Recent retiree: My first retiree meeting and I am appalled.
Retiree delegate responds: Yes. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been a
Mulgrew visit and, I guess, a Tom Brown performance. It made me want to
cry.
Recently Retiree: Yes. It made me very sad. All that work to win a historic election and this is what they do with it.
Arthur reports on DA and RTC
Retiree Michael Brocoum: I
attended the RTC meeting at 52 Broadway. Bennett Fischer stated
that The UFT is trying to deal with the copay issue. With all due
respect that is laughable. Copays exist because of Mike Mulgrew. Mulgrew
asked the City to institute copays to free up some money for active
worker raises essentially pitting active workers against retirees.
Additionally Bennet Fischer asked for people to man phone banks to
support the UFT's (Mulgrew) pick for District 3 City Council. The union
(Mulgrew) supports Carl Wilson. You can be sure that to get the UFT
(Mulgrew) support he had to agree to not actively fight to protect
retiree healthcare. I rose up to speak and asked attendees to vote for
Layla-Law Gisiko who is supported by Marianne Pizzitola. We still have
our traditional Medicare because of Marianne. Please vote for Layla-Law
Gisiko and ignore any calls from the UFT phone banks. Bennett Fischer was not pleased to hear my statement and criticized me for mentioning Mulgrew in this healthcare fight. Sad.
Norm:
Did you notice Bennett attacking Mike Brocoum for going after Mulgrew,
labeling it as
a personal attack -- the Unity crowd heckled Mike but no word from
Bennett about them. What next, getting reprimanded for being critical of
UFT policies? Could Bennett have objected to mentioning the "union
Leadership that made the
deal to force us into Medicare Advantage" or the "union leadership"
that went to the city council to try to amend the law that guarantees
health care coverage for all municipal employees and retirees and their
dependents - to put retirees in a different category so they could force
us into MA or make us pay for our Senior Care if we wanted to to stay
in traditional Medicare?
Arthur Goldstein report of RTC Meeting: It was pretty remarkable to hear Bennett Fischer stop a speaker
from saying that Michael Mulgrew imposed copays on us, deeming it a
“personal attack.” That, in fact, is not a personal attack. It’s a
statement that, as far as I know, is true. The copays were put in place to make his crappy Medicare Advantage plan look better. A
personal attack would be saying your adversaries spout fairy tales. It
would be saying some people can’t handle the facts. It would be saying
your adversaries make everything a conspiracy, or that those who
disagree with you are enemies of the union. Michael Mulgrew said all
those things at a UFT Executive Board meeting I attended.
Norm: Watching Bennett over the past year and a half, he bends over
backwards to defend Unity and criticizes their critics - in public,
while privately he will be critical. I can be the only one with my hand up and he will avoid calling on me because he's concerned I may go after Unity (which I will). I've been Tom Murphyized by Bennett.
Retiree Delegate after the meeting: I debated paying the $50 to join Retiree Advocate and decided not to. I paid what I thought were dues for years and found out I was not a member. I'm not giving them more money.
Oy! Having spent 4 hours over 2 days at Albert Shanker Hall listening first to Mulgrew and then endless reports that chewed up most of the RTC meeting, I said thank goodness for the chips and oreo cookies. Above are some of the comments from retirees. I have a lot to say about both but not enough time to write it all down. So I will focus here on the DA.
Arthur covered both meetings remotely in depth.
Both meetings exposed the differences riling both retiree and active UFT members opposed to Unity Caucus. The ABC DA chat group during DAs is worth the price of admission (free). While I gnash my teeth at DAs, I don't expect very much from the Unity leadership. Or from the RA-RTC leadership and their dwindling core of delegates. One of the delegates I respect a lot resigned recently. People are saying "what's the point?" I'm thinking the same but go for the entertainment value.
Mulgrew will talk forever. A faux Unity unsigned reso will be placed on the new motion agenda. Most of the people called on will be full or part-time UFT staff. And even if a new motion from a non-Unity gets raised and even approved, it will get buried and put on the bottom of the agenda for the next month. Or year. Or decade.
There were a few big issues:
The secret survey to tell the leadership what issues the members think are important that the leadership will ignore and won't reveal the outcome to the membership with the usual arguments that we must be secret - ignoring the successful open negotiation tactics of the Chicago and Los Angeles teacher unions which have won them better recent contracts than the UFT - much better.
Arthur mocks the 500 member negotiating committee which is a PR stunt. At the end it will be a few people in the room -- I've urged oppo people to not sign the non-disclosure agreement and boycott but most don't agree with me. Members are hand chosen by leadership with a few token oppo voices who are sworn to secrecy so that they can't even consult with the people who elected them.
Let me jump to Arthur's comments:There was an amendment asking that we lowly members know the results of
our survey asking what our priorities are. The first two people who
spoke in opposition are full time Unity employees. The third is a part
time Unity employee. I’m not sure about the fourth, but I’d bet dimes to
dollars she's Unity too..... I was struck by how much Unity employee Stuart Kaplan sounded like
Trump supporters do. Just this morning, I saw video of actor Dean Cain
saying Trump was playing 5d chess, and Kaplan said we have to keep 5
steps ahead of the DOE. Given Unity’s abysmal record of selling out
retirees, among other things, I’m not seeing five steps ahead.
In
fact, if Kaplan is correct, Mulgrew should no longer bloviate for an
hour at a time. He should hide in a bunker with whomever the other two
men in a room happen to be. That might make it easier for him to keep on
selling us contracts and health plans we aren’t allowed to read.
Mulgrew used his filibuster to lobby for TRS pension election candidate Tom Brown and claimed in an LOL moment that they are independent. We know David Kazansky was removed as pension rep 2 years ago for speaking his mind too much and then subsequently fired for being too friendly with Amy Arundell. Arthur commented:
Mulgrew speaks of the trustees as though they are deities. No, he
claims, they make their own decisions, completely independently of what
he may want. That’s very hard to believe. How can a trustee work as a
UFT officer and be completely independent? Worse, how can a trustee sign an actual loyalty oath to Unity and be trusted to work in our interest even if it isn’t shared by King Mulgrew? Won’t they be purged, just like former trustee David Kazansky was, if they fail to please the king?
The other major issue came from the MORE people, who had two resos circulating - one on supporting May Day, which did not get raised and the following from Kate McCreary from the Beacon School, where MORE has a base. As reported by Arthur:
Kate McCreary, Beacon HS—Resolution for next month. Stop sale of bombs and
bulldozers to Israel. Since 10/7 provided 27 billion, Israel killed more
than 72K, bodies pulled out of rubble every day. UFT supports for dem
Senators who disapproved. Endorses them blocking bombs and bulldozers
that make Palestinian state impossible. Bombs have destroyed countless
schools, prevented children from learning, destroyed all the
universities, destroyed homes, ability to get food and health care. 60%
of people in our country believe in this. Our support can make a
difference.
Well done, says Mulgrew.
Sean Rockowitz (UFT Staten Island borough rep) —Similar resolutions have divided membership, urges no vote.
online yes—509 n—370 room y 175 n 122 58%, placed on next month agenda
We probably will see some leadership attempts to modify it. Or else add it to the back of the agenda where it will die. If they put it up next time up front, that would be a sign of cataclysmic change in the union with its neo-con history.
Now think about this reso passing for the next meeting despite Sean's signaling possible leadership opposition, while Mulgrew issued no signal. (LeRoy Barr had the rep of raising his glasses as a signal to the Unity faithful on how to vote.) Is this a sign of some divide in the leadership over the growing Democratic Party (and even some Republican) opposition to Israeli genocide? I doubt it. Remember the outrage and attacks on Amy Arundell just over a year ago over her relatively mild criticisms of Israel? Just a few months later, the leadership was endorsing Mamdani. Now verging on BDS? There must be some Unity hacks gnashing their teeth.
"Well done", says Mulgrew. Remember the reaction when MORE was pushing BDS? How far behind are we before a BDS reso makes a serious move? Boy, it you want an example of how quickly politics can turn, here is an example. Not long ago I was ambivalent about BDS. No longer as one outrage after another piles up. (The triple tap targeting and murder of the female Lebanese journalist is one more chip in the Israeli support wall.)
UFT leadership tracks Dem Party central - Mulgrew was a Biden delegate. Randi was on Dem Central Committee - until she resigned, indicating her finger is in the air. Schumer is the perfect example of Dem party failure --- his Senate choices in Michigan and Maine are getting slaughtered. He doesn't oppose the war in Iran but wants to have a say. Talk about out of touch leadership.
Speaking of out of touch leadership: So, is UFT leadership moving away from corporate Dems and to the left while a good portion of the membership trails? Or are they onto something?
Last year's election results looked like a repudiation of the left with the legacy caucuses of ARISE getting only14% of the vote. The ABC "everyone is welcome" 32% share was interesting given that Pres Candidate Arundell was a pro-Palestinian rights leftist. That vote came from left, right and center - anti-Mulgrew people who liked the ABC "all are welcome" mantra.
The problem with the leftist legacy caucuses is that they don't run to win, but to make their point. The one time they won was the RTC 2024 chapter election when they eschewed ideology and worked with Marianne and the NYC Retirees, which was open open to left, right and center.
It was clear last year they didn't have a chance and yet spent enormous resources and money in running a losing campaign that humiliated them.
I don't see the legacy people learning their lesson as they will see a vote like this one on Israel as the UFT membership moving left when in actuality it is the leadership playing politics. We don't know where the membership stands -- on Israel there is a definite move by the whole country but what would a referendum in the UFT show?
The leadership of MORE always felt they could be hard left and the membership would morph and come to them as capitalism degraded. I always felt there is as much if not more of a chance people move right and not left if society degrades.
James Eterno always said Unity would never let the oppo to out social justice them and that still holds. There was some reluctance by a minority group in MORE to unite with the other legacy groups because it meant they had to compromise. The theory to stick to their ideology and wait for the membership to catch up. Union elections are not much of a factor to them - until they felt they could win, ignoring the victories in Chicago and LA - are their memberships THAT much different from the UFT?
Or is it that we have Unity Caucus to control the members and those unions had no equivalent? I say the latter -- that the prime obstacle to changing the union is Unity and they must fall first and the oppo should focus their aim on them -- sure, go to Starbucks and every rally -- but don't neglect the prime directive. The RA/RTC crowd are thrilled to be running the chapter
on every issue but healthcare. They seem to have bought the line that
our victory last year convinced Mulgrew to give up on MedAdv. So what
will they run on next year? Not enough rallies at Starbuks?
This describes the major difference between ABC and ARISE - eye on the prize.
The RA/RTC people who run the chapter - for now -- have tried to minimize Marianne's contributions and don't want to face the fact that her support for ABC tripled their retiree vote compared to them. They don't seem to want to run against Unity with her backing.
Bennett's attack on Brocoum - and me at times - for challenging Unity - and his general reluctance to stand up to them - makes people scratch their heads. Some think he is trying to curry favor with Unity so that they might be willing to support him in the chapter election. I don't think so. I think it is the Stockholm Syndrome. Once RTC moved into even a sliver or power they began to look at things from a leadership perspective.
It is worth examining the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome.
Stockholm syndrome is a
psychological response where hostages or abuse victims develop positive
emotional bonds, sympathy, or dependency toward their captors. It is a coping mechanism for survival, occurring when victims identify with abusers
Symptoms:
Positive feelings toward abusers, sympathy for their agenda, and
decreased fear/anger toward them, alongside mistrust of rescuers.
Causes: The syndrome is rooted in fear, helplessness, and the need for survival during intense isolation or threatening situations.
I see ABC as their rescuers and they have more antagonism and fear of ABC than they do of their Unity oppressors. The irony is that so many ABCers have left the Unity cult and are way more militant with a greater desire to win - not just make a point - than the legacy caucuses.
Watch RA and the RTC leadership in action and look for these syndrome signs. Bennett's criticism of Mike Brocoum, while ignoring the Unity jeers and boos when he went after Mulgrew, is perfect example of Stockholm Syndrome.
Since winning the election, Retiree Advocate has engaged in Unity-like behavior, to the point that I no longer felt comfortable in RA and after ten years I stopped attending meetings and will not join their new membership faux democracy caucus. (I will go into more details on how this is NOT democracy.)
You know when the uninformed complain about difference in the opposition to Unity within the retiree chapter, differences that will most likely prevent them from winning again, they attribute it to ego or personality and ignore the fact that there are policy differences. The differences between ABC and ARISE over the 2024 election were over policy, strategies and tactics. The fundamental capitulation to Unity is a major difference and any attempt to bring the dissonant factions together must address that point.
Is it impossible to come together for an election either at the chapter level or the broader union? Yes. But only if there is an agreement to try to win like we had in the 2024 election but didn't in 2025. I'm no longer interested in wasting time on trying to send messages. As legendary football coach Al Davis used to say: Just win baby!
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Next time I blog I'll go into detail on the RTC meeting where leadership and presenters took up an hour and a half.
