Retired Teachers Election

Can Unity run a campaign while they are trying to hide?

This is shaping up to be the most interesting Retired Teachers Chapter election in the United Federation of Teachers. Ever. Bar none. The insurgent Retiree Advocate / UFT group (note – I am a member and a candidate) has a real chance against the entrenched Unity Caucus.

It should not be close. Unity, which is organized around preserving its power, not around politics, not around doing work for the membership, has had a decades-long lock on power. They control all the union jobs, including for retirees a bunch of patronage jobs through Si Beagle (classes for retirees). They collect hefty dues. They reward loyalists with “delegate” positions – which the loyalists treat as free trips to conventions across the country. Unity’s power extends into every corner of the union, but nowhere was its power greater than the Retired Teachers Chapter, where 85% – 90% of those who voted, in election after election, supported the incumbents.

It could have gone on like that for years. Retirees don’t complain about difficult principals or tricky work rules. We don’t worry about getting tenure, or if our sick days are counted correctly. All Unity had to do to keep its lock on the retiree vote was protect our pensions and protect our healthcare. But that proved to be a little too complex for them.

Protect pension. Protect health care. Maybe offer some bridge classes, or a trips to museums. Was that too complex? Yes. In a complicated deal with the City, Unity (or Mulgrew, but it amounts to the same thing) agreed to fork over members’ money (in the form of health care cuts) and in return the City would better fund Unity’s patronage mill. But Unity was falling short on what it promised to hand over, and so the City (through the Office of Labor Relations, but really the bankers who back the whole house of cards) demanded that Mulgrew screw the retirees. “How high?” asked Mulgrew.

Mulgrew/Unity entered into secret negotiations to throw retirees off of their healthcare – Medicare. Now, retirees like Medicare. It more or less works. It is a legacy of Johnson’s Great Society, itself an extension of FDR’s New Deal. Retirees are both politically and personally attached to the New Deal and the Great Society. Can you imagine how they would react if their union tried to take a key element away from them?

We don’t have to imagine. Mulgrew and Unity were secretly negotiating to throw retirees off Medicare (into an inferior, privatized “Medicare Advantage”) – and then they got caught. The news broke. The Professional Staff Congress – the CUNY professors and adjuncts (and HEOs, etc) union told its members. And all hell broke loose. Retirees were pissed. Super pissed. They did not want their health care messed with. And they did not like being lied to. Not by Unity, not by Mulgrew, not by anyone.

And Mulgrew lied to retirees. He used insurance industry talking points. He talked down to people who were clearly smarter than him. He was rude and insulting. He became toxic.

Some timeline

News that Unity was downgrading retiree healthcare leaked in Spring 2021. There were RTC (Retired Teachers Chapter) elections that were just going to ballot, and on the rumor of the news, Unity’s vote fell from 90% to 70%. They still won big, but not what they were used to.

In the union-wide elections the next spring, same, about 70%. Maybe the damage had been done? Maybe Unity hobbles away, no longer a 90% powerhouse, but still a dominant 70%? Maybe. But maybe not. In the course of the last two years Medicare vs Medicare Advantage has stayed in the news. There have been multiple court cases and appeals. There was an attempt to change NYC law. Retirees (through an organization outside of the UFT – the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees to Preserve Benefits) have been fighting to keep Medicare. New York City and its Office of Labor Relations have been fighting to force retirees out of Medicare into privatized Medicare Advantage. And Unity and Mulgrew have been siding with the bankers, against the retirees.

It is possible that Unity’s vote fell to 70%, and will now stay there. But it is also possible that Unity and Mulgrew’s ongoing public lobbying against Medicare will erode their vote further, even much further.

And now?

Ballots will be mailed out to 80,000 retirees on Friday. We have a month or so to return them (but should return them right away). Both sides have done some on-line campaigning. Both sides get a piece of literature sent out with the ballots. Unity actually sent out a mailing (they should have paid for it – we are still looking into that) last week. Lots of people got it. I didn’t. But I know what it says (back to that, below).

For Retiree Advocate / UFT, we began planning late last summer. Oppositions often run token campaigns. Not this time.

We decided to contest all 10 officer, 15 chapter executive board, and 300 delegate assembly positions. We hammered out a platform. We made a decision about campaign theme: mostly, but not completely about Medicare. There’s a little progressive stuff in our platform. We have to include issues about how the chapter is run. And because we expected scurrilous attacks, we thought we should underline our collective experience (yours truly was a chapter leader for 20 years, a delegate 3 years before that, 11 years UFT Exec Board. And I am just middle of the pack; we have quite a team)

In fact, we were done assembling our slate over a month before Unity; they had to scramble, and were turned down by many people they asked. Who wants to run with the people who are taking away our healthcare? As usual, Unity has no platform. They stand, as always, for nothing, and everything. No overt politics, and total control. They kept their Chapter Leader candidate secret until petitions were turned in, April. Retiree Advocate / UFT announced our candidate, Bennett Fischer, around New Years.

A big question – how are they going to campaign? Their chapter leader candidate looks unhappy when he runs RTC meetings – like he’d rather be just about anywhere else. He’s not going to campaign. But the first Unity flyer, the one that got mailed to many retirees, focused on this man, on their Chapter Leader candidate:

• The flyer that got mailed to many retirees had 5 points, the main was on “civility” – hardly the stuff of a serious campaign – but what else is there?
• “Tom Murphy” reads another point, “respected by many” – now, I have to say, that’s pretty weak language. However, rumor has it that this is actually the best they could come up with. Other suggestions? “Respected by Several,” “Revered by a Few” and my personal favorite, “Liked by Some”
• The flyer closes with a list of things the union (not Unity) did 30 and 40 years ago. No mention of healthcare.

In any other year you’d roll out photos with the union President – but Michael Mulgrew? Talking to retirees? Every appearance he does probably LOSES them votes. They can’t run on politics – they have none. They can’t talk about healthcare – people hate them for what they tried to do (and for lying about it).

Retiree Advocate / UFT talks about the strength of our team. But Unity is hardly in a position to do the same thing. All of their officer candidates have been shilling for Medicare Advantage. One of them publicly testified that Medicare Advantage was not good enough for him! But it gets worse. Stare at their list long enough, and retirees might realize – 5% of New Yorkers are from Staten Island – but 50% of Unity’s candidates are. And tell any New Yorker that Staten Island has 10 times more representation than expected – and we know exactly what that means.

What else could they do? Some cheap attack? Sleazy campaigning? They can’t NOT campaign; this matters too much to them – they are going to try.

And, to be honest, they still have lots of power as the incumbents. And maybe they are vigorously campaigning, but super-stealthily. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone describe them as “stealthy” though. But even with a weak campaign, lots of retirees just throw out their ballot. Others automatically choose the incumbents. It’s not going to be easy for Retiree Advocate / UFT. But Unity has given us a chance, a real chance.