On May 8, YOU decide who represents UFT Members on the pension board. I hope you choose Ben. 

This May, everyday UFT members have the rare chance to make a choice for themselves. Most of the time, decision-making in our union is executed behind closed doors by a handful of leaders. Some of those leaders, at least, are elected, albeit barely, in elections that intentionally limit exposure of members to non-incumbent candidates and discourage turnout to an absolute minimum. But most of those leaders are hired staffers, who, through a Tammany-like patronage system, are selected and kept primarily based on their loyalty to top brass. If UFT’s officers had something to show for this – raises that met inflation, healthcare that wasn’t deteriorating and on the verge of collapse, or a pension system that wasn’t profoundly unequal for union members, that would be one thing. Instead, we have a record of losing, at least where everyday members are concerned. (Union officials who play ball, it turns out, are doing just fine.)

The choice which you uniquely have is to select your representative in the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). That’s a big deal, because the people we elect to serve there (there are three) have an impact on what happens with our pensions. They also have a lot to do with what narrative goes out to members in pension clinics. For years, for instance, many of those representatives told us that Tier 6 was fine. And they did little to nothing to stop Tier 6 or encourage members to organize around fixing it. That’s changed recently, but not enough.

On May 8^th,  you will have a choice to vote for one of two candidates. One candidate, with the help of the caucus that let pensions deteriorate for new members, has Goliath’s advantage. The other, with the help of free-thinking UFT members like you, can still win.

The ‘David’ candidate goes by the name of Ben Morgenroth. And Ben, in my opinion, and in New Action’s opinion, is the right choice. He, unlike his competitor, is an actual member of Tier 6. He is a teacher, not a staffer, and thus holds no separate UFT pension to shield him from the brutal inadequacies of our subpar retirement system. While, for years, UFT leadership more or less appointed TRS representatives who told us that Tier 6 was basically fine, it was Ben, and Ben alone, who took it upon himself to do the math of how much we’re losing: almost a decade of our lives and over a million dollars. Ben, not his competitor, faces that reality. And Ben, a Brown-educated applied mathematician with significant experience in the financial sector, has not only the drive–but the competence–to do whatever is in his power to get Tier 6 fixed. 

 Your appointed district representative might send you or your chapter leader an email saying this has already been decided. They’ll say that the UFT has endorsed Christina McGrath. McGrath, it is true, was endorsed by the UFT Executive Board, which is 93% composed of members of her caucus. McGrath, it is also true, was endorsed by the Delegate Assembly (DA), which is partially composed of UFT staffers and partially composed of rank-and-file members. Yet, the DA is so well-controlled by members of one staffer-dominated caucus that it recently voted down a resolution seeking measures to improve our woefully inadequate dental reimbursement rates. And anyways – what about you? Isn’t the highest decision-making body in the UFT the membership itself? Aren’t we best able to understand what the UFT wants through a vote open to all UFT members, rather than a select few? Can’t we call the Executive Board and Delegate Assembly endorsements what they are – attempts at electioneering? 

Indeed, because of that endorsement, made, I must say parenthetically, using outright misinformation (including a UFT vice president claiming they didn’t know Ben’s name despite having been present at a speech he gave two days prior), the Unity-controlled UFT was able to fund their candidate’s campaign with our dues. They were also able to freely use our communication systems to tell every UFT member in their email system to vote for her. Ben, on the other hand, was on his own. And yet, he was still able to get well over 1,000 physical signatures to get his name on the ballot. And he was able to do so, because he’s frankly the right candidate for the job.

But don’t make my word for it.

If you aren’t sure who you want to vote for yet and want a chance to meet the candidates, come to this townhall on May 2. Both Ben and Christina were invited, though only time will tell if McGrath shows up. Either way, you deserve to know what each candidate offers in terms of representing you on TRS. You deserve to be able to make an informed choice come May 8.