Ben is the most qualified candidate. Ben, a Brown-educated applied mathematician with experience in the financial sector, has not only the drive–but the competence–to do whatever is in his power to keep the pension solvent for all tiers, while working to get Tier 6 fixed. His opponent worked for the UFT pension office, but not in a role that comes close to overseeing a 100-billion-dollar investment fund. Ben has that experience – and he got it on Wall Street. Ben is committed to making the member-benefiting pension reforms we need. Unlike his competitor, he is an actual member of Tier 6 ..read more

Summary/analysis: The meeting opened with Roberta giving an impassioned theatric performance about the flaws of commercialized healthcare and the need for the New York Health Act. There’s no way my minutes did her performance justice. Norm Scott (ednotes) followed Roberta about the problems with our welfare fund, both with respect to dental and prescriptions. He also discussed the importance of the NYHA and the flaws in Medicare Advantage. Mulgrew then spoke about enforcement related questions around the class-size legislation and a DOH law about state staffing. The bonus was also discussed. A ..read more

In what is literally a life or death situation, all UFT Retirees need to vote for the slate RETIREE ADVOCATE in the upcoming Retired Teachers Chapter Election. In a shocking and unforgivable betrayal, Michael Mulgrew and Eric Adams conspire to place all municipal retirees into a trashbag, for-profit, and deadly Medicare Advantage Plan to save the mayor and his cronies a few extra bucks. But RETIREE ADVOCATE has stood strong and fought for our rights at every turn; in the streets, in union halls, and in court, to preserve the Traditional Medicare that was promised to us when ..read more

Help us GET OUT THE VOTE for: Ben Morgenroth for TRS Pension Trustee, Fix Para Pay Slate for Para Chapter Election and Retiree Advocate for Retired Teachers Chapter (RTC) We’ve seen way too many cuts to our healthcare and pension, and wages that lag behind inflation. Each one of these races challenges Michael Mulgrew’s dangerous establishment control over our beloved union. They are also vital in educating our union family about the crisis regarding health & pension benefits and about our struggles with sub-inflation raises/wages.  Please share these campaigns and ..read more

Note: Thanks to Ed Calamia and Mike Shulman for taking notes, which were used to type up these minutes. Sill opens the meeting – Mulgrew is in Albany. Open Mic: Speaker 1: union supported me putting together programs for students when principal didn’t. Speaker 2: Dental plan (dentist dropped; then next dentist ‘no longer in network.’ My current dentist has a dirty office and a minimal exam schedule. Dental hasn’t been updated since 2016. Sill: no details of any real budget deal. Staff director report: MayDA à May 22. Spring conference coming up. Labor seder on Thursday in Brooklyn office. Open ..read more

Every three years, UFT members have the opportunity to vote for the Chapter Leader (CL) and delegates of their respective schools. It is easy to vote for a friendly colleague or to simply go along with the majority, but basing your vote on shallow virtues without putting real thought into your selection can prove costly to you and every other UFT member at your school. The upcoming chapter elections must be taken seriously. The people you elect will be representing you for the next three years. In order to try to help make your decision a little bit easier, here is a list of criteria and quest ..read more

Summary/Analysis Today was primarily about the UFT financial report – the first given in many years. Eventually, we will have a copy to provide, as it will eventually go on the website, so we’ll do most of the analysis when we also have that copy in hand (we had to give ours up before leaving). But a couple of things did stand out: While the overall financial picture seems fine, we do have some serious real estate concerns, both because we’re losing renter occupants in the building we do own (50 Broadway) and are coming up to some financially important deadlines with regards to the building ..read more

Summary/Analysis: The headline from tonight comes from the very end of the meeting – Unity’s bizarre handling of the paraprofessional resolution. Readers may remember that I motivated Migda Rodriguez, Marie Wausnok, and Daniel Alicea’s resolution at executive board on Monday, only to see it gutted of its most important resolved – the one that would have committed the UFT to fighting for a living wage. Tonight, Priscilla Castro, who ran with Unity and won the chief para gig over at 52 Broadway, made a motion to move the gutted version of the reso up to the number three slot (it was at eleven be ..read more

Summary/Analysis: There was one special order of business today, a resolution in support of paraprofessionals seeking a living wage and better working conditions. I motivated it, and it was signed by all 7 members of the HS Executive Board + Mike Schirtzer, but it was written by two paraprofessionals and a special education teacher: Migda Rodriguez (2nd Vice-Chair of the UFT Paraprofessional Chapter), Marie Wausnock, and Daniel Alicea, respectively. The resolution originally was meant to promote understanding of two pieces of legislation meant to help paraprofessionals and to commit to fighti ..read more

For months now, UFT members have been told that ‘Tier 6 will be fixed,’ and that for UFT, NYSUT, or the AFL-CIO to get it fixed, we’d need to donate to COPE. In a longer piece, I wrote about this general strategy, which unfortunately had all the fixings of an advertisement to get members to donate to COPE, with little evidence that those COPE funds were being used for pension reform purposes. Indeed, UFT members in the opposition are often critical of COPE: (1) because it valorizes outsourced lobbying tactics over rank-and-file action; (2) because COPE has a certain opacity, with members havin ..read more