Why I can no longer support Mulgrew / Unity

By Gregory Di Stefano 33 year teacher, 46 year  UFT member

The last decade has seen a serious deterioration of UFT members’ rights such as: not being able to grieve unfair observations, inaccurate letters in the file, abuse by some incompetent and corrupt principals, the unfair treatment of probationary teachers, etc. Why has this happened? Over 10 years ago a change was made by the Unity /UFT leadership to have District Reps appointed by the President instead of being elected by the Chapter Leaders in the schools, our previous practice. Mike Mulgrew has appointed only District Reps belonging to Unity. The effect of this has been to silence the voices of the teachers in the schools. District Reps are no longer accountable to the teachers and take their orders from Mike Mulgrew even if the effect is to put teachers at risk. As we go forward we need a strong Union that is more democratic, not less, and truly represents the needs of the members.

UFT elections are being held this spring. In the last election three years ago only 18% of the active membership voted. You can make a difference. Please consider joining the New Action/MORE UFT slate to return our Union to the members