Pensions, Healthcare, and Politics. UFT Executive Board Minutes 2-24-2025

A moment of silence was held for a teacher at James Madison High School who died unexpectedly.

Open Mic:

Kate Connors spoke on NYHA, speaking about misinformation that had come out of UFT meetings that the author of the NYHA had himself corrected. She suggested that the problem was not with the bill, but with UFT leadership being stuck on MLC model that saw ‘better’ benefits for members New York residents (including other union members) who aren’t in MLC unions, even when the NYHA benefits would be better not just for non-UFT members but for UFT members as well. No more premiums, copays, network limitations, etc, would be good for all.

Adam Marcus spoke about the need for a centralized organizing arm within the UFT to fight back against attacks from the Trump administration. He explained that while smaller groups like members of his own school were fighting, the current moment requires coordinated actions. He noted that the AFT planning for an event on March 4 would not be enough.

Reports

Minutes approved.

Mary Vacarro discussed the imminent deadline of the Child Abuse workshop. She recommended using UFT workshops and noted that some who have taken the child abuse workshop in other venues have had trouble seeing the results end up on their TEACH account.

Leo Gordon discussed imminent CTE application deadlines and said people could reach out to him if they were having any issues. He also mentioned the CTE awards were happening soon.

Michael Mulgrew spoke about the political situation with the Mayor. He said the Para bill is moving. He also spoke of the state budget, which is quiet because of everything going on in the City. Tier 6 is a big focus. He noted that schools should be getting money related to hiring. He discussed a big contract fight for the UFT Federation of Nurses, which might end up in a strike. LeRoy Barr said the nurses are the strongest unit in the UFT, and we would need to support them if things escalated.

Questions

Nick Bacon asked about Gov. Hochul’s budget proposal to reduce pension spending, seeking clarification and whether it was something that we should be concerned about, and if so, if it was something we were dealing with.

Tom Brown responded, somewhat hostilely, suggesting that bad information was out there. He said that no one was borrowing money from the pension system and that the piece of legislation was merely a correction or ‘smoothing out’ of previous actuarial estimates. He suggested that during a period of time, contributions were overstated, and that this move was about recuing volatility. It has no baring on pensions of current retirees or future retirees and has no bearing in calculations. He went on to discuss how the TRS had been around since 1917 and had never missed a payment, again, going on a bit of a sarcastic diatribe over bad information out there.

Luli Rodriguez asked about a report cited from Mark Levine that our pension money might be used to fund housing.

Tom Brown again responded with a somewhat sarcastic speech laced about how our pensions are safe.

Ed Calamia asked about actions to help the nurses, but Barr mentioned that much would be during the workday.

District Reports

Adam Shapiro – report missed.

Another report was made about a Dominican Heritage Month celebration in Queens.

Rose Thompson spoke about an upcoming conference.

Anthony Harmon spoke about the political director sending hundreds to the Black and Latino Caucus event in Albany to speak about things like Tier 6.

DeShana Barker: spoke about a film there was still time to register rfor.

Janella Hinds spoke about Herstory month and a mentorship event for women.

Daniel Rodriguez spoke about the Marla Portalatin scholarship. He also spoke about an upcoming panel that would include Anthony Harmon about protecting our students.

LeRoy Barr closed the meeting, reminding about Lobby Day in Albany.