Yes, our teeth matter! -- Mulgrew launches his union re-election campaign with long awaited, highly demanded, "new and improved" Welfare Fund benefits.
Our voices, activism and votes for change, accountability and transparency DO THE WORK! Mulgrew not afraid to pivot by pandering.
Today, Michael Mulgrew will present “new and improved” UFT welfare fund benefits at our UFT town hall.
Yet, don’t get it twisted and think this is coming from an altruistic or preemptive place because there are reasons for this:
1. Revelations that the UFTWF is now sitting on over 800 million dollars. A bloated fund that seems to be growing exponentially since 2014 as city unions have agreed to take hundreds of millions from the city’s health stabilization fund for their own patronage-ridden welfare funds. This is not what the stabilization fund was designed for and its causing other healthcare services to diminish, as a result.
https://jd2718.org/2024/03/28/uft-welfare-fund-nest-egg-bigger-than-most-nests/
2. Pressure internally from concerned UFT everyday, rank and file delegates and activists publicly asking why top leaders are hoarding millions when many of our benefits, especially dental, are being diminished — affecting reimbursements and a revolving door of many providers leaving the network.
This includes a resolution his Unity caucus party initially voted down, and even mocked, to pass a resolution at the delegate assembly to improve our dental benefits. Yet, the reso was voted down by a difference of only 3 votes!
3. After an overwhelming rebuke by UFT retirees who voted out Mulgrew’s administrative Unity caucus out of power from their chapter’s leadership because of his support behind forcing them into predatory, inferior Medicare Advantage … the much-maligned Mulgrew is now reeling and seeking to pander as he faces a tsunami of discontent in an union election year that could mean his Unity caucus is finally toppled after 60 years of unilateral control.
We know that Mulgrew made a dramatic about face on his brainchild Medicare Advantage program a week after the ground-shaking retiree chapter election.
Jonathan Halabi, longtime union activist and former UFT chapter leader and executive board member, wrote a great blog post about all of this here:
https://jd2718.org/2024/09/10/better-dental-elections-have-consequences/
4. After Mulgrew and his henchman, Goeff Sorkin of the WF, told us that the existing money in the fund was needed to cover out-of-control prescription drug costs and as a reserve fund if there is litigation against the city over healthcare… today their “best welfare fund in the country” will get a reboot.
Let’s wait and see what they bring with them today.
But remember. Our voices matter.
And, yes, our teeth matter.
Demanding change, accountability and transparency matters. Standing up for our hard earned benefits and compensation matters.
More importantly, our votes matter.
Vote him and his administrative bureaucrats out this coming spring, if we want to take back our union.
Remember— WE ARE THE UFT.
*** Enter paid Unity UFT staffers in the comment section below with their talking points emailed to them today ****
Response here:
https://uftunity.substack.com/p/uft-welfare-fund-under-attack-unmasking
Geof Sorkin
Interesting you noted that the bloated wf can be used to fight litigation against the city to keep our promised traditional Medicare/supplemental. Since we were promised this and the Orgnycretirees has won multiple court cases, it seems unethical to use our wf to keep litigating against ALL NYC Public Service Retirees.