Retired Teacher Chapter Ex Bd Meeting Today - 1008a on Call

 

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 

 

Mobs of people have been anxiously awaiting part 2 after I published 

Untangling the knots in the Retired Teacher Chapter and Other Stuff - Part 1

The knots keep growing - And untangling this one is a doozy 

I chronicled some of the issues dividing the non-Unity crew, which was very united when they won the 2024 election with 63%. Since then there have been so many twists and turns that is forcing me to postpone Part 2 which was focused on the one-slate revolt of some members of Retiree Advocate, who run the RTC, over the RA Organizers 10-3 split offer to Fixed Retiree Benefits. The 1008 issue is further dividing the groups as you will see below. 

 

The latest controversy relates to the surprise reso at the DA offered by retired UFT officer Sterling Roberson, the most likely Unity candidate to oppose Bennett Fischer this spring in the RTC election, to support the new city council bill 1008 to protect retirees from being charged for healthcare. Educators of NYC commented:

Sterling (Roberson) intentionally never read or mentioned the resolves in this proposed resolution … INTENTIONALLY. Hundreds of delegates on the phone voted on a resolution they never read, had access to or were fully informed about. This is very much Unity’s modus operandi — to co-opt policies that the rank and file is clamoring for in order to WATER IT DOWN.    

For sure - a Unity scam aimed at the upcoming RTC election just like the 10k para scam aimed at the 2025 election (which seemed to work - but unless Mulgrew and his pal Julie Menin get them the 10k, it won't work for the 2028 UFT election.) Luckily, UFT retirees are used to the Unity scams so we won't be fooled again. Or will we?

 

I'm trying to follow the bouncing ball with a Bennett Fischer and Arthur Goldstein version of a reso affirming support for 1008 --- and today's discussion at the RTC EB meeting. If I don't fall asleep, I will report on it later.

 

Any RTC member can attend in person or remote.

 

Zoom link for today's Exec Board meeting. 1-3pm in Room 19H.

https://uft.zoom.us/j/87396560770?pwd=lYbkRJHBOQtRR2hLbfdVR6v7ZI83Sv.1

RTC Executive Board - Meeting Agenda

Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 1-3pm, Room 19H

1. CL Report
2. October RTC Meeting Agenda
3. Committee Reports
4. Proposal for printed resolutions
5. COMRO delegation

 

Untangling the knots in the Retired Teacher Chapter and Other Stuff - Part 1

Sterling (Roberson) intentionally never read or mentioned the resolves in this proposed resolution … INTENTIONALLY. Hundreds of delegates on the phone voted on a resolution they never read, had access to or were fully informed about. This is very much Unity’s modus operandi — to co-opt policies that the rank and file is clamoring for in order to WATER IT DOWN. Examples: 1. They were FOR Medicare Advantage before the lawsuits by NYC Retirees made it untenable for their attempts to privatize the traditional Medicare plan. 2. They saw that members wanted to be able to ratify agreements with changes to their healthcare … so they added a healthcare committee to maintain control and only supported the DA making these decisions. 

Comment from Dan Alicea The Wire: Powered by Educators …on Arthur Goldstein Post:   1008*-Unity’s Bait and Switch:  Sterling Roberson is not, in fact, supporting 1008... 

Arthur Goldstein: Q--Why Does Unity Think We’ll Fall for Temu 1008? A--Because they take us for doddering imbeciles.

I love using TEMU but not for my healthcare.

I wanted to get this fake turn to support 1008 by Mulgrew and the clear signal that Sterling will be running for CL of the RTC on the table before I delve into the RTC maelstrom.

 *****Fix Retiree Benefits is organizing a delegate slate for the RTC election but is still open to working in a coalition for one slate.

 

Join 5,000 other subsscribers to the Fix Retiree Benefits substack: https://fixretireebenefitsuft.substack.com/

Run With FIX RETIREE BENEFITS

Fix Retiree Benefits - UFT

Oct 13, 2026

Subscribe to my substack and get an email when I post. 

https://normscott.substack.com/

Also - I have been removed from moderating the RA listserve where criticism of RA will be censored. It is no longer reliable. 

 

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026

 

A candidate for RTC Chapter Leader

Last week I went to three meetings and a faux Funeral for UFT Opposition to 1008, after future Unity candidate for RTC chapter leader Sterling Roberson followed his script in "supporting" 1008 which they had been claiming violated collective bargaining, the Taylor Law, and the pooper scooper law. But then again, UFT leaders rarely pick up the poop they leave. 

 

 

There were actually 5 meetings over two weeks and maybe some progress towards a united slate, but the train leaving the station is picking up steam. There's too much to report in this one post, so there will be a follow-up. (My head is spinning. I wish I could write as fast as Arthur - I used to but aging brain cells, you know.)

 

Since last week over 60 people have registered to run for delegate with Fix Retiree Benefits. CLICK HERE to run for delegate with Fix Retiree Benefits. The goal is 300.

Some background on one-slate progress

A group of RA dues-paying members were unhappy when RA Organizers presented a proposal for the creation of a 13 member election committee that gave  FRB 3 out of 13 slots at a raucous Sept. 22 RA general membership meeting attended by around 40 members. The general feeling was that the 10-3 proposal would seriously damage the prospects for one slate. 

 

Also of concern was the manner in which the meeting was conducted, with charges of lack of democracy when demands to put it to a vote were ignored, as one RA dues-paying attendee pointed out:

You cannot seriously think that creating a 13 member committee, composed of 10 RA representatives and only 3 from Fix Retiree Benefits, chosen by RA, is a fair and legitimate proposal for creating a joint slate! ... it appears to be a proposal created with the intention of having it rejected by FRB.... Many, perhaps most, of those who attended the RA membership meeting on Sept 22 were opposed to the way this committee was formed and were denied a vote on it. A democratic process on our side might have resulted in a better outcome.

The RA 15 member Organizing committee (steering) went ahead anyway and notified three men associated with FRB on Sept. 27 (FRB core members are majority women),  inviting them to a meeting on Sept. 28. The next day Bennett Fischer offered to let FRB choose the three. This was the first official contact with the FRB since last May. The official FRB response, while leaving open the one-slate possibility, was:

• A Meeting Unattended 

The RA Organizers (their 15-member steering) proposal fundamentally recreated the concept of a an election committee that would run the election and vet candidates and the 3 FRB people would lose every vote when there was no agreement. We learned from our experience with ABC that there is a more dynamic way to run an election than we've seen from the legacy caucuses. A rigid structure would harm the ability to win. If there is an agreement to run one slate, I believe the RA and FRB crowds should be free to run their own versions of the campaign.  But that's my personal opinion, not yet that of FRB.

The response of key dues-paying members of RA to the proposal led many of them to reach out directly to some of us connected to FRB at the Sept. 29th RTC Exec Bd and the Oct. 1 NY Health Act, which I discussed in Has the Train Left the Station for a United Retired Teacher Chapter Slate to Beat Unity? 

The train was pulling out but there was still hope to hop on if the dissident RA members could pressure the leadership of RA into an equitable agreement. The pushback on working with Marianne Pizzitola was still intense and we even heard that one member of the RA Org had said if we dropped her they could agree to a 50-50 split. Protests that she was a key figure in our win two years ago were deflected with: but this is another election and we're incumbents and much better known in the retiree chapter. I don't agree, but that's for another time. 

 

A mixed group met up after the Oct. 1 NYHA event.

 

An ad hoc meeting after the Oct. 1 NYHA meeting was open and frank and offered some hope and followed by a larger meeting after the RTC general meeting on Oct. 13, offering even more hope. We aimed at another meeting after the RTC meeting on Oct. 13.

 

The Oct. 13th meeting - Part 2 coming soon. (It is written but if I included it here you would be reading a tome. Actually, this alone is a tome.)

 

 

Has the Train Left the Station for a United Retired Teacher Chapter Slate to Beat Unity?

Saturday, October 10, 2026

 

The One-Slaters

 

Concerned that divisions between Retiree Advocate and Fix Retiree Benefits would widen to the point of no return, a group of retirees I've termed "One-Slaters" are begging everyone to come together in a united slate to keep Unity from winning back the RTC chapter. 

 

There is a sense of desperation and panic that if the chapter is handed back to Unity, they will use their control to find new and creative ways to reduce our healthcare or raise our fees, but this time, having learned some lessons from losing so badly in 2024, will do so in a much smarter and slicker manner and make sure Unity will never lose control again. 

 

One of Unity's first lessons from that loss was to degrade and disparage and make Marianne Pizzitola of NYCOPSR, who had so much to do with getting retirees to vote against Unity, toxic. (Analogy to Corp Dem obsession with Hassan Piker). Unfortunately, some of the very people she helped put in control of the RTC seem to buy the same anti-Marianne Unity line. 

They had a different tune as per this June 16, 2024 NY Post report on the RTC election: 

Retired NYC teachers toss out union prez’s crew in furor over Medicare coverage 

UFT insurgents credited Marianne Pizzitola, a retired FDNY emergency medical specialist and current president of the Organization of Public Service Retirees, Inc., with rallying citywide worker opposition to the Medicare Advantage shift.

Boy, how things have changed since June, 2024 when members of Retiree Advocate (me included at the time) celebrated the massive win with Marianne Pizzitola the day we won. Once in power, RA began to back away from giving her credit and began to brag about how it was THEIR organizing that won the election with just a little bit of help from Marianne, fake news. 

 

By the way, the role played by Arthur Goldstein in that campaign is also undervalued. Arthur now has almost 7,000 supporters on his substack. Some of his recent posts, critical of RA, have perturbed the one-slaters and I have links to them below. 

 

The One-Slaters argue for a united slate by any means necessary, even to the extent of downplaying participation of Marianne and urging suppressing criticism of RA and RTC leaders. Another concern is a willingness to accept the same leadership personnel and structure, which many of them admit is a problem but they are willing to bite the bullet in the name of a united front.

The One-Slaters are unhappy when RA or RTC is criticized, feeling that would make RA less likely to want to work with critics. But is was clear to many that RA never had the intention of sharing power with FRB or anyone else not on their inside game. Yet, we have tried to stay in the one-slate lane despite the repeated "no interest" messaging from RA.

 

Election conversations have been accelerating, recently at the Sept. 29th RTC Ex Bd meeting and the RTC Health Committee NY Health Act meeting on Oct. 1. 

This was the first time many of the key players on all sides in the RTC were meeting in person. There were no food fights but there were intense discussions over the one slate idea and the issues dividing us. What I found interesting was many of the one-slaters agree with FRB criticism but don''t want to talk about the issues, only wanting a united slate by any means necessary. They want a papering over of differences -- win first, fight later. 

They are pushing to have an open meeting of all parties, including non-aligned. 

 

I can see their point and remain open to further discussions, especially with independents and RA dissident dues-payers.

 

Dues-paying members of RA, unhappy with the leadership, are keeping hope alive that they can pressure the RA Org into some agreement. I will publish some of their comments next time,  but with every passing day, the train is speeding up. 

 

==== 

 

Arthur and I are quoted in the NY Post article of June 16, 2024 

“This is a tale of a massive shift in voting sentiment amongst retirees,” UFT activist Norm Scott said of the election results. “Can the same shift occur in the general election next year?”

Arthur Goldstein, vice-chair-elect of the retiree chapter, said, “We have taken our United Federation of Teachers from the clutches of those who thought Eric Adams’ budget and/or Aetna’s profits were more important than our health.

“We have broken the bonds placed upon us by ostensible leaders, union bosses to whom our health was not even an afterthought.” 

Here are a few more blasts from the past: 

This June 24, 2024 from The City Reporter is self-explanatory

Teachers’ Union Withdraws Its Support for Medicare Advantage Pact, Following Retiree Election Upset

“The courts have spoken. My members have spoken,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. Left unsaid is how else unions might find $600 million in annual cost savings.

This March 21, 2023 City Reporter article delves into the petition a bunch of us outside the normal caucus structure organized - this was shortly before James Eterno's stroke and he was actively involved in planning this. We ended up with 12k signatures and in some ways we dropped the ball. Ironically, when we won the election some of us proposed bringing the issue of a membership vote up at the first RTC meeting but the RTC Ex Bd changed it from a membership vote to a DA vote and of course the UFT leadership quashed it. I would say that was an early rift.

Teachers Buck Mulgrew, Petition for Referendum Vote On Medicare Advantage

UFT president feels pressure from members who demand a union-wide vote on the retiree health care cost savings plan he’s championing.

by Claudia Irizarry Aponte March 21, 2023, 5:00 a.m.Updated April 10, 2023, 3:51 p.m.

 

Here are a few recent articles by Arthur Goldstein that have purturbed some one-slaters. Arthur has almost 7000 followers on Substack:

Thank You, Readers: Union Matters just hit 6700 subscribers!

Arthur Goldstein

Oct 06, 2026

According to Bennett Fischer and Michael Mulgrew, We Don’t Exist:  We need leadership that will represent us, not gaslight us.

Arthur Goldstein

Oct 02, 2026

Imagine leadership that would not be censored by Unity, that would let the world know we won’t be used as pawns.

RA Calls a Last Minute Meeting, Grants Fix Retiree Benefits No Input Whatsoever:  Tactics, comrades, tactics.

Arthur Goldstein

Sep 28, 2026