Ed Notes Online

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

2026-07-19T12:15:22.465-04:00

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.

Para Pay on Agenda, 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention, American History - Always Oligarchy

2026-07-13T09:35:42.470-04:00

I have a few brief items for you today. Celebrate my rare briefness.

Monday, July 13, 2026

Council Sets Vote on $10K Perk for Paraprofessionals

Para Pay Raise bill at City Council, Mamdani switcheroo - really, if he wants to talk affordability, para pay should be a prime factor. But there is also the factor of bonus vs pensionable salary and we are in contract negotiation territory with a cast of thousands negotiating committee.

Leah Linn infographic on history of para bill:

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DawC3M3Ry_g/

One comment:

Nothing like an ad for your caucus:

A UFT Leaflet for labor day

This City Reporter article mentions Fix Para Pay.

Some paraprofessionals, though, feel the payment isn’t enough and doesn’t address longstanding issues that they say have been ignored by the union.
Marie Wausnock is a paraprofessional on Staten Island who also co-founded Fix Para Pay, a union caucus slate that opposes Mulgrew. Some paras leave for other city jobs that require less training and have better pay, she said.

“How do you give respectable pensions and dignity to paras when you want to give them non-pensionable money?” she said. “Paras are so underpaid. We get crumbs every time.”

750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention: They got 54% but get 100% of delegates - ABC and ARISE should have 46%

In last year's UFT election we voted for 750 AFT/NYSUT convention delegates. And I bet a batch of non-delegate Unity staffers added - call it over 800 and maybe 900.

Unity received 54% of the vote but in a winner take all system they get 100% of the delegates as 46% of UFT voters are shut out of both the AFT and NYSUT. And of course, all 750 will vote as told on every reso - all dictated by what Randi wants.

This perversion of democracy will enforce the alliance between the UFT leadership and the Dem Party corporate center. Note the speaker list below. I see one progressive - the next Mayor of Washington who is a social-democrat. You won't see many SDs at this convention.

Watching Hakim Jeffries and Chuck Schumer and the awful Neera Tanden disparage the SD movement is getting to be LOL - how close are they to Trump reactions. They are threatened and rather then lose control of the bailiwick they'd rather see Republicans - and billionaires - win.

The rise of SD as a challenger to the Dem Party - see the drama being played out in Maine is also a threat to Unity hegemony. Too bad the SDs in the UFT have had a decade long failure to show any similar organizing chops that SD has had. Ironically, the closest I've seen to an SD organizing model has been ABC and hopefully the Fixed Retiree Benefits group can also show some organizing chops. Both are a work in progress.

From AFT PR:

Thousands of Educators, Elected Leaders and Advocates to Gather in D.C. for AFT National Convention

Delegates Will Hear from Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, US House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Labor Leader Dolores Huerta, Former US Attorney General Eric Holder, Former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams, Democratic Nominee for D.C. Mayor Janeese Lewis George and more to be announced

WASHINGTON—The 1.8 million-member AFT—representing teachers, school staff, higher education workers, nurses and healthcare professionals, and public employees—will host its 89th national convention July 16-19, bringing together over 3,500 delegates from across the country.

Note that almost one third of the 1.8 million are from NY State delegation controlled by Unity Caucus, which at the national level is called the (once in a blue moon) Progressive Caucus.

Oh, and let me announce that Randi will win re-election either unopposed or by 95% if there is an opposing candidate.

Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

My most recent blog exposing the Mulgrew machine has been getting some notice.

---

The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy

What exactly has changed all that much in 250 years?

I'm a big fan and paid subscriber to Sam Seder's The Majority Report where I get great interviews and commentary and a lot of fun every weekday at noon-2:30.

For history buffs, this interview, especially for a history major like me who took courses in the American Revolution, this interview with Jeffrey Winters was fascinating. The theme is that the founding fathers were fundamentally oligarchs who believe in small d democracy - very small d. That the constitution was designed to protect their wealth. And in this interview he goes into detail. They had a problem in their new system which had a level of democracy never seen before. How to control that democracy so their wealth would never be threatened.

We are taught about checks and balances as one branch of government checking the other branches. In this interpretation, C&B were designed by the oligarchs leading the revolution to check the rabble who might get too much democracy and take away some of their wealth -- in case they want to tax the rich. So what else is new?

https://www.youtube.com/live/3j7Y-w-XhVk?si=GzVwfqgVfXjlakkE&t=1863

Here's an article about Jeffrey Winters (Author)

An urgent and shocking examination of how the ultra-rich dominate democracies, hoard political power, and maintain inequality—and how we might chart another path.

The wealthy and powerful few have dominated the many throughout most of human history. This is now more starkly visible than ever—a time when, with politicians bought and paid for across the political spectrum, the gulf between oligarchs and average citizens is larger than any gap that existed during European feudalism or the slave society of Imperial Rome. One thing is clear: the world is heading into an even deeper state of inequality, one that oligarchs of past eras could only have dreamed of. The strange thing is, for the first time in history, this domination is accomplished through democracy. Yet we aren’t in open revolt against the system. In fact, we seemingly keep voting to prop it up. Why?

In The Blind Spot, political scientist Jeffrey Winters delivers a timely, incisive account of how we reached this era of in-your-face oligarchy. Tracing the evolution of wealth power through the modern democratic era, he demonstrates how domination by oligarchs isn’t just a flaw in our democracy, but a foundational feature—allowing the wealthy to limit the agenda, control the marketplace of ideas, and rewire the law to defend, hide, and increase their money and power. Now, in an extraordinary paradox, we exist in a state of “participatory inequality,” a world in which the 99.99 percent of us participate openly, freely, and democratically in our own ongoing exclusion and exploitation.

But The Blind Spot ultimately sounds a clarion call for change, arming us not only with a vital lens through which we can understand just how bad our political reality has become, but also with bold ideas for how we might shift the balance of power. While powerful oligarchs do not cede power willingly, this period of shocking inequality is nevertheless an opportunity for change.

The Winters interview on you tube:

Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

2026-07-08T10:27:46.611-04:00

I chronicled Mulgrew's move to make every aspect of the UFT based on loyalty in Part 1: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/how-mulgrew-undermined-uft-pension-dept.html

The point of my recent articles is that something is going on inside the tent that is getting some people to give up the money. And while the number is low, there is a lot of people seething but not willing - yet. I do know that a number of Unity people voted for ABC in the election. Will we see more breaks in the next few years? My contention has been that Unity can be beaten when there are enough defectors with school-level networks that ally with the opposition to break the Unity monopoly at the school level. There were signs in last year's election.

Part 2 focuses on the TRS elections as a function of the pension department and how Mulgrew installed his operatives who put political loyalty over competence in a crucial area of the UFT where every member ends up using on the way to retirement. I include the story of one of the UFT's top pension consultants who was in much demand until he was sent back to teaching at the end of August 2025, seemingly a threat due to his attempts to run for TRS rep in the 2026 election. He ran anyway.

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

The recent Teachers Retirement System election put a focus on former Unity loyalists who have been cast out of the cult.

Frank Panebianco and David Kazansky ran against Unity's Tom Brown. Both had been fired from the UFT.

TRS elections have been neglected by the forces aligned against Unity for way too long, thus allowing Unity to control all 3 pension reps who are elected to 3 year staggered terms. For years I've been urging people to not let Unity escape any election without being challenged and to use elections as an outreach and organizing tool as prep for the big enchilada - the general union election.

In March 2024 Mulgrew dumped David Kazansky, who had served for 9 years as TRS rep because David was known to be independent and willing to ask questions at TRS meetings and not subject to automatic loyalty to Mulgrew.

David was given a job as an AFT pension rep, with Randi Weingarten having the AFT pick up his salary. That led to the first TRS election in decades with Brooklyn Tech math teacher Ben Morgenroth running against the unknown Christina McGrath, David's replacement, an election that shocked Unity and the DOE which had to run the election. Frank Panebianco, the UFT's leading pension consultant, was also shocked as he had been waiting for almost a decade to run for TRS and was denied once again.

Since the DOE never had to run a real election, there were many screwups that led to both the union and the opposition raising legal objections.

In June 2025, Kazansky was fired from the AFT job and had his UFT leave rescinded and went back to teaching in an elementary school in the Bronx that September. He announced sometime in February 2026 a run for TRS rep.

Frank Panebianco was also shocked when he was notified by UFT HR department in late August 2025, just a day before school began, that his leave was not being renewed and had to hustle to get back to his old school from 13 years before.

Everyone I spoke to, including people in the opposition, have good things to say about Frank as one of, if not the, top pension person at the UFT, someone that even the top officials at the UFT have used for their final pension consultations. Frank also has a background in finance, qualifing him to be an effective TRS rep.

A time-line of recent TRS elections and changes in the pension department at 52 Broadway

2013: Frank Panebianco is promoted from an after school Bronx pension rep to full-time at 52.
2014: Tom Brown becomes TRS rep when Mona Romain retires. Frank is alternate.
2015: Long-time pension expert Mel Aaronson, who fundamentally had free reign to train and promote pension reps, retires from TRS and tells Frank that he deserves the job but there is worry at the top the opposition would complain and they are going with David Kazansky instead. Why the oppo would complain about Frank given the oppo never had comments on TRS elections, is a mystery. Frank is alternate.

2016: Sandy March retires and tells Frank he would be best for the job but they can't have 3 white men. Debra Penny, UFT Staten Island Borough Rep replaces her.

With strong pension figures like Aaronson and March out of the way, the 2016 TRS election is Mulgrew's move to take control and politicize the pension/TRS process. Frank is alternate. Debra Penny immediately takes over as the boss of the pension department as Mulgrew's agent.

2017: Tom Brown runs for second term. Frank is alternate. Frank is asked to recruit a minority woman for a full-time pension position. Only Victoria Lee from Queens pension is available. She moves to full-time at 52. Some in Queens question the decision.

2018: David runs again, Frank is alternate.
2019: Penny runs again, Frank is alternate
2020: Tom Brown runs again, Frank is alternate

2021: David runs again. Mulgrew supposedly tries to replace him but RandyWeingarten and Mel Aaronson intervene. Frank is alternate.

2022: Penny runs for second term but it is known she will resign before her term is up. Victoria Lee is her chosen successor and is the alternate, the only time Frank has not been the alternate.

As expected, Penny resigns mid-term and Victoria Lee is chosen to replace her. Some in the pension department are not happy with the choice.

2023: Tom Brown starts another 3-year term and Frank is once again the alternate.

To this point there has not been an opponent, so no TRS elections.

2024: Mulgrew removes Kazansky as TRS rep who is offered a special pension job paid for by Randi at the AFT but leaving him working out of 52. David did not want to leave the TRS job and word leaks he was afoul of Mulgrew and possibly Lee and Brown because he asked too many questions at TRS meetings of pension consultants, questions that should have been asked.

See: TRS Passport Funds Underperform Over Last 10 Years: TDA investment options cost members hundreds of thousands in lost returns
Pensions with Ben Morgenrath
Jun 10, 2026

Frank is passed over again

There is shock that newcomer Christina McGrath, an ally of Victoria Lee, is brought in to run in 2024. Ben Morgenroth declares his candidacy, forcing the first TRS election in decades. The election, run by the DOE through school principals is a total mess. Unity leadership is forced to engage in a campaign for the first time. Ben gets about a third of the vote in very low turnout.

Frank is once again the alternate, and is now pissed off after being passed over for so many years. The "3 white men" argument no longer works since McGrath would be the second woman. UFT people were asking Frank, "How could Mulgrew pass over you for Christina?"

March, 2024: Frank asks to Meet with Mulgrew after McGrath is endorsed by Unity

Frank tells Mulgrew he wants out - "send me back to the Bronx."

Mulgrew wants him to stay and apologized for playing politics. Frank asks Mulgrew to agree to a raise, allowing him to work two days remote and to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown retires. They shake on it:

Mulgrew: "You have my word and my word means everything. He praises Frank - "You never asked for anything. I didn't know you wanted the job. I want to make it up to you."

Weeks later Mulgrew asks Frank:
“How is that raise I gave you?"
Frank: I never got it or the remote days either.

Going into summer '24 - still no raise.

Oct, 2024

2 days remote finally comes through for Frank but no raise.

Mulgrew tells Frank is was a tough battle to get him the remote and it took 7 months of battling.

Frank asks "Why? Aren't you the president?"

Mulgrew shrugs.

Victoria Lee who is also UFT Treasurer, and most likely had to approve the raise, tells Frank: "There's no way you will ever make more money than me."

Frank never gets the raise.

Jan 2025 - Frank and Victoria Lee air things out. She says "You need to be by my side - people see you with me - that's the way to get promoted."

She brings in Jeff Novzen to 52 Broadway full-time, a friend of her husband, who is a school principal, as a pension rep trainee despite Frank's objections that Novzen didn't have the knowledge or experience.

Frank is shocked and tells Lee: “All the senior consultants that have years of experience and Jeff Novzen has not even done a final consultation. You picked a trainee over all the experienced special reps?"

Over the past few years Frank has been impressed with the work of some borough pension reps and recommends a few for promotion to central but is blocked by Penny and Lee. Leah Linn out of the Queens office is one of those reps. A prolific social media presence, she signs up to run with ABC in the 2025 election and is fired by Mulgrew in June 2025.

Word spreads in the pension dept that Novzen is being groomed to run for TRS in 2026 when Tom Brown is supposedly retiring.

May 2025 - Victoria Lee runs for re-election and Ben Morgenroth runs against her. Lee challenges his petitions and Ben is disqualified due to a minor technicality.

June 2025 -UFT pension retreat - Lee celebrates her victory at the June 2025 UFT pension rep meeting bragging how she got Ben Morgenroth disqualified. "I won, I won. It doesn't matter how you win as long as you win."

She knew she wasn't well-liked inside the caucus and among the pension consultants and was nervous about her getting the kind of support Tom Brown ends up getting a year later, so disqualifying Ben on a technicality avoids an election. Her next election, due in 2028 at the same time as the next general UFT election may not be so easy.

At the same meeting she publicly castigates and humiliates Tom Brown telling him he should retire. She wanted him gone so she could put her husband's friend Jeff Novzin to replace him at TRS a year later.

June/July 2025 - Tom Brown to Frank: "My dream is to retire and you to replace me." Apologizes for not standing up and allowing "them" to politicize the pension and TRS department and says he will retiree. Frank is the most qualified to be on TRS and should run because no one thinks Jeff Novzen is competent to be a TRS rep and Frank would win easily. Says Frank is the best choice and should run for TRS as he is knowledgeable, popular and has a lot of contacts. Frank decides he will run and starts touching base with people.

July/August 2025 - Frank begins a behind the scenes campaign for the 2026 TRS election by contacting his network.

August 2025: A day before school began, Frank received a notice from UFT HR that his leave was being revoked and if he wasn't back in a school the next day he would not have a job. This was a major shock and he called Asst. Secty Mike Sill to find out what was going on. Sill told him he had no idea and knew nothing about it. When Frank reached Mulgrew he was told that Mulgrew would look into it.

Sept. 2025: A few days later, Frank was back in his old school, where he hadn't been for 13 years, teaching science in kindergarten. HR tells Frank, "We were just told to do this by your supervisor, Vicky."

Nov. 2025: Mulgrew spends about 2 months looking into what is going on in the pension department and after doing his own inquiry he has a meeting with Frank and tells Frank: “I asked people all over and found out that they said, When it comes to pension we only go to Frank, we don’t even waste our time with anyone else because Frank is the most knowledgeable and he gets back to us.

Mulgrew also says he found out Frank is doing all the work (an indication that the HR rationale for terminating his leave was bogus), everyone loves him and he has a big tier 6 push and that he needs him back because he needs his best pension person there for that.

Frank agrees to return but tells Mulgrew only if he holds to his word about the trustee position and the raise.

Jan. 2026

Mulgrew offers Frank his job back, agreeing to a raise and two days remote but Mulgrew says he cannot agree on the TRS election, despite his previous handshake. (Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen is being groomed for the TRS rep). Frank walks despite suffering a 50K pay cut.

More details of that meeting:

Frank reiterates his requests that Mulgrew shook his hand on: two days of remote, a raise and running for TRS.

Mulgrew says “he can’t" and Frank says, "you gave me your word" and Mulgrew repeats, "Well I can't."

Frank responds, "I am not coming back to do all the work and be the one who runs all the projects and be the most qualified but instead in the spring I’m supposed to sit there at the DA again and watch you endorse someone else for trustee that has no experience. I’m sorry I’m not doing that again."

Mulgrew says
"I can’t believe you made me do all that work finding out everything for nothing."

Frank: "You did all that work and found out the truth that I have been the one who keeps getting screwed because of politics."

Tom brown calks Frank begging him to come back, promising him if he came back he would talk to Mulgrew and tell him to endorse Frank.

Frank tells him, "Absolutely not Tom. There is no way I’m coming back because you have never stood up for me before and I don’t trust that you would now. Besides you are afraid of Victoria and she will boss you around pushing her guy Jeff and you will let that happen so I will not come back."

Feb 2026: David Kazansky announces he is running for TRS. Mulgew, nervous he'd beat a newcomer like Victoria Lee pal Jeff Novzen, gets Tom Brown to run again.

Tom Brown: Mulgrew is telling him he has to run.

Frank, feeling he has been slighted over a decade in his quest to run for TRS also announces he is running, with a number of people telling him they are secretly voting for him. David Kazansky reaches out to discuss the problems of two people running. Nothing gets settled even if it clear that neither of them could win.

A massive Unity campaign for Brown is organized like a military operation with lots of pressure on the Unity faithful to get out the vote. They get 30k petition signatures when they only need 1k. Frank thinks he can carve out a piece of the Unity votes for Tom plus his own contacts.

May/June 2026: TRS Campaign Results:
A smashing victory for Tom Brown with 35k votes. 66%. The Unity campaign has won big, a model for future campaigns.

David gets over 15K with the support of the ABC network plus his own. If the legacy caucuses like RA, MORE and NAC hadn't sat this out (though a few individuals backed them) the vote would have been higher.

Frank gets almost 4k votes, pretty good since he had his own personal network with no institutional support.

Combined, they hit about 19k, about 34%, which would probably be a bit higher with the legacy groups involved, a rising proportion of anti-Unity people in any UFT election at this point. Let's put it at the high 30s. Their shortsightedness in not seeing TRS elections as a building block for the oppo is endemic to the legacy groups, some of whom are more focused about fighting for BDS on Israeli bonds than actually getting Unity out of power.

I will effort to get spreadsheets with election outcomes school by school.

Will there be repercussions for Unity people in areas where David or Frank had more votes than Tom Brown?

2027 TRS Election

Christina McGrath should be running for re-election but she began to rebel over Lee's bossing her around and they end up in screaming matches and are no longer speaking. Debra Penny is also upset with Victoria Lee and tells her that she is one of 3 trustees that are equal and she is not Christina’s boss. Victoria snapped back, “Yes I am!”

Inside betting is that McGrath won't be the Unity candidate in 2027 if Lee gets her way. There is also the specter that Tom Brown, at age 75, decides to retire this year, thus adding a second election.

Either way, expect there to be an opposition candidate, in both 2027 and 2028 when Lee runs again, hopefully one united campaign. David, Frank and Ben, all very capable, in the mix.

And that the legacy caucuses will get the message that TRS elections are a building block to defeat Unity and support any campaign against Unity.

Afterburn -

After speaking with my resources and learning about what had gone on over the years I was able to have someone connect me with Frank to hear what he thought about the results of the election and this is what he wrote:

I wish Tom the best of luck, he was like a big brother to me and I hope he stays the 3 years for the term, because that is what people expect from him when they voted. It’s too bad he was ‘forced’ to run. There are people who actually cared about the position and wanted to be able to use their knowledge and experience to help members and not make this political.

====

The mess at UFT HQ is not all that new.

Some background on politicizing at the UFT:

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Mulgrew Removes Brooklyn Borough Rep Debbie Poulos - Was She too aggressive on certain abusive principals?

UFT Update: Internal Wars - Engler and Schoor

Engler is still employed and makes $215,447 a year... NY Post - UFT director sends scathing emails with typo to secretary

Engler is the power behind the throne at UFT & Mulgrew defers to her .... anonymous

The NY Post has a story about emails from a year ago from Ellie Engler complaining about Howie Schoor's comments to Bronx staffers.

“I had a disturbing meeting with the Bronx folks about what you said to them,” Engler wrote last August in an e-mail to Schoor that was copied to UFT boss Michael Mulgrew and other top personnel. “They reported that you said, everyone hates Ellie and I am getting in your way to do the work you want to do.”

How Mulgrew Undermined the UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election - Part 1

2026-07-06T16:34:43.149-04:00

July 6, 2026

I am seeing things in a new light. I always assumed Unity was monolithic and there was little internal debate - that since Shanker the person at the top controlled everything. But an interesting perspective is emerging as current and former higher level Unity reveal the internals. This is Part1. Part 2 is here: https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/nepotism-and-cronyism-mulgrew.html

Despite serious disagreements, activists within the usual suspect legacy caucuses opposed to Unity managed to have some working relationships with the leadership. In a sense, the active Unity and oppo people became a sort of sub-class in the union of people who were involved beyond the regular membership - a sort of synchrony of common interests, which comes undone for a few months every 3 years during UFT election. These are the people you are likely to see in early September at Labor Day Parades where all sides greet each other with some warmth.

We knew which officials were competent, such as Amy Arundell. Appointees to union positions has always been political and based on loyalty to Unity Caucus and the leadership but being capable and competent was part of the equation.

Yet, over the past few years there has been a shift as we saw less and less competence and internal and external unhappiness with the Mulgrew leadership and we see major purges within the caucus and threats to those who don't conform.

The theme of this post delves into this Mulgrew shift - total control of every aspect of the UFT, total loyalty expected and valued over competence, as evidenced by comments from current and former Unity and union officials. That has led to fear and resentment among the Unity faithful.

UFT full time and part- time staff were threatened with their jobs if they didn’t get the votes from their school for Tom Brown in the TRS election, a pattern Mulrew has set since The Friday Night Unity Purge/Massacre of June 27, 2025. The Queens Borough Rep, who replaced Amy Arundell, held meetings telling pension consultants, “If you don’t get the votes for Tom, you are replaceable." In areas where Tom Brown votes were weak there may be some nervous district reps.

I use the Frank Panebianco story as a case study of the loss of competence at the UFT, not to mention David Kazansky, both of whom ran against Tom Brown, their former colleague, in the recent TRS election. Shedding these two, along with Amy, D. 30 Rep Ashley Rzonca, Leah Lin, paras Hector Ruiz, Jr., and Migda Rodriguez is a serious brain drain. A Unity insider commented:

Downgrading competence: The essence of internal UFT policy: Never pick a successor who might do a better job than you. Always pick someone less competent than you so they won't do better.

UFT members have been noticing.

More Words from inside Unity:

No one is a free thinker anymore. Mulgrew controls every aspect of the union. When I started and was recruited to Unity, there were spaces for debate, conversation, dare I say suggestions. All totally gone now.

Mulgrew makes everyone have a fear-based mindset so even if you’re good at your job you don’t really do it the best it can be done because that’s not what’s wanted.
The entire union. Teacher center, and welfare fund are cash cows.

Numerous Unity oldheads told us that under Randi, it was also a dictatorship, but that she at least not only tolerated dissenting voices, but wanted a couple of them in the room when an issue was being considered. When she made her decision that was that, but at least she heard both/all sides before she did. Under Mulgrew all of those dissenting voices have been pushed out.

Don't forget the ouster of Maria Niera from NYSUT Leadership a decade ago and making sure we all voted for their endorsed candidates by checking the ballots before we submitted them.

The firing of pension expert Frank Panebianco days before the end of summer because he was telling people he was going to run for TRS because Tom Brown told him he would retire. When he asked Mike Sill and Mulgrew about it, they said they knew nothing about it. So who fired Frank? Read the surprising answer below.

Mulgrew shook hands on it: "I give you my word and nothing means more to me than my word." Soon after, Mulgrew went back on his word.

Like Trump, Mulgrew seems to have the ability to unite more and more people against him, even those with differences.

My mantra over the past few decades has been that Unity will not be defeated until the oppo organizes in enough schools to challenge their control. Yet, as elections have proven, other than high schools, there has not been much of a dent in Unity control with the exception of the 2024 retiree win, which is proving that unless you win the entire union, not a lot changes.

The 2025 general union election showed that there are defections from Unity but many defectors did not feel comfortable landing in one of the existing legacy caucuses but did feel comfortable with ABC, a new entity. The question is can humpty-dumpty be put back together again where legacy caucuses and ABC can come to some form of accommodation?

Their combined total of 46% offers the possibility of victory in 2028 but the resentment towards ABC upstarts is palpable, from the legacies and Unity, where we see them at times working together as both are threatened. As legacy groups fade in influence, the future oppo to Unity may hold the irony of Mulgrew's actions are helping form that opposition.

Let's look at some of the growing cracks in Unity by focusing on the Teacher Retiremee election and how it is linked to the pension department S candidates and the impact on the pension department.

My recent blogs on the TRS election leads to bigger conclusions on the way the leadership has politicized the formerly semi-independent areas of the union.

Mulgrew wants tight control and total loyalty from every corner of the union. Current and former Unity insiders point to:

Pension/TRS: Victoria Lee acts as boss in Mulgrew's name.
Welfare Fund: Geoff Sorkin in name only.
Call Center: Salesforce replaces UFT staff.
Teacher center: Mary Vocarro turns it political.
Grievance: Mark Collins. There hasn’t been a real grievance chair since Howie Solomon. There is no institutional knowledge and a fear to take cases. So much is non-precedential, so it’s wack a mole.
Political action: The director is there just as a figure head. Cassie Prugh and Mulgrew make all the decisions. (Witness the decision to endorse Dan Goldman over Brad Lander, exposing Mulgrew's true politics.)
Borough offices: Amy Arundell fired from Queens office, along with Leah Linn, not the first time put in someone under his thumb. In 2016 Mulgrew replaced the popular Brooklyn Boro rep Debbie Poulos with a political hack according to some staffers. Some point to changes in the Bronx office too.
NYSUT - Mulgrew's total takeover 2014 NYSUT Election Update: Message to Revive: Now that...NYSUT Election Update: Julie Cavanagh Defeats Mulg... NYSUT Update: MORE's Lauren Cohen Stands Up to Bul...

All politicized. The removal of institutional knowledge and so similar to Trump.

Coming Next: Part 2 - Genesis of the 2026 TRS Election.

The TRS election put a focus on former Unity loyalists who have been cast out of the cult. Recent history of TRS elections. How Mulgrew undermined trust by politicizing the pension dept and putting loyalty over competence.

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

2026-06-28T13:39:30.752-04:00

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.

UFT Retiree Chapter Update: Mulgrew Appears, Bennett Reports, Fix Retiree Benefits June 28 zoom, Unity Clan Smashes TRS Reso

2026-06-23T09:04:59.510-04:00

It's primary day in NYC and lots of scrutiny on Mamdani supported candidates in 3 congressional races where he backs candidates closely or loosely connected to the Dem Socialists, but all pushing back against Dem party central. In every one of these, Mulgrew has led the UFT to support the other candidate, thus cementing the view that I always have had that the UFT is tied to the traditional corporate Dem wing and the Mamdani endorsement was an outlier due to Mamdani's sweeping support. Mulgrew lied and maneuvered the DA into supporting Dan Goldman, who is expected to lose to Brad Lander. One interesting thing I noticed was that Randi Weingarten's rabbi wife is backing Lander. Hmmm.

I never liked Espaillat and am glad he is being challenged but my instinct is he will win and the Mamdani push in that area may be an error. And his candidate against Reynoso who is backed by Nydia Velazquez is also tricky but I think Mamdani will win that one in the Commie corridor but his relationship with the more conservative- leaning Hispanic community will be harmed long-term.

I think the UFT is backing Alex Bores - Mamdani voted in that district but is keeping his vote secret. I'm betting he voted for Nina Schwalbe,

The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About

She has no chance and I might have voted for her too but I hate Micah Lasher for too many reasons to cite here and would go for Bores in a rare agreement with the UFT.

UFT backs Alex Bores in NY-12

I voted already for one candidate for the state assembly seat being vacated by the current holder who inherited the seat from her mom who still has a Queens county political job. Good riddance. The Dem machine is pushing its candidate which is more of the same, while I'm backing Mike Scala who has run before when I backed a more left Dem Soc candidate but Mike has moved a bit left and I've met him and contributed. Reality bite - the machine will win and then face a serious MAGA challenge. Remember, corp Dem supreme Greg Meeks is the local congressman - and it is here where I expect a serious challenge from the Dem Soc left to come in two years, possibly from a great candidate, Assemblyman Khaleel Anderson, a major Mamdani supporter who I canvassed with. His was the only district in Rockaway that went for Mamdani.

Tonight will hold fascinating post-mortems. Sam Seder, my fave podcaster, dwelled deeply into the DSA move to reshape the Dem party and I tend to back any challenge to the corp wing which would also weaken the UFT leadership ties to that wing.

June 23, 2026

June 16 was the final meeting of the year of the UFT Retired Teacher Chapter and I started writing this piece that day.

My last post was on June 4: UFT News and Views: RTC Ex Bd, TRS Election, Electronic Voting.

This is only the second blog I've done this month when in the past I used to do 3 a day.

I had medical stuff going on the morning of the 16th with chemo at MSK and as usual had a great nurse who is from Memphis but moved to NYC in January and just loves it here. And she lives in Murray Hill nearby my apartment. She noticed my Knick shirt and said she is a convert from a Grizzly fan. That's the spirit. My Knicks shirt was getting lots of thumbs up.

Leaflets announcing the Fix Retiree Benefits June 28 Zoom were being handed out. I think a few hundred have registered already.

Fix Retiree Benefits consists of retirees that have felt they had no real voice in the world of Retiree Advocate, the group that fundamentally runs the RTC chapter.

I'm impatient to get things done and I feel a campaign against Unity for the RTC needs to get organized sooner rather than later. I'll get more into the rationale behind FRB next time. At least 4 RTC Ex Bd members are working with Fix Retiree Benefits with others echoing silent support. Most of the others are elected delegates.

Take the survey.

Arthur was at the June 16 meeting and he has a detailed report, which I will excerpt and comment on.

RTC Meeting--Michael Mulgrew Opposes Union Division (Unless He Creates It): Exception to every rule, Arthur Goldstein, Jun 16, 2026

The UGLY

The good, the bad and the ugly of the meeting

Bennett Fischer had already started his CL report, so I missed the beginning because I was getting eats.

The Not GOOD:

Overall, I saw a pattern repeated -- New Motions have been moved to the end of the meeting and since that was done, meetings have been adjourned before any New Motions can be gotten too. It is true that Unity had been using this time to make mom and apple pie resos and this was a ploy to shut that down, but is also precludes internal people from making new motions which I have been known to do on a whim and which seems to bother the RTC leadership.

I can remember being livid at Randi at one meeting for shutting down new motions and she called me into the hallway to apologize and I told her, "even Shanker never did that." People in charge, whether Unity at the DA or RA at the RTC meetings seem to fear the unknown new motion and look to control that space, which is not democratic.

A lesson about the RA/RTC leadership - once you get into power, any criticism is very bothersome and the tendency to put up roadblocks is hard to resist. Not new boss same as old boss but a warning sign.

Bennett has his critics on how he runs the meetings. At times he seems confused. Someone I know who taught at his school when he was CL finds it hard to believe as he was a very effective CL, but dealing with meetings like these are way different than chapter meetings.

I can only think of how Tom Murphy (or Tom Pappas before him) ran meetings when Unity was in control see things as relative.

Right now give me a choice of Bennett and anyone in Unity and I take Bennett.

Bennett's reports don't go on as long as Mulgrew's and he takes questions. Critics need to think about managing a meeting of 300 live and a thousand online and have a bit of rachmones. But criticism on time management are legit.

The UGLY

Mulgrew also made a report at this meeting and seemed in such good cheer and comfortable with his lies, which I will let Arthur expound on. Mulgrew also took some questions. (A few months ago Mulgrew ordered Bennett to give him time at our meeting and the RTC EB were outraged as Mulgrew took time from our business. I was one of the crazies who said we should ban Mulgrew from meetings or turn our backs but I guess I don't live in the real world.)

We had committee reports and Good and Welfare where anyone can say what they want and we were beyond 2:30, before we got to the regular order of business, with a 3PM automatic adjournment.

The GOOD:

Bennett Fischer's report was the strongest in two years challenging the UFT leadership over various issue and he received good grades even from critics because there had been a feeling he was being too light on the leadership in the past.

NOTE: RA is dominated by members of New Action, which had a 12-year deal with Unity. Bennett was never part of New Action and does not have that type of mentality but he has worked at the UFT in the past and does have certain relationships with leadership, not necessarily a bad thing but also not always a good thing.

Some people are very angry at Bennett but even they praised his approach. I think Bennett senses the critics and his comments were strong. No matter our differences so far, I am not one of the people who feel he should be replaced, at least if we manage to put a common slate together, though the winds blowing from the RA direction are not a good sign. Bennett can play a role in bringing everyone together but is he so deep in the RA machine he can't escape?

RTC EB Elects 11 replacement delegates, rejected by UFT membership

I was glad Bennett raised this point in a strong manner.

Arthur reports:

Bennett mentions RTC delegate election. Following process in RTC constitution, UFT bosses chose not to seat delegates. Bennett says Carl Cambria explained decision to him. Appealed decision to UFT Exec Board.

David Pecoraro to Mulgrew—Our CL spoke of Exec Board meeting holding election in accordance with article 8 of UFT and RTC constitution. Will you uphold ruling of Weingarten that this procedure followed previously can go forth. No taxation without representation.
Mulgrew—Since I just found out about this, will go to exec board and check. What’s in rules? If rules are there, I will make my voice heard at exec board. Didn’t know there was an issue. If rules are followed…

What a load of horseshit that Mulgrew just found out about this - a reminder of how Trump fakes things. Mulgrew has his finger in every pot. I'm glad Dave Pecoraro, who was thrown out of Unity years ago, put him on the spot.

I know it would have been impolite if Bennett expressed this thought, but someone should have over this blatant lie.

I had been hectoring Bennett for well over a year to raise the issue of replacing delegates who had resigned or passed away so we could get our full complement of 300. Recently we went through the two month process and elected 11 delegates, including the recently retired Amy Arundell (I bet the leadership would not be happy to see Amy at the DA). The RTC constitution says the RTC Ex Bd can replace elected officials and we had already replaced an officer and a few Ex Bd but the membership dept ruled that we had no right to replace delegates and pointed out how school chapters hold an election to replace delegates. Now being consistent, if the EB can't do it then there must be an election in the 70k member chapter, a nightmare of sorts to mail out ballots - unless they did it by electronic voting, which was recently rejected by a special committee, including the ARISE reps, siding with Unity. Allowing the elected EB to do it would save enormous time and money but Unity doesn't want us to replace delegates and so we will never see an election. Look for the RTC leadership to drop the issue after their appeal to the UFT Ex Bd is rejected.

The Semi-BAD from Arthur

Bennett announces all meetings will be Tuesday. Evidently the decision to vary times has not resulted in increased attendance. He has not consulted the Exec. Board about this, which makes me wonder exactly who made the decision. Nor were we consulted about the changing times this year.

I can live with not being involved in deciding meeting dates though the survey might have benefited from a wider input, but the RTC powers that be may be increasingly resistant to voices outside the Retiree Advocate circle.

Bennett and his advisors have made unilateral decisions that leave the RTC Exec Bd out, a dangerous trend toward lack of transparency that might explain the rise of critics.

The RTC constitution states that any member may attend an EB meeting but they are never announced. Even when we had openings on the EB, only insiders knew about them.

The GOOD and BAD from Arthur:

Bennett announces a survey. Ironically, after the decision was made, our input is desired.

I started paying attention as Bennett put up a QR code for those in the room to take the survey. What of the people at home? They tell the people at home to go to a web site. This survey needs to be sent out to all RTC members though the CL email, but will the UFT hierarchy allow it? I finally get a look at the survey in detail a few days later.

There are a bunch of questions on attendance at meetings. It seems the results might have informed a decision on when meetings should be held.

The UGLY: The RA Pizzitola Purge Continues

There is a question on survey about the speakers and programs at RTC meetings. Since Marianne Pizzitola was our very first speaker at our first meeting in Oct. 2025, I looked for her name.

Her name was not there.

Is this an oops, or intentional? Go to Kalshi and bet. A major sticking point between FRB and RA is Marianne, as RA tries to forget it was her backing that played a major role in our victory two years ago and is pissed she backed ABC in the UFT election helping lead ABC to a 3-1 margin over ARISE.

But it's not a bad Survey . It ends with:

Ideas and comments you would like to share with the RTC Leadership Team, Additional questions for the Retired Teachers Chapter Leadership Team.

My questions would be exactly who constitutes the RTC Leadership Team? One would expect the officers and Exec Bd but Arthur is an officer and none of the 15 member EB I have been in touch with knew about the survey before it was released at the RTC meeting.

The GOOD:

At the June 2 RTC EB meeting Bennett brought a reso calling for retirees to vote in TRS elections and I suggested he add that retirees can also run in TRS elections and this reso was the sole item on the regular order of business. Also note that RA, NAC and MORE - the ARISE coalition, sat out the TRS election, which helped Unity. Just sayin'.

Unity hack Peter Goodman kills reso on retirees running in UFT elections with nefarious intentions

Arthur: The UGLY

Today we managed to table not one, but two resolutions. One resolved to allow retirees to vote on trustees. A Unity member objected. Unity is very happy with TRS elections, and doesn’t want us uppity retirees to have a voice. We don’t, in fact, need a constitutional convention to change this. For example, we passed an equal rights amendment to the NY State Constitution back in 2024, without affecting pensions.
The objection was utter nonsense, another page in Unity’s perpetual quest to make sure we get nothing done.

Unity’s Peter Goodman whipped out an appeal to fear, making the outlandish assertion that if we were to seek the right for retirees to vote in trustee elections, it would entail opening up the NY State Constitution, and possibly tampering with our pensions.

I voted no to tabling, but Goodman stoked enough fear to stop the resolution. Trustees are elected to work for city, not state pensions. I didn’t think of that at the time, but I knew that even if it were statewide, parts the constitution are changed via voting, like our Equal Rights Amendment.

Vote on motion to table—Y 778 n 90 y 145 n 48 87%

That the tabling reso won overwhelmingly, as Unity initiatives have increasingly been winning this year, is a clear sign of Unity increasingly gaining support in their plan to retake the chapter in next year's election, with no real response from the RTC leadership, one more good reason for everyone to get together to keep Unity from retaking the chapter and giving Mulgrew free reign to savage our healthcare.

The fact is - and I would have pointed this out if the meeting had not run out of time - is that with the RTC still up for grabs next year with what looks like a 50-50 split, allowing retirees to vote in TRS elections would threaten Unity control of the 3 TRS reps and Goodman was using scare tactics to stop this reso, which won't come up again until our next meeting in October.

After the meeting ended I went across the street for coffee with a few Fix Retirement Benefits colleagues to hash what happened over.

----

A few more Arthur tidbits:

Whopper of the Day—Michael Mulgrew opposes union division. This is a man who said, in my presence, that those who questioned him spouted “fairy tales,” and “make everything a conspiracy.” We can’t “handle the facts.”
Mulgrew then told us he appreciates people coming here, and loves when they’re here. (Doubtless that’s why he provides us with only ten minutes to share during the meeting.) There’s always a but, though. I often recall a Shakespeare teacher I had in college who told us, “Whenever anyone says but, you may disregard whatever precedes it.” And here comes the important part:
Mulgrew then said if we didn’t agree, and attacked “each other,” we were just as guilty as the people who attack us from the outside. He repeatedly compared those of us who disagreed with him to our enemies. Who am I? Am I Eva Moskowitz? Michael Bloomberg?
LeRoy Barr followed this up by urging people to “shun” dissenting voices. All due respect, this man has a lot of gall to lecture us on our behavior.
Sometimes, like today, he politely tells us to sit down and shut up. Other times, he is not so careful.
Mulgrew also said the worst thing would be to pit retirees against in-service members. This was also curious. Mulgrew himself told in service members if we did not vote to change 12-126 to enable charges for Medicare, we would have to pay $1500 premiums. If that isn’t pitting in-service against retirees, I don’t know what is.
Mulgrew also said we should “shut newspaper reporters up,” and referred to the Unity-dominated Delegate Assembly as the “silent majority.”
Shades of Trump and Nixon. Our union leader, who arbitrarily and capriciously fires any UFT employee who dares question him, ought not to be lecturing us on decorum.
Sean Ahern—Moves RTC hold a debate with reps from both sides on NYHA and 1096. Major issues.
B—Haven’t we had conferences for this? Motion is to have a debate with people on both sides of issues, You can’t vote for me to do something. Not saying I wouldn’t but out of order that I host.
Point ot info—Carmen Alvarez—Don’t believe this is in order. Not clear what it wants to do. Structure for resolution not met. Table until something is clearer.
B—moves to table—
online y—615 n 170 r 107 n 28 78%
Resolution tabled indefinitely,
Read his entire notes:

RTC Meeting--Michael Mulgrew Opposes Union Division (Unless He Creates It): Exception to every rule, Arthur Goldstein, Jun 16, 2026

UFT News and Views: RTC Ex Bd, TRS Election, Electronic Voting

2026-06-04T12:24:39.668-04:00

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Busy days here at Ed Notes central. I was at the RTC Exec Bd meeting on Tuesday and following the TRS election and also talking to people in the UFT about the Mulgrew assault on competence to insure personal loyalty in the union, along with firings and threats of any hint of independent voices.

I'm back on chemo and had my second treatment yesterday - I'm on an every 2 week schedule. I even took my computer and worked on this item while I was there for a few hours and walking back to my apartment passed a street fair on E. 46 and look what I found:

I came back to Rockaway in the afternoon and want to get this out so I can go outside and do some yard work. The steroids are still working and I'm hoping to have energy to video The Crucible at Rockaway Theatre Company tonight. I saw part of it the other night.

TRS Election

I've seen preliminary results of the TRS election but DOE has to release final totals. I can say Tom Brown won, David Kazansky finished second, showing some organizing muscle. Analyzing the results will be a fun thing to do and I have a lot more to report after talking to many people. The legacy caucuses in the ARISE coalition mostly sat out the election, except for some individuals.

Unity/ARISE Reps Reject electronic voting

As for electronic voting, the bogus committee formed when I, as a member of the election committee in 2025, called for electronic voting, was turned down in exchange for a bogus committee, which I declared bullshit early on, predicting they would find ways to reject electronic voting, which is exactly what happened. The surprise was the two ARISE reps voting with Unity. The ABC reps put out a must read report that tears apart every Unity argument.

...many of the challenges associated with current methods, lost ballots, outdated addresses, inconsistent administration, chain-of-custody concerns, are exactly the kinds of problems modern electronic systems are designed to reduce. Secure platforms can incorporate verification, encryption, audit logs, and protections against duplicate voting in ways that strengthen accountability and transparency. But we didn’t seriously examine whether those tools could improve the process. Instead, the ARISE/Unity majority recommendation assumes that older methods are more reliable simply because they are more familiar.
UFT Election Task Force Minority Report..
A Better Contract Jun 01, 2026

BTW, Unity had 10 members, ARISE 2 and ABC 3. You know, fair.

Unity is now bragging they led the way on electronic voting - by saying no -- and by the way were joined in saying now by reps from the ARISE group - MORE and New Action/RA. These groups had supported our initiatives in 2022 and 2025.

I wrote on Nov. 28, 2024: UFT Election Committee

I pushed hard for an electronic voting option but naturally there are loads of roadblocks. This time they came up with the constitution wrinkle - some language in the constitution that says you have to use written ballots. Christina Gavin pointed out that written can also mean electronic.

Anyway, I pointed out the low vote totals for previous elections and handed out the ugly story on a chart. Like less than 20% of actives voted while 40% of retirees votes. After all the reasons we couldn't do electronic voting were pointed out I said I had raised this same reso 3 years ago and they promised to look into the issue but did nothing so we are back to ground zero.

I also pointed out that in previous elections the leadership could count on the retiree vote to carry them through, now with that vote in potential jeopardy, the leadership should want very much to increase in-service vote for their own protection. But don't expect any creative ideas to come from the moribund leadership. They looked like turtles turned on their backs.

The best they could come up with was Queens District Rep James Vasquez with a reso to form a task force to "study" the issue. He also placed blame on the oppo people over the past 3 years for not bringing up the issue during that time. Duhhhh, James -- we know you guys never want electronic voting and you will forget all about your task force.

But Vasquez did not lose the opportunity to put out a dumb blog post attacking the opposition and blaming them for his own party's failures. That attack can be termed, "I'm scared shit we will lose and I will have to go back to the classroom and teach a full load instead of my one or two periods a day - and lose my second pension."

Sure, Unity led the way on electronic voting -- right over the cliff.

Arthur reported on the process as reported on ABC:

They met only three times and closed the book on facing the issue. They didn’t bother to study the processes of other unions that used electronic voting successfully, let alone why so few of us vote. This looks like nothing more than a setup with a clear, predetermined outcome. Apathy is Unity’s best friend, and they won’t risk giving the 72% of members who don’t vote a voice.
Instead, Unity bosses will enable live voting only in Unity strongholds, where their paid patronage cult members can tacitly remind folks where and how to vote. Most disappointing is that the two ARISE members on the committee, MORE’s Olivia Swisher and Retiree Advocate’s Michael Shulman, voted with Unity. Shulman is also a leader of New Action, which has been pushing electronic voting for a decade or more. What happened? You’d have to ask him.
Only ABC members Chad Hamilton, Daniel Alicea and Katie Anskat voted no on Unity’s restrictive voting plan.

RTC Exec Bd Meeting

Yesterday I attended the RTC Exec Bd meeting. There are 25 people on the RTC EB and that includes the 10 officers. There are no Unity reps because RTC elections are winner take all - 25 EB and 300 delegates. Retiree Advocate, now an official caucus with $50 dues structure and a 15 member steering or organizing committee won that election in an alliance with Marianne Pizzitola. It was a great partnership. Shutting off the former 300 Unity delegates who gave Unity absolute dominance of the DA was a major outcome. Over the past year and a half that alliance has frayed which has made Unity bold with hope they can retake the chapter in next year's election.

RTC replaces delegates as per its constitution

Bennett Fischer, RTC CL:
The results are in from the RTC executive board vote to fill RTC delegate vacancies. There were 21 people running for 11 spots. The 11 winners are: Renee C. Airhuoyo, Jocelyn Brathwaite, Michael Broucum, Laura Calamuci, Chris Griffin, Peter Matsoukas, Sonia Silva, Carolyn Tacey, Linda Weissman, Hazel Fershleiser, and Amy Arundell. We will submit your names to the union for certification.

And therein lies a story. RA recruited 300 delegates to run with us two years ago and we wiped out Unity. I recruited about 30 people to run with us, including a former colleague who doesn't live in NYC. Unfortunately he came down with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and died in March 2025 but we know in October 2024 he wasn't interested in the DA and I notified people we needed to replace him, along with a few others I recruited who wanted to drop out and only ran as a favor to me because they never thought they would win.

Apparently some people at the UFT were telling Bennett we did not have the right to replace delegates even though former Unity delegates told us former RTC leader Tom Murphy just did it when there was a vacancy without even bothering to follow the RTC constitution which explicitly says the RTC Ex Bd nominates and votes on replacing elected positions.

Only in the last few months has the RTC leadership gotten more aggressive on this issue. Not always transparent (the constitution says any RTC member may attend Ex Bd meetings but Bennett never announces that or sends out a link other than those who are aware), this time Bennett made an announcement at the RTC meeting and there were 21 candidates, including a few from Unity, one of whom I actually voted for, though I had nominated LeRoy Barr who told me if I did he'd buy me a drink but he declined the nomination - but still owes me a drink.

Note that Amy Arundell did squeak into the final position (there was rank choice voting, indicating a level of hostility to her from the many ARISE connected RTC EB members. She should have been a slam dunk but the level of mistrust still reigns almost a year after the UFT election. In my opinion, the only way the Mulgrew administration continues to survive is due to this mistrust. Witness the story above about how ARISE voted with Unity. If Mulgrew was smart like Randi (which he isn't) he'd offer to work out a joint slate with ARISE in the next election. After all two of the 3 caucuses had a 12 year arrangement with Randi. (And by the way, Mulgrew broke that arrangement that helped Unity keep control of the high schools within 5 years of taking over --- see my recent blog on the level of incompetency - Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA.

Bennett was not 100% this would be a slam dunk. Imagine if Unity refused to seat our democratically elected delegates, like the Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic convention. I know the RTC leadership doesn't have the guts, but if we can get at least 50-100 people there to demand our delegates get seated and then walk out en masse if they don't. Good luck with that. And I say that in reference to the following item.

Arthur had a reso calling for us not to have to pay $180 a month for a prescription drug plan that included a petition some of us have been circulating that already has 6k signatures.

The RTC Exec Bd supported the reso but there was push back on the petition, which has ties to ABC and you could sense the hostility from some of the leading lights with questions like "who is this going to?" and concerns over how the petition would be used.

I'll let Arthur tell you about it.

RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer moved my resolution, demanding the UFT pay for our prescription premiums, up to number one on our agenda. I was pretty happy about that, and I’ve posted it below. It’s a mixed victory though, as the RA folks all voted to drop the second resolved, decoupling it from our online petition that’s already garnered over six thousand signatures.
This is a botched opportunity to build on a solid foundation and reach further.
It’s outlandish to leave six thousand signatures on the table.
Retiree Advocate is repeating an error they made early on. When we were first elected, they willingly surrendered the official UFT Retiree page, which had 6,000 followers, to a Unity Patronage Cult Member. After two years, they haven’t managed to recruit half that number. In failing to link to our petition, they toss away 6,000 signatures we’ve collected.
ABC is all about organizing. In September, we will take that petition into school buildings and build on it. No one in service wants to pay these exorbitant premiums. Members will read it and say oh HELL no.
It will be good to pass the resolution, but the RTC action that comes along with it, I’m afraid, could be as lackluster as that for 1096.
There were several rationales offered. Bennett said when he first saw it he thought it may have been created by teenagers who wanted to make trouble. It wasn’t my turn to speak. I really wanted to say I’m not a teenager, but yes I want to make trouble. Making trouble, you know, is how you get stuff done.
If you don’t believe me, ask Marianne Pizzitola, without whom we’d all have an inferior Medicare “Advantage” plan right now.
Several people asked who wrote the petition. I kept raising my hand to show I did, and it took a while before people understood.
Another objection was you can’t put a “hot link” on a resolution. Several people seemed to agree, but I was not among them. Better to start with 6,000 than zero. What could they be thinking?
RTC has not been great with petitions. When I tried to have them start a petition in support of 1096, the RTC Executive Board voted to “table” the suggestion. That’s a polite way of saying we are doing nothing, and indeed, aside from one strongly worded letter, mostly written by me, we have done nothing.

The comment about not putting links in a reso drove me wild because the link is an organizing tool and their mentality seems to be to lobby at the top - send strongly worded letters to Mulgrew - and not organize at the bottom. A reso that goes nowhere seems to satisfy them while many of us think a reso without an action component is a form of pounding your chest.

End Winner Take All - Install a Proportional rep

Back in the 70s when we raised proportional representation as an alt to winner take all, Unity hacks (and Shanker) would say that's how Hitler came to power. Allowing space for a variety of viewpoints and giving people a voice leads directly to Hitler. Sure. Proportional representation is a version of the parliamentary system. If there are a 100 positions you portion them out to each group running based on their percentage. It's not all that simple but worth exploring. We all say when we run for UFT elections that if we were in power we would democratize the union but as we've seen with RTC, once you smell the roses of power, changing things to share with a group like Unity takes some of that nice smell away.

As oppo people we always opposed the winner take all approach and when we were winning 30% of the vote we felt we should one third of the delegates, the officers and the exec bd. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, we are in the drivers seat and it makes meetings like we just had easier without Unity attempts to undermine any initiative that counters the Mulgrew line. Unity people are free to attend the monthly RTC meetings and they have boldly tried to undermine any hint of variance from Unity orthodoxy. To distract the chapter from issues like protecting our healthcare or eliminating co-pays or relieving us of the over-expensive prescription drug plan they bring up resos on fair housing or protecting social security -- duhhhhh! Like just passing their reso will accomplish something.

Bennett has been fairly tolerant to Unity, even bending over backward to be fair and not act like Tom Murphy did. That extends to criticizing those of us who go on the attack against Unity playing games (Kumbaya - we are all union members). After all, the Unity goal is to get us out of office and go back to their own dictatorial running of the chapter. The Unity crew had asked to have their fair housing reso put on the main agenda so they wouldn't have to try for the new motion period -- oh how beautiful to see them whining while Mulgrew does the same thing to the oppo by filling the new motion period with mom and apple pie resos from the leadership. RTC EB discussed it, with Bennett and a few other voting to put their reso on the agenda but there were objections from people who wanted to amend their motion, with the result that they decided to write their own version and we did and voted to put that one on the main agenda.

This seemed to outrage the Unity crowd. Like how dare we act like Mulgrew? To add insult, I spoke at the May RTC meeting and added a little wrinkle that I knew would enrage them further. To make housing more affordable, my amendment called for abolishing co-pays. Now you'd think I'd tossed a stink bomb. They demanded to have a speaker opposed after the question was called and Bennett didn't recognize them - which I felt was a mistake - let Unity make the case for co-pays (I say this as I am getting chemo and will be billed for a co-pay.)

Our platform called for some system of proportional rep - ending winner take all - and we have a constitution we can amend - and I'm sure the UFT leadership would put obstacles in the way since they expect to take back the chapter in next year's election. I should point out that in the 2021 election we asked the Unity people to give us 5 out of the 300 delegates so our 30% voters get some representation. They said NO. But I'm more generous. At the vote count in June 2024 when I watched the Unity people look crushed, I told one of their leaders if they had prop rep their 37% they would have gotten over 100 delegates. He gave me a sour look.

Since we won I have pushed our new RTC leadership - of which I am one (sort of) - to change the constitution to allow for prop rep but it didn't seem to be a priority - some seem to think they will win again next year. I think we are in a 50/50 split with Unity at this point - as long as we have Marianne with us, and given the RA crowd hostility to her, that is not a sure bet.

Bennett did mention taking a look at this as a project for next year. With it being an election year and so much going on, it is unlikely that the process would be complete by the time the election takes place, especially since Unity would try to stop it - unless all retirees get together and remake the alliance with Marianne Pizzitola, at which point Unity might see they might lose and take a half loaf.

Stop Fraud. Not Dissent.

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: Tell Albany to Protect Union Democracy
A bill moving rapidly through the New York Legislature—Senate Bill S.9577-A, sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos, and Assembly Bill A.10835-A, sponsored by Assemblymember Judy Griffin—is being promoted as a measure to stop fraudulent communications that falsely claim to represent labor unions and their representatives.
As detailed in The Wire’s investigation, the concern is not hypothetical.
In recent years, disputes have emerged involving UFTMembers.org, an independent publication critical of UFT union leadership. Other controversies have involved parody, satire, and internal political disputes within labor organizations. Reform caucuses and member advocacy groups routinely use union names to identify the members they represent. Independent newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and election campaigns frequently discuss union leadership, governance, elections, and policy decisions.
Those activities are not fraud.
They are part of union democracy.
Yet the legislation currently contains no explicit protections making clear that criticism, reform advocacy, parody, election-related communications, and internal organizing remain protected.
Read URGENT CALL and sign petition to amend the law.
Sign the Petition & Contact Legislators
👉 unionvoices.educators.nyc
Read Our Full Investigation
👉 thewire.educators.nyc/p/new-yorks-union-communications-bill
Stop Fraud. Not Dissent.

This bill smells to me - Unity etc and other union leadership are trying to brand internal critics as outside agitators, the classic manner of dictatorships. Remember how civil rights workers were branded as outside agitators. Our crew behind this amendment has had great outreach to explain it all.

Here is a link to Arthur's report of the RTC Ex Bd meeting and his petition.

Bits and Pieces: The good, the bad, and the absurd
Arthur Goldstein
Jun 03, 2026

UFT Welfare Fund Should Pay for Retiree Prescription Premiums
Whereas, UFT retirees are on fixed incomes, and,
Whereas, $180 per month is a high premium, and,
Whereas, many UFT retirees pay for other family members as well, and
Whereas, this rate went up a whopping 50% over a two-year period, and,
Whereas, this is a hardship on many UFT retirees, and
Whereas, other union Welfare Funds, including those of FDNY, NYPD and DC37 cover prescription premium costs for members, and
Whereas, UFT officers frequently mention “premium-free health insurance,” and,
Whereas, UFT officers speak of our Welfare Fund as the best in the country, be it therefore,
Resolved, that our Welfare Fund must cover retirees just as other Welfare Funds do, and be it further,
Resolved, that we actively support and encourage signing of the petition at https://stopchargingretirees.org/ demanding UFT Welfare Fund cover the costs of pharmacy insurance premiums for retired members.
At the suggestion of RTC Exec. Board member Alan Stein, who pointed out members get $900 back, I proposed the following addition:
Whereas this costs members a net $2160 a year, or members with spouses 4320 a year,

Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA

2026-05-30T09:40:18.885-04:00

Here is a follow-up to my recent comments on the TRS election.

TRS Election Count -

Saturday. May 30, 2026

The more I delve into the inner workings of Unity Caucus, the more Trump-like actions emerge. Absolute loyalty is required. John Cornyn is only 99% supportive. Gone. David Kozansky and Ashley Rzonca were considered loyal enough to run and win on the Unity Exec Bd slate. Gone.

While we all see the Trump admin as a disaster, many see Mulgrew's 17 year tenure of the UFT as at the very least, a semi-disaster. Yet watch as henchpeople of both Trump and Mulgrew rush to praise them endlessly and claim it is the best of times while vilifying their critics.

Trump is ruining the Republican Party by making it about loyalty to him, not the party and Mulgrew is ruining the Unity Caucus by making it about loyalty to him. Again, witness the firings of D. 30 rep Ashley Rzonca for not denouncing her friend and mentor Amy Arundell plus para rep Hector Ruiz Jr. and David Kazansky. To show you how crazy and weird the Unity operation, Ashley and Hector were elected to the UFT Ex Bd on the Unity slate and David as an NYSUT and AFT delegate. Do you think that Ashley's long-time work as a DR in that district hasn't inspired loyalty from CLs and rank and file teachers, which we say in their demonstrations?

District 30 CLs Boycott UFT CL Training, Inside Un...

More Mulgrew Purges as District 30 Parents, Teache...

Similarities don't end as Trump's actions build an enormous opposition to him and Mulgrew helps broaden the base of the usual opposition to Unity by adding Unity refugees (witness Unity's lowest total ever 54% in the last election) and independents who used to shun the legacy op caucuses but are open to new groups that contain Unity refugees like ABC. From internal sources there are still a lot of resentful and pissed off Unity people, but they are frightened. Frightened over losing their job for hanging out with the wrong people is like water getting into rocks and freezing in winter and widening the cracks. Eventually the rocks break.

I wrote about how Mulgrew met his goal of total control of the pension dept, one of the most respected areas of the UFT and an essential area to be well-run and free of politics for every UFT member who one day hopes to retire. If members are concerned that pension reps are chosen on the grounds of loyalty to Mulgrew instead of their level of competency, they may end up paying hundreds of dollars for private pension consultations. Already people have told me they are choosing that option.

Look at the process I described about the formerly semi-autonomous pension dept. in my previous post:

TRS Election Count

- and the one before that: TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis

One long-time Unity high level operative said:

Mulgrew did the same thing with Teacher Center. In the old days, the teacher center budget was kept separate and very apart from the UFT. Some tension there. Once Evelyn DeJesus (who was promoted to AFT and is now second to Randi) and current VP Mary Vocarro got the reins, things changed. I believe Dave Hickey and Mulgrew now have their hands on those dollars. Same with the Welfare Fund that was long-time head Artie Pepper’s domain. Then Geoff Sorkin was made director (in name only).

Look through the dredges of why Mulgrew opposes the NYHealth Act --he's lose control of the Welfare Fund which would no longer be necessary. Have you noticed there was a big surplus there? How is it being used? They do worry about exposure. A few years ago when oppo people exposed this surplus and the poor dental plan, some minor improvements were made.

And don't forget dumping the old response system to calls for salesforce.

UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew - Jan. 6, 2022

Mulgrew and Bari Weiss, separated at birth? Insecure people at the top have a need for total control. And those not viewed as loyal enough, are fired. Leaders feel they have to put their mark even on successful operations. Bari Weiss is a Trump installment.

A recent article in the NYT:

“60 Minutes” has a long tradition of autonomy within CBS News, a source of tension for generations of network executives. The show, which debuted in 1968, is still the country’s highest-rated television newsweekly, and its viewership this season was up 9 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen. Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison was pulled abruptly in December, said that CBS News and its top editor, Bari Weiss, had let her contract expire. Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist whose tenure has drawn enormous scrutiny, is readying a significant shake-up at “60 Minutes,” her network’s flagship news series. The fate of Tanya Simon, the program’s executive producer, is also unclear. Ms. Weiss is considering hiring an outside journalist to oversee or work alongside Ms. Simon. Her other signature initiative, the remaking of “CBS Evening News,” has suffered from low viewership and some embarrassing errors.

People in charge resent leaders of semi-independent groups, often run by strong figures that transcend changes at the top.

In my research on the TRS elections even an old dog like me can learn something. Patterns of Mulgrew attempts to gain total control - politicizing what were semi-autonomous operations - meaning his loyalists in charge - emerged as long-time Unity contacts filled me in.

Now as an outsider tracking Unity for the past 56 years, I assumed Unity was pretty monolithic but according to old-timers, Shanker and Feldman, once they found someone who could to the job, pretty much trusted them to pick, yes people loyal to the caucus, but also competent. And on the whole, members felt at least the union was competently run even by those who disagreed with the political direction. I can only remember one guy who was fired - for engaging in a sexual encounter at a NYSUT convention at the NY Hilton.

This brought to mind that soon after his first election in 2010 (after a year serving as Randi's replacement) Mulgrew took control of the NY Teacher operation:

Mulgrew Does the Purge: The Jim Callaghan Firing a...

UFT Firing of NY Teacher Reporter Jim Callaghan

Dots are getting connected in this old brain as I see how cracks in Unity have begun to emerge, cracks I've been waiting for over decades. BTW -- when Randi took control in the late 90s there was loads of resentment from the old-time warriors from the 60s's who had gone on 4 strikes and looked at Randi as an interloper.

Randi came out of nowhere in the mid-late 80s with no history of building the union and they put the recently deceased strongman Tom Pappas as her top lieutenant to coral the troops. Randi was so insecure she even reached out to me for some support and I, naively, thought there was a chance to reach a more progressive wing of Unity. No dice. It took me 3 years to realize it.

Randi began to make personal loyalty a factor in running the UFT. When there were multiple competent people to replace her (it was a no-brainer she was going to the AFT once Feldman came down with cancer) as UFT president, she plucked Mulgrew out of obscurity. How would the UFT had looked with universally respected Michelle Bodden as the leader?

Mulgrew rose as Bodden faded as Randi's successor and she seemed too independent and smart to serve under him. It's worth sharing what I wrote then considering the unhappiness with him:

June 2008 - Michelle Bodden to Resign as UFT VP
As reported in an ednotes online exclusive, Michelle Bodden, who many people were betting would be Randi Weingarten's successor as UFT President, will take over the UFT's troubled elementary charter school.

We raised the question as to whether a UFT VP for elementary schools could be in that position. Now we have been informed that she has sent a letter telling people she will be resigning her VP position. (Will she also be resigning from Unity Caucus?)

The signs have been there for a long time (I saw signs in 2003) that Bodden was not in the running and I had to convince even people inside 52 Broadway that she would never head the UFT. Perhaps she was getting too popular. "She's really an educator," said one insider. "Not a politician like Randi. You can actually have a conversation with her about real things. Some people can't wait for Randi to be gone so we can start solving the real problems we face."

I won't go into the details, but long-time observers can tell a lot about the UFT by who stands where, what kinds of events people get to represent the UFT at, and other signs. The surprise appointment of Leroy Barr as UFT Staff Director in January made it clear that another African-American had superseded Michelle in the UFT hierarchy.

Well, they ended up with the Mulgrew administration creating more problems than he solved. And the more political he made what was already a political operation, the more problems were created - Medicare Advantage, anyone? Retiree and para vote in 2024? 54% Unity vote in 2025?

Under Mulgrew, even more insecure than Randi (and half as smart politically and intellectually) and over his tenure, resentments grew until things broke in 2023 with the removal of Amy as Queens Borough Rep which led to Amy Arundell running against him last year and getting some key Unity people to join her, some behind the scenes. Mulgrew's vengeance was to fire or try to intimidate any staffer who had been friendly with Amy with a bunch of firings coming in June 2025.

Now the reaction of loyal Mulgrew Unity hacks has been to attack their critics and even threaten them with some court action due to what they claim is bogus use of the UFT logo. Prime in their sights is the ABC group, made up in part of Unity defectors, who come under the heaviest attacks for leaving the cult.

In the "great minds think alike" category, Arthur has a similar piece this morning:

Separated at Birth: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Arthur Goldstein

May 30, 2026

TRS Election Count - No Final Results Until June 2 - re-edited May 28

2026-05-27T09:52:41.163-04:00

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

The TRS election in the schools was held two weeks ago and the vote count started at 65 Court St. on Tuesday and adjourned. Final results are not expected until June 2. With a massive campaign and enormous pressure Unity-endorsed Tom Brown is expected to win. How big a win is the question.

From what I'm hearing, Tom Brown wanted to retire but Mulgrew pushed him to run once David Kazansky announced. Mulgrew never seemed to have much love for David and felt running an unknown against him was risky and felt Brown was their best chance despite his being 75 and wanting out. Are they just kicking the can down the road because within another year Brown may well retire and they will have to do this all over again, meaning there could be two TRS elections next year?

When all votes are counted, each candidate receives a tally for each school with a breakdown of how many votes each candidate got. This information, if used correctly, can provide maps of each candidate's strengths and weaknesses. This has scared the Unity faithful, especially at the district rep level into hustling votes for Brown and they rode herd over their chapter leaders, especially during the petition period when Brown came in with 30k. (Only 1k was needed.) So yes they have run a very effective campaign.

While some people lament the fact that there were two non-Unity candidates running I take the long view and see this in a positive light. The prime directive is ending the Unity monopoly of the UFT and bringing a voice independent from Mulgrew to the TRS. Both David and Frank had been Unity loyalists and were fired for no "obvious reasons" but we know David was fired due to having once been a friend of Amy Arundel and Frank because he was going to run for TRS. They both still have people loyal to them in the Unity ranks who secretly support them. Any school with a Unity CL that doesn't back Brown will pay a price.

New information has been flowing in response to my last blog TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis, info that exposes the toxicity at the top of the Unity and UFT hierarchy. I've tried to piece together the story from various insider accounts and will publish more inf as the blanks get filled in. Therein lies a tale of Mulgrew and crew taking more control over the pension and TRS, an area formerly dominated by old timers Mel Aaronson and Sandy March, a process of Mulgrew's maniacal need to control everything over the past 10 years as loyalty to the leadership took precedence over competence. This is part 1.

Recent History of TRS Elections

2014 Tom Brown replaces Mona Romain who retires.
2015 David Kazansky replaces Mel Aaronson who retires and recruited David. Mel had been the guru of pensions (though still with a staff job)
2016 Debby Penny replaces Sandy March who retires. Penny is Mulgrew's agent in the pension department and was brought in to gain control. With strong figures like Mel and Sandy March gone Mulgrew gets his shot at a complete takeover of the pension and TRS.
2021 - David re-elected but not before Mulgrew attempted to remove him but Randi and Mel intervene.
c. 2022 Victoria Lee replaced Debby Penny - no election.
2023 - Tom Brown runs unopposed.
2024 - David Kazansky removed and replaced by Christina McGrath who defeated Ben Morgenrath in first TRS election in 40 years. At the time McGrath and Victoria Lee are close. David is given an AFT pension job at 52 with salary paid by Randi.
2025 - Victoria Lee wins re-election based on challenging Ben Morgenroth's petitions and winning on a technicality. Her next election will be in 2028.
2026 - Tom Brown who wanted to retire but is pressured to run after David Kazansky announces a run. A leading pension consultant Frank Panebianco also runs. Both he and Kazansky had been full-time UFT employees until fired in 2025.
2027 - Christina McGrath is scheduled but she and Victoria Lee do not get along and if Lee maintains her dominance, she will look to dump McGrath unless Mulgrew backs her.

For decades there was no a TRS election because of only one candidate and whoever was chosen by UFT leadership to "run" was anointed with no one opposing. This bothered me - and others. Why let Unity get away with an easy win? Make them work for this patronage job. Two years ago, Mulgrew pulled David Kazansky from TRS after 9 years and installed an unknown, Christina McGrath, who even within Unity, caused people to scratch their heads. Apparently she was a friend of Victoria Lee. Rumors were that David was not the yes-man Mulgrew wanted at TRS. (My follow-up post to this one will get into the ugly details.)

NOTE: The legacy caucuses don't see it that way and fundementally ignore TRS elections, a big mistake and indicative of their "not running to win" attitude.

An informal independent group of us organized an election campaign with Ben Morgenroth as a way to force an election. And we learned a hell of a lot about the process - a trial run for future elections.

Last year everyone was busy with the UFT election and didn't pay much attention to the TRS election, though Ben Morgenroth ran but had his petitions challenged on a technicality and Vicky Lee celebrated at a UFT pension dept meeting bragging about her successful challenge after finding Ben had made a mark at the bottom of his petitions and shouting, "I won. It doesn't make a difference how you win as long as you win."

This year's election is the most complex ever, with 3 candidates.

David Kazansky, former 9-year TRS member beginning in 2015, removed by Mulgrew in 2024 and fired from his UFT job in June 2025 due to having been friends with Amy Arundel, and now teaching at an elementary school in the Bronx.

Frank Panebianco, former 13 year full-time pension rep, fired in 2025, now teaching in the Bronx.

Tom Brown, incumbent since 2014,endorsed by UFT leadership and Unity Caucus. Brown told numerous people he intended to retire and not run again and urged Panebianco to run before he was pulled back into running by Mulgrew once David Kazansky announced he was running.

Teacher Retiree System reps are elected by in-service active members of the TRS, which includes PBS and the CSA and a few other unions, but the UFT makes up the largest contingent, thus getting all 3 reps in staggered 3 year terms.

TRS reps are a UFT patronage job and elections are a threat to their control. They seem fine with letting decisions be made by financial people with no questioning them. Apparently David schooled himself and asked questions which may have annoyed some people at the top.

What does TRS teacher rep job entail and how are they paid? That is not exactly clear. There is a meeting every third Thursday of the month at TRS HQ. Attending these meetings are their only requirement. We get no info about those meetings or what is discussed or what decisions are made.

Are they employees of the city, not the UFT? Yet why do they work out of 52 Broadway and are on the UFT payroll and they work UFT 10-6 hours instead of the city 9-5? Some go to the schools to do pension clinics. Some choose to stay around HQ.

What are their obligations? The only one seems to be to attend Thursday meetings.

From the TRS Site

Usually meets at 3:30 p.m. on approximately every third Thursday in each month. Composed of seven members as follows: Chairperson, Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) and the Comptroller, Ex Officio; two members appointed by the Mayor, one a member of the Panel for Educational Policy; three members of the Teachers’ Retirement Association elected from the contributors for terms of three years. No salary. Chair selected by Board Members.

Note it says no salary. What decisions can they allowed to make? Who knows?

Many of the trustees on the retirement boards do not receive an additional salary. They receive their regular salary from their city employer. However, the 3 trustees receive additional money from the UFT.

These are all issues to ponder. Part 2 will get into more detail on how Mulgrew gained total control over pension and TRS matters,

UFT Para Speaks Out - At some point, we have to ask ourselves: When is enough, ENOUGH?

2026-05-19T08:49:58.148-04:00

This special election, like many before it, has felt manipulated by the controlling caucus. Let me be clear, I have nothing personal against John Kamps. This is not about one person. This is about fairness and democracy. We have seen that in this election alone, emails were reportedly sent out within the paraprofessional chapter structure asking for para reps and district coordinators to identify schools and paras that had, received ballots, who voted and who voted for John Kamps. How can we call this a democratic union election when things like this are happening?.. Alyson Monzon

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

There's a para election for an open seat going on. Remember that two years ago, Fix Para Pay won 8 seats with 75% but this election seems to have come in under the radar. Alyson Monzon sheds some light. The Mulgrew machine countered with a push for a non-pensionable 10k for every para and it worked in the 2025 UFT election as many paras bought into it - yet so far no 10k. Unity attacked those who pointed out the limits of this offer as opposing increases in para pay when in fact the FPP group, aligned with ABC, has been leading the way to urge the UFT to Fix Para Pay. Does anyone believe even the 10k deal from Unity would have happened if FPP hadn't won those 8 seats in 2024, just like the win by the oppo in the Retired Teacher chapter forced Mulgrew to back off his push to remove us from Medicare? If the Unity candidate wins overwhelmingly in this para special election, it will take the pressure off to push for the 10k. If Unity wins back the retired chapter next year just watch a new version of medicare for all emerge.

Why I’m speaking up for us!

Alyson Monzon

May 18, 2026

My name is Alyson Monzon, and I have been a paraprofessional in Queens for 11 years. For six of those years, I also served as a para representative. Like so many of us, this work is personal to me. I decided to become a paraprofessional because I grew up seeing the hard work, dedication, and love my mother poured into education as a teacher. I also saw how important paraprofessionals were to her classroom and to her students. They were never extra help. They were essential.

Education runs deep in my family. My mother is a retired teacher, all of my siblings are paraprofessionals, and my cousin is a social worker. Working for NYC Public Schools is not just a job to us, it’s part of who we are. Over the years, I’ve worked with students from pre-K through fifth grade, and I’ve heard countless stories from middle school and high school paraprofessionals as well. No matter where we work, the message is always the same:

Paraprofessionals do not get enough credit for everything we do, and we definitely don’t get paid enough. I know it’s not about credit, but too many of us feel the same way. This isn’t made up, it’s our lived experience.

Many of us work two or three jobs just to survive. Many of us are caregivers at home after spending all day caring for students in school. We help students academically, emotionally, behaviorally, and socially. We step in wherever we are needed. Yet somehow, we are still treated like an afterthought.

Despite all of that, I continued pushing myself forward. With the help of the Career Training Program, I was able to finish my bachelor’s degree in psychology and continue my education further. I earned my master’s degree in social work. Having both classroom experience as a paraprofessional and a background in social work has allowed me to see the many gaps that exist within our union and within the systems that are supposed to support us. That is part of why I started becoming more vocal.

I was planning a run for 2nd Vice Chair because I believe paraprofessionals deserve stronger representation and leadership that listens to members. However, I was declared ineligible because I returned from a leave less than two years ago. Two of my union brothers decided to pull out of the race as well, but stay tuned, we will be back, because this is bigger than one election.

Speaking of elections, I think many paraprofessionals are tired of pretending everything is okay. This special election, like many before it, has felt manipulated by the controlling caucus. Let me be clear, I have nothing personal against John Kamps. This is not about one person. This is about fairness and democracy. We have seen that in this election alone, emails were reportedly sent out within the paraprofessional chapter structure asking for para reps and district coordinators to identify schools and paras that had, received ballots, who voted and who voted for John Kamps. How can we call this a democratic union election when things like this are happening?

On top of that, members know almost nothing about the other candidate except for a 75-word statement that came with the ballot. Many paraprofessionals have reached out to the union asking questions and expressing concerns, only to feel rejected, dismissed, or told that the election is being run fairly and properly. We have also been told that the so called election committee has someone on it, WHO DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THEY WERE ON IT! How could that be? So they just moved forward with what they had, instead of ensuring they had a properly constructed committee. Shame on them!

At some point, we have to ask ourselves: When is enough, ENOUGH?

Paraprofessionals deserve a union that welcomes questions, not one that shuts them down. We deserve transparency, respect, and real representation, and we also need to start organizing now around our upcoming contract negotiations because paraprofessionals deserve real respect. Not a disrespectful plan to throw us a $10,000 check and pretend that fixes the actual issue.

No one is saying paraprofessionals should turn down money. We deserve more money, period, but real respect means fighting for permanent improvements to our salaries, pensions, benefits, working conditions, and professional recognition, not political gestures that disappear while the real problems stay the same. Many paraprofessionals are already struggling to survive in New York City. We need solutions that build long-term stability for our families and futures, not temporary headlines.

Most importantly, we deserve to realize the power we have together. I want to continue the conversations. I want to continue meeting paraprofessionals across the city who believe change is possible, because I truly believe we can build the paraprofessional chapter, and the union, that we want and deserve.

It will only happen if we organize, speak up, and stand together. We have the power to bring real change for paraprofessionals. So, I’m asking, who’s with me? Who’s with us?

TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis

2026-05-15T11:26:13.915-04:00

Good news. No matter the outcome of the TRS election, David Kazansky will continue to do his workshops. See his video here.

A Bronx school

Friday, May 15, 2026

I'm about to head into Manhattan to prep for my Murray Hill tour tomorrow at noon. May 16 is Park Ave Festival where they close the southbound streets from 42 to 34 St. There will be all sorts of goodies and booths, including IMx Pilates on 39th and Madison, my new favorite place to exercise. But first I wanted to get these comments out before I drown in trying to analyze the TRS election.

The DOE run TRS election is over after the May 13 balloting in the schools in an election run by the DOE - how competent do you think that was? Well, depending on the school and principal. Any candidate and voter, or those denied the opportunity to vote (the rule was to vote after school only - and many could not stay) can probably find loads of reasons to protest the way it was run in some schools. I do know from the ABC chats that the active Kazansky people made sure the elections were run as correctly as possible in their schools by feeding the principal the correct info and keeping a close eye on the process. Reports from Unity-dominated schools are sketchy but the intense pressure from the leadership to get a big turnout for Tom Brown worked in some places and failed in others. The ABC crew seems to have done an amazing job for Kazansky from results I've seen, with 80-90% for him in some schools while in Unity schools the results for Tom Brown are more in the 50s and 60s. Frank Panebianco is also getting some votes but I heard of only one school where he won outright.

A May 13 post by A Better Contract titled DAY & NIGHT chronicled a comparison of the May 11 TRS Zoom held by ABC with about 170 people with the Mulgrew Town Hall.

The author, HS CL Thomas Hasler, who I met in MORE many years ago and now seems to be aligned with ABC, made a number of excellent points and I urge you to read his comments which I will post in a follow-up. He captured the essence of how the ABC crew operates:

The difference between Monday night’s ABC Town Hall hosted by Amy Arundell, a true leader, and David Kazanksy, the candidate for TRS Trustee, was in stark contrast to yesterday’s “Town Hall” hosted by President Mulgrew and the official UFT. The difference could not have been more like DAY and NIGHT. At ABC’s Town Hall on Monday, members were allowed to ask questions on their own in an open forum. At Mulgrew’s meeting yesterday, it was the OPPOSITE.

I will point to one more of his comments:

Chapter Leaders were told to send a picture of the election tally sheet from their school to their UFT District Rep. This seems like an attempt to pressure UFT chapters to vote a certain way. Or it could be interpreted this way.

This seemed to confuse a retiree who has been an oppositionist for decades who asked:

Just curious. How does the request from the UFT that C/Ls send a picture of the school’s tally sheet to their district rep represent pressure to vote a certain way? Should the DOE be the only ones who see the schools tally sheet?

My response:

It is a method for unity to hold CL accountable if Brown doesn’t do well.
The firings seemed to work as district reps have pressured people to push Brown.
They were never threatened with losing until recently so elections weren’t viewed as life or death matters. David and Frank candidates represent a real threat as former Unity with a following.
But in the end all candidates get a tally sheet of all schools that will indicate unity strengths and weaknesses as it will for oppo movements.
I had been asking for such tally sheets in general uft elections but have been turned down.

What happens to Unity CLs in schools where Brown only wins in a close race or loses? I'm betting on district reps and those CL being called out. And I've heard the outcomes of some of these schools.

[Excuse the redundancies in this piece since I've been writing it for 3 days and am sick of editing it.]

Officially, the legacy caucuses (RA, NAC, MORE) sat this one out. though some individuals from New Action were involved, including Ben Morgenroth who ran as David's alternate. ABC immediately backed David, who was not part of ABC, but hoping he will be in the future. People were pretty impressed with his talents. His and Leah Linn videos made a splash. Between them they have a large following I believe over 10k. The ABC view is to challenge the ruling Unity caucus on all fronts, all the time, while the legacy groups are always calculating how to be "strategic," the sense of being too aggressive will turn off the "normies" (not me). My disagreement with them over the past few years is that the revolt of the retirees and the paras in the 2024 elections was a call for more militancy rather than pacivity.

Some important history related to David given some backbiting over his past. Mulgrew removed him from TRS 2 years ago for being too independent and replaced him with a total incompetent loyalist. The so-called oppositionist backbiters neglect to see there is a bigger struggle to remove Unity from power that includes poaching dissatisfied Unityites. I have thought for 30 years that a break in Unity was crucial and that break is occurring. I think this election will bring over some Unity people who resented the pressure.

MORE officially took a no endorsement position because their ideology calls for a focus in divesting in Israeli bonds - they are behind the Educators for Palestine group. But individuals in MORE did see the impact of defeating Mulgrew's hand-picked candidate. In fact, since the 2025 election, a faction of MORE has been reaching out and working with ABC and some results coming in from schools with MORE CLs and contingents have favored David. There is a split in MORE between those wanting to be involved in UFT elections and those who don't and given the 14% ARISE received in the election, the no-election faction may have gained some power. An alliance of the pro-election faction with ABC makes a lot of sense because RA and NAC do not offer a punch at the in-service level. In fact, such an alliance could actually win the 2028 UFT election.

Will the hate ABC ideologues that were connected to ARISE rise once again as a spoiler in two years to try to assure Unity control of the UFT? If MORE officially sits that one out and allows the pro-election faction to ally with ABC, there is less chance of that happening.

What the legacy caucuses don't get is that we must take every opportunity to force Unity to defend itself in the electoral arena and the yearly TRS election had been neglected for decades until 2 years ago and I'm proud to be part of the team (pre-ABC) to have helped organize these elections and I hope next year and the year after there will be candidates to try to take down the Unity TRS candidate under the control of the UFT leadership.

Despite the 3-way TRS race, people in ABC still give David a chance to win, though given the 30k petitions turned in by Unity for Brown (David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election) it looked like the machine was in operation. Yet, from the reports I was getting, David was holding more than his own.

Let's see what the combined totals of David and Frank come out to. If over 40%, given the rigor Unity exerted, that is a danger sign for them and bodes well for defeating them.

Don't forget, retirees and non-TRS members (ie BERS pension) can't vote, but PSC and CSA does vote.

This election is a test of sorts of the strength of the leadership which went all out. If Brown gets 70-80% of the vote, it bodes well for the leadership --- signs Unity may have stopped the bleeding. If under 60%, danger signs will be blinking. It is also a test of ABC, the only organized force in the UFT officially involved in the election.

ABC Rocks as threat to Unity hegemony grows

An important aspect of this election has been the re-emergence of the ABC network with new people like David and others, showing ABC is still alive and vibrant. Some schools with nominal Unity CLs came in heavily for David and ABC is hoping for more migrations. We've seen former Unity people who had been locked up behind a closed door emerging like birds released from their cages. The Mulgrew firings of competent people have not only hurt and degraded Unity, but have fueled an enthusiastic opposition based in ABC and affiliated independents and even some from the legacy caucuses. Yes, some Unity are still scared, but for how much longer? The flow from Unity to ABC will continue, which is why Unity leaders view ABC as the main threat, as do the legacy caucuses which also see ABC as a threat to their influence.

The ABC network seems resilient after a post-2025 election lull and as part of the "We Trust David" chat, it was thrilling to see the level of openness, cooperation and organization in operation. The chat also included non-ABC supporters from other caucuses. It has been so much more of a pleasant experience working with an open group like ABC compared to working with the legacy caucuses, MORE and Retiree Advocate, which was such a closed group after they won the RTC election and only recently opened up - to those willing to pay $50 dues to get a voice. ABC is free and open.

The ABC crew and affiliates has been fabulous for brainstorming and moving agendas. Results coming in showed the ABC crew did an amazing job in getting votes for David --- only if we had more people in more schools. Also even in some Unity schools Brown is not winning with 80 or more %. The third candidate definitely hurts but not too bad.

The ABC operation seems to have found a formula for organizing -- it is open and flexible unlike the legacy caucuses. (Another wing of ABC also affiliated with independents has also been activated around the way the RTC is being run by RA and the upcoming RTC chapter election, a dynamic group that more and more people are joining -- yes, it's free.)

From what I saw from reports coming in yesterday, in some Unity schools pushing the heavy Brown vote, there has been some counter reaction to Unity oppression. From one school: People were getting sick and tired of being pushed to back one candidate.

We heard of more pushbacks against Unity pressure. In another Unity school, the vote went overwhelmingly for David which means exactly what? Maybe more hidden cracks. The Mulgrew terror campaign can only go so far.

In schools with Unity CL where David won handily, I can just imagine a new wave of firings or demotions. Yes, the firings last June did work on some Unity people. One district rep who was called in and threatened has apparently learned his lesson by banning some CL who backed David from his communication group.

Frank Panebianco, who is very well-liked and respected by everyone, including the ABC crew, was fired because supposedly TRS rep Victoria Lee wanted him out of the way because he complained to LeRoy Barr over her bossiness. (She is supposedly not well liked). She complained to Mulgrew. Mulgrew fired Frank but then rethought it and tried to hire him back.

Frank thought he had put in the time and loyalty and wanted the TRS position when Mulgrew removed Kazansky two years ago but was jumped over by no-nothing Christina McGrath who shit the bed even worse than Tom Brown at an RTC meeting. They ran Lee the next year for the position, which Frank felt he deserved, a slap in the face.

Frank was willing to come back but wanted a raise, to be the next trustee and work out of the Bronx. Mulgrew wouldn’t agree to those demands so rather than accept his old job back, chose to go back to teaching. Give him credit for that.

A Unity HS CL with an after school job whined to the staff about so many not voting, blaming them. It was his job to get them to vote and he blames them.

And then there were complaints on why people couldn't vote.

NOTE: If you managed to wade through the mess above, you get the weekend off.

ABC TRS Town Hall: May 11 @ 7pm -- A Better Contract

2026-05-11T16:45:29.626-04:00

I was away on a tour of national parks and tried to keep up but internet was sketchy. The TRS election has all sorts of permutations and the "We Trust David" chat has been hot. I just don't have the bandwidth to get into all of it but if you attend the town hall tonight you (and I) will be filled in. I categorized Unity staff in the past as drones and have learned in working with former Unity like David that once freed of the cult they have a lot of skills. David has done a great job in organizing his campaign. Needless to say, the Unity machine leadership views this election as crucial and has pulled out all stops to promote its candidate as I reported in my April 22 report: David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election as Fear and Loathing Works

Educators of NYCMay 11 · The Wire: Powered by Educators of NYC

Join us, today.

ABC TRS Town Hall: May 11 @ 7pm

A Better Contract

May 11

READ IN APP

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/lHRQhNwyQkid3fhGeuciww#/registration

This Monday (5/11) at 7PM: The TRS Town Hall Every UFT Member Needs to Attend

A Better Contract (ABC-UFT) is hosting a TRS Town Hall this Monday, May 11 at 7pm, facilitated by Amy Arundell. We’ll break down how the TRS election should be run and explain why every member needs to vote for David Kazansky.

Don’t miss this crucial chance to protect our future and take back our union!

THIS IS ABOUT YOUR PENSION

This election helps decide who has a voice over your retirement. David Kazansky is the only independent, member-driven candidate focused on protecting pensions without political pressure. Let’s show up and make our voices heard.

UFT DA and RTC Back to Back Meetings: The Stockholm Syndrome

2026-04-24T21:14:13.452-04:00

Recent retiree: My first retiree meeting and I am appalled.
Retiree delegate responds: Yes. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been a Mulgrew visit and, I guess, a Tom Brown performance. It made me want to cry.
Recently Retiree: Yes. It made me very sad. All that work to win a historic election and this is what they do with it. Arthur reports on DA and RTC
Retiree Michael Brocoum: I attended the RTC meeting at 52 Broadway. Bennett Fischer stated that The UFT is trying to deal with the copay issue. With all due respect that is laughable. Copays exist because of Mike Mulgrew. Mulgrew asked the City to institute copays to free up some money for active worker raises essentially pitting active workers against retirees. Additionally Bennet Fischer asked for people to man phone banks to support the UFT's (Mulgrew) pick for District 3 City Council. The union (Mulgrew) supports Carl Wilson. You can be sure that to get the UFT (Mulgrew) support he had to agree to not actively fight to protect retiree healthcare. I rose up to speak and asked attendees to vote for Layla-Law Gisiko who is supported by Marianne Pizzitola. We still have our traditional Medicare because of Marianne. Please vote for Layla-Law Gisiko and ignore any calls from the UFT phone banks. Bennett Fischer was not pleased to hear my statement and criticized me for mentioning Mulgrew in this healthcare fight. Sad.

Norm: Did you notice Bennett attacking Mike Brocoum for going after Mulgrew, labeling it as a personal attack -- the Unity crowd heckled Mike but no word from Bennett about them. What next, getting reprimanded for being critical of UFT policies? Could Bennett have objected to mentioning the "union Leadership that made the deal to force us into Medicare Advantage" or the "union leadership" that went to the city council to try to amend the law that guarantees health care coverage for all municipal employees and retirees and their dependents - to put retirees in a different category so they could force us into MA or make us pay for our Senior Care if we wanted to to stay in traditional Medicare?
Arthur Goldstein report of RTC Meeting: It was pretty remarkable to hear Bennett Fischer stop a speaker from saying that Michael Mulgrew imposed copays on us, deeming it a “personal attack.” That, in fact, is not a personal attack. It’s a statement that, as far as I know, is true. The copays were put in place to make his crappy Medicare Advantage plan look better. A personal attack would be saying your adversaries spout fairy tales. It would be saying some people can’t handle the facts. It would be saying your adversaries make everything a conspiracy, or that those who disagree with you are enemies of the union. Michael Mulgrew said all those things at a UFT Executive Board meeting I attended.
Norm: Watching Bennett over the past year and a half, he bends over backwards to defend Unity and criticizes their critics - in public, while privately he will be critical. I can be the only one with my hand up and he will avoid calling on me because he's concerned I may go after Unity (which I will). I've been Tom Murphyized by Bennett.
Retiree Delegate after the meeting: I debated paying the $50 to join Retiree Advocate and decided not to. I paid what I thought were dues for years and found out I was not a member. I'm not giving them more money.

Friday, April 23, 2026

Oy! Having spent 4 hours over 2 days at Albert Shanker Hall listening first to Mulgrew and then endless reports that chewed up most of the RTC meeting, I said thank goodness for the chips and oreo cookies. Above are some of the comments from retirees. I have a lot to say about both but not enough time to write it all down. So I will focus here on the DA.

Arthur covered both meetings remotely in depth.

Unbelievable--April UFT Delegate Assembly: Michael Mulgrew and his Unity ducklings instruct us on just what we are and are not allowed to know.
Arthur Goldstein
Apr 22, 2026
At RTC Meeting, We Help Everyone But Ourselves: We've entirely dropped the ball.
Arthur Goldstein
Apr 23, 2026

Both meetings exposed the differences riling both retiree and active UFT members opposed to Unity Caucus. The ABC DA chat group during DAs is worth the price of admission (free). While I gnash my teeth at DAs, I don't expect very much from the Unity leadership. Or from the RA-RTC leadership and their dwindling core of delegates. One of the delegates I respect a lot resigned recently. People are saying "what's the point?" I'm thinking the same but go for the entertainment value.

Mulgrew will talk forever. A faux Unity unsigned reso will be placed on the new motion agenda. Most of the people called on will be full or part-time UFT staff. And even if a new motion from a non-Unity gets raised and even approved, it will get buried and put on the bottom of the agenda for the next month. Or year. Or decade.

There were a few big issues:

The secret survey to tell the leadership what issues the members think are important that the leadership will ignore and won't reveal the outcome to the membership with the usual arguments that we must be secret - ignoring the successful open negotiation tactics of the Chicago and Los Angeles teacher unions which have won them better recent contracts than the UFT - much better.

Arthur mocks the 500 member negotiating committee which is a PR stunt. At the end it will be a few people in the room -- I've urged oppo people to not sign the non-disclosure agreement and boycott but most don't agree with me. Members are hand chosen by leadership with a few token oppo voices who are sworn to secrecy so that they can't even consult with the people who elected them.

Let me jump to Arthur's comments:

There was an amendment asking that we lowly members know the results of our survey asking what our priorities are. The first two people who spoke in opposition are full time Unity employees. The third is a part time Unity employee. I’m not sure about the fourth, but I’d bet dimes to dollars she's Unity too.....
I was struck by how much Unity employee Stuart Kaplan sounded like Trump supporters do. Just this morning, I saw video of actor Dean Cain saying Trump was playing 5d chess, and Kaplan said we have to keep 5 steps ahead of the DOE. Given Unity’s abysmal record of selling out retirees, among other things, I’m not seeing five steps ahead.
In fact, if Kaplan is correct, Mulgrew should no longer bloviate for an hour at a time. He should hide in a bunker with whomever the other two men in a room happen to be. That might make it easier for him to keep on selling us contracts and health plans we aren’t allowed to read.

Mulgrew used his filibuster to lobby for TRS pension election candidate Tom Brown and claimed in an LOL moment that they are independent. We know David Kazansky was removed as pension rep 2 years ago for speaking his mind too much and then subsequently fired for being too friendly with Amy Arundell. Arthur commented:

Mulgrew speaks of the trustees as though they are deities. No, he claims, they make their own decisions, completely independently of what he may want. That’s very hard to believe. How can a trustee work as a UFT officer and be completely independent? Worse, how can a trustee sign an actual loyalty oath to Unity and be trusted to work in our interest even if it isn’t shared by King Mulgrew? Won’t they be purged, just like former trustee David Kazansky was, if they fail to please the king?

The other major issue came from the MORE people, who had two resos circulating - one on supporting May Day, which did not get raised and the following from Kate McCreary from the Beacon School, where MORE has a base. As reported by Arthur:

Kate McCreary, Beacon HS—Resolution for next month. Stop sale of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. Since 10/7 provided 27 billion, Israel killed more than 72K, bodies pulled out of rubble every day. UFT supports for dem Senators who disapproved. Endorses them blocking bombs and bulldozers that make Palestinian state impossible. Bombs have destroyed countless schools, prevented children from learning, destroyed all the universities, destroyed homes, ability to get food and health care. 60% of people in our country believe in this. Our support can make a difference.
Well done, says Mulgrew.
Sean Rockowitz (UFT Staten Island borough rep) —Similar resolutions have divided membership, urges no vote.
online yes—509 n—370 room y 175 n 122 58%, placed on next month agenda

We probably will see some leadership attempts to modify it. Or else add it to the back of the agenda where it will die. If they put it up next time up front, that would be a sign of cataclysmic change in the union with its neo-con history.

Now think about this reso passing for the next meeting despite Sean's signaling possible leadership opposition, while Mulgrew issued no signal. (LeRoy Barr had the rep of raising his glasses as a signal to the Unity faithful on how to vote.) Is this a sign of some divide in the leadership over the growing Democratic Party (and even some Republican) opposition to Israeli genocide? I doubt it. Remember the outrage and attacks on Amy Arundell just over a year ago over her relatively mild criticisms of Israel? Just a few months later, the leadership was endorsing Mamdani. Now verging on BDS? There must be some Unity hacks gnashing their teeth.

"Well done", says Mulgrew. Remember the reaction when MORE was pushing BDS? How far behind are we before a BDS reso makes a serious move? Boy, it you want an example of how quickly politics can turn, here is an example. Not long ago I was ambivalent about BDS. No longer as one outrage after another piles up. (The triple tap targeting and murder of the female Lebanese journalist is one more chip in the Israeli support wall.)

UFT leadership tracks Dem Party central - Mulgrew was a Biden delegate. Randi was on Dem Central Committee - until she resigned, indicating her finger is in the air. Schumer is the perfect example of Dem party failure --- his Senate choices in Michigan and Maine are getting slaughtered. He doesn't oppose the war in Iran but wants to have a say. Talk about out of touch leadership.

Speaking of out of touch leadership: So, is UFT leadership moving away from corporate Dems and to the left while a good portion of the membership trails? Or are they onto something?

Last year's election results looked like a repudiation of the left with the legacy caucuses of ARISE getting only14% of the vote. The ABC "everyone is welcome" 32% share was interesting given that Pres Candidate Arundell was a pro-Palestinian rights leftist. That vote came from left, right and center - anti-Mulgrew people who liked the ABC "all are welcome" mantra.

The problem with the leftist legacy caucuses is that they don't run to win, but to make their point. The one time they won was the RTC 2024 chapter election when they eschewed ideology and worked with Marianne and the NYC Retirees, which was open open to left, right and center.

It was clear last year they didn't have a chance and yet spent enormous resources and money in running a losing campaign that humiliated them.

I don't see the legacy people learning their lesson as they will see a vote like this one on Israel as the UFT membership moving left when in actuality it is the leadership playing politics. We don't know where the membership stands -- on Israel there is a definite move by the whole country but what would a referendum in the UFT show?

The leadership of MORE always felt they could be hard left and the membership would morph and come to them as capitalism degraded. I always felt there is as much if not more of a chance people move right and not left if society degrades.

James Eterno always said Unity would never let the oppo to out social justice them and that still holds. There was some reluctance by a minority group in MORE to unite with the other legacy groups because it meant they had to compromise. The theory to stick to their ideology and wait for the membership to catch up. Union elections are not much of a factor to them - until they felt they could win, ignoring the victories in Chicago and LA - are their memberships THAT much different from the UFT?

Or is it that we have Unity Caucus to control the members and those unions had no equivalent? I say the latter -- that the prime obstacle to changing the union is Unity and they must fall first and the oppo should focus their aim on them -- sure, go to Starbucks and every rally -- but don't neglect the prime directive. The RA/RTC crowd are thrilled to be running the chapter on every issue but healthcare. They seem to have bought the line that our victory last year convinced Mulgrew to give up on MedAdv. So what will they run on next year? Not enough rallies at Starbuks?

This describes the major difference between ABC and ARISE - eye on the prize.

The RA/RTC people who run the chapter - for now -- have tried to minimize Marianne's contributions and don't want to face the fact that her support for ABC tripled their retiree vote compared to them. They don't seem to want to run against Unity with her backing.

Bennett's attack on Brocoum - and me at times - for challenging Unity - and his general reluctance to stand up to them - makes people scratch their heads. Some think he is trying to curry favor with Unity so that they might be willing to support him in the chapter election. I don't think so. I think it is the Stockholm Syndrome. Once RTC moved into even a sliver or power they began to look at things from a leadership perspective.

It is worth examining the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome.

Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response where hostages or abuse victims develop positive emotional bonds, sympathy, or dependency toward their captors. It is a coping mechanism for survival, occurring when victims identify with abusers

Symptoms: Positive feelings toward abusers, sympathy for their agenda, and decreased fear/anger toward them, alongside mistrust of rescuers
.
Causes: The syndrome is rooted in fear, helplessness, and the need for survival during intense isolation or threatening situations.

I see ABC as their rescuers and they have more antagonism and fear of ABC than they do of their Unity oppressors. The irony is that so many ABCers have left the Unity cult and are way more militant with a greater desire to win - not just make a point - than the legacy caucuses.

Watch RA and the RTC leadership in action and look for these syndrome signs. Bennett's criticism of Mike Brocoum, while ignoring the Unity jeers and boos when he went after Mulgrew, is perfect example of Stockholm Syndrome.

Since winning the election, Retiree Advocate has engaged in Unity-like behavior, to the point that I no longer felt comfortable in RA and after ten years I stopped attending meetings and will not join their new membership faux democracy caucus. (I will go into more details on how this is NOT democracy.)

You know when the uninformed complain about difference in the opposition to Unity within the retiree chapter, differences that will most likely prevent them from winning again, they attribute it to ego or personality and ignore the fact that there are policy differences. The differences between ABC and ARISE over the 2024 election were over policy, strategies and tactics. The fundamental capitulation to Unity is a major difference and any attempt to bring the dissonant factions together must address that point.

Is it impossible to come together for an election either at the chapter level or the broader union? Yes. But only if there is an agreement to try to win like we had in the 2024 election but didn't in 2025. I'm no longer interested in wasting time on trying to send messages. As legendary football coach Al Davis used to say: Just win baby!

-----

Next time I blog I'll go into detail on the RTC meeting where leadership and presenters took up an hour and a half.

David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election as Fear and Loathing Works as Unity Delivers 30K Petition Sigs for Tom Brown

2026-04-22T13:35:10.684-04:00

I'm not coming to the DA today because I resigned as a delegate. I couldn't take all the unkindness anymore.... A (former) retiree delegate.

One day I'll get into how Retiree Advocate and the RTC leadership frittered away the potential power of electing 300 retiree delegates, many of whom don't bother attending. I'm too dumb to get the message and I'm racing to finish this before heading off to another scintillating Delegate Assembly, or Derogatory Assembly.

I’ve worked with David (Kazansky) for nine years, and it’s been an absolute pleasure. We have had the opportunity to attend many meetings, travel around the country, you always attending the defined benefit pension plans. David has always acted as a true fiduciary, always had the interest of our members, any time we debated anything, he would always say, how would this benefit our members? He’s taken care of a lot of specific issues with our members, helping members..... Tom Brown

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

I graduated from the 8 month training program at Brooklyn Botanic

Garden Tour guide program last week and here is the treat of the season there - but with more to come as spring moves on. Maybe see you there one day.

The Teacher Retirement System (TRS) race is one of the more interesting I've seen in the UFT. Recent discussions about investing pension funds in city housing and other investments have raised the issue of exactly what role our pension reps play on the TRS. Do they share investment info or strategies with the membership and if not why not?

David vs Unity. Goliath

David Kazansky Gets 2500 sigs, Frank Panebianco, 1400. Needed was 1,000. Kazansky had been a pension rep for 9 years before he was moved out by Mulgrew and subsequently fired. He is currently teaching elementary school in the Bronx.

He is running as an independent with the backing of ABC as the only group to back him officially while the legacy oppo groups sit on their hands. (though some individuals have been on the campaign). Better dead than red is an old anti-communist theme. A version has infected the old legacy UFT opposition: Better Unity than opposition that doesn't meet the purity test. That is the theme of most of the oppo, which has been embalmed in a left wing ideological tomb for decades.

Panebianco, also back to teaching after being a UFT staffer fired by Mulgrew in a reign of terror. It seems to have worked, as the Unity machine saw the threat David presented and went hog wild in getting 31k signatures for Tom Brown, who is also a UFT officer. Unity is feeling enough heat to have run a massive campaign for Brown.

Of course petition signatures don't necessarily translate into votes when the election is held in a few weeks. Having third candidate Panebianco in the race certainly makes David's chances very slim. Is Panebianco a Unity stalking horse to assure a Brown win? Did they help him get the 1400 signatures? Sources say probably not.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the campaign David has run - his approach and his organizational abilities - 2.5k sigs is pretty impressive and also shows that the ABC network is still operating. Note that petitions can be challenged and last year Unity managed to knock the opposting candidate off the ballot and no election was held. I don't imagine Unity will challenge Panebianco's signatures this time and David has too many sigs for a challenge to work but they may try to go after the main threat anyway.

There are 3 teacher pension reps, all for a 3-year term, staggered so that every year one of them has to run - if there is an opponent. For decades Unity has controlled all these positions and in fact there was never an election because no one ran against them. For many years I and others have advocated for someone to run against the Unity candidate. A victory or even a serious dent in the Unity vote would break the monopoly of the TRS teacher reps who are as subservient to Mulgrew's wishes as the Trump cabinet is to his.

There are strict rules around the election process and the petitioning. The DOE, not the UFT, runs the elections in the schools on a day in early May. Ironically, retirees play no role in the election. Supervisors and college teachers can vote, so it requires a broad network. Two years ago, an hoc group of UFT members organized a vigorous campaign for a candidate who volunteered to run and with a tiny organizing effort he got a third of the vote. But Unity did not do a lot in that campaign. We did not necessarily expect to win that election, but to use it as a learning experience for a future run. Last year there was a challenge on some minor issue and the candidate was knocked off the ballot. So this year is the first time of a real potential election. (Expect another election next year.)

The election is run in the schools in one day by the DOE and the last one two years ago was so terribly run there was a law suit. Don't expect this one to be run much better. One interesting aspect it the results show how each school voted -- how many votes each candidate gets so there is a lot of room for analysis. Expect the Unity machine to hold its in school people and district reps accountable for the votes.

On the surface it may look like a slam dunk for Unity and it probably is. Now it's down to GOTV and let's see how well the candidates do. Unity might get 80% or 60%. Remember the 54% in last year's election. This will be a test of the Unity machine's GOTV operation, which a year ago was not too effective -- which I think led to the firings and warnings and even some demotions. But I will say that the tactics being used may work for a short time but fear and loathing of such tactics will lead to rising resistance.

I'm working on a future blog titled: Will Unity defectors become the face of the opposition in the UFT? My thesis is - and actually has been for 30 years - that Unity can never be beaten until there are cracks that lead to breaks -- and instead of trying to heal these cracks, Mulgrew has cracked down and over the long run -- those cracks and crackdowns will turn into an earthquake.

======

Afterburn: The Legacy Caucus sit on their hands

After initial reluctance, some key members of New Action supported the campaign two years ago, but MORE sat it out because their main concern is about BDS - dumping Israeli bonds. When I brought the issue to RA, one member refused to let them consider supporting the candidate over the potential BDS issue too.

This year RA and MORE are again sitting it out, while there is some support from a few people in New Action.

Ideology once again triumphs over winning, one reason the oppo in the UFT will always lose to Unity, which is already planning the 100th anniversary party of holding onto monopoly power in the UFT in 2062.

Menin to Mulgrew: Send Para Protesters to Mamdani Event, RTC Exec Bd Meeting Today

2026-04-14T09:48:00.006-04:00

“Speaker Menin is asking for 20 people to be outside with Para Respect signs, so the mayor and others can see them as they enter,” read the email, which urged members to sign up to rally outside the venue for about two hours before Mamdani’s event started. The email, which indicated Menin put in the last-minute request to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, was sent to dozens of paraprofessionals and looped in two high-ranking union officials — Michael Sill, the secretary of the UFT and a top aide to Mulgrew, and Priscilla Castro, the chair of the UFT’s paraprofessional chapter — according to a person with knowledge of the message who was granted anonymity to discuss the private communication....

A spokesperson for the UFT said the rep who sent the message was misinformed and likely confused the Sunday protest for a larger pro-pay raise bill rally that’s supposed to take place in the coming weeks......Politico

Paras being used as pawns by Mulgrew

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

The leaked email is another sign of internal dissatisfaction in the Unity cult. Last night at exec board Vacarro made sure she said they had a person on the stage supporting Mamdani at his 100 day event. Call it Counter balance, but they only had one person supporting Mamdani while trying to make it look like rank and file paras were outside protesting and not orchestrated by Menin and Mulgrew?

I heard this about Julie Menin before she became City Council President: She wants to be mayor and will stab anyone in the back to get there. She's also a millionaire.

My guess is she is aiming to create a mess for Mamdani and set herself up for a mayoral run in 2029 in case he falters. And knowing the center anti-left politics of the Unity/UFT hierarchy, expect our union leaders to be complicit despite their backing Mamdani when it was clear he would win. They received a lot of pushback for the endorsement from the more conservative members.

Don't expect the love fest to last, Also note -- Menin and Mulgrew have a close relationship.

The issue here is the money the UFT is pushing for paras, a push that comes outside contract negotiations and would be non-pensionable.

Mamdani does not support outside the contract arrangements, something I can agree with. What's to stop the next mayor from taking away these raises? I view class size laws the same way. If they were in the contract there would be no negotiations about delays. Make Fix Para Pay a permanent part of the contract. In the UFT election ABC made this point and was attacked by the Unity crowd which apparently is OK with outside the contract deals.

Let's also point out that the push on the para raise came because the Fix Para Pay slate won the chapter election with 75% of the vote. Mulgrew was smart enough to come up with the push for more money to counter FPP, which was allied with ABC. I believe that Mulgrew move cost ABC para votes. And the Mulgrew reversal on forcing retirees into MedAdv probably cost ABC a batch of retiree votes.

Norm

Menin makes early trouble for Mamdani
The Council speaker has been increasingly critical of the mayor. It could be just the beginning.
An internal union email obtained by POLITICO indicates Menin asked the United Federation of Teachers to send around 20 people to the Knockdown Center in Queens to highlight proposed legislation — opposed by the mayor and backed by the union — that would give a pay hike to teaching aides known as paraprofessionals. Mamdani believes any pay hikes should go through the contract negotiation process.
“Speaker Menin is asking for 20 people to be outside with Para Respect signs, so the mayor and others can see them as they enter,” read the email, which urged members to sign up to rally outside the venue for about two hours before Mamdani’s event started.
The email, which indicated Menin put in the last-minute request to UFT President Michael Mulgrew, was sent to dozens of paraprofessionals and looped in two high-ranking union officials — Michael Sill, the secretary of the UFT and a top aide to Mulgrew, and Priscilla Castro, the chair of the UFT’s paraprofessional chapter — according to a person with knowledge of the message who was granted anonymity to discuss the private communication.
“Please when responding, rely [sic] all so that Michael and Pricilla [sic] will know of your reply,” the message specified.
Neither Menin nor the United Federation of Teachers denied the authenticity of the email. However, they said there were no discussions about protesting Mamdani’s 100-day speech and insisted the missive was a miscommunication.
“This is patently false. Neither the speaker nor anyone in our office had any communication with the UFT regarding this event, and we’ve had no knowledge of it,” Council spokesperson Henry Robins said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the UFT said the rep who sent the message was misinformed and likely confused the Sunday protest for a larger pro-pay raise bill rally that’s supposed to take place in the coming weeks.
“There was no conversation between Speaker Menin or her office with UFT President Mulgrew or the UFT about a protest,” spokesperson Alison Gendar said in a statement. “Any allegation of that is untrue.”
She went on to say the legislation has widespread support and that UFT members were at the Knockdown Center to support the mayor.
While helping to stage a protest would mark an especially contentious course of action, even taking on the mayor in more traditional ways carries risk for the speaker.

Before I go off to the UFT monthly retiree chapter executive board meeting, I have to point out that any UFT retiree can attend, either in person or by zoom. There are always some nice sandwiches. For some reason the RTC leadership doesn't like to share this information, so I will:

RTC Executive Board

April 14, 2026, 1-3pm, Room 19H

AGENDA

1. CL Report – Bennett

2. RTC Healthcare Committee Report – Gloria or Mike

3. RTC Labor Solidarity Project Report – Bobby

4. Resolutions for consideration

Pension fund re-amortization and/or pension obligation bond resolution (tentative)
Buffer Zone resolution
Affordable Housing resolution

4. RTC Delegation vacancies

5. New Business

Zoom link for remote attendance: https://uft.zoom.us/j/86926068409?pwd=nr82t0bGLVarA75OjQ5S2FNk4H6sZp.1

Topic: RTC Executive Board Meeting

Time: Apr 14, 2026 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Norm Update: Where have I been, Where Am I going?

2026-04-01T10:48:00.002-04:00

April 1,

Wow, it's April 1 and I haven't blogged in 3 weeks. Happy Passover - we head to cousin in Jersey later for a festive meal and an eating frenzy. We bring the Haggadah and yarmulkas. And charoset. My belly is aching already.

Why haven't I been blogging? Some people were concerned enough to check on my health, which has been good so far (next scan is end of May).

And had a lovely lunch with a former student celebrating Chinese New Year and my birthday. Nothing I love more than meeting up with people I knew when they were 12 and seeing them all grown up. But more important, she's become a friend.

I haven't totally abandoned UFT politics - I got to all the meetings and am in chats with lots of people and organize a chat n chew in person meeting with people connected to the group formerly known as ICE when school is out for a week - so far have had two and holding another one next week at our favorite diner. Over 10 have showed so far - mostly retirees but some working - and I find people really like to meet in person rather than zooms. A lot of the talk is about the rift in the opposition, including retirees since the UFT election wrangles that began in the summer of 2024, which has led to my pulling away from Retiree Advocate for a number of reasons beyond the election, which I will delve into if I ever blog again after this one. (Meanwhile keep reading Arthur who I consult with often.)

I have been doing other stuff too. I entered an intensive guide training program at Brooklyn Botanic Garden back in September and my final "exam," a 50 minute rest tour, is April 8. There are 21 people in the group of trainees and we have been meeting on Saturdays all day -- a great group of people - you can't go wrong hanging out with people who love gardening. I also do tours in Murray Hill where I'm also taking private pilates lessons at a studio on Madison Ave and E. 39 St. I'm feeling real good from those. I hope to get back to hot yoga soon. And walk, walk, walk - ironically which I do when I am in Manhattan but don't do when I am in Rockaway. And going to a gym and lifting light weights. At the height of my chemo I looked like a skeleton. (It's been a little over a year since chemo - and remember I handled all the petitioning details for ABC in the midst of the chemo. I still have the neuropathy and of course the diabetes due to the deformed pancreas.

And I still work with the construction and video crew at the Rockaway Theatre Company where Man of La. Mancha opens for a 3 weekend run tomorrow night. No more attempt at acting for me. We have such a pool of enormous talent - the fourth person to hit Broadway from our crew is Baby Byrne, appearing in,

ANJELLICLE CATS. I remember her as Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls about ten years ago. (She's on the right). I was an aspiring gangster in that show (back row).

Oh, and also having fun with some UFT Si Beagle classes. In the fall I overdid it and registered for tours I couldn't make but did make the drawing and painting classes. This spring I limited myself to the latter every Thursday -- over 4 hours of relaxed drawing and painting. I went whole hog and brought lots of paints. I may sit in my garden and paint all summer.

My 81 Bd - gift:

I've been doing some other stuff too, but can't seem to remember what. I'm 81 after all.

Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd meets gets sad news, Analysis of Texas Dem Primary - Surprise - Real Progressive Won, Is Iran winning?

2026-03-09T10:38:00.002-04:00

The Kazansky/Brown race for TRS heating up as hundreds attend an ABC info zoom -- report coming soon.

Respect Means Retirement Security... David Kazansky Mar 7

Monday, March 9, 2026

I attended the March 3rd (my birthday) Retiree Teacher Exec Bd meeting on Tuesday after rushing back from a weekend jaunt to attend The Philadelphia Flower Show, the nation's oldest and largest horticultural event, held annually since 1829. Most people I know think that I'm nuts and after attending the meeting I agree with them.

There was an election taking place and I wanted to be there to stand up for the candidate I favored in a 4 way race. (She didn't win.) The RTC constitution gives the EB the right to replace any elected position, though when we try to replace the dozen delegates (out of the 300 we elected), the UFT says we can't -- you know, because they say we can't. We were told by a former Unity delegate that when they ran the chapter and had vacancies, Tom Murphy just replaced them. They make rules up as they go along.

The lack of aggressiveness by the RTC leadership only emboldens bullying by the UFT/Unity leadership. I think it goes beyond that and detect some fear by the ideologues in RA of adding new delegates who might not be pure enough ideologically --- but that's only my guess. One RTC Exec Bd member pointed out that adding a new batch of delegates would invigorate our contingent at the DA which has been shrinking to the point of irrelevancy, perhaps the major failure of the RA hierarchy.

There was an opening on the RTC Executive Board due to the resignation recently of Daniel Harkavy due to an illness - cancer that seemed to escalate quickly. We found out on Tuesday that he died on February 20, a real shock to many of us who had enormous respect for Daniel for his sense of humor, smarts, and judicious non-partisan advice. I wanted to touch base with him after he resigned and am kicking myself for failing to do so. Daniel taught chemistry at Brooklyn Tech for 26 years.

At the RTC EB meeting last Tuesday, Arthur Goldstein, who got to know Daniel, paid an impassioned tribute to Daniel and followed that up with this post.

RIP Daniel: Daniel Harkavy passes: Arthur Goldstein- Mar 06, 2026

I'm not sure how Daniel came to be part of the RTC EB - I didn't know him before. He tried to steer a neutral course during the UFT election follies last year, signing petitions for both ABC and ARISE, and attempted to run with both slates but was made to choose by ARISE. He ran with ABC because he felt ABC had the better chance to win but remained cordial with everyone.

When ABC had a petition signing in Bayside, where Daniel lived, he showed up and met Arthur and was introduced to one of our officer candidates who is also a chemistry teacher who graduated from Brooklyn Tech a year before Daniel began teaching there. He was thrilled to meet her.

For someone I barely knew, his passing was especially upsetting because when he posted he was in the hospital I intended to touch base with him as a fellow cancer patient who went through some tough days over the 6 months of chemo. To have been stricken with a deadly cancer at such a relatively young age - he was 63 but count the time leading up to it - is so sad and makes me feel relatively lucky at having reached 81 recently and still be fairly mobile and active.

I barely knew him but will miss him.

Daniel was open and respected for openly saying that if he felt ARISE had the better chance he would have run with them. The ABC crew respected him for that view and we felt that if he would have been allowed to run on the ARISE too, he would have gotten 46% of the vote, the highest total of any non-Unity person in history.

I advocated running hundreds of people on both slates and might have actually sneaked a few people in. At some point the people who made that decision for ARISE need to be held accountable. Actually, the entire leadership of ARISE.

As to the election for his replacement, as I said, my favored candidate who also ran with the ABC slate did not win and lost to someone who had no connection to the movement we built among retirees over the past 5 years. A very nice guy, by the way. But a message was sent by the New Action/Retiree Advocate dominated RTC EB and the result is not a positive development for a united front in the 2027 RTC chapter election. Details next time.

=======

The Texas Primaries

I'm a political nerd and follow both mainstream and alt media.

On the broader political front, I get some of the best political analysis at breaking points, an alt media outpost that includes the left and the right, with the great reporter Ryan Grim and Krystal Ball representing the left. But it's always good to see what the right is thinking, though this is not MAGA right.

I've been getting about 10 messages a day from Talarico -- I want to send him some money, but then I will get 20 messages a day.

Wednesday's discussion of the Talarico/Crockett primary was fascinating and for a deep dive I urge you to check it out: https://youtu.be/5ttTwSR60L0?si=ms2W31EGQwDyprjb

Not knowing enough beforehand, I did not have a dog in the race, other than the sense that Talarico had a better chance to win than Crockett, whose performance-based political acts has never resonated with me. Some view her as squad-oriented but and someone said to me she was like AOC. Far from AOC or the squad, she is more cultural than economic left. And in fact it turns out according to the analysys below that Talarico made the better economic left case.

Mainstream media painted the race as the left (Crockett) vs the center (Talarico) and therefore a lesson for Dems to stay to the center. This analysis actually paints Talarico as a sort of left because he ran an anti-corporate Bernie type campaign, albeit with some religious twists while Crocket despite her performativeness actually avoided the wealthy vs the rest of us and was more of a Dem cultural

Republicans already spent more than $71 million to try to push Cornyn over the finish line, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. But all that money got him to only 42% in the primary against Paxton, who has been impeached, indicted, and rocked by multiple cheating scandals.

The New Yorker: In the Texas Primaries, a Good Night for James Talarico, and a Bad One for John Cornyn

Cornyn, still the establishment conservative, raised roughly sixty-nine million dollars; Paxton just four million. In the final stages of the primary, the incumbent, still trailing in the polls, released a spot for the ages, which opened, “It’s voting time, so let’s cut through the bullshit. Crooked Ken Paxton cheated on his wife. She’s divorcing him on Biblical grounds.” Paxton’s camp deployed the candidate’s daughter in a last-minute response ad, and called Cornyn “a desperate shell of a man clinging to power.” But, on Tuesday night, neither candidate managed to get fifty per cent of the vote, which means they’ll face off again in a runoff, in May. In theory, Republican voters might have been ready to throw out the last vestiges of the pre-Trump party. But not for Ken Paxton. At least not yet.

Crockett’s challenge to Talarico had less to do with ideological difference than with style—a somewhat repetitive January debate between the two candidates kept returning not to policy but to the question of whether it was better to establish common ground with some conservatives in the hope of winning their votes (Talarico’s position) or simply to rally your side by making clear what you opposed (Crockett’s). Crockett seemed to see enemies everywhere, and closed her campaign lashing out at certain political consultants and reporters. The congresswoman’s team expelled Elaine Godfrey, who’d published a critical profile of the candidate in The Atlantic, from an event for being a “top-notch hater.” The resulting back-and-forth on social media, between the campaign and its liberal critics, consumed much of the race’s final days.

Who's Winning the Iran War? A surprising view differs from mainstream media from the left and the right.

The left view - Ryan X Tim Dillon: https://youtu.be/3lTk2SOHeVM?si=TR1ZbwOmoACNLiI5

The right view from Saagar and Tucker on Iran winning - Saagar X Tucker: https://youtu.be/Dl78cDjOIRM?si=CTGDRVtSzXWTJYSJ

Cults: Unity Caucus Channels Republicans as UFT Delegate Assembly Echoes Trump State of the Union,TRS Election Adds Another Purged Unity Defector

2026-02-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026

Watching the Republicans leap up for joy at every Trump lie and bit of misinformation at the SOTU brought echoes of recent UFT Delegate Assemblies where we see a similar reaction from (fake) jocularity from the Unity Caucus cheering committee. The longest SOTU and most boring speech in history reminded me of some of Mulgrew's long-winded reports at the DA.

There was no better example than the Feb. DA where the main item was the endorsement for TRS of Unity candidate Tom Brown as one Unityite after another rose to give praise - and oh the cheers when the vote was taken to endorse him. Oppo people, like the Dems at the SOTU sat on their hands. There just weren't many of them and even for those who were there, there was no coordination. More and more oppo people are just not bothering to attend -- a boycott of sorts, like the Dems who stayed away from the SOTU.

The only group that had a strategy - sort of - was ABC people, but I was lukewarm to not opposing Tom Brown on the grounds he was one of 3 Unity shills who would do whatever Mulgrew tells him to do. The argument for David Kazansky is that he would now be an independent voice - and yes, for 9 years he was a union leadership voice - publicly - but I suspect behind the scenes he was willing to ask questions about the fees we were paying, the role of private equity and investment strategy.

MORE on the whole has never felt the DA was an important venue. And the vaunted 300 Retiree Advocate delegates that replaced the Unity 300 in the June 2024 supposedly game-changing election which has not changed the game very much have been disappearing from the DA in droves, thus negating the impact of that election. MORE claims 100 DA. members but few show up, so the Unity staff and loyalist CLs dominate the room. Remember ARISE? No signs anywhere that they are alive since the embarassing 14% vote in the 2025 UFT election.

Even I, an over 50-year DA attendee, even when I wasn't a delegate, no longer see it worth it to hand out leaflets. I like to attend for social reasons to schmooze and hang out with my pals.

The real changes in the UFT are happening underneath the covers and I am glad to be part of the various fragments of people connected to ABC.

Mulgrew helps build the new opposition in the UFT

What the hell is happening at the UFT that 2 former pension reps are challenging the Unity candidate for TRS rep?

Former UFT special rep Frank Panebianco is joining former 9-year Teacher Retirement System rep David Kazansky, pushed out of the job by Mulgrew two years ago and fired last June, in the race for TRS rep against Unity loyalist Tom Brown. Panebianco was among those staffers fired by Mulgrew.

Is he a plant by Unity to divide the oppo vote? The guess is he is not but genuinely pissed off at the leadership. Is Unity cheering his candidacy against David? I'm thinking not as he is popular and may well draw votes from Unity and turn this into a 3-person race. And of course David is popular in Untiy and will also draw votes. In a secret ballot, no matter the pressure from the leadership, there will be defections. Unity may punish district reps who don't turn out the vote -- we get a post-election report on the vote breakdown for every school. The key for Kazansky is to build a strong network of schools that will vote for him - right now there are 6 weeks to get 1000 signatures for each candidate. He has a shot at winning no matter what, but even if Brown wins the network built in the campaign can be used in the future.

That two long-term Unity pension experts have challenged Unity candidate Tom Brown is indicative of the same kind of cracks we have been seeing in Uniy over the past few years. The massive retiree and para oppo wins in the 2024 chapter elections were clear indicators - the removal of Amy Arundell from Queens started a trend and her ability to bring some serious elements of Unity along with her in last year's union election has created a potential new oppo block in ABC outside the usual caucus suspects.

Despite the firings by Mulgrew last June, while scaring some of Unity back into the fold, has still left some people seething. (One well-known school-based Unity recently declared privately "I'm done with them." Are they ready to be openly part of an oppo group like ABC? That may take some time and also depends on how capable ABC looks over the next few years. And don't forget that Unity 54% vote in the election. It takes some time for people who have been in a cult to wean themselves off.

This look good for Unity - short term on the surface - but many of these people have actually learned some organizing skills, albeit in the rigid confines of Unity. But once freed, the creativity flows and excitement at the freedom grows. It is up to the legacy oppos to figure out how to join forces if they want to defeat Unity. There is a soft strucrure in place within the ABC coalition by the alliances built in last year's election and ties that bind continue to be built.

Learn more about David at WeTrustDavid.org

The Mulgrew reign of terror may work to keep staffers in fear and in line but the firing of well-liked and competent people also sends a message and degrades the structure from underneath. The firing of District 30 rep Ashley Rzonca has riled chapter leaders and rank and file in the district and is creating a cloud of resentment that will ultimately morph into open opposition. I never knew Ashley until she was fired last June and have come to see her abilities in various strategy sessions.

Then there is Pissgate where a photo of Amy was placed in a men's room urinal at the Delegate Assembly and the culprit wasn't found despite months of investigation by an outside lawyer and despite cameras.

There is a lot of residual fear and loathing of Mulgrew and his administration throughout the ranks. LeRoy Barr's retirement and the flippant way he announced it at the January DA that surprised Mulgrew won't help as he was able to keep many of the troops in line. Will LeRoy loyalists begin to jump ship too? He is still in charge of Unity Caucus so he will be a factor. Some say the simple solution for Unity is to replace Mulgrew and some see the Mike Sill rise as a solution. BTW- Mike was once a protege of Amy Arundell who was his boss.

The woim toins.

Do you want to build your caucus or do you want to win an election? That was a question asked of leaders of the RA caucus and unfortunately it looks like caucus first. The same with NAC and MORE -- they will gladly take 14% of the vote forever as long as they can control their caucus. At a recent meeting one non-UFT person told me "it's all about control - having power in a small fishbowl."

If the legacy caucuses wake up and join a movement like ABC, Unity would be in trouble.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000751049681

David Kazansky speaks about the responsibility of the TRS Trustees.

https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=63921

A substantive, no-spin conversation about retirement security for NYC educators and retirees.

Former three-term TRS Trustee David Kazansky.was interviewed by Daniel Alicea on WBAI in part 1 of a 2 part interview on Sunday.

• David’s storied career as an educator, unionist and trustee

• What really happens inside the TRS boardroom

• Private equity and pension transparency

• Fiduciary duty and divestment

• Tier 6 and what reform would actually take

• The upcoming TRS trustee election — and what’s at stake

Part 2 also drops here next week and will be aired the next time Daniel hosts Talk Out of School.

Let’s stay informed.

— Dan Alicea

Learn more about David at WeTrustDavid.org

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow While I Shovel and Shovel and Shovel and...

2026-02-24T21:41:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 - noon

My backyard this morning

My front "lawn".

So it's been another busy week - or not - depends on your point of view. I've been loving the snow and the shoveling despite my wife's constant hocking me to hire someone. Why should I when I relish doing it - and besides I won't be 81 till next week?

Here's my backyard which I won't touch - snow might be gone by May. Why should the snow bother me? I'm retired and don't have to go anywhere, so I have the luxury of spending some time shoveling, going in to warm up and taking another round? But I will admit that yesterday as I was shoveling a young guy walked by with a shovel and offered to help so I paid him to work along with me and, yes, a 27 year old can do it faster than an 81 year old.

Only half done.

Speaking of which, the snow plows locked my driveway in again - I'm on the wrong side of the street - so I have go out and do a shift now.

Be back soon.

2 PM - I'm back. Look at the job I have to do and only half finished.

Had some tea and pretzels. Too tired to write.

Back out at 3:30 and finished the job so I can get my car out.

Back at 4:30. More tea.

----

For further reading:

If the Dem party cared about this country it would dissolve itself - Ryan Grim

Dem Party Ooops - For further reading, minutes before the State of the Union - I will be doing my hair.

DNC Finding: Biden’s Israel Backing Cost Harris Votes for President

Wenell Potter post on his Healthcare Uncovered substack:

Big Insurance Earnings 2025: Stock Buybacks, Earnings Per Share, Market Capitalization

https://healthcareuncovered.substack.com/p/big-insurance-earnings-2025-stock

The seven largest for-profit health insurance conglomerates took in nearly $1.7 trillion from their customers in 2025 ($175 billion more than in 2024) and they booked more than $54 billion in profits.

Why Labor Needs a Declaration of Political Independence

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 2 Script Revealed, TRS Election Staged Endorsement

2026-02-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026

It's been a few days since Part 1 - UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates:

Too much Olympics and old movies. And trying to keep up with Marianne, Arthur and Daniel. And I'm about to leave for an in-person meeting with a group connected to the good ICE - which we are now referring to as Independent Educators (community). We will be talking about the TRS election, Is Unity weaker than a year ago or stronger?, and the state of Retiree Advocate and its new membership and "democracy" plan and the prospects for next year's chapter election.

We know from our Unity friends that they rehearse for the DAs through what they call the Speakers Bureau - Mulgrew fakes like he's looking around when he knows where the Unity plants will be sitting. You see, they prep for meetings while most of the oppo play it by ear, which is why they often look so ineffective. What used to be a 10 minute new motion period where rank and file get a chance is now dominated by feel-good leadership resos to use up the time.

This time to make sure, the Unity plant had a big arrow on her head and started reading the script she was given -- ooops - she actually said it was a script.

The big issue was the Unity push to endorse Tom Brown for TRS pension board. Former pension board member David Kazansky is running against him and some of his supporters attempted to get his name out there and succeeded but failed in their reso to get him to be considered -- in the past the claims that oppo people were not experienced won't work since David had 9 years experience.

Daniel Alicea was successful in asking for the union to put things in place so the DOE actually conducts an election that is competently run -- 2 years ago both sides sued the DOE over the way the election was run. As the vote for the endorsement ran past 6PM -- Mulgrew didn't manage the script by not finding the person who was to call the question in time - and a quorum call was made - you need 20% for a quorum and the seargent at arms must have done a super calculation with her immediate ruling. Daniel asked her afterward about that ruling and she said she does what Mulgrew tells her to do. Nice --

A lowlight of the Feb. 5 RTC meeting was the Leo Casey rant at Marianne to which she has responded.

Hypocrisy Roars: Leo roars, but there is no substance; it is purely a spectacle scream for relevance when that ship long sailed. Proud the retired unionists saw through that at the RTC meeting this past week. Bravo! Marianne Pizzitola Feb 08, 2026
Retirees Deserve Facts, Not Fear
Leo Casey’s posts accusing me of “union-busting” and warns of calamity if retirees are no longer treated as union members for healthcare purposes. That framing is emotionally charged — and fundamentally misleading and completely unsubstantiated, but when has Unity cared about any of that? What retirees deserve instead is an honest discussion of what rights we actually have, what protections actually exist, and what has actually happened in recent years. Not facing all that -you are still lying to yourself. Don’t worry, I will tell you and cite it and there is plenty to share on that in the next few posts!

When I posted one of her responses to Casey on the Retiree Advocate listserve, Jonathan Halabi, an officer of the RTC, wouldn't approve it and it was taken down. Funny, but when Leo went on his diatribe with 1000 people on line or in person, there was no objection - and as a believer in free speech, I do not object to whatever drivel he offers, but the attitude of some members of RA organizers to censor things they don't like, is offensive and counter to democracy.

I have lots more to say but have to catch the subway for the IE (formerly ICE) lunch. And sorry, no rice pudding photos of me today as my blood sugar spiked last time.

Arthur's recent post:

Can UFT Welfare Fund Afford to Eliminate Retiree Prescription Premiums?

It sure looks like it.

Here is an excerpt from his DA report:

I am flabbergasted at how Mulgrew tripped all over himself saying how fair the elections for trustee are. The fact is that the last election did not take place at all. This is because Mulgrew’s Very Smart People had Ben Morgenroth tossed from the ballot on a technicality. Last I heard, Morgenroth was pursuing legal remedies, but I’ve not spoken with him for a while. I have to admire his calmness tonight while addressing the guy who screwed him.
Leo Casey’s resolution to protect Social Security and Medicare from everyone (except Michael Mulgrew) has now, for the second month in a row, not come up. Casey would’ve had retirees believe that we ought not to spend one moment protecting ourselves from the person who already tried to take our Medicare away—Michael Mulgrew, his cult leader. Casey’s criticized retirees for trying to protect ourselves rather than blindly endorsing his Great Leader’s agenda.
Clearly, the leaders of the UFT do not share Casey’s priorities. Most important to them is keeping their peeps in power. That’s why Unity member after Unity member got up today to endorse Tom Brown, who comes to retiree meetings to tell us how wonderful things are, who makes it a point to speak as long as possible so as to join Casey and other Unity Cult Members in their never-ending mission to preclude our actual business—protecting retirees.
I tend to believe Mulgrew when he claims he isn’t telling the trustees how to invest UFT money. If that’s the case, though, it’s likely because investing is not his thing. Every single sitting trustee is bound by the Unity Loyalty Oath. They will golly gosh darn do whatever Mulgrew tells them to, financially or otherwise, or they will be purged, just as David Kazansky was.
Kazansky will be running against Tom Brown. Like most retirees, I’m very interested in the pension. As Unity hack after Unity hack got up to tell us how wonderful Brown was, none bothered to mention that retirees, alleged union members, get no vote on who our trustees are.
I didn’t hear anything about Tom Brown, or Michael Mulgrew, or any Unity member working to get us a vote. Of course, Unity indulges its members when they float ageist memes at the DA, and rather than censure them for their blatant bigotry, applauds them.
So it surprises me not at all that they can’t be bothered extending us the vote, even as they lecture us on how we’re full union members.
Emily ?—Most of you know what’s going on. 2750 people signed to go to rally, still growing. When link stops working we get calls. Will try to make registration push. Members will get texts tomorrow. Try to get one more person. Whole class of people against this, think public workers bankrupting city. Use memes and post online. CL hub shows names of people in your school who have registered. Have pom poms and t shirts you can wear in school.

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 1 The Thread Runs Through It - How can we save the city money?

2026-02-14T17:15:00.003-05:00

The late, great James Eterno saw exactly where this was heading and said so in 2009, when it still mattered.
He called it what it was:
A billion-dollar giveaway to save the City money — paid for by future educators.
He was right then. He’s right now.
Tier 6 didn’t come out of nowhere. The runway was built in 2009 by Randi and Unity...Educators of NYC

An LOL comment at the Feb. 5 retiree meeting was a Unityite arguing against restoring the 8 1/4% enjoyed by our supevisors because ending the 7% Randi giveaway would make us look greedy and besides the city doesn't have the money. The crux of the Unity Caucus positions come down to the purpose of a union is to find ways to save the employer money.

Unity/UFT Leadership History of Sell-Out argument to save city money while screwing members --- EONYC - Feb 14, 2026

Daniel hits all the bases in this post
Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC

The above chronicling the sellouts was posted today so make sure to click and read it. The link - https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/why-fix-tier-6-stops-at-2530-and

Saturday, Feb. 14 - Happy Valentine Day - Taking my woman out to dinner in the city tonight - don't tell my wife. Actually, I have a surprise Neuhaus box of dark chocolates waiting for her in the city- since she would rather sleep on a bed of nails than read my blog, no worries she will won't be surprised.

I'm going to have to do this in two parts because I have to leave soon - tii much time watching olympic snow and ice after doing my daily shovel of snow and ice.

My political life is managed by meetings related to the UFT, most recently the Retired Teacher Meeting on Feb.5, the Feb. 10 Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and the Feb. 11 DA. People complain they are all boring but I am a junky and engaged.

I just can't keep up with the prolific Daniel Alicea, Marianne Pizzitola and Arthur Goldstein - here are his reports of the Feb. 5 RTC and DA.

Feb. 11 UFT Delegate Assembly--We Endorse Tom Brown
Protecting Medicare and Social Security not that vital to UFT bosses after all.

Feb. 5 Unity Says, "No 1096 for You!": We say otherwise, by a huge margin.

I have some different angles and where do I begin? Of course the major news is the David Kazansky run for TRS against Tom Brown and that dominated the DA --- speaker after speaker in favor of Brown while a few tried to get David's name out there as a candidate without opposing the Brown nomination, which I would have done - and I had some reasons which I will share one day -- but I wanted to be a team player.

Both meetings sort of have a common theme. Unity totally controls the DA and absolutely don't have control of the RTC. But their goals at both is to degrade the ability of the opposition to influence union policy.

There were 2 resos pushed by the non-Unity RTC leadership - support for 1096, calling for the Randi Weingarten giveaway of 8.25% in 2008 to be reversed and two Unity sponsored resos - Keeping retirees Safe from Scams and support for the NY Civil Rights Act. At every meeting they introduce another feel-good distraction -- for this meeting on The Importance of Building and Providing Affordable Workforce Housing for NYC Educators, Healthcare Professionals and Essential Workers. James Eterno used to mock these type of resos as "Mom and Apple Pie" resos. We've also seen similar virtue signaling resos from those opposed to Unity --- when you don't have a clue how to make a dent in the power of Unity, resort to calling for support for issues outside the union.

Unity pushed back on the RTC resos on 1096 and 8 1/4% that actually improve our conditions while their own feel good resos, offered as a distraction from addressing their years of failure are difficult to oppose - like who doesn't support protecting retirees from scams or supporting the NY Civil Rights Act? And they are clever resos -- putting the RTC leadership on an impossible position -- though I get what Unity is doing and am willing to do the dirty work of calling them out -- except I get bad looks from my RTC leadership colleagues that standing opposed to a feel-good reso designed to distract from issues that won us the election.

Leo Casey came off a sick bed to lose his marbles in a rant against Marianne Pizzitola at the RTC meeting -- so sorry, Leo can't be at the DA because Unity lost the RTC election.

The battle between Leo and Marianne is all about healthcare and the Unity attempt to distract people. Leo will defend any Unity policy, as do the Unity faithful as we saw at the last RTC meeting when they opposed the 8.25 reso because it will cost the city money and make us look greedy. 7% also looked greedy when everyone else was getting 1% so making that case is anti-union. Getting raises and lower class sizes costs the city money.

But for we retirees the worst was the attempt to put us in medicare adv -- our victory, due on no small part to Marianne -- which is why in advance of next year's election which Unity expects to win - Casey is the designated hit man to degrade Marianne's influence and bring Unity back to it's 70% majority before the 2024 election. A lesson on her influence is the low amount of votes the ARISE Coalition received in the last election while the ABC supported by Marianne received 3x as many, a lesson Leo Casey clearly has learned -- beat up Marianne to help Unity win.

I will get to part 2 maybe tomorrow but now turn it back to Daniel:

Unity Didn’t Just Accept Givebacks — They Normalized Them
This wasn’t a one-off mistake. It was yet another banner moment where Unity institutionalized concession bargaining.
Every giveback was sold the same way:
“Necessary”
“Responsible”
“For the common good”
“ We achieved “cost savings for the City” while “improving our benefits”
And no one embodied that thinking more than Unity’s chief apologist, Randi’s longtime personal assistant, Leo Casey.
For decades, Casey has faithfully defended:
The disastrous 2005 contract
The 2009 pension concessions
And now, copays imposed on retirees
Different issue. Same message:

Suck it up—for the common good.
His 2009 defense of the Bloomberg–Weingarten pension deal is still archived online, frozen in time, and devastating in hindsight.
While the Ground Was Being Given Away, There Was No Fight
Fast-forward to 2011–2012.
Bloomberg and Cuomo push through Tier 6, the worst pension tier in state history.
And where was Unity?
There was no mass mobilization.
No sustained organizing.
No serious resistance.
Now—13 years later—the same leadership claims they’re “fighting Tier 6,” while refusing to admit that:
Extended years of service
Lifetime pension contributions
Reduced retirement security
…were already conceded on their watch.
James Eterno Warned Us — In Real Time
The late, great James Eterno saw exactly where this was heading and said so in 2009, when it still mattered.
He called it what it was:
A billion-dollar giveaway to save the City money — paid for by future educators.
He was right then. He’s right now.
All Roads Lead to Randi
This is why “Fix Tier 6” stops at 25/30.
Not because 25/55 is unrealistic. Not because it’s impossible.
But because Unity already surrendered it — quietly, strategically, and proudly — while calling it “responsible unionism.”
The same concession logic that gutted pensions
is now being used to gut healthcare.
Different decade. Same playbook.
These are not the values of unionists.
These are Proxies for Management.
Morticians of our hard-earned benefits.
James Eterno on the 2009 giveback
https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/billion-dollar-days-off.html?m=1
https://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-da-report-farewell-randi-tier-v.html?m=1
Leo Casey defending the Bloomberg–Weingarten pension deal:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150606054122/http://www.edwize.org/uft-and-city-reach-agreement-on-pension-ending-two-days-before-labor-day

Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and Upcoming DA - At least there are potato chips

2026-02-11T14:49:00.004-05:00

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2:50PM

I've been remiss in trying to write about some of the meetings I attend - I finally did so the other day - UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS - and will try to do so after the DA later today, for which I have to leave pretty soon. If you are coming to the DA show your love for Unity by wearing red. Maybe Mulgrew will call on you.

Unity rushed through the Tom Brown TRS election endorsement Monday night and made sure to put it up first at today's DA. I've contended for years that we make Unity defend every single position. They got away with the TRS elections free of charge for years and now we are making them defend it. I even wanted someone to put an opponent up against Mike Sill for Secretary to make them hold an election. Anyone up for Assistant Secretary?

At the RTC EB meeting Tuesday afternoon Brown's name came up over his embarasing performance at one of our meetings and his pity me performance over his initial support for a Kathy Hochul pension refinement plan and the subsequent backtracking. Brown did not make many friends at that meeting but retirees can't vote so it may have no effect.

At the RTC EB meeting as usual there is some level of frustration over what I perceive to be a lack of militancy. Lots of complaints over Mulgrew's not calling on retirees who have passed numerous resos at their meetings yet are not allowed to present them at the DA. For instance, we have a dozen vacancies on the RCT delegates - we elected 300 in June 2024, this shutting out every Unity retiree. We now have a dozen vacancies (deaths, dementia, people who didn't expect to win) and people waiting to replace them but the Unity machine claims we don't have a right to replace them. By "we" I mean the RTC Exec Bd. Read this from the RTC constitution:

"A vacancy in the exec bd OR in an elective office -- the DA delegates are an elective office - shall be filled by the Exec Bd. And we have been filling vacancies on the EB and are in the process of holding an election on March 3 - my Bday -- for a vacancy with 4 candidates running. We held nominations yesterday. What bothers me is the apathy of the people on the board over the vacant delegates. We get a ruling we can't replace them and Bennett Fischer just seems to accept that ruling without pushing back - or if he pushes back it is never public. Like how about putting this in his newsletter to the 70k members or at the very least in his CL report at RTC meetings which are attended by about 1200 people in person and remote?

How about amending the constitution to protect democracy from Unity domination if they win next year's election? No sense of urgency. The focus is on the political battles outside the union. There is a front group of sorts called the Labor Solidarity Group and I support that work though I chose to engage in political activity with other groups. I think RTC needs to focus on the UFT.

Then I hear some officers argue that a major goal of ours is to pressure the union and suggestions to bring in union officials to address the RTC and give them a forum makes me want to scream. I see our purpose is to organize to change the union leadership - (and the decisions to align with ARISE and split the retirees was a massive failure. I don't have the time to go into the details but will follow up.)

Unity has hijacked our meetings either from the floor with their former retiree delegates or by taking time and not giving up the mic. Unity hates Marianne with Leo Casey leading the insane charge but they are joined in backbiting by some in the leadership of RTC who seem to resent the fact she not only made it possible for us to win but also helped ABC win retiree votes over ARISE by a 3-1 margin. This lack of unity among retirees will almost guarantee Unity's election next year.

See: Are We Union? I hear both sides - Arthur Goldstein

The RTC EB is dominated by New Action -- I'm guessing at least 6 or the 25 - maybe more. ABC has Arthur and me and a few neutrals. The upcoming election with 4 candidates will indicate whether the RTC leadership is interested in forming a united front for the chapter election. But either way, the Unity machine needs to be challenged and Bennett wants to play neutral. They clearly organize and all we do is react - and I react rather passionately by going after their throats and that seems to bother the "civility" crowd running RTC --- the old adage of bringing a feather to a knife fight.

I have other issues too over what has been a lack of transparency - almost more of a fear of our own delegates and supporters.

One bone of contention between the ABC crowd and the RTC leadership was over their initial support for the new healthcare plan with some of the leaders offering full-throated endorsement. It was the ABC people who pointed out danger signs and here Daniel Alicea at EONYC pointed out in this post today how part of the deal is giving our data to the United Health Monster.

We Warned You: The MLC’s Quiet Push to Hand Over Our Prescription Data to United Healthcare

The City and MLC's push to save an extra $100m in "healthcare cost savings" includes sharing your welfare fund prescription data and history with Big Healthcare's United Healthcare/UMR

Educators of NYC

Feb 11, 2026

UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS

2026-02-10T12:18:00.003-05:00

I was trying to write this up last night but was seduced by the Olympics. Tonight or tomorrow morning I will report on the 1PM RTC Exec Bd meeting which I am leaving for ASAP. Oh, and before I forget - they served shrimp scampi last night.

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, 12:15 PM

Leaving my warm and cozy Rockaway abode, I reluctantly attended only my second exec bd of the school year last night because I had an early appointment at MSK to have my port flushed. I love a port flushing and if you don't know what that means, you're lucky. It was a brisk 15 block walk from my apartment but not that cold. I walked back downtown through Grand Central where I had coffee and an almond croissant before stopping at Neuhaus chocolate for a Valentine gift. Now that I've taken care of the important stuff, here is a report on the info-packed UFT Exec Bd. meeting last night.

LeRoy Barr made an appearance and was greeted warmly. I posted Rebel Teacher's analysis where the author surmised LeRoy was pushed out in a dispute with never teacher Ellie Engler who was backed by Randi Weingarten. Or possibly LeRoy just got sick of dealing with the lunatic fringe at 52 Broadway. No longer being a member of the UFT Exec Bd, he spoke from the mic in the ten-minute pre-meeting time. He followed former TRS pension rep David Kazansky, who was pushed out of the position two years ago when he was in Unity, but is now running as an independent and was endorsed by ABC.

Kazansky announcement.
A Better Contract-UFT unanimously endorses David Kazansky for NYC TRS Trustee; Ben Morgenroth tapped as alternate: We must put rank and file educators back in charge of $130 Billion pension fund. David Kazansky is the real and only choice.

David, who is back teaching 5th grade in the Bronx, was also greeted warmly by his former Unity comrades. To learn more, visit: http://wetrustdavid.org

LeRoy enthusiastically endorsed his successor, Mike Sill and said there have been only 10 Secretaries in the history of the UFT, the longest running being Jules Kolodny under Shanker - yes, Virginia, I'm old enough to have been there when Kolodny was Secretary. I'm sure Mike Sill is looking forward to breaking Kolodny's record. The betting line on Sill being the next UFT President immediately went up at Kalshi. Get your bets in now.

Speculation began on who would replace Sill as Assistant Secretary, a road to UFT President in the past (Randi and I think Sandy occupied that position). Some said Mary Vaccaro who is already a member of AdCome and would also need replacing. Others are thinking more widely. One dark horse: Emily James, who is serving her first term on the Ex Bd as a high school rep who no longer teaches but is based at 52 as a key Mulgrew advisor.

The other issue that came up was the endorsement of Tom Brown to run against Kazansky for TRS rep that will come up at tomorrow's Delegate Assembly where expect the Unity crowd to immediately start petitioning as soon as the endorsement goes through. Some David supporters will be there to petition for him. IMPORTANT NOTE: Anyone who signs both petitions will have their sig cancelled. One thousand sigs are needed but it pays to get double because there will be cancellations. There has been only one TRS election in the past 40 years - that was 2 years ago when Ben Morgenroth ran. ED NOTES covered that election.

Unity Caucus sent out this update at 8PM, one hour after the Ex Bd endorsed Brown:

The Unity Caucus Steering Committee met and voted to recommend endorsing Tom Brown for another term as trustee of the Teachers’ Retirement System. That recommendation was then brought to the full Unity Caucus membership and just after 8:00 p.m., members voted to endorse Tom Brown.

I guess they had to mimic ABC. It's nice to see Unity no longer hiding that they exist as a machine to run the UFT.

After the meeting I congratulated Sill and Barr, both of whom I like personally and have had a good relationship with. LeRoy mentioned that in his Facebook post with his pics, he made sure to include the late Ellen Fox. He also said he disagreed with Rebel Teacher's analysis that he was pushed out. I said I didn't totally agree either - I think Unity (which LeRoy headed) will miss him as will the UFT and his retirement weakens the machine. But on the other hand, I think in the short term the Mulgrew repression and firings and threats has brought people into line in maybe stopped the Amy Arundell like defections. We will see.

and I could see the case for his leaving at this time though did mention that some couldn't understand why someone so relatively young and making so much money would give it up. "Living life," he said. "They say you should have the same number of retirement as working years." Hmmm. That's a tough one - I need another dozen years. Maybe LeRoy will make it. I asked why he wasn't at the RTC meeting last week and he said he will be there in the future. Some think he might be a candidate for Ch ldr against Bennett Fischer next year. If LeRoy is serious about retiring it makes no sense for him to take on that position. The Kalshi betting has been on Sterling Roberson, with a minority going for Leo Casey, who is not loved within Unity but is spending his time attacking Marianne Pizzitola who is a hero even to some Unity after saving them money.

Read her latest response to Leo:

There is one highfalutin blogger named Leo Casey who insists retirees are in unions. And not matter the case law, the PERB or OCB cases, City, State or Federal we post against that theory- he resists. This is not debatable; retirees are not in union collective bargaining units. They are in retiree chapters like auxiliary members and their own bylaws show that their DA can vote with the support of their Executive Board as to whom can be included - but they are not full members. Even though retirees can vote - not every retirees’ vote counts as ONE full vote per person of more than 23,500 retirees vote as Arthur my retired union brother wrote yesterday in, “Are We Union.” The reason he fears the UFT losing the support of retirees is money. It’s why Leo attacks our organizations’ grassroots funding, our legal strategy, and the support we have because we are literally front and center fighting for retirees. Leo cannot say that about the UFT, like I cannot say that about DC37. This will be a future post very soon!
So let’s dive into history.

Some UFT History and the Retiree Connection
Marianne Pizzitola
Feb 10

Norm Update - so you know I'm still here

2026-02-09T15:37:00.004-05:00

Officer Vacancy

The executive board declared a vacancy for the position of Secretary, with nominations expected at the February 9 meeting and, if necessary, an election on February 23rd.

Monday, Feb. 9

UFT Update: LeRoy Retirement Implications, Mike Sill to replace him, Leo Casey Goes Wilding at RTC Meeting, Kazansky Runs for TRS (ABC endorses) and more goodies

Oy! So much happening and so far behind.

Leroy Barr's retirement came home to roost when I called his office to sign up for tonight's Exec Bd meeting and was told to email Mike Sill who is replacing LeRoy.Leaving soon for UFT Exec Bd meeting so this will be short - for a change. So all that headline stuff -- later.

Let's see what's been going on going back to the last time I blogged on Jan. 23

The Outrage: Blogging About Nothing, Blogging About Everything - Or Not Blogging at All

But I did post a guest blog last week:

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

Jan. 23 rally at Union Sq. and walk to Bryant Park.

Jan. 24 - Botanic Garden guide training review of conservatories and a Naked Tree walk -- i teen temp. 12 layers helped.

Wife B-Day Jan. 25 ruined by snowstorm -- no fancy restaurant but frozen pizza. 3 bouts of shoveling with wife yelling for me to hire someone.

Jan. 26 - more shoveling in the cold.

Jan. 27 - ditto after Plantorama trade show postponed at BBG.

Jan. 28 - Brooklyn Museum Monet in Venice - super crowded. Now that I'm taking painting classes - how the hell did he do that?

Jan. 28 - ABC Retiree zoom.

Jan. 29 - BBG - Plantarama trade show- all day - as volunteer had to be there at 8AM - sort of cold.

Jan. 31 -- BBG Guide training full day - I do presentation on one of conservatories.

Feb. 1 -- wife at all day mah jong in Manhattan. I read papers and watch TV - and some shoveling.

Feb. 3 -- Rockaway Theatre Co with construction crew - we build 4 12'x6' flats for Man of La Mancha and store them outside since Pre-teen show opens on Friday.

Feb. 4 - David Kazinsky announces he is running for Teacher Retirement System in May election. Ben Morgenroth running as alternate.

Feb. 5 - Retired Teacher Meeting at 52 -- I could write 3 blogs.

Feb. 5 - ABC who ran for Exec Bd have Zoom with David and Ben as guests and endorse them.

Feb. 6 Back to Rockaway Theater - most work outside. Later that night attend pre-teen opening of Annie Jr. Olympics Opening night. Study for presentation next day at BBG.
Feb. 7 - BBG guide training canceled due to cold.

Feb. 8 - coldest day - still had to go to gym. Morning political shows. Olympics and Super Bowl.

Kazansky announcement.

In the meantime, Arthur and Marianne have been prolific as they both mash Leo Casey's Pizzitola Derangement Syndrome.

Marianne responds to Casey PDS: Hypocrisy Roars

And Arthur hits Unity for their performance at the Feb. 5 RTC meeting:

Unity Says, "No 1096 for You!"

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Union Membership, Representation & Retirees

Employees NEED Unions for collective bargaining for wages and work place safety. Retirees are no longer employed and do not need the union for bargaining.

Marianne Pizzitola

Feb 6

READ IN APP

Ill-educated blogger Leo Casey, pontificated on labor law recently and asserted that claims regarding retiree union membership are “fabricated” and contrary to law. That assertion mischaracterizes both the substance of the issue and the nature of the arguments that have been raised.

A Real Choice for NYC TRS Members: Why I'm Running for Trustee

What’s at stake for 230,000 public educators and $130 billion in retirement assets

David Kazansky

Feb 4

∙

Guest post

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

2026-02-02T23:04:00.002-05:00

This anonymous missive dropped over the Ed Notes headquarters' transom. I don't agree with all of it but am too lazy to go into the details. I will comment in a future post. I did some light editing to smooth out some edges.

Unity’s Grip Weakens, Members Left Behind!

By Rebel Teacher

February 2, 2026

Leroy Barr Abruptly Out—

Leroy Barr, long-time Staff Director and head of the Unity Caucus, suddenly announced his retirement at the last DA, saying it would be his last one. No warning. No fanfare. Just poof, gone. Even Mulgrew expressed some surprise at the time and place of the announcement.

Behind the polished speeches, the Unity leadership machine has been showing cracks going back to the major Unity defections in last year's elections where Unity received 54% of the vote, the lowest in history. Mulgrew responded, like the authoritarian he is, with firings and threats.

Was he pushed or did he jump?

LeRoy Barr was considered a powerhouse in the UFT, one of the three men in the room along with Mulgrew and Mike Sill, with many considering Barr as a possible successor to Mulgrew. So his sudden retirement came as a shock given his relatively young age and high level position - and his salary. Speculation began soon after his announcement as to whether he was going willingly or was pushed.

There have been leaks about internal conflict at the top levels of the UFT to the extent that even ex UFT president and current AFT President Randi Weingarten intervened, not on the side of Barr, thus leading to his leaving.

Purges are designed to use fear of going back to the classroom for full-time UFT employees and loss of income to part-timers as a method of control while attempting to manage the membership. If a certain age, retirement is an option.

Membership interests ignored as Leadership get the perks and Members get the short end.

For everyday members, this is just another reminder that Unity’s leadership engages in internal power plays while the members suffer.

Meanwhile: The promised Para Pay is still a mess and Tier 6 reforms are stalled.

LeRoy Barr has been a leader of a prominent African-American contingent in Unity, including officers Janella Hinds, Karen Alford and Leo Gordon, and the influential Anthony Harmon, among others. But with the subtraction of Barr, the real decision-makers in the UFT comes down to Mulgrew, Emily James, Mary Vaccaro, Mike Sill and non-UFT member and never a teacher, Ellie Engler, who seems to have won out in her battle with Barr. Racial dynamics tend not to be subtle.

Members are right to ask who really runs this union, whose voices matter, and whether the broader national attack on DEI and racial equity is creeping into UFT decision-making. When leadership won’t answer these questions, distrust fills the vacuum.

Bennett, Fischer, and the Retiree Chapter

UFT Retiree Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer, and the Retiree Advocate caucus which took power in the last chapter election continue to struggle as leaders of the chapter. Instead of going to the members, being transparent, and using their position to expose Unity’s mismanagement, they close ranks and hope Mulgrew tosses them a few crumbs. Their decision to run in the UFT general election with the ARISE coalition, instead of being neutral, led to a split among retirees that has still not been healed. They’re supposed to build power for retirees—but instead, they seem to fear Mulgrew and Unity retaliation if they get too militant in challenging them. Instead of reminding retirees at every opportunity that the Unity retirees worked hard to move them out of Medicare and into Medicate Advantage, they play footsie with the leadership even when they are pushed around and instead of going public write strongly worded letters, ala Chuck Shumer and the Democratic Party.

The year and a half old retiree chapter leadership seems to be exhibiting the same pattern we see in Unity: secrecy, closed-door meetings, and a focus on protecting the RTC leadership from criticism, rather than fighting for those who elected them. Some RTC members are getting increasingly restive, while leadership scrambles to preserve its control with performative feel-good virtue signalling resolutions.

TRS Teachers Trustee Election: Time to Stand Up

Here’s where it gets interesting.

In last May's union-wide election, Unity won with 54 percent of the vote, their lowest total in history, not exactly a mandate. Just as we watch the outcomes of bi-elections, like the recent Democratic win in Texas in a district where Trump won by 17 points, a 34 point flip, we also have elections in the UFT that can be a sign of member sentiment. And don't forget the massive shift in the 2024 retiree chapter election where Unity dropped from 70 to 37%. But if the RA/RTC leadership doesn't get its act together, this margin won't hold and Unity threatens to regain control.

The UFT elects three members to the Teacher Retirement System to three year terms with a member being elected every year in early May, with the election being run in the schools by DOE, not UFT, rules. Unity has controlled all these positions for decades with no opposition. There has been only one election and that was two years ago. Last year Unity petition challenges managed to get the opposition candidate knocked off the ballot. This year promises to see a serious campaign and the outcome will be a serious sign of just how much Unity's grip has weakened. Look for announcements in the coming days.

Questions we should be asking:

Will A Better Contract run a candidate?

Will independent members finally push back against Unity’s control?

Will ABC, New Action, and MORE work together for the betterment of our union?

This isn’t just another vote—it’s a chance to say enough. Unity can’t keep running things behind closed doors while members get ignored.

Bottom Line

Unity leadership keeps purging, scheming, and protecting itself. Meanwhile, members lose out on pay, benefits, and even basic wins. The cracks are showing—and the upcoming trustee election could be a significant moment where members take back some control.

If leadership won’t represent members, maybe it’s time we elect people who will.

Ed Notes Online

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

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.

Para Pay on Agenda, 750 Unity Loyalists Junket in Washington for AFT convention, American History - Always Oligarchy

Council Sets Vote on $10K Perk for Paraprofessionals

The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy

Here's an article about Jeffrey Winters (Author)

Nepotism and Cronyism: Mulgrew Undermined UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election

Sunday, July 17, 2016

How Mulgrew Undermined the UFT Pension Dept., Broken Promises Over TRS Election - Part 1

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

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

The New Socialist Revolution: Zohran Mamdani's remarkable night

UFT Retiree Chapter Update: Mulgrew Appears, Bennett Reports, Fix Retiree Benefits June 28 zoom, Unity Clan Smashes TRS Reso

The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About

UFT backs Alex Bores in NY-12

RTC Meeting--Michael Mulgrew Opposes Union Division (Unless He Creates It): Exception to every rule, Arthur Goldstein, Jun 16, 2026

RTC Meeting--Michael Mulgrew Opposes Union Division (Unless He Creates It): Exception to every rule, Arthur Goldstein, Jun 16, 2026

UFT News and Views: RTC Ex Bd, TRS Election, Electronic Voting

Only ABC members Chad Hamilton, Daniel Alicea and Katie Anskat voted no on Unity’s restrictive voting plan.

It’s outlandish to leave six thousand signatures on the table.

Sign the Petition & Contact Legislators

Read Our Full Investigation

Mulgrewism is the UFT Version of Trumpism MAGA

UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew - Jan. 6, 2022

TRS Election Count - No Final Results Until June 2 - re-edited May 28

UFT Para Speaks Out - At some point, we have to ask ourselves: When is enough, ENOUGH?

Why I’m speaking up for us!

TRS Election Pre-Outcome Analysis

ABC TRS Town Hall: May 11 @ 7pm -- A Better Contract

This Monday (5/11) at 7PM: The TRS Town Hall Every UFT Member Needs to Attend

UFT DA and RTC Back to Back Meetings: The Stockholm Syndrome

Unbelievable--April UFT Delegate Assembly: Michael Mulgrew and his Unity ducklings instruct us on just what we are and are not allowed to know.

At RTC Meeting, We Help Everyone But Ourselves: We've entirely dropped the ball.

David vs Unity Goliath in TRS Election as Fear and Loathing Works as Unity Delivers 30K Petition Sigs for Tom Brown

Menin to Mulgrew: Send Para Protesters to Mamdani Event, RTC Exec Bd Meeting Today

Norm Update: Where have I been, Where Am I going?

Retired Teacher Chapter Exec Bd meets gets sad news, Analysis of Texas Dem Primary - Surprise - Real Progressive Won, Is Iran winning?

Respect Means Retirement Security... David Kazansky Mar 7

RIP Daniel: Daniel Harkavy passes: Arthur Goldstein- Mar 06, 2026

Cults: Unity Caucus Channels Republicans as UFT Delegate Assembly Echoes Trump State of the Union,TRS Election Adds Another Purged Unity Defector

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow While I Shovel and Shovel and Shovel and...

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 2 Script Revealed, TRS Election Staged Endorsement

Hypocrisy Roars: Leo roars, but there is no substance; it is purely a spectacle scream for relevance when that ship long sailed. Proud the retired unionists saw through that at the RTC meeting this past week. Bravo! Marianne Pizzitola Feb 08, 2026

It sure looks like it.

UFT Delegate Assembly and RTC Meeting Updates: Part 1 The Thread Runs Through It - How can we save the city money?

Daniel hits all the bases in this post Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC

Protecting Medicare and Social Security not that vital to UFT bosses after all.

While the Ground Was Being Given Away, There Was No Fight

James Eterno Warned Us — In Real Time

All Roads Lead to Randi

Retired Teacher Exec Bd Meeting and Upcoming DA - At least there are potato chips

The City and MLC's push to save an extra $100m in "healthcare cost savings" includes sharing your welfare fund prescription data and history with Big Healthcare's United Healthcare/UMR

UFT Exec Bd Update: Kazansky Announses for TRS, LeRoy says Goodbye, Sill Replaces Him, Tom Brown Endorsed for TRS

A Better Contract-UFT unanimously endorses David Kazansky for NYC TRS Trustee; Ben Morgenroth tapped as alternate: We must put rank and file educators back in charge of $130 Billion pension fund. David Kazansky is the real and only choice.

Norm Update - so you know I'm still here

Employees NEED Unions for collective bargaining for wages and work place safety. Retirees are no longer employed and do not need the union for bargaining.

What’s at stake for 230,000 public educators and $130 billion in retirement assets

Inside UFT Update: Unity’s Grip Weakens as Members Are Left Behind - By Rebel Teacher

Daniel hits all the bases in this post
Why “Fix Tier 6” Stops at 25/30 — and Not 25/55: Because 25/55 was already given away in 2009. All roads lead back to Randi Weingarten. - Educators of NYC