NYC healthcare. Mulgrew threatens to sue a a rank and file member over a parody. AOC steps up again.

Michael Mulgrew, president of the New York teachers’ union, the UFT, is a near parody of an out of touch bully of a union leader.

As a rank and file unionist my entire working life, I have seen my share of these kind of men and women.

The UFT is the New York City affiliate of the American Federation of teachers. The AFT is the second largest teacher union in the country. Randi Weingarten is the national president. The Chicago Teachers Union is our local affiliate.

For the past few years the city of New York, with the full support of Mulgrew and other union bosses. have tried to impose a shitty healthcare Medicare Advantage program on retired public school teachers and other public workers.

There has been plenty of rank and file pushback.

My friend, teacher, local union activist and blogger Arthur Goldstein wrote and published what was a satiric parody of a Mulgrew letter on the topic.

Mulgrew has threatened to sue Arthur.

Here is a link to the parody letter.

This is a teacher union leader diving to a new level.

I’ve had my battles with the leadership of the National Education Association and the Illinois Education Association. I’ve had the microphone turned off at conventions. I’ve been banned from the state union’s web site. But never threatened with a law suit.

I guess Arthur’s parody cut a little too close to the bone.

Meanwhile, progressive Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has come out blasting New York Mayor Eric Adams who has backed the healthcare shift.

“It’s a bad decision. It is not good,” Ocasio-Cortez said about the change in health coverage for retirees during a virtual town hall Thursday.

“This is something I oppose. We are in this fight with you and we oppose this shift.”

Recently retired New York teacher union activist Jonathan Halabi posted this on his blog:

More seriously, someone in the leadership decided to threaten legal action against a leader of this union. That’s a pretty extreme step. It did not come up at the Delegate Assembly – the highest decision making body of the UFT. It was not brought forward as a proposal at the Executive Board, which makes decisions between Delegate Assemblies, and refers proposals to the Assembly. It does not appear in the Administrative Committee (AdCom) minutes. Suing union members, or threatening suits, is a big deal – there is no way the lawyers decided to do this on their own.

So where was the decision taken? And by whom? And why is there no record? Secret committees and backroom decision-making should not be the norm in our union.

Fighting for union democracy ain’t bean bag.