New Action /UFT Flyer, May DA

New Action/UFT

…a caucus of the United Federation of Teachers

615 77^th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11209

New Action.org      Facebook: UFT/New Action  Caucus

          May 2024

          BREAKING NEWS         BREAKING NEWS      BREAKING NEWS   

WE WON!    Judge Lyle Frank has upheld the right of retirees to retain their current traditional Medicare plus Senior Care supplement plan. This is a victory for UFTers and the city’s 250,00 retirees.

ATTENTION UFT RETIREES  –  OUR CHAPTER ELECTION IS HERE

Vote for BENNETT FISCHER for RTC chair!  Vote for the entire RETIREE ADVOCATE SLATE! Three years ago, at the outset of the last RTC election, UFT members were unaware of the plan negotiated in secret by the City and the leadership of the Municipal Labor Committee to move retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan. Why keep 250,000 retirees in the dark? The answer was simple. They anticipated the backlash they would receive if their plans were made public. It would reveal the wage deals made in 2014 and 2018 which would save NYC $600, 000,000 in savings, in perpetuity. And it raises the question – what union supports PRIVATIZATION? The shocking fact is that so many Unity stalwarts seem to have no problem endorsing a privatization plan. Would they stand with Pres. Mulgrew if he proposed the privatization of our public schools (“because it would be better than any education system we’ve ever seen”). Unity accuses RA of being a single issue group. Not true. But wouldn’t Medicare Advantage be enough reason to vote against the Mulgrew/Murphy team. And only this past week we learned about an endorsement for Assemblyman Micah Lasher in the 69^th Assembly District. Lasher is the former head of Student First New York, the leading advocacy group promoting the expansion of charter schools in New York. As the chief lobbyist for Mayor Michael Bloomberg he actively promoted policies that were anti- teacher and anti-union. His current campaign has received significant funding from individuals closely associated with the charter school movement. When New Action/UFT co-chair Nick Baacon took the floor to oppose Lasher’s endorsement, several Unity speakers rose to argue against him. The main thrust was that Lasher has reformed himself, his children attend public schools, and he is now an avowed supporter of public schools. But is it coincidental that this same Micah Lasher served as Director of Policy for Governor Hochul during a period when her office proposed the expansion of charter schools. Of yes, did we mention that Lasher was a main architect of moving our members into Tier 6.

VOTE FOR RETIREE ADVOCATE WHEN YOU GET YOUR BALLOT IN THE MAIL. DON’T THROW IT AWAY. YOU HAVE UNTIL JUNE 13 TO MAIL IT BACK.

NEW ACTION CO-CHAIRS, GREG DISTEFANO AND MICHAEL SHULMAN ARE RUNNING FOR VICE CHAIRS ON THE RETIREE ADVOCATE SLATE. BUT WE URGE A VOTE FOR THE ENTIRE SLATE.

VOTE FOR THE FIX PARA PAY SLATE

New Action/UFT endorses the slate of paraprofessionals running in the current chapter election. We are more than disappointed that Unity in a recent UFT Executive Board meeting argued against making pay parity a bargaining priority. Given the abysmal salary that paras earn and how important their work is in the classrooms we would expect more solidarity with our fellow colleagues. Unity Caucus members stated that we should not usurp the authority of paraprofessionals on the  negotiating committee. Many, if not all of those, speaking against that section of the resolution obviously do not know that New Action/UFT led over 100 schools in informal picketing in front of schools in the early 1990’s calling for salary parity. It was outside the purview of the negotiating committee (then about 30 members not todays 500 members). Salary parity became a negotiating priority and reality for the UFT thanks to New Action/UFT and a union leadership that embraced that rank and file demand.

CONGRATULATIONS  BEN MORGENROTH FOR A TRS RACE WELL-RUN!

New Action is proud of our Executive Board member Ben Morgenroth who stepped in to run for TRS member. This was the first contested election in over 30 years. Ben’s vote of 31% is significant since he made a priority of reforming Tier 6. The inferior Tier 6 pension has hardly been addressed by the Unity leadership in over 12 years. That appears to be changing since both candidates claimed changing Tier 6 is a must. Both New Action/UFT and Unity have taken the DOE to task for an incredibly, poorly run election where numerous election violations have been reported.

     Michael Shulman  (646) 286-3288       Nick Bacon  (860) 922-5833          Greg DiStefano  (718) 757-4552

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