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!

UFT's 3 Consequential Elections: Petitions are in and the Game is On

Saturday, April 13, 2024

The UFT holds spring chapter elections every 3 years and 2024 may turn out to be one of the more consequential elections in its over 6 decade history. 

I've always maintained that chapter elections every 3 years are more important than the officer/exec bd elections which also take place every three years, a year later than the chapter elections (spring 2025). Chapter elections can be precursors of possible weaknesses in the Unity machine. I always have hope that we will see some changes, hope that is often unfulfilled. But there are always glimmers. 

Over the past few days, petitions were turned in for 3 consequential elections taking place in the UFT: TRS, Retirees and Paras, each one with some level of future consequences for the union. But together they represent a serious challenge to the 6 decade Unity Caucus hegemony. 

• ICE Endorses in TRS, Retiree and Para elections at March 26 Zoom Meeting

TRS Election

I've been covering the unexpected election in the Teacher Retirement System, the first in 40 years, with the challenge mounted by Ben Morgenroth to the Unity candidate.  I receive the mailed petitions and they came in from schools and people I've never heard of, evidence of surprising grass roots support. The campaign committee met the other day to review the petitions before handing them in and in a short campaign there were over 1600. We needed a thousand.

There are lots of reasons to support Ben's campaign - which I elucidated the other day: Teacher Retiree System (TRS) Pension Election - Why You Should Care and Vote for Ben.

What I didn't mention was the energy and enthusiasm coming from Ben himself and how he has galvanized an election that 6 weeks ago he wasn't aware existed. I've known Ben for a few years and he has made his bones on his fantastic analysis of the horrors of Tier 6 and has placed it front and center and has spurred the leadership out of its lethargy to try to make a few modest changes to undercut the threat to them given that 55% of the members are in Tier 6. Unity will try to take credit - despite the fact they put up no opposition when Cuomo instituted Tier 6 in 2012 with Bloomberg's support. I'm guessing in their thinking they were trading off the pensions of future members in exchange for a hoped contract. 

Read James Eterno comments from 2012: 

• TIER 6 A HUGE DEFEAT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

See the Tier 6 slides prepared by Ben.

Let's face reality. The incompetent DOE is running the elections in the schools and there is no institutional memory of how to even run an election and Unity has loads of chapter leaders in the schools. But the outcome will offer an insight to how strong that Unity machine is. Leadership is very much perturbed that they even have to bother campaigning. Since we rotate the 3 pension reps every 3 years, there is an election held every year. I hope there is someone running to challenge the Unity reps every time. Make them defend their turf on every field.

Remember, retirees don't vote in this election. Someone left a comment on Ed Notes asking how functional chapters will vote in this election on May 8 and here was the response to Ben:

We have not finalized the election process yet – we are likely going through qualified members directly rather than principals to avoid the issues that you’ve mentioned below. We do not have an obligation to have the final process in place until early May – when it is finalized, we will share.

Oy! This will go well.

A tale of the two largest functional chapter elections totaling almost 100,000 UFT members

Retiree Chapter election: A win for RA over Unity would be bigger than last week's earthquake - 7.0 on union political Richter Scale

 

RA turned in a full slate of 300 candidates, the first time we were able to do this. Ballots go out on May 10 and we have a leaflet included, which I will share in a few days. We are handing it out at the chapter meeting this Tuesday. And party at the White Horse Tavern after.

Three years ago Retiree Advocate ran against Unity in the Unity dominated retired teacher chapter, which with its 60-70 thousand members, helps decide the general UFT election. The health care changes, which leadership tried to keep undercover before the election, had just been exposed, but too late for us to campaign on that issue. Still, we received 30% of the vote, doubling from the year before. In the general election two years ago, 27,000 retirees voted out of 52,000 votes -- that is enormous and the UFC slate received the same 30% a year after the Medicare Advantage scandal broke, a disappointment.

Can we make up the difference this time? Unity seems worried that we have a chance to win this time, which would cause cataclysmic changes in the UFT and offer an opportunity to actually topple Unity and Mulgrew in the 2025 general election - if the opposition manages to get itself together - a big IF. 

 

Can we close the 70-30% gap? There seems to be a bit of apprehension in the halls of Unity, and even rumors Tom Murphy may be dumped as CL. I speculated about Carmen Alvarez replacing him last month when she gave a long presentation at the March RTC meeting. (Unity has not announced its candidates as of this date, but the betting is on Murphy because Mulgrew values fealty over competence). Carmen spoke mostly about paras, which is interesting. There were rumors lasts summer that Unity was so worried about the RTC election it considered removing paras from the RTC into its own retiree chapter but that clearly hasn't happened - yet. Instead they are moving to turn the 7000 retired paras into a force for themselves by gathering their contact info and all of a sudden taking an interest in them and pushing to organize working paras in the chapter election to counter the impact of a loss in the retiree election. (See para election story below). Arthur has a great report on the March meeting:

• Those Wacky UFT Bosses and Their Zany Antics: How they scam retirees, paraprofessionals, and every working member

Can we win and do we have to?

 

Assume a Unity loyalty vote of 16-18 thousand but add some erosion we hear from some people. Assume gains for RA over the last few years from their losses but also from new voters. Still a big gap. UFT pundits believe that even if RA doesn't win, closing the gap into a 55-45 range is still a game changer because it opens up the possibility of making up the difference in the general election a year later. Smelling a possible opposition win would shed some Unity supporters who don't want to be on a losing side.

The wild card here is Marianne Pizzatola and her massive outreach to retirees. The Chief did a big story on her the other day.

https://thechiefleader.com/stories/assured-and-intent-pizzitola-battles-the-city-and-a-few-unions-too,52243?newsletter=52246

 
She has the outreach to mobilize UFT retirees who had not voted before, which is crucial.

 

UFT Paras for A Fair Contract

 

Fix Para Pay Now - The Para chapter election: Say What? 

An election in the para chapter? Holy Cow. Well there was one last year with 5 candidates opposing the Unity gang and two were elected. I had a report on the election: Contentious UFT Para Chapter Election - Does Unity... and some updated info here.

 

So Unity for the first time instituted slate voting for the para chapter, pointing to the fact that this election is almost as major for Unity as the retiree election, with 27K paras in the system. If Fix Para Pay Now slate carves out a substantial vote, that can be another major threat to Unity in the 2025 general election. 

 

There's a petition - the Fix Para Pay petition - going around and signed by thousands of paras -- will they be a force in this election?

Arthur has some background: Those Wacky UFT Bosses and Their Zany Antics

Let’s go to another issue—[Unity's] abysmal treatment of paraprofessionals. For one thing, Unity thinks paraprofessionals are too stupid to select their own representatives. That’s why elected members of the Unity Patronage Cult have offices and jobs. That’s why Migda Rodriguez, an elected non-Unity member, is working full-time as a paraprofessional, with no office, no time off, no UFT job, and not even a UFT email. How stupid does UFT Unity think paraprofessionals are? Last week, they butchered a resolution at Executive Board. Paraprofessionals should demand change, but not “meaningfully.” They doubled down at the Delegate Assembly, saying paras already have it pretty good, and shouldn’t bother negotiating for a living wage. However, Unity has not totally neglected the paras. Last weekend, they gave them a fancy party. And their Unity leader has now given them a handbook. Who needs a living wage when you have a party and a handbook?

More from Arthur: Paraprofessionals Need a Raise, Not a Tip

Migda has a newsletter. Read it here.

Unity is on the attack and trying to recruit 300 paras to run on their slate. We hear they are not having an easy time of it.

To summarize:

If the outcomes don't go Unity's way -- like taking a big bite out of their majority, these 3 concurrent elections represent a threat to Unity and would encourage a united opposition in 2025. If not, it may be time for some golf.

 

AfterBurn

It's hard to judge where things are going at the 1800 or so schools where the chapter leader and at least one delegate from each school will be elected and can influence the delegate assembly, which is packed with Unity delegates and staffers and an big influx of delegates representing the functional chapters like retirees and paras. The caucuses are doing training for chapter leaders and delegates who want to run. But they have always done trainings and even brag about how many of their people are elected. But I go to the DA every month and the number of oppo people are very slim, though even these few can have an impact. 

And for a bonus:

Junket City

How Unity spends our dues from April Adcom:

 Motion:      To send 9 members to the National Association of School Nurses Conference on June 28-July 1, 2024 in Chicago, IL at a cost of $2,568 per person. (9x2568= 23,112)

 

Motion:       To send 1 member to the Early Educators Leadership Conference on October 16-19, 2024 in Washington, DC, at a cost of $3,030. (3,030)

Motion:       To send 3 members to the National Art Education Association National Convention on April 4-7, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN at a cost of $1,982 per person. (3x1,982 = 5,946)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 5 members to the Coalition of Labor Union Women National Executive Board and 50th Anniversary Gala on May 8-11, 2024 in Niagara Falls at a cost of $1,461 per person. (5x1,461 = 7,305)
 
                                            Carried
 
Motion:       To send 4 members to the IEL-National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference on May 29-31, 2024, in Atlanta, GA at a cost of $2,595 per person. (4x2595= 10,380)

total = $49,773

And this:

 Motion: To authorize up to 50 retirees to participate in the 2024 AFT Convention and retiree activities associated with the Convention.
                                            Carried
 Let's Estimate the cost -- plane fair, hotel, meals --- let's call it 2 grand per x 50 --- $100,000.

And Jonathan reports:

UFT Welfare Fund nest egg – bigger than most nests

Do you smell the rot?

Now Is The Time To Fight Back, Not Give In To UFT Leadership - Part 2 by Rebel Teacher

Tuesday, November 21, 2023 -  Happy Thanksgiving

ICE being in a state of flux since the illness of James Eterno, zoom-met on Sunday night and will be meeting in person during the Xmas vacation in attempts to sort things out. ICE associate (ICE doesn't have formal memberships) Rebel Teacher continues a view of the union leadership and how critical voices should deal with them. In the current state of ICE this is one opinion. Others think alliances with Unity leadership should be built. Still others believe that there is something called "Unity light" - internal critics in the belly of the beast who whisper sweet nothings about reforming the union in their ears. I know that drill. I was a target for years when Randi took over c. 1997 and fell for it. Until I didn't.

• Part 1 - Are there emerging rifts in the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership that threaten its 60 year control of the UFT? If so what is a Path Forward for Independent Community of Educators (ICE/UFT)

Ed Notes published Part 1 and I helped edit it and part 2. 

Now Is The Time To Fight Back, Not Give In To UFT Leadership - Part 2

Written by Rebel Teacher, a  Long time teacher and union organizer with the Independent Community of Educators (ICE-UFT).

 

In part 1 the author raised issues related to signs of fractures in Unity Caucus of UFT President Michael Mulgrew while they continue to either vilify the opposition or try to fracture them by picking off those they see can be seduced by being offered a faux deal of access to power and influence. He argues in part 2 not to be seduced.

A prominent UFT Unity staffer recently said:

 “One Unity tactic to control the opposition is to put them somewhere where they can feel important but have little influence.”

Beware of falling into this Unity trap.

We can’t allow Unity to have an opportunity to sell their bureaucratic values, to tame the aggressiveness of chapter leaders and other activists. They are very happy to get them behind closed doors, in the shadows and out of sight of the rank and file. We must resist giving in to the impulse and temptation of being given a seat at the table – a bait and switch seat at the table – a tiny stool at the kiddy table. 

 

Unity has proven very capable of managing the membership despite its failures in managing the union

Unity does many things wrong but gets managing membership expectations right. UFT leadership doesn’t want their borough representatives or district reps empowering members. Rather than activate the rank and file, they view such activation as a threat to their power and restrain members to keep them under control. They’ve been successful in finding opposition people they view as susceptible to their message and make them feel important. One of the hidden issues in the removal of UFT Queens Borough Representative Amy Arundell was her push to get members to be more active, which stepped on some toes.

Unity/UFT leadership prefers the status quo, a membership content with what they have, not fighting for a better union.

The ICE-UFT blog over almost 20 years has been a compendium of UFT history and has publicized militant Chapter Leaders who fought against micromanagement and won by organizing their chapters, mobilizing them with letters of no confidence, working with SLT’s and PTA’s to remove bad principals and have filed mass grievances. 

ICE has been nonsectarian, open to working with all caucuses and independents

Dissident voices opposed to Unity should be ready to work with chapter leaders, delegates, and union activists in any caucus, along with independents, to show how to build their chapter and not to wait for the UFT leaders to come and save them, because they often will not show. How often have we heard praise for Arundell as someone who has shown up and is constantly present, in contrast to the rest of the UFT bureaucracy? Maybe her hard work has embarrassed them to the extent that she had to go.

The leaders of our union need to be challenged in public forums. Many members in our chapters, our shops, need to know there is an organized resistance to the tom-foolery coming from above. They will be resentful if they see opposition forces getting too cozy with those that work against our best interests. 

 

They want us standing up to our leadership, to be more militant and to actively fight for our rights and those of our students. 

It is important to show up at public union meetings with resolutions and petitions signed by our members. Expose the Unity-two step of saying yes now while doing the exact opposite later. 

 

One example is Unity taking a false stand against privatization of our healthcare while trying to force our retirees into a managed care plan and still working behind the scenes with the Adams administration to change health care of working members. When retirees won a recent ruling to stop co-pays, UFT/Unity was silent while the Mayor is appealing. 

 

Can UFT leadership be pressured?

Our answer is not by small groups lobbying because leadership is good at obfuscation and distraction while hinting at a willingness to change but with little intention of doing anything unless there is a massive uprising from below. That has rarely happened and when it did, Unity found ways to undermine it. 

Two examples:

In 1975, with 15k layoffs looming, the rank and file rose up and demanded a strike despite knowing there would be two for one penalties - which the leadership went along with for one week and then sold it out. Layoffs still took place but the starch was taken out of the members, teaching a lesson that such activism that worked so well in building the UFT in the 60s was no longer valid. Since then the leadership has worked successfully to dampen expectations.

Another example was the ATR protest and rally at Tweed in Nov. 2008 that attracted hundreds and the leadership attempt to subvert it by holding a concurrent wine and cheese party. That was a perfect example of people in ICE working with others in organizing rank and file, mobilizing workers and educating them from the bottom and the Unity leadership undermining and subverting the efforts. 

Activists in the UFT should work with allies to inspire our members to believe a better version of the UFT is possible, one that connects with members, knows the classroom and hallways, fights for its members, and educates everyone inside the chapters to their rights and how to ensure they actually have them.

 

Without doing the above, there is a danger in focusing on closed meetings with Unity/UFT. It throws a lifeline to a group that already has power and money, but lacks mass support of its members. (Note low turnout for Unity in elections.)

 

ICE had a long history of working with partners, including parent and community groups, that were dedicated to worker’s rights and quality free public schools and supported groups opposed to charters and high stakes testing. It was members of ICE active in MORE that reached across the aisle to ask New Action to run with on a joint opposition slate which resulted in victory in the high schools in the 2016 election. And there are even some affiliated with ICE who have run with, or supported, Unity, when they thought it was the right thing to do at the time.

ICE-PAC and TJC won the high school executive board seats in the 2004 UFT election. ICE people came out every 2 weeks to support the chapter leaders James Eterno (Jamaica HS), Jeff Kaufman (Rikers) and Barbara Kaplan-Alpert (Forest Hills HS) in their regular battles with Randi Weingarten and the Unity leadership. These were among the most contentious years in resistance to Unity policy, especially in response to the disastrous 2005 contract, which ICE, along with TJC, organized a Vote-No campaign with rallies at the DA and in front of 52 Broadway that resulted in 40% voting against.

 

The problem was ICE didn't make enough use of these action as an organizing mechanism and often seemed content to engage in these battles at the top. ICE organized with various components of the UFT like the ATRs c. 2005-10, but never got deep into the schools. Let's learn the lessons of that experience. Top down engagement with leadership can give the illusion of progress, but if not accompanied by an open process that brings those battles to the schools, it is often a wasted effort. 

As stated above, Unity caucus regularly tries to either woo or undermine critical voices, with their major goal being to not only hold onto power, but to also minimize the ability of those voices to influence policy and to grow the movement. There is a cost to get Unity cooperation - hand-cuffs.

A growing New Action(NA/UFT) has learned the lessons of the past and is re-organizing as a militant caucus within UFT. Through Nick Bacon’s writing and their work on the Ex Bd, they are actively challenging the leadership and direction of our union. And they have a wide range of chapter leaders distributing their literature in the schools. They need to continue to grow by helping rank and file members run for chapter leader and delegates by offering targeted trainings for members interested in having democratic, militant chapters. Most ICE associates are very supportive of these efforts and are actively working with them.

Some of our retirees are organizing with the Retiree Advocate, which will be running in the UFT chapter elections against Unity spring 2024 on a platform of saving our healthcare, not selling out our retirees to the highest bidders.

ICE has been a space for people with divergent views who might suffer judgment for expressing those views elsewhere. ICE has been a happy place for many over its 20 years history, a place for friendships to grow, alliances to be built, and fight backs to be organized. We hope to continue the ICE tradition of fighting for a union that stands up for its members and the children we serve.

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Part 3 is in the works.

Are there emerging rifts in the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership that threaten its 60 year control of the UFT? If so what is a Path Forward for Independent Community of Educators (ICE/UFT) Part 1)

I helped edit the piece below. Through miscommunication, it appeared briefly on the ICE-blog today but was taken down pending ICE having a meeting to discuss the future of the blog which has been basically inactive since James Eterno's illness. A few weeks after James became ill I solicited an article for the ICE blog from the well-known former blogger, RBE: Waiting for Mikey - which is in the spirit of the article below:

"Every time I see the UFT talk about the importance of voting, the importance of democracy, etc., I laugh. There are few entities as undemocratic as the Unity-controlled UFT."

But since then, things have stalled. When ICE blog goes active again I will share the news.

The article below is the opinion of the author and alternate views, in the always open spirit of ICE, are welcome. Or leave a comment.

Look for it on The Wire soon. 

Part 2: Now Is The Time To Fight Back, Not Give In To UFT Leadership - Part 2 by Rebel Teacher

... Norm

Are there emerging rifts in the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership that threaten its 60 year control of the UFT? If so what is a Path Forward for Independent Community of Educators (ICE/UFT).

Written by Rebel Teacher, a  Long time teacher and union organizer with the Independent Community of Educators (ICE-UFT).

Part 1

It is my contention that UFT leadership of President Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus is, and has been, facing unprecedented internal turmoil sparked by the recent removal of Queens borough representative Amy Arundell, rumored due to her internal dissent on certain policies spearheaded by the top-level leadership, a very small circle that has shut out even other Unity Caucus voices from decision making. 

 

The removal of Arundell was only the spark, as other issues have been reverberating inside the Unity machine and beyond: 

• the secrecy around changes to our healthcare which has increased fear around our membership who were already concerned how retirees are being screwed by a potential switch to managed care Medicare (MAP). Even Unity retirees are unhappy with the union siding with the mayor to reduce healthcare. 

• Unity manipulated the OT/PT chapter after it voted down the contract and forced a revote with no changes in terms of the contract offered. Leadership again sided with the DOE in sending a message they will force contracts down your throats. 

• The general suppression of democracy at meetings with top down, tightly controlled agendas.

• The attacks by UFT leadership on dissenting voices by accusing them of working with outside forces to undermine the union and of being the union’s enemy.

• the rise of militancy in other unions that have resulted in significant wins in salary increases and improved working conditions, leading to an increase in member distrust. Seeing teachers in progressive unions around the nation make gains while our leadership sells us on pattern bargaining has raised eyebrows even in Unity. 

 

There have been low level defections from Unity in recent years, people who have become prominent in the voices of dissent in the union. So far we have not seen any high or even middle level defections, but if Amy Arundell is purged, she would be the first in decades to be cast out. 

ICE-UFT has not been in a position to respond to these events since one if its key leaders has fallen ill.

Since the 7-month illness of James Eterno, a co-founder of  ICE/UFT caucus of  the UFT and the retired chapter leader who led a valiant fight against the closing of his Jamaica High School, ICE has been in abeyance, not having met in years. James worked valiantly since ICE merged into the MORE Caucus in 2012 to keep the ICE brand alive, mainly through his intensive blogging at https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/ which has attracted thousands of followers. James also ran for UFT President against Mulgrew in the 2010 election and has been a major figure in the opposition for almost 30 years.

ICE has been a key component of the United for Change (UFC) coalition, with Jame’s wife and longtime teacher Camille Eterno at the head of the ticket that opposed Mulgrew’s Unity caucus in the 2022 UFT election and garnered almost 16 thousand votes, including a majority of votes of high school teachers. Aviation HS Chapter Leader Ibeth Mejia and Luli Rodriguez currently represent ICE and Solidarity caucus as part of UFC  on the UFT Executive Board along with ICE’s Mike Schirtzer who ran with the Unity caucus slate. 

In light of the failings of UFT leadership of Unity Caucus we have heard calls for ICE/UFT to begin to move forward once again.  There have been some informal discussions about working with the UFT leadership of Unity Caucus or presenting a hard-line challenge to them and as expected in ICE, there are a range of opinions. 

Here are my views.

When we listen to our union leadership do we hear inspiration and empowerment or do we hear “be grateful for what we let you have”? Every public meeting, from town halls to the district level, are tightly scripted and controlled, and often purposely boring.  

Delegate assemblies (chapter leader and delegate monthly meetings) have become increasingly restrictive and critical voices suppressed. Mulgrew filibusters often take up to an hour for his president’s report. Meetings are dominated by paid staff and selected Unity Caucus members, with critics being given scant, if any, time. Even the standard method of the “New Motion” period has been subverted to shut out those voices. 

At a recent UFT Executive Board meeting Mulgrew tried to brand internal critics as being the enemy of the union for raising questions about the removal of Arundell and clandestine changes to our health insurance. This is a standard response of autocrats. These attacks must be responded to.

UFT district meetings are used by the leadership to push their agenda when those meetings should be opportunities for chapter leaders to work together to solve problems in their schools. Our chapter leaders need to be more aggressive in pushing back at these meetings. If they can't get speaking time, we need to put out a leaflet and reach out to others. Do not assume you are the only one unhappy with the leadership. Some Chapter Leaders fear offending the UFT District Representatives because they are often dependent on them. We must display it is quite the opposite, UFT DRs and union leaders tend to be more responsive to internal opposition leaders, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil”!

Our union’s Executive Board meetings have been the space where our 7 UFT stalwart delegates have the most space to raise issues and thanks to HS Ex Bd member HS Ex Bd member Nick Bacon's notes on the New Action blog, we can share what goes on there. Nick has been one of the Unity Caucus defectors.

There are calls from some opposed to Unity rule to still work with them 

Now is not the time to bail Unity out. If there are ways to get them to help the members, let's do so by all means, but beware of their usual attempts to control the message and make faux reforms they can take PR credit for, even if we do the work. 

Union consciousness is at an all time high. Who in your circle of family and friends at school doesn’t know about the Teamsters, UAW, Writers Guild,or SAG? Most UFT members know that other teacher unions have threatened to strike or actually went on strike and have won major victories while the Unity leadership have disparaged those who have even tried to raise the strike issue.

Now is not the time to give in to Unity! Now is the time to agitate, ask the tough questions, demand that our leadership listen and act, rather than lecture our members that they are working against the union. Working against a leadership that has done so much in the way of anti-union actions is working for, not against, the union. 

It is our leadership that has consistently worked against the union they lead over the past two decades by settling for sub-inflation raises, little support against abusive administrators, allowing public schools to be closed and charters to expand, endorsing testing and other pseudo reforms, and now risking the healthcare of our in-service and retired members. 

Unity caucus partners with the bosses, rather than its members. 

Mulgrew and the Unity Caucus machine is the real enemy!

End Part 1