Friday Night Video Update - Marianne interviews RA Candidates Fischer, Brandman, Greenberg

Excellent video, Marianne. It's good to see and hear the Retiree Advocate position. Personally, I was pleased to see that Bennett, Bobby, and Gloria are middle of the road people, not extremist and dug in to tear up everything that has been accomplished over the decades. Nor do they appear to be authoritarian 'my way or the highway' types. What we don't need is a "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" scenario at this stage of the game. I'm all in on wanting to get rid of Murphy and restoring some sanity back into the RTC ballgame. Thank you for all you do.... comment

This comment nailed what the RA campaign is all about. Empowering retirees to take control of their own chapter and possibly change the UFT forever. Unity still has a big block of loyal followers who when told to jump, they try, but usually get as far as up on their toes. Maybe we see some slippage of their core vote but I don't expect all that much. Thus we need to make up the difference from the 40 thousand retirees who didn't vote last time.

 https://youtu.be/a-y4DVq6vdA?si=XmslqboOs4dxOFNf

 

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

·

 

Today: Calling UFT Retirees - Join Retiree Advocate at chapter meeting at 1PM, followed by gathering at White Horse Tavern

Are we nearing the end of Tom Murphy's reign as chapter leader? Possible successor, former UFT VP Carmen Alvarez, will be a mainline speaker today - I will report later on the lousy bagels served at RTC meetings which beer I drank at the tavern.

The March meeting of the UFT Retiree chapter is today at one. I will be joining the RA crew in the back lobby of 52 at noon. Unity will try to exert maximum control of this meeting. We expect (hope) new people will be there to raise issues - if they allow it. Expect lots of filibustering to stall. One reason Murphy may be out is his bull in China shop approach. 

I wonder at how effective Carmen might be and whether Mulgrew trusts her to be able to handle it. There isn't a lot of talent at the top, especially among retirees in Unity. We heard rumors they had problems and may still be having problems getting people to agree to run as delegates, with some flatly turning down the opportunity. Some even may be running with RA. In contrast, we have been oversubscribed and don't have room for all the people who volunteered to run.

 Here is today's leaflet.

 

Being surreal at December UFT Retiree meeting - the Morning Joe Edition

I'm still reeling from Tuesday's retiree chapter meeting and then I get deja vu all over again while watching Morning Joe, with former Dem Senator Claire Caskill bragging about the record amounts of drilling Biden is doing. That's a sure way to capture the votes of the young people who see climate change as an existential threat.

It's surreal to watch how they talk about all the great Biden stuff but can't understand why the polls are so low, especially within his own coalition -- They admit that Biden hasn't laid out a second term agenda -- only talks about what has been done while ignoring what hasn't been done. A guest says people have to have a real sense that a second Biden term will make a difference in their lives. It's not enough not to be Trump. But no worries. They think people will come to their senses, especially after Tom Murphy rouses the masses in the UFT retiree chapter meeting. So, watching Morning Joe this morning is like a nightmare repeat of Tuesday's RTC meeting where I was more convinced than ever that Trump will be our next president.

December 21 - last day of fall/first day of winter -- brrr.

 

Tuesday started off peaceful enough. The day began with a gym, swim and sauna. Done by 8:30 AM. Downloaded the flyer for Retiree Advocate to hand out at the RTC Dec. meeting later that day. Dropped by the FedEx on Lexington and 40th St and the ladies there were so helpful in sending the pdf to the copier. Then off to oatmeal and coffee at the Pret at Park and 40th, followed by the library on 40th and 5th and then off to check out the Bryant Park holiday fair and the ice skating - watching, not skating. Then off to Grand Central to head downtown.

So I was pretty mellow when I got to 52 Broadway to meet with the Retiree Advocate crew with leaflets and sign up sheets for RA. We got a pretty good response to our leaflet - a lot of people seemed to know us and wanted a copy. One guy referred to the last meeting where we saw a presentation on seniors avoiding fraud when "the biggest frauds of all were sitting up there running this union and RTC." 

 

And once again the frauds were in action.

 

So.....I spent an angry hour and a half at Tuesday's Retiree Chapter meeting. I wasn't the only one pissed. Arthur wrote about the meeting from a remote point of view. (When Is the Best Time to Dump UFT Unity?) 

 

Here's a sense of the meeting from Arthur:

...when someone actually has a question, Murphy interrupts her relentlessly. That’s off topic. That’s not a question. Murphy sarcastically calls her “nice.” The woman wants to know what AFT’s position is on Medicare. The woman says if the whole city gets off of it, the program may be in danger. Murphy snidely says, “Thank you,” over and over again, until some Unity hack finally grabs the mike from her. 

Lucky for Arthur he wasn't in the room where there was a lot of rage from both sides -- Unity hacks upset at how dare anyone challenge them. And he missed out on those stale bagels in cellophane wrappers. At the top of my platform for the RTC election would be promising to bring back real bagels and real pastries - strudel for sure. Maybe lox. Arthur also missed some awful xmas cookies. But you know me - I ate the bagel and the cookies.

I usually don't get too excited at the shenanigans by the gang running the UFT/Unity Caucus syndicate and its retiree chapter subsidiary, but I had to listen to stuff that set me off. At one point Tom Murphy made a mistake and actually pointed to me for a question but when he recognized it was me he looked horrified and said "NO" and pointed in the other direction. He should make better use of the UFT welfare eyeglass fund. 

 

The meeting, as usual, got off to a rousing start with moments of silence for death notices. (I wanted a moment for the death of our healthcare). RTC leadership loves death notices - which may explain why they want us off Medicare and in a MedAdv managed care program, a sure way to increase death notices. 

 

I can't wait for Murphy to filibuster an entire RTC meeting dedicated to moments of silence, though a recent meeting dedicated to the death of George Altomare where he comes back to life to sing Solidarity Forever - and he means Forever - repeatedly because Murphy couldn't hear it well enough, qualifies. Murphy should make better use of the UFT Welfare hearing-aid fund.

 

I was sorry to hear of the death of Bernie Zemsky, longtime Unity Caucus member, who soured on the leadership and communicated his feelings to people in the opposition. I was told he was fired by the union and sued them and there was a settlement but he had to sign an NDA. I had planned to get in touch with him to ask him to run with RA in the chapter election. He probably would have. Ooops. I gave Bernie away. Look for Unity to rescind the moment of silence at the next meeting. 

 

When I'm gone I want one minute of people screaming at the leadership "U Suck!"

"Why aren't we talking about retiree issues," someone calls out a few minutes into the meeting. The meeting reinforced the inept AFT/UFT gang as part and parcel of the inept Democratic Party leadership which is a major reason the Trump phenomena exists. And yes, we retirees get the danger Trump presents. Don't waste our time beating our heads over it and take care of our healthcare. We don't need to go to a meeting to tell us how bad Trump is and how good Biden is. Trump is strong because the Dem Party is so inept. And it's not only about perceptions but policy.

 

Using UFT Retirees a political force while ignoring their health needs

This meeting was about the role for retirees for political action. Randi's NYT Sunday ad warning about the Trump danger to democracy was referenced. How ironic to talk about democracy at an undemocratic UFT meeting. 

• Has Mulgrew been a threat to democracy?

Using the Trump threat as a way to distract people from the healthcare issue is not a surprise. The Trump threat is real but so is the healthcare threat the UFT foisted on the retirees. 

 

What will kill us first? Trump or Aetna? 

 

The idea that getting the UFT retirees wired up about the Trump threat in the face of the assault on our healthcare by our own union is what made this meeting surreal.

 

The major theme in the opening presentation by John Ost, AFT Director of Political Mobilization was all about how Trump is a danger to democracy and is leading Biden in all areas. DUHHHH! He was interrupted constantly by Mulgrew riding in a car trying to talk but all we heard and saw was static -- which is how I always view Mulgrew talking. 

 

Arthur's report:

Murphy says we’ll bring on a speaker from AFT, but we’ll interrupt him whenever Mulgrew sees fit to show up. As soon as the guy starts to speak, he’s interrupted by Mulgrew, evidently in a car, and no one in the room can hear him. After we waste time on that, Mulgrew says he’ll drop in on the meeting later.

Back to Ost. But of course it's not the fault of Biden or the inept Democrats, which includes our UFT leadership from the top national down to the locals they control. UFT/AFT is inbred with the right/central Dem Party -- which is controlled by the corporate wing. They will sit by while the Israeli lobby wipes out the progressives. 

John Ost posted charts - he charted us to death about how much of a danger Trump was and how bad Biden was doing in the polls. I kept calling out WHY? But they are not interested in WHY and when you don't want to know WHY, you will never have an answer. The WHY is that the corporate Dem agenda sucks and alienates the progressives and opens up Biden to weakness on both flanks. 

And they don't get why young people are deserting Biden in droves? Student debt - inept. Climate change - inept. Healthcare improvement: inept. Note: Biden ran on extending Medicare. Don't just blame Republicans. Biden never mentions it.

 

So they talked about Biden bringing down drug prices and medicare negotiating for lower drug prices. But always watch what they don't say: the delay until 2025, that it's only a few drugs, etc. A Unity former VP made a point that Medicare and Social Security would be in more danger if Trump won? I slapped my head -- The UFT leadership has been a threat to Medicare so far, not Trump, who is one of the few Republicans who chastise them for talking about cutting Medicare -- one of his few redeeming points - even if he's probably lying.

You see the problem is that the wonderful work Biden has done is just not getting through. Like people who can't pay rent or buy a house should bow down.

 

In the first minute of the presentation I was more convinced Trump may win than ever because these people are so clueless. They are hoping to beat Trump by getting states to not put him on the ballot or the courts to convict him. Why so many people are either supporting Trump and rejecting Biden? Not interested.

 

And how about those Dems in states like Florida, Massachusetts and Tennessee manipulating or cancelling primaries to protect Biden? Dems are not a threat to democracy? 

Biden's insistence of running may end up being the biggest threat to democracy, enabled by his enablers in support groups like the UFT.

 

We heard a long report from the UFT’s new political director, Venecia Wilson.  

 

Arthur reports:

She is charming as she relates a few personal anecdotes. I had expected her to answer the question, but she doesn’t. She then talks about Santos and says the GOP has picked a candidate for his seat, but we’re waiting to hear from the Democrats. Oddly, I heard yesterday the Democrats had picked Tom Suozzi, and a member later brings it up. (It’s a little disconcerting our political director seemed not to know this.)

I try to get a question in on Suozzi who is to the right of Hochul but Tom ignores me again. Joel Burger shows Newsday which announces Suozzi and leaves egg on their faces. Did they not know or were they hiding that this is the guy we are going to be asked to support? Not all good news on Suozzi either as he's blamed for running a dumb primary campaign against Hockul which helped Republicans in numerous ways -- maybe even the House loss is partly his fault with Santos replacing him.

Mulgrew walks in and he's in a good mood --- I'm glad he wasn't driving the car. He's handling the heckling with a hearty "Happy holidays". 

Back to Arthur.

Mulgrew shows up at 2:15. Says this chapter will work harder than any other chapter. Other people have to go into classroom. Evidently, he assumes we have nothing else to do. He criticizes corporations who want unfettered control. This strikes me as ironic. Mulgrew, despite professing that the Delegate Assembly is the union’s highest decision-making body, opposes the NY Health Act, twice endorsed by the DA. He himself has unfettered control.

Murphy, to his evident dread, has to allow questions. He says there are “lots of health question, or statements posing as questions,” in yet another barb at those of us who want to keep our insurance. Belittling us yet again, he snaps, “Here’s an apt question,” which turns out to be about Tier 6.

Murphy finally allows ONE question on health care to reach Mulgrew’s ears.

Sarah Shapiro—Why are you more concerned with the city’s health than our health? NYS Supreme court found Advantage would cause us irreparable harm. Isn’t that enough of a reason to preserve the coverage we have now?”

Mulgrew—We are at war with the health care industry. We can’t just say no, no, no. We see around the corner with what will happen in the future. We will make sure every member gets the best health care with the same benefits, I know the city’s appealing. Keep hearing the rhetoric and the same lines. Responds “Happy New Year and God bless” to people. I support your right to your opinions. I will give you facts and you have a right to agree or disagree. Moving on to next question.

Mulgrew did not answer the question. He implies we are contrary imbeciles, and suggests he has vision, but offers absolutely no supporting evidence. I’m glad he’s not in my class writing a persuasive essay. (He should be glad too.)

There are a few statements on health and welfare. Notable is this one:

Bennett Fisher—Retiree Advocate had very well attended general meeting. Discussed health care going forward. Discussed health care with UFT other unions, and NYC Retirees, Very happy most recent lawsuit went into our favor. If anybody has interest in learning more about RA, please come see us and sign up.

Murphy tried to interrupt, but Bennett got to complete his statement. There was another speaker, and then Murphy loudly cried, “Meeting Adjourned!” Clearly, there was nothing he wanted in life more than to end this meeting.

Bennett was speaking under Good and Welfare which is where anyone can get up to the mic and say something. Well, not everyone. I'm waving my hand and shouting Good and Welfare. "Meeting adjourned" says Murphy, 20 minutes before it was supposed to end.

More info on the Suozzi story:

NYT: Inside the Secret Meeting That Cleared the Way for Tom ..

Politico: Not everyone’s welcoming back Tom Suozzi

Anna Kaplan doesn’t like George Santos. And she isn’t so sure about Tom Suozzi either.

“After almost a year of this district having embarrassing representation, Tom Suozzi thinks voters on Long Island have forgotten that he abandoned us to George Santos,” Kaplan, who is running in the 3rd Congressional District as a Democrat, said in a statement. “The Democratic Party is a pro-choice party, and unlike Tom Suozzi, I will always stand up for a woman’s right to choose — period.”

That was just a preview of just some of the attacks that fellow Democrats will make against Suozzi after the longstanding, though divisive figure in New York politics launched his own campaign Tuesday to win back his old seat.

Suozzi “abandoned” the Long Island district last year, forgoing re-election to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary from the right.

Team Hochul viewed Suozzi as a nuisance, at best. And she slammed him for initially supporting the Hyde amendment, which bans federal funds like Medicaid from being spent on abortion care.

 

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?

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

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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.