Obfuscation, Resistance, Ignorance: UFT Retiree chronicles the winding path through the UFT maze to get a simple question answered

Direct our phone calls to the right department. Don't throw us off to an outside entity when a question about a UFT Zoom meeting has nothing to do with them. Put some more contact and program information on your website, or fix your search engine to be able to find things. Circulate your own notes from the meeting. And for heaven's sake, don't project on me the bad feelings you're harboring against us pesky retirees.-- JuliWoo at Under Assault, https://underassault.blogspot.com/2023/06/building-blocks.html

We do the work - badly: Unity Caucus slogan

Julie, My old pal at ICE called me yesterday with this story and I begged her to blog it. Tom Murphy's pathetic, snowflake response, "Sorry you see the worst motives rather than the best in people," is endemic to the Unity Caucus reaction to any criticism. Just trust us - after breaking trust numerous times. Remember how Mulgrew and Murphy tried to tell us the original Emblem retiree contract was awesome - only to tell us the new Aetna version is way more awesome. And Remember it was Murphy who went ballistic at recent Retiree meetings when we held up small signs:

• 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
  

Sorry, Tom, given the record of the leadership, I don't assume best intentions.

It's not all Tom's fault. The UFT brilliant leadership replaced people on the phones who actually knew what they were doing with Salesforce.

• UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew

• UFT Staffer - The face of the UFT is Salesforce - Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon) 

• UFT Update: Unity Slogan #wedothework- badly - #WePutYouOnHoldWhenYouCall

 

June 14, 2023

Building blocks

=

I never thought I’d come out of retirement to write another UA post, but here we are.

 

So I was trying to find out the name of the speaker at yesterday’s Zoom meeting for retirees on the new Aetna PPO. It had been mentioned early on, but I thought I wouldn't need it and hadn't written it down.  

But a question came up in the last half hour, and the speaker told us to contact her if we knew a case where a drug would cost more in the new SilverScript plan than what we pay for it now in Express Scripts. She would bring it up with the plan's actuaries, which was quite frankly more than I expected. 

As it happens, I did have a good example for her. A 60-day supply of the generic for Restasis eye drops cost me last week $7.50 – even cheaper than what I remembered from the last time I bought it. The same generic on the Aetna hotline (1-855-648-0389) was priced at $386.41 for a 90-day supply. Now, if only I could find that lady to let her know . . .

 

 

I called the UFT main switchboard, who put me through to someone who didn't know. I was transferred (or referred) to various other extensions in an order I can't remember now, but one was the retiree chapter (who told me specifically and unbelievably that the director "didn't know" who the speaker was), the automatic "forms" line of the Welfare Fund (idiotic), the Welfare Fund live person, the Aetna hotline (I knew that wouldn't work, because though the speaker was an Aetna rep, she was talking at a UFT meeting), and back to the UFT retiree programs.  From this last nice person, I did get the first name of the speaker, but that was it. Called Aetna again, and though they couldn't help me with finding the person I was looking for, the service person was equally shocked at the price discrepancy between the two companies and said she would escalate my question northward, someone would get back to me.

I then decided that the UFT needed to know about this unnecessary run-around, so I tried to find an email address for Tom Murphy, which is not on the website (or again: not obviously on the website) and the people at healthbenefithelp@uftwf.org. But I did find Tom's email in some old correspondence and wrote the following (some typos corrected):

Dear Mr. Murphy,

The retirees attended a Zoom meeting yesterday, June 13.

One of the two speakers on the new Aetna plan was Dr. Serrano.

There was another lady who did most of the explanations, worked for Aetna: I think her first name was Sabrina, but nobody at the UFT knew her last name when I called this morning.  Unbelievable.

She specifically said to contact her if we knew of drug that we cost MORE in SilverScript than it costs currently in Express Scripts. She would want to let their actuaries know if it needs a new pricing.

[gave them the pricing of the drug in both plans....]

My drug . . . will cost more in SilverScripts, but I don’t know how to tell her this because I’ve made 6 calls to the union today (kept being transferred, dead-end everywhere, and one to Aetna helpline) and nobody seems to know who the speaker was at yesterday’s general meeting — nor how to report this difference in pricing. 

I find this union obfuscation/resistance/ignorance pretty disgraceful, that no one could tell me who spoke at a Zoom meeting that you said had more than 3000 attendees.  

 

And nobody can tell me how to report this pricing discrepancy to this lady?

His pretty quick response was nevertheless strange:

Sorry you see the worst motives rather than the best in people. Her name was announced several times and her contact information was posted there and on our website. 

I am forwarding your messages to her.

In solidarity,

Tom Murphy

Anyone who knows me knows I couldn’t let this go unanswered. 

Explaining in my next email that the speaker's name was not mentioned in the last half hour of the meeting when I needed it, that I had made many phone calls and checked several webpages on the UFT site to find it, and that my purpose – and here's the main thing – was not only to have her look into the pricing of that popular drug, but to circulate my notes from the meeting to my union friends and the Medicare counselors I work with through Westchester County and the library system (see https://seniors.westchesterlibraries.org/senior-benefits/ and http://seniors.westchesterlibraries.org/demystifyingmedicare/), I concluded the exact opposite and told him so: 

It is YOU who were looking for bad motives, not me. My question for the speaker (which nobody on the 6 phone calls could help me with) and the hours I put into getting these updates to people who need them are signs of dedication and helpfulness. Not a bad motive in sight. 

If union leadership objects to the words "obfuscation," "resistance," and "ignorance," they can do something about it. 

Direct our phone calls to the right department. Don't throw us off to an outside entity when a question about a UFT Zoom meeting has nothing to do with them. Put some more contact and program information on your website, or fix your search engine to be able to find things. Circulate your own notes from the meeting. And for heaven's sake, don't project on me the bad feelings you're harboring against us pesky retirees.

The building blocks are in your hands, not ours. 

 

UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew

I was just getting passed around via the telephone... uft member

I am one of 4 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who have filed an age discrimination case against the UFT for replacing us with younger minimum wage workers... Getting rid of us, we think, was part of the overall plan to reduce health care costs and reduce services to retirees....UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well........ Fired UFT Retiree health consultant

There has been a response to our earlier post on Salesforce replacing UFT members. 

• UFT Staffer - The face of the UFT is Salesforce - Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon)

• Fuck Salesforce -- UFT Staffer

There are signs the Unity gang are not very comfortable with this story. An obvious Unity flack left this comment:

This is bs. The uft needed a way to be more responsive. No system is perfect, but the response rate now is vastly better than it was. UFT is basically understaffed. Getting a rep on phone b4 Salesforce was very hard. Often, nobody answered. Now, you get through and get a callback. 

My response:  

So you admit you guys are Bloomberg light in terms of farming out services? How nice you don't have to pay per session or hire people who know what to do. They may call back but often with wrong info. A much better system using clueless people.

My point? Unity is following the Bloomberg business model which decimated certain areas of the DOE by farming out work that was done by UFT members. We heard from some of the people replaced by Salesforce - and some are suing over age discrimination.

I just found out about this Medicare Advantage deal the unions are pushing through. I know there is some resistance from loyal UFT members but the hierarchy (Mulgrew and others) has joined the corporate mentality. They no longer value union ideals. 

They laid off all Retiree health consultants and hired younger minimum wage workers. Before they laid off all their retiree health consultants, they signed a contract with Salesforce. UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well.

I was one of the Health Consultants laid off so I saw the transition going on there. It is so sad what they have become. 

Here's some more:

I am one of 10 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who were laid off when the UFT eliminated all the Retiree Health Consultants in December 2020.

In September 2019 we were removed from our offices and put in a Call Center run by a company called Salesforce. Four young women were hired to work with us in the Call Center at minimum wage. We were told they were to direct calls to either a pension or health consultant.  However, we heard them answering questions about city health plans and Medicare and giving out wrong information. When we complained, these workers were moved to another floor.

We were furloughed due to covid in March 2020 but the UFT continued to hire Welfare Fund staff. We received an email from our former UFT supervisor in October 2020 who told us there was a stealth operation going on at the UFT. She said the calls we used to answer were redirected to another floor and she wasn't even told this was being done. She just noticed that there were no longer calls in the queque. In December 2020 when one of my colleagues asked when we would be returning, we all received a letter of termination.

I am one of 4 UFT Retiree Health Consultants who have filed an age discrimination case against the UFT for replacing us with younger minimum wage workers. Getting rid of us, we think, was part of the overall plan to reduce health care costs and reduce services to retirees. UFT retirees were not told we were being eliminated but if you attend the Retiree Chapter meetings, retirees are directed to websites to have their health questions answered.

The UFT has a facebook page for retirees but it is censored so I need to hear the unvarnished truth.

And another:

I know there is some resistance from loyal UFT members but the hierarchy (Mulgrew and others) has joined the corporate mentality. They no longer value union ideals. They laid off all Retiree health consultants and hired younger minimum wage workers. Before they laid off all their retiree health consultants, they signed a contract with Salesforce. UFT workers started reporting to Salesforce managers who put workers in call centers and told them to raise their hand if they had to go to the bathroom. Not only unhealthy conditions but demoralizing as well. I was one of the Health Consultants laid off so I saw the transition going on there. It is so sad what they have become. 

I'm not shocked to see Mulgrew taking the union in a classic neo-liberal direction even when touched by anti-union forces.

Are the Salesforce workers unionized?

At the moment, none of the major tech companies have a unionized workforce. Employees at Amazon and Salesforce have also implored their executives to stop selling technology to the US government.

 

 

UFT Staffer - The face of the UFT is Salesforce - Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon)

Fuck Salesforce -- UFT Staffer

This explains a lot about how the UFT leadership decision-making has been running the UFT into the ground. Like we love call centers. I get someone in India to come fix my plumbing.

From a staffer:

The face of the UFT is Salesforce. They have an entire floor at 52. Calling the UFT means calling a call center.  It's concierge service with an exclamation point. Just like Med Advantage. Circles upon circles of misdirection and "customer service." Unless you have someone's personal cell # all you get is a scripted intake interview and hope for the best. You are not a member; you are a customer.  Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon). It's a shameless adaptation of the corporate American model. Questions are not asked; tickets are opened. Questions are not answered; tickets are closed. Well, sometimes. Rarely. Maybe. Usually they languish, and languish, and... Where have you been bro? Get with the program! We are not members; we are customers. Soylent Green is people!!!

I was not aware of the Salesforce issue until the other day. 

My friend's daughter and a cousin used to work for the same startup that was bought by Salesforce who turned it into a shit show. They left as soon as they could. Nice work Mulgrew. 

The key point is the corporatization and privatization of services. Having clueless people in control in so many areas of the union. This is actually parallel to what Bloomberg did to the DOE. Bringing in corporate people instead of educators. The old system had many issues but it was still run by people who originally started out as teachers. Every principal and Supt had some teaching.

Same with the UFT. It might be an old boy and girl network but still they had been or were still teachers.