1096 is now 1008 - Retirees Rally (Again) on Healthcare - Who was there, UFT/Unity MIA

I posted about this event just as I was leaving to attend Thursday morning: 

NYC Retirees Press Release - Legislation Introduction with Council Member Christopher Marte to Protect Retiree Healthcare

No one from the UFT/Unity was there (of course) but we had 4 members of the RTC Exec Bd at the event and a nice crew from Fix Retiree Benefits, which has been working closely with NYC Retirees.

Fix Retiree Benefits in the house

 

 

Saturday, August 15, 2026 

DSA had a bunch of social events going on today and I intend to go to a beach party in Rockaway where I will stand around and try to find someone over 30 to talk to. There is also a local Rockaway DSA group meeting elsewhere which actually includes older people. Oh, the choices.

I attended the Thursday morning NYC Retiree rally and presser near City Hall along a nice sized crowd where the new bill replacing 1096 was announced by Democrat Chris Marti, one of the most liberal city council members from the lower East Side who was joined by Staten Island Republican Frank Morano, one of the most conservative members.

Only Marianne Pizzitola could accomplish such a feat of unity. I find it more than ironic that certain forces inside the current leadership of the Retired Teachers Chapter of the UFT have been critical of her efforts to unite all sides of the political world in the the support of the healthcare of retired NYC workers because they would rather people whose politics they abhor not to support us and castigate Marianne for getting them to work in our interests. The level of support for working with Marianne is one sticking point in the disagreement between the 30 year old Retiree Advocate, which won the 2024 election with Marianne's massive support, and the new kids on the block, Fix Retiree Benefits (FRB), which has been working with her organization to battle on issues like co-pay and para pensions.

After it was over and we took photos, I was one of the few people left when Rockaway lifeguard legend Janet Fash showed up. 

 

She came by subway, so no surprise that the A-train would get here there late. She was disappointed in not getting to meet Marianne and Arthur Goldstein. I had just bought her book the day before and she signed it. (CBS Saturday morning just did a major feature on her and she has been appearing on NPR and other media). Her book goes beyond her life story and explores the corrupt lifeguard union. I remember reading about her battles with the union leader, who was also her boss. (Yes she was retaliated against). She was also active in the UFT as a chapter leader in a Queens middle school and had gone to UFT DAs and borough meetings and was aware the UFT is not democratic.

She is very up to date on the doings in the retiree chapter. I ran into her at the June RTC meeting and she attended the FRB zoom in late June and signed up to be more involved. She decided to take the ferry back to Rockaway and I considered going with her. I was trying to decide whether to go back to Rockaway or go back uptown to Bryant Park for a 12:30 Broadway in the park. I also had tickets for an Art Cart drawing class at 2:30. Having had chemo the day before, I had to make sure I had the energy to keep going. I decided to stay in the city and take a late afternoon ferry home. 

I stopped for breakfast at a Dunkn on Chambers St. and took the subway uptown to Bryant Park (one of the great wonders of NYC and only a few blocks from my pied... er apartment (don't tell Mamdani - lucky I have a cheaper one). The night before I missed the 6PM yoga class but this Monday I'm going to the City of God movie. 

Anyway, I'm so glad a went because I met two ladies with health issues, one with Type 1 diabetes (she was wearing a dexcom patch) and later at the Art Cart a cancer survivor who had a lot of knowledge and was very encouraging. We talked so much, my drawing of the buildings surrounding the park look like a Jackson Pollock. 

Back to the rally and presser, this is an updated version of Intro 1096 that was proposed during the 2024-25 Council session.

The bill summary states: This bill would maintain the health insurance coverage of eligible retired employees of the city of New York and their dependents by prohibiting the City from increasing the total costs for healthcare above the rate paid by each retiree as of December 31, 2021, or by decreasing the level of coverage that was provided to each such retiree as of December 31, 2021.

The full text of the bill reads as follows:

Int. No. 1008

 

 

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to protecting the health insurance coverage and contribution for Medicare-eligible retired employees of the city of New York and their Medicare-eligible dependents

 

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

 

Section 1. Subdivision a of section 12-126 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as amended by local law number 9 for the year 2010, is amended to read as follows:

a. Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings [hereinafter stated]:

[i. “]City employee.[“] The term “city employee” means [A] a person: (1) who is employed by a department or agency of the city; and (2) is paid out of the city treasury; and (3) is employed under terms prescribing a work week regularly consisting of twenty or more hours during the fiscal year; and (4) is not employed by the board of education. 

[ii. “]City retiree.[“] The term “city retiree” means [A] a person who: (1) is receiving a  retirement allowance, pension or other retirement benefit from a retirement or pension system either maintained by the city or to which the city has made contributions on behalf of such person pursuant to subdivision (g) of section 80-a of the retirement and social security law; and (2) immediately prior to such person's retirement as a member of such system, was a city employee, or was an employee of the board of education employed under terms prescribing a work week regularly consisting of twenty or more hours during the fiscal year; and (3) had at the time of retirement, at least five years of credited service as a member of such retirement or pension system, except that (A) such requirement of credited service shall not apply in cases of retirement for accident disability, (B) the requirement of credited service for vested retirement and service retirement shall be at least ten years for a person who was not an employee of the city or the board of education on or before the effective date of the local law that added this clause, and (C) notwithstanding the provisions of clause (B) of this subparagraph, the requirement of credited service for vested retirement and service retirement shall be at least fifteen years for a person who was not an employee of the city or the board of education on or before the effective date of the local law that added this clause, is receiving a retirement allowance from the New York city teachers' retirement system or the New York city board of education retirement system, and held a position represented by the recognized teacher organization for collective bargaining purposes on such person's last day of paid service. 

[iii. “]Dependent.[“] The term “dependent” means [T]the spouse of a city employee or city retiree or any child of a city employee or city retiree during the period of eligibility of such child for coverage under the insurance contract applicable to such employee or retiree; provided, however, that no spouse or child of any such employee or retiree shall be deemed a dependent after the death of such employee or retiree. 

Diminish. The term “diminish” means to cause any change in health care offered that could potentially make it harder for city retirees residing anywhere in the United States, including its territories and possessions, to access their health care than before such change was made. These changes include increasing the total costs for healthcare paid by each city retiree, including with respect to premiums, deductibles, coinsurance, and copayments.

[iv. “]Health insurance coverage.[“] The term “health insurance coverage” means [A] a program of hospital-surgical-medical benefits to be provided by health and hospitalization insurance contracts entered into between the city and companies providing such health and hospitalization insurance. 

§ 2. Section 12-126 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new subdivision e to read as follows:

e. The city shall not diminish the health insurance coverage provided to city retirees and their dependents or the contributions the city makes for such health insurance coverage below the level of such benefits or contributions made on behalf of such city retirees and their dependents by the city as of December 31, 2021. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to impair the ability of employee organizations to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, including those concerning future retirement benefits, for their employee members.

§ 3. This local law takes effect immediately and is retroactive to and deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after December 31, 2021.

NYC Retirees Battle Back with New Bill to Protect Healthcare

Top Story

Aug 13

 

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Council Member Chris Marte [D-1st District] reintroduced legislation on Thursday aimed at blocking ongoing efforts to chip away at the healthcare coverage municipal retirees earned after decades on the job—and this time, he said, the bill will pass. 

“I think there’s a lot of momentum on our side,” Marte told Work-Bites outside the gates of City Hall Aug. 13. “Whether it’s the recent [court] decisions, the [$53M] settlement, it really shows that this is a force to be reckoned with and we’re on the right side of history.”

In 2024, then Mayoral-candidate Zohran Mamdani told Work-Bites that Marte’s bill—then known as Intro. 1096— would not be needed if he was elected. But municipal retirees who have continued to press for legislation further codifying the healthcare package they had enjoyed up until the end of 2021, insist a new bill is needed. 

Last year, they successfully pushed Mayor Eric Adams to abandon a campaign—originally hatched between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the heads of the largest public sector unions in the city—to strip municipal retirees their tradition Medicare and Medigap benefits and herd them into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

The scheme was supposedly going to save the City of New York $600 million annually and cover long overdue raises for active city workers. 

Adams also imposed $15 copays on municipal retirees that many living on severely limited incomes could hardly afford.  Retirees fought them, too, ultimately convincing Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank to block the charges in 2023. 

Venerable New York City municipal retiree Evelyn Jones-Rich helps to rally supporters outside the gates of City Hall this week.

The Adams administration later responded and successfully managed to reinstate the copays. 

Just this month, however, municipal retirees won a $53 million settlement with the City of New York and EmblemHelath reimbursing them for the $15 copays they were forced to part with back in 2022. 

This week, Marte said his reintroduced bill will put a stop to any further efforts to diminish retiree healthcare. 

“Whether that’s limiting your network, whether that’s changing your provider to give you a worse system or increase your copays—that will not happen when we pass this bill,” he said on Thursday. 

Previous versions of the retiree bill, according to Marte, had to “side step” the legislative process and be introduced from the City Council floor because then-City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams opposed it. 

This time, he added, his team has been able to introduce the bill though the legislative process with the bill-drafting unit, “so [opponents] can no longer say that we did not look at this bill before it was introduced.”

Council Member Frank Morano [r] joins fellow Council Member Chris Marte [l] in calling for passage of newly-reintroduce legislation protecting the traditional Medicare benefits City retirees earned on the job.

“They can no longer say that our lawyers didn’t have an opportunity to look at every single word to make sure it was right or not. All those false narratives they’ve used in the past two years against us—they can no longer be used today,” he said.

Intro. 1096 largely failed to pass because District 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido, head of the largest public sector union in the city, also opposed it and actively worked to intimidate other City Council members against supporting it. 

“We are in the fight of our lives,” nonagenarian Evelyn Jones-Rich told Work-Bites on Thursday. “There are millions of us who believe in ourselves and the city we built—and we will prevail. We will fight to keep our traditional Medicare, we’re going to fight to keep our supplements, we’re going to fight to not have copays. We believe that we make this city and this nation—little people like us, ordinary people, ladies who have struggled behind the scenes. We have stood in the shadows for too long. Now we are standing up—we are speaking out.”

Marte’s reintroduced retiree bill also comes out of the gate with strong bipartisan support. In co-sponsoring the new legislation, City Council Member Frank Morano [R-51st District] has easily out-lefted the most progressive members in the legislative body and democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani himself. 

“The government talks constantly about rebuilding trust,” Morano said on Thursday. “Here’s a good place to start: Keep your word. The $53M victory that we’re [also] talking about today proves something else: You can fight City Hall—and sometimes City Hall loses. Retirees should’t have to hire lawyers and spend years in court every time somebody in government comes up with another clever way to reinterpret a promise. That’s why we need legislation.”

Mariann Pizzitola, retired FDNY EMS first-responder and head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, said the City of New York should never seek to achieve savings or balance the budget on the backs of active workers or retirees. 

“Here’s the deal,” she said, “these people worked for decades. They’ve been retired for decades. A promise was made to them. They kept their end of the deal and the city has to keep its promise. We’re going to hold them accountable to that.”

Mayor Mamdani, a close ally of Garrido, has so far ignored Pizzitola’s requests to meet and discuss retiree legislation.

Garrido, along with the other of the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee—UFT President Michael Mulgrew and Uniformed Sanitation Men’s Association President Harry Nespoli [retired]—have long insisted that legislation protecting retiree healthcare violates collective bargaining rights.

Marte, however, maintains that the newly-reintroduced retiree bill explicitly protects collective bargaining and that nothing in it limits the ability of employee organizations to “negotiate terms and conditions of employment, including future retirement benefits, on behalf of the active employees they represent.”

“We have heard the stories of retirees being frustrated, being scared, having anxiety every time they wake up, or every time they have to go to their doctor or provider—that is killing our people who have given so much for our city,” Marte said on Thursday.

 

$53 Million Settlement for NYC Retirees: August 5th, 10:30 am - Press Conference and Rally - WE WON

Mulgrew and his Unity flacks must be in mourning since he never met a co-pay he didn't like. 

Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Ed Notes blog.  

I'm in Manhattan and heading down to the presser and rally at City Hall. Don't expect any UFT officials to be there. But will Retired Teacher Chapter officers and exex bd members be there to celebrate a freeze on co-pays for the rest of this year? 

I will be taking photos and report back tomorrow with an analysis of the rift between most of the RTC leadership and Marianne, a leading cause of the current rift within the RTC chapter that just may hand back the chapter to Unity, which will be a disaster for the future of our healthcare. Mulgrew and crew is probably moaning over the fact co-pays are frozen until Jan. 1 2027. Due to my medical condition(s) - diabetes and cancer plus the usual assorted issues any 81 year old faces, I see many doctors. 

Just yesterday I left my house at 7AM to catch a ferry to 34th St (an hour and a half) and then a bus uptown to 74th St, another hour including a 15 minute walk to the Koch center, where I had blood taken (ca-ching) and a meeting with the endocrinologist nurse (more ka-ching? Next week I have 3 appointments in one day. And the co-pays come flying into my in box. 

I was told the other day that Marianne has over 10k UFT retirees in her network. My election analysis has shown that Marianne brought over 9k retiree votes to both the 2024 victory in the RTC election and in the 2025 UFT election. Those 9k votes are up for grab in next year's RTC battle between Unity and Retiree Advocate and Fix Retiree Benefits. There are some serious differences between RA and FRB, some over Marianne who some in RA don't consider kosher enough politically to support plus major resentment over her support of ABC in the election last year which brought them those 9k votes. 

There are also differences over the lack of pushback against the UFT leadership where FRB feel the RTC leadership (10 officers and 15 Exec Bd members ) has been weak in defending our healthcare, seemingly distracted by outside factors - very quick to support workers in other unions but I've seen nothing out there urging members to show up today. 

I will be taking attendance and some photos. 

 

NYC PUBLIC SERVICE RETIREES TO HOLD RALLY ON CITY HALL STEPS FOLLOWING $53 MILLION HEALTHCARE SETTLEMENT

WHO:

• Marianne Pizzitola, President, NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
• Jacob Gardener, Walden Haran Williams LLP
• Steve  Cohen, Pollock Cohen LLP
• New York City public service retirees
• Supporters and advocates
  
  

WHAT:
Following the announcement of the $53 million class action settlement between the City of New York, EmblemHealth, and more than 250,000 retired City workers over unlawful GHI Senior Care co-pays, retirees will gather on the steps of City Hall to discuss what the settlement means—and why the fight to protect earned retiree healthcare benefits continues.

Speakers will address the significance of the settlement, the impact on retirees living on fixed incomes, and the organization's call for long-term protections for retiree healthcare. The Speaker's Office must permit legislation to properly protect retirees to be introduced. 

WHEN:
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
10:30 a.m. ET

WHERE:
Steps of New York City Hall
New York, NY

VISUALS:

• Marianne Pizzitola speaking on the steps of City Hall
• Retired New York City public servants gathering in support
• Interview opportunities with retirees directly impacted by the healthcare changes

MEDIA OPPORTUNITY:
Marianne Pizzitola and retired New York City public servants will be available for interviews immediately following the event.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Deborah Schonfeld
Communications Consultant

310-985-4902

dschonfeld@gmail.com

Marianne Pizzitola

President

NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

631-793-9715

 

Unity Spends over $1.5 million to send over 700 Delegates to Control the AFT Convention -AFT Needs Direct Elections

In 2024, UFT sent an incredible 734 delegates to the national convention in Houston, even though its voting strength is not dependent on how many delegates it sends. UFT delegates to the convention had a voting strength of 16% of all delegates, but sent 27% of all convention delegates. This was an overwhelming show of force. No other AFT local even sent 70 delegates. Meanwhile, the bottom 90% of union locals and state federations represented at the 2024 convention sent less than 10 delegates each.

How much did UFT spend to send 734 delegates from New York City to Houston for 5 days and 5 nights in 2024? A probably too modest $2,000 per delegate would come out to at least $1.5 million. And the bill was likely much higher than that.

Needless to say, most union locals don’t have that kind of money. And even if they did, their leaders would have to justify to their members why they would spend their dues for this kind of expense. If the national AFT election is already locked up, why bother? And so the de-mobilizing, demoralizing cycle of rule by political machine repeats itself every two years.^[i]...  The Future of Our Schools Collective

Late BREAKING - Randi Re-elected 

 

Those who think the UFT/Unity leadership is corrupt, don't know the half of it. Trevor Griffey just published a piece on Jul 15, 2026 on the current AFT convention that reveals a lot of truths.

This is Not What Democracy Looks Like: The AFT Convention and the Future of the US Labor Movement:  Trevor Griffey, a lecturer in Labor Studies at UCLA and US History at UC Irvine who serves as Vice President of Legislation for UC AFT, comments in our newest post about the upcoming AFT convention.

I commented the other day at Ed Notes on the convention:

• 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention

I pointed out that Unity received 54% of the vote in last year's election but gets 100% of the 750 delegates, thus shutting out the points of view of a significant proportion of UFT members from national and state educational policy debates (those 750 are also NYSUT reps).

 

So not only are the almost 20,000 teachers who voted against Unity denied representation, the entire union is snookered over the massive expense. AFT delegates will debate as many as 108 resolutions and constitutional amendments including voting on whether to increase the dues paid by AFT’s 1.8 million members. I can guarantee this dues increase will pass because Randi wants it passed and that means our dues here in NYC will also go up as a major portion of our dues goes to the AFT.

 

You will see headlines today or tomorrow announcing Randi's re-election

I pointed out that Randi Weingarten would be elected with 95% of the vote - if she has any opposition at all - Randi loves it when she has no opposition - see her deal with New Action for the 2004 election:  New Action/Unity in Corrupt Bargain - Why I Left New Action!!! by James Eterno, UFT Executive Board.

 

85% of AFT Locals Do Not Send Delegates to Convention while our dues fuel the UFT spending a million and a half on covering expenses for Unity members.

  

A way toward democracy is to have the entire AFT membership vote instead of the Unity dominated delegates. This major change occurred in the UAW which led to Shawn Fein's election. Chris Bohner recently wrote in Labor Notes, “Direct Elections for Labor Leaders Make for More Militant Unions.”

 

You can see why the threat of losing the NYC local election is such threat to Randi and the AFT/NYSUT/UFT union hierarchy, one reason why ABC's insurgency has made them nervous. Don't think the recent 10k para bonus designed to weaken para anger at their situation is not connected to the threat. ABC had over 100 paras run with them and the para functional chapter is the second largest with 27k members to the 70k retiree chapter, which Unity lost. If the insurgency in these two groups aligned with the growing dissatisfaction among working members, there would be a massive shift in educational unions, especially with both Chicago and LA being progressive unions. Why haven't the revolted after a decade or more in power? Randi has the power of the purse to support them - or not - in their local struggles.

 

Trevor:

......leaders of AFT locals, including mine, would be more open to subsidizing convention delegate travel if they thought convention business was directly tied their union members’ needs, and if they thought their delegates’ participation would make any difference whatsoever on decisions made at the convention.

The fact is, once delegates elected by their locals arrive at an AFT convention, they find themselves operating within a one-party state run by the Progressive Caucus, which in turn is run by the Unity Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)— the largest AFT local in the US.

UFT delegates have dominated AFT conventions through slate elections at the local and national level for over half a century. Every AFT President for the last 62 years emerged out of UFT leadership, except for four years from 2004-8 when Edward McElroy served two terms as a “transitional president” following Sandra Feldman’s diagnosis with breast cancer..

The AFT has been controlled for over 50 years by one caucus - a national version of Unity called The Progressive Caucus. Of course our beloved 750 local Unityites are the main instrument of control. They also control the NY State Unity.

 

Lois explains:

The Unbeatable Slate: Progressive Caucus Dominates AFT for More than 50 Years

The issue that shapes union leaders’ decisions to effectively boycott the convention is the perception of a lack of democracy within AFT.

Financial barriers to sending delegates thousands of miles away for five days of convention deliberations are significant, and union leaders who express concerns about the costs of convention attendance shouldn’t be dismissed as simply lacking solidarity.

But leaders of AFT locals, including mine, would be more open to subsidizing convention delegate travel if they thought convention business was directly tied their union members’ needs, and if they thought their delegates’ participation would make any difference whatsoever on decisions made at the convention.

The fact is, once delegates elected by their locals arrive at an AFT convention, they find themselves operating within a one-party state run by the Progressive Caucus, which in turn is run by the Unity Caucus of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)— the largest AFT local in the US.

UFT delegates have dominated AFT conventions through slate elections at the local and national level for over half a century. Every AFT President for the last 62 years emerged out of UFT leadership, except for four years from 2004-8 when Edward McElroy served two terms as a “transitional president” following Sandra Feldman’s diagnosis with breast cancer.

Today, the three top officers of AFT and every one of the 43 national Vice Presidents are all members of the Progressive Caucus. They run as a single slate that depends upon bloc voting. The leader of the caucus is the President of the union, who is also at the top of the slate. A recent google form to join the Progressive Caucus even called its slate “Randi Weingarten’s slate.”

One can’t simply declare one’s intention to join the caucus as a candidate for elected office, as candidates for elected office do in the US. You have to be invited. And most of the people invited are representatives of the largest labor unions in the federation. Inclusion on the slate provides direct personal access to the President, who can provide favors in the form of spending and staff support for causes that officers care about. But inclusion also requires supporting every candidate on the slate. Failure to do so will get you kicked off the slate and effectively lock your union local out of national power.

Once most of the leaders of large unions pledge to turn out their delegates to support the union President, the election is all-but-over. Support has been traded for access before the votes have even been cast. Slate voting— which allows a delegate to simply check one box for an entire slate instead of voting separately for 46 different officers— tilts the scales even more by creating a disincentive for even thinking about the merits of individual officers.

Anyone in AFT who dares even exercise their right to participate in union elections outside the Progressive Caucus has to position themselves against the entire power structure of the union— including the President— whether they want to or not. Unless the Caucus splits, which so far it never has, such challenges (recently by small groups like By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN) are dead on arrival. 

 Since so many locals can't afford to send delegates to the AFT conventions, not only 46% of NYC teachers are left out, but the small locals all over the country too.

 

 Read the entire article on the substack: https://futureschools.substack.com/p/this-is-not-what-democracy-looks and note the disparity in delegates attending - ie Chicago only 68.

Top 20 largest union locals that sent delegates to AFT 2024 Convention.

 

For Immediate Release July 19, 2026

Contact: Alexis Lopez 305-878-9836 alopez@aft.org

AFT Re-elects Officers, Hears from Union and Political Leaders, Passes Suite of Resolutions at 2026 Convention   National Teachers Union, at Highest-Ever Membership, Caps Four-Day Confab that Drew 3,000 Delegates to DC

WASHINGTON—The 1.88 million-member AFT wrapped its 89th biennial convention today, with union delegates voting overwhelmingly to re-elect President Randi Weingarten, Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram and Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus to new two-year terms.   In six packed sessions over four days, more than 3,000 delegates debated and passed resolutions on a range of pressing issues—from reclaiming the promise of public education, to protecting immigrant communities, to rebuilding public health, to preparing for the age of artificial intelligence, to tackling the affordability and student debt crises. Dozens of breakout meetings and receptions covered rural issues, faith and religion, international solidarity and more.   AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “Our convention theme was ‘fighting for a better life for all.’ That’s not a mere slogan—it’s the promise and potential to be together, to work together, to bargain together, to protest together, to vote together, to act together to bring about change—real, lasting, life-improving change for every person in America.”   The union heard from a bevy of high-profile guests and speakers, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, Democratic nominee for D.C. mayor Janeese Lewis George, Pennsylvania state Rep. Jen Mazzocco, former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, IAM Union International President Brian Bryant, and IAM Texas State Council President and Texas state Sen. Taylor Rehmet.   Outgoing American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders, the first African American to lead the union, received the AFT’s Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award, and labor leader Dolores Huerta was honored with the AFT’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her decades of work with the United Farm Workers. And after a rousing Saturday address from Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, delegates unanimously passed a motion from the floor pledging support for the campaign to unionize Delta flight attendants.   At the onsite Activist Hub, delegates signed more than 1,000 “Free D.C.” postcards addressed to state governors to demand they recall their states’ National Guard from their deployment in the District of Columbia.   Weingarten, who taught social studies and civics at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., was re-elected to a 10th term Saturday night, while Ingram, a high school band director in Miami, and DeJesus, an early childhood educator and reading specialist in New York City, were elected to sixth terms. The union also elected 43 vice presidents from around the country.   AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fedrick Ingram said: “There is only one way we all win and that is working together to push back against the forces that are so eager to tear us apart. That is why I have made union work my life’s work and why I remain committed and ready to serve this union as an officer. It is a distinct honor to work with the best this country has to offer, in order to ensure everyone has a real shot at success, happiness and security.”   AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus said: “As the onslaught of ICE attacks against Latino communities continues, today I stand prouder than ever to be the first Latina officer elected and re-elected six times to serve the 1.88 million members of this powerful union. We must look out for, show up and protect one another, because only together can we make a better life for all. Sigamos luchando por la democracia, la libertad y una vida mejor para todos.”   “Our delegates and committees tackled the issues keeping families up at night, from the affordability crisis, to defending immigrant communities, to the reassurance that AI won’t take our members’ jobs, to the protection of democracy as a whole,” Weingarten added. “To create an America where everyone has the education, economy and opportunity to build a good life; an America where everyone’s dignity and rights are respected; an America whose democracy not only endures but finally lives up to its noble ideals, will take all of us—standing together.”   Click HERE for more convention highlights. All passed resolutions can be found HERE.

Election Mania: Mamdani Wins Big, UFT Loses Bigger, The State of DSA in the UFT

I hold this truth to be self-evident: 

The UFT leadership continues to be in bed with the establishment political machine that often is not aligned to our values and not held accountable for making decisions that affect us.  The uft is the democratic establishment and Mulgrew will try very hard to keep the Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Grace Meng, Hilary Clinton, Randi weingarten etc etc etc power going along with his own.

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Before I get into thoughts on the recent election, tonight is a Fix Retiree Benefits Zoom. Stop by and check it out. The goal is to do one hour from 7-8 but it might run a bit longer. I need to write a lot more on what's going on in the retiree chapter and might get a chance at the zoom tonight.

28 Jun 2026WEBINAR

Fix Retiree Benefits Launch Town Hall Meeting

7:00 PMZoom

RSVP

Congrats to all my still in-service friends on the end of the school year and another step to retirement. But I should point out that a number of my colleagues in ABC ended the school year writing about how much they still love teaching ever two decades in.

I'm about to head out to a DSA celebratory beach party that will last all day.  

Tuesday I speculated on the election outcome. I expected a closer race in 7 where Reynoso had the advantage of the Nydia Vazquez and his own machines, which turned out to be barely machines at all, a sign of the deterioration of the Dem Party generally and how non-competitive it has been nationally. National and local media were going nuts in shock over the big 3 wins by Mamdani as all losing candidates were backed by the Dem machine led by Hakeem Jeffries.  And if Mamdani had allowed Chi Ossi to primary him, guess what? 

Jeffries will face a primary next time and if he was smart he would take a run for Chuck's Senate seat, though DSA will probably go for that, though I'm not sure there is enough DSA muscle to win a state race. Or Jeffries might just do a turn around if he's a good politician. But DSA should also keep its discipline and talk of a 2028 candidate is fantasy at this point, though Ro Khana is beginning to look like an acceptable candidate along the lines of Brad Lander has been. Not as left but not center.

It was a smashing victory for DSA which also elected 16 members at the state level and is spreading outside NY. 

DSA Dominates Albany Elections Despite Super PAC Deluge:  The DSA made gains in New York despite super PACs spending $9.6 million in state legislative races — nearly five times the total from 2024... ny focus

Note this Jacobin headline: 

Socialists Won Big in NYC Last Night and Aren't Done ...

Reynoso was more embedded in traditional backroom political dealmaking and backed by the low-expectations wing of the labor movement, in which politics is mostly a matter of making safe bets on electing and reelecting traditional corporate Democrats — even in cities and neighborhoods where it’s clear that the horizons have shifted in a more expansive pro-worker direction. That approach to politics was decisively defeated.

Center Dems don't seem to have enough of a ground game left, relying on endorsements and ads but not enough of a GOTV game. 

I would apply the same idea to UFT elections where the only way to defeat Unity is with a ground game, which the oppo has never developed. 

I've been a fringe member of DSA for about 8 years even when I disagree with a bunch of their positions but love the energy and organizing ability. I attended South Brooklyn branch meetings until the pandemic. They live up to the democratic label with extreme democracy at local levels. I get to vote on so many issues and leaders. Recently I've hooked up with a group of DSA in Rockaway and we canvased for Mamdani. They are even having an all day beach party in Rockaway today. 

Tuesday was also a smashing loss for the UFT/Unity leadership. Look at this graphic:

An ABCer on FB commented:

Michael Mulgrew and the UFT leadership not only once again backed a losing political candidate, they did so:

a) when every single poll had him behind the candidate that ultimately won — at one point Goldman was polling nearly *thirty points* behind Lander, and

b) without a vote from the Delegate Assembly, the only body in the UFT with the authority to make political endorsements (unless the Delegate Assembly votes to kick the decision to the Executive Board, which to be clear in this instance they didn’t) 

Three out of four lost, though I liked the Bores endorsement which was interesting since the UFT endorsed Micah Lasher last time for the state assembly, as I wrote about a year ago:

Another Unity/UFT Sellout - Backs Micah Lasher, Bloomberg pro Tier 6, Charter School, Student First Acolyte - for State Assembly

What happened I wonder for them to abandon Lasher? Maybe the Tier 6 issue stuck?

Mulgrew endorsed every one of the three losing Congressional candidates. The UFT endorsed Goldman over Lander without an endorsement vote from the Delegate Assembly while Mulgrew lied, claiming NYSUT endorsed Goldman. Which means someone somewhere in the union (guess who?) made a decision to undemocratically exercise their political prerogative over the members. Doing this not only violated the UFT constitution, but more importantly it’s flat-out wrong and selfish, and made all the more so when you consider that whoever this presumed "expert" was backed a candidate that lost by nearly 30%.

The union leadership continues to be in bed with the establishment political machine that often is not aligned to our values or not held accountable for making decisions that affect us.

DSA has been a hot item in the mainstream press with the emphasis on the growing threat to the Democratic Party by both the right and the so-called "moderate" Dems, which is really corporate/AIPAC friendly. James Carville positively lost it, joining Trump in seeing a threat to the nation by DSA wins. 

Think of the Corp Dems calls for DSA to stay out of the Dem Party and form their own party. The James Carville off the wall comments. Imagine they replaced the Green Party in a much more effective manner and ran a third party presidential candidate, thus making the Dems a sure loser. Oh the howls of protest for them doing exactly what they are being told to do if they did not be part of the big tent? 

Most Dems still say the party is big-tent even with the extreme views expressed by some winning candidates. Now never forget that our own beloved UFT/Unity leadership are very much part of the anti-left Dem Party going back to the Shanker roots of supporting the Vietnam War. The Mamdani endorsement was forced on them by the stark choice of him or Cuomo - and the clear direction of the momentum. But make no mistake, the UFT fundamentally is where it was politically in the Shanker years. 

The UFT leadership engaged in a vicious red-baiting attack on DSA as recently as January, 2025:

 

How different is this from the Trump comments?

I blogged about that post: 

DA Chaos - Unity Goes Red-Scare Wilding In Dual Attacks on MORE Caucus and Arise - And also Aims Dart at Marianne

 I noted:  

A strong candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani is in DSA. Imagine the UFT, given a choice between Cuomo and Mamdani, will back Cuomo because of their 65 year history of vicious anti-communism and red-baiting. 

Well I was wrong on that as it was clear Cuomo was going down and give Mulgrew credit for hopping on board with a winner, though it may not help much in upcoming contract negotiations.

The Unity crowd toned down their critiques of MORE and ARISE with the rise of ABC, a big tent group that both ARISE components and Unity see as a bigger threat, as it proved in the election with their 32% compared to the ARISE 14%. 

How come the DSA crowd centered in the 14-year old MORE Caucus has failed to develop a ground game in the UFT, as evidenced by the 14% vote in the 2025 election for the ARISE slate? Remember, the other two caucuses in ARISE are retiree RA and the mostly retiree New Action, so MORE was expected to carry the load and clearly failed. The failure of DSA people in the UFT compared to the success of DSA on the larger playing field is worth exploring in a follow-up but here's my initial view: MORE began in 2011 as a big-tent operation but post-2016, the DSA/ISO (now defunct) leadership decided to narrow the tent with a move to the left that pushed out even fellow-leftists, many of whom have drifted to ABC. 

One of the keys has been the hemorrhaging of MORE members who leave teaching or jump out of the intensity of the regular classroom. Or jump from school to school. I came into my new school after 3 years of teaching when I got my full appointment as the resident big mouth radical and turned many people off. It took me 5 years to begin to gain the trust of my colleagues and yes, I modified my big mouth radicalism. I heard Hasan Piker last week make the point that newly organized often go over the top and it takes years to learn to temper things as you work with people not of your views. 

The internal big tent vs narrow tent struggle in MORE was between the older lefty ICE people and the younger International Socialists who at one point according to internal memos, considered giving up on the MORE project until they came up with the idea of going to DSA to recruit teachers into MORE - and they were so successful they were able to dominate by 2018 and push the ICE people out, this cementing MORE as a hard left caucus, which meant they could never win a UFT election on their own, as they found out when they ran alone in the 2019 election, thus forcing them into alliances with United for Change in 2022 and ARISE in 2025, with increasing alienation from a strong minority that either doesn't want to run in elections or doesn't want to compromise with other groups that don't adhere to their rigid ideology.

Big tent vs narrow tent

Unlike the DSA in the big tent Dem Party, the DSA faction in MORE believes the caucus must remain small tent pure. I contend that if the original MORE as big tent that included people from ICE had been adhered to, MORE would be a contender. Let me give you one example of a hard-core MOREista I was friendly with a few years ago. She texted me asking where I stood on Israel about a year and a half ago and I replied I was still working things out due to my growing up in the post-holocaust era. I was Done. Ghosted. 

The DSA has proven it can be a major force on all levels of politics with a big-tent approach in the Dem party and internally there is some room for a variety of caucuses to operate. Is that a perfect solution to democracy? I had offered that type of idea at the very first meeting of MORE -- let ideas compete in an open way. But that's not the way of ideologues. 

In my final days in MORE I proposed they were more of a club or advocacy group in the UFT, which I was fine with -  just not a caucus in UFT elections and I have been proven right. My advice is to not run as a caucus in UFT elections but to be open to whatever members who do want to be involved do so. ABC would be the perfect place for them to land. If MORE followed my advice, ARISE would be dead, it it already hasn't died and we would have one group facing Unity head on, with an actual chance to win in 2028. But don't expect practicality to win out. 

Afterburn 

Check out Ross Barkan  

The New Socialist Revolution: Zohran Mamdani's remarkable night

Mamdani cannot impose his will on the Democratic Party like Trump has on the Republicans. The moderate, institutional Democratic faction lucked out; they will not, for now, be driven to extinction. They will not suffer the fate of all the Republican politicians who stood against Trump over the last decade. Luck, though, comes with caveats. Within the five boroughs—this beating heart of Empire—they are going to have to fight for their life.