mulgrew, and the other leadership members will be up for reelection. “If we won this election, it would give a shot in the arm to the opposition and make people look at next year’s general election as winnable,” said Scott, the Retiree Advocate spokesperson.... NY Focus

 Retiree Advocate members rally in New York City on February 16. | Norm Scott

This is an excellent article in NY Focus by Sam Mellins, one of the best local reporters. I spoke to him for almost a half hour and he asked all the right and probing questions, sometimes twice.

Retired Teachers Seek Union Shakeup to Dodge Medicare Advantage

In the New York City teachers union, anger over a plan to privatize retiree health care could send a longshot campaign over the edge.

Sam Mellins   ·   February 26, 2024

 https://nysfocus.com/2024/02/26/medicare-advantage-uft-retiree-advocate

A group of dissident retired public school teachers is seeking to take over part of the New York City teachers union in an upcoming election — and they hope to galvanize opposition over a proposed change to retirees’ health care and turn it into votes this June.

Retirees fear that the proposed change — a shift from public Medicare to private Medicare Advantage plans — could leave them with higher costs and fewer benefits. It’s been a major source of controversy since New York Focus broke the news of the proposal nearly three years ago. Though the plan has been on ice since last year, when a court sided with retirees who sued to block it, it still looms large as the city pursues an appeal.

Rambling on - A Packed 24 hours + - Here's the first 4 hours - UFT Retiree meeting, ICE comes alive, Marianne videos expose Mulgrew

• To Ramble -

  talk or write at length in a confused or inconsequential way.

Confused and Inconsequential? –  a good way to define blogging and my current life.

 

Trying to write this blog in an organized manner by sticking to one topic has become difficult because there is so much info coming in, just processing and refining it into a comprehensive piece is too much for my scattered thoughts. So I'm just going to start writing until a certain time and just stop when I get distracted. So if this ends in mid-word or mid-sentence, I didn't die - probably.

This blog is 17 years old and as an extension of Ed Notes the newsletter, 25 years old. That's a lot of verbiage.

I was checking back to some of my reporting on the 2014 contract and I did 90 blog posts a month. This month I did 5 and 93 all year. So I decided to not worry about being coherent but just let things fly as they come into my brain, even if I forget most of it. 

ICE is still ALIVE!

Not having James Eterno to piggy back off since his illness in May has been a factor. His reporting on the issues we face was so important. Just before his stroke we had been discussing setting up an ICE meeting and since then I have been frozen in terms of ICE. As we reported, ICE has been in hiatus. His dedication makes it worth trying to keep ICE alive.

ICE did meet on a zoom  recently and it was nice to see people even on a screen. There was some money in the ICE account and we sent a donation to Camille. Keep James in your thoughts:

James Eterno Recovery Fund

 

 

 

  

 

It was clear that ICE people liked meeting in person so we are going to try at our favorite diner during the Xmas vacation. Rice pudding for all. If any of you are interested in rice pudding email me.

Thursday, November 30, 2023 - the last day of the hurricane season -- a big relief for us in Rockaway. Friday begins December and I need to get my car inspected -- 11 years old since Sandy hurricane.

I had an interesting 24 hours Tuesday/Wednesday. I took the 12:15 ferry to Wall St for the UFT Retired Teacher Meeting, which began at 3:30. They keep moving the day and time as a moving target to confuse people. And confuse people they did. What next, midnight?

UFT November Retiree meeting - Mulgrew was LIVE! Tom Murphy - Sort of.

There has been some speculation that Murphy has become so unpopular with retirees due to his role in healthcare issue and his undemocratic way of running meetings, that he might be replaced as CL in this spring's elections. At the ExBd, Mike Sill announced Debra Penny was stepping down as UFT Treasurer, an officer position.There were some who speculated she might replace Murphy. But the latest word is that Mulgrew is so paranoid over AmyGate and undercurrents in Unity being pissed at Mulgrew for her removal, he won't risk changing horses in midstream and trusts Murphy to be loyal to him.

That is the major modus operendi inside the UFT at this time, given the AmyGate affair where if you expressed positives about Amy you were moved to Mulgrew's growing shit list. Loyalty not to Unity or the UFT but to Mulgrew. We get sneak attack leaks from inside the fortress - that is exactly what 52 is. No one is storming Mulgrew's office - yet. Watch the body language of key people. 

Retiree Advocate in action

I met my compadres from Retiree Advocate early before the meeting in the back lobby of the UFT where people come early for the meeting and we get to talk to them. Gloria Brandman is like a tiger at organizing and she signed people up for our listserve and recruiting people to run with us in the chapter election in the spring. We are hoping for 300 delegates to the DA - Imagine if we won how that would impact the DA - and if you are retired and interested email me. If we win that would shake up the UFT.

We had a nice leaflet on co-pays – you know those pesky things you pay the doc that our leadership and the city seem to love so much? I love handing out leaflets and talking to people as they come in. I finally went up at 3:30 to get my bagel in a plastic bag and some cream cheese -- I miss the old days of Jeannette Di Lorenzo with humatashin and danish. I think we should make their return a main plank of our platform. Maybe rice pudding too. I didn't take a photo of the bagel in the plastic bag so as not to give you indigestion.

We won in court on co-pays through Marianne's group so far but the city is appealing and the UFT leadership is mum. When questioned at the meeting Mulgrew said co-pays were only meant to be temporary while they figured out ways to screw us in better ways. See the leaflet above.

This meeting Murphy seemed to try to not alienate anyone and made sure to call on 3 RA people - he even mentioned Gloria Brandman for the second question. Bobby Greenberg and Bennett Fischer were also on target with their questions but Mulgrew was ready with his sophistry. (See Marianne videos below for her breakdown of Mulgrew comments.)

I had my hand up too and was surprised when Murphy pointed at me but in the line of sight was former HSVP John Soldini and low and behold the lady with the mic was sitting right there. Does anyone smell a planted question?

I won't get into the details of the meeting because of so much good coverage by Arthur and Marianne.

Arthur actually listened online while my focus was getting the damn bagel out of its plastic bag and spreading the cream cheese without getting it all over my pants.

I have not been retired very long, but I already feel disrespected and stereotyped by UFT Unity bosses. Last month they cut short a meeting, citing a dangerous demonstration that appeared to be a big nothing. This month we were expected to sit through a PowerPoint about telephone scams and such. It’s like they think every single one of us is will fall for those scams, so why shouldn’t they pull one too? Mulgrew seems to suggest if we don’t capitulate and give in to his calls for a corporate health care plan, with Aetna deciding whether or not we get care, we will all be placed into HIP. You see, the city only has to offer one plan. He said it over and over. This is his new talking point, and he adores it.

Arthur broke the meeting down in more detail.

• Michael Mulgrew Takes Us for Fools: He weaves an appeal to fear, hoping we'll give up on preserving Medicare.

Marianne dives deep with a 4 part video. Mulgrew will probably go off over her having access from one of the 70 thousand retirees. I wonder which of her 20K NYC union fans it was? Imagine an election of Mulgrew vs Marianne. I take Marianne by ten lengths.

Here are the first 2 parts and I will add the next two when they come in.

1/4 Mulgrew @uftnyc Lied to Teachers about Medicare & Choice

https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2

2/4 Mulgrew @uftnyc LIES to Retired Teachers about CoPays to Gloria Brandman

https://youtu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR

Mulgrew: I believe in democracy 

Marianne: Laughs out loud.

 

 

My time is up to finish this post  - crap - I only covered 4 of my 24 hours. More excitement to come. Look for Marianne's next 2 posts when they come in.

OK - here are links to part 3: https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT

Part 4: https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X

of the mulgrew lies videos:

  

In other news:

• UAW Launches Largest Union Organizing Drive in US History

When does the UFT organize a drive to unionize charters in the NYC?