Nice Work If You Can Get It

For weeks I've been hearing rumors about Martin Messner, Secretary-Treasurer of NYSUT, and outstanding proponent of Met Life auto insurance. I've been hearing that his home district, which contains far fewer teachers than my Queens high school alone, would not grant him a leave to continue working at NYSUT.

In a small district, it must be tough to hire people as leave replacements. They're hired for a while, but they can't make a career. They can't get tenure. Maybe the district got tired of not being able to hire a permanent teacher. Thus, no leave and Messner had to choose between his 240K gig at NYSUT and his 60K gig as a teacher.

It didn't sound like a very tough decision to me. Messner campaigned for this NYSUT job and has been at it for over three years now. He ran for re-election, so I suppose he likes the job. It's hard to imagine that he'd choose to go back to a much lower-paying teaching job.

Here's what my sources tell me--Messner has, in fact, gone back to the teaching job. He is deducting the teaching salary from his NYSUT salary and working nights and weekends for NYSUT. So his district pays him 60K and we get him for the bargain basement one-time-only price of 180K. (That's a lot better than some of the gigs UFT doles out. I've met people who'd pretty much sell their souls for 30 bucks an hour.)

My sources tell me that Messner will continue with this work until August, 2018. Let me be the first to say, as someone with no voice or vote in NYSUT, that it's a great honor to pay not only his salary, but also those of his colleagues (none of whom the majority of rank and file New York City high school teachers had any say about). Here's the thing, though--my source tells me that by waiting until August 2018, Messner will be vested in the NYSUT pension system.  So if Messner worked for four years, he's made almost a million dollars. Pension on that could be payable years from now, but must be worth pursuing. I imagine NYSUT officers provide well for themselves.

But then you ask yourself--who the hell walks out on a 240K job, a job that certainly must be stimulating and interesting, to take one for a quarter of the salary? I mean sure, it's conceivable that someone could just really, really love the classroom and want to get back to it. But if that's the case, why did Messner apply for a leave to work at NYSUT in the first place?

Messner could certainly have resigned his teaching job and stayed on at NYSUT. That's what Lee Cutler did, years ago. Lee is a great person, and getting to know him was one of the great benefits of running a quixotic campaign for Executive Vice President of NYSUT a few years ago. Lee is now a school principal, of all things. But I digress.

I love being a teacher. But I also love being a chapter leader. I love representing and fighting for my colleagues. I don't fault Messner at all for seeking and taking the NYSUT job. I'd certainly have done the same.

What I kept asking myself, though, is what on earth would make me give up a quarter-million dollar job for a 60K job? Does that make sense to you? It's not like the NYSUT gig entails working a chain gang or going down into a coal mine or something.

Why would I take a 75% pay cut to leave an interesting and challenging job? You know why I would do it? I would do it if I believed that Janus was going to eviscerate NYSUT. I would do it if I thought my NYSUT gig was so risky it might disappear at any time, and that I'd be better off with a secure 60K job to take care of my family.

Nonetheless, if I were a NYSUT officer, that would be a very dangerous message to send. I wouldn't do that. I'd be saying I had no faith in my organization. And by the way, if my job were treasurer, I'd also be a little uneasy sending out the message that my nights and weekends, after working full time as a teacher, were worth 180K a year.

Of course I'm neither a NYSUT officer nor a treasurer, so what could I know?

NYSUT Follows in the Footsteps of Rahm Emanuel

As usual, there's big fun in Chicago. Admin wants to make teachers fund their pensions, and pick up the 7% of the pension that the city had paid, when it felt like paying it. Essentially, this becomes a 7% pay cut. It's funny how, when contract time comes around, there are all these deals that aren't what they seem.

For example, if you get a 5% raise, and you work 5% more, you did not get a raise. Or if you get a raise and don't receive it for 10 years, it has considerably less value than it would if you'd gotten the money up front. Don't believe me? Try buying a car with the 30 or 40 K NYC owes you. Let me know how that works out.

It's pretty reprehensible that the Chicago government is treating its teachers this way. CTU President Karen Lewis says they will strike rather than accept pay cuts. This is what happens when an employer doesn't plan properly. It blames working people rather than itself, and asks them to suck it up, even while those in high places are highly compensated.

We all know what a loathsome reptile Rahm Emanuel is. We expect this sort of nonsense from him. It's pretty shocking, though, to see similar talk from NYSUT leadership, according to a letter NSYUT employees sent local presidents:

(it)...says that officers of the union are willing to "significantly reduce our benefits," in order to dodge a looming financial crisis.

While it doesn't detail how those benefits would be lowered, much of the letter talks about the growing costs of NYSUT pensions for its own retirees.

NYSUT, of course, is a union, and ought to take very seriously the priorities of union. But it appears NYSUT leadership has no problem circumventing local presidents to ask members for COPE money even as it takes aim at empoyee pensions. As PJSTA President Beth Dimino puts it:

From the same legislative department run by Andy Pallota that gave NY Teachers; tier 5, tier 6, 4 year tenure, and an evaluation system based 50% on flawed HST, they want more money from each of us to further screw ourselves! 

I actually sat across from Pallota at a 2014 forum in which he would not commit to opposing reformy Andrew Cuomo. In subsequent forums, I watched him evolve his message this way and that, but it ultimately didn't much matter. Indeed, though his Revive NYSUT slate promised they opposed Cuomo, they failed to do so in not one, but two primaries. They followed up by sitting on the fence in the election.

Now they're threatening their employees with the very same thing Rahm is holding over the CTU.  NYC is a very large union, and all contracts are negotiated by Michael Mulgrew and his merry band. There are a whole lot of smaller locals, like PJSTA, and the PSA supports them as they negotiate. From Beth Dimino:

PSA members are the people who provide field services to our locals. They are our labor relations specialists (LRS) and they help local presidents negotiate your contract and answer the day to day questions presidents face when they deal with Administration. I'm not exaggerating when I say that without our LRSs we'd be lost! 

A lot of small local members on Facebook have taken the PSA symbol as their profile pictures.

It is a fundamental responsibility of union leadership to improve conditions for its members. Clearly there are sometimes setbacks in negotiations. But I've been following NYSUT pretty closely for the last few years, and the only serious pension improvement over which its presided has been for the NYSUT officers themselves, who can accrue two pensions simultaneously. So even as teacher pensions are seriously degraded, Karen Magee and Martin Messner don't have to worry they won't be taken care of.

As for the rest of us, we're on our own. Worse, they have failed to set an example for governments, and are now looking to degrade the pensions of their own employees. After reviewing public documents submitted to the US Department of Labor, Harris Lirtzman, former NYC teacher and deputy New York State comptroller, attributes this to poor planning:

NYSUT funds its pension plan, largely, on a pay-as-you go basis: money comes in through member dues and employee contributions and goes right back out to pay current year pension benefits. NYSUT stays solvent only through a complex network of loans and transfers every year to and from the AFT and UFT.

I don't know what NYSUT does with all the dues we pay it, but that's less than encouraging. Are they indulging in some shell game with our money and expecting PSA to help pick up the tab?  Are the top people, like Magee and Pallota getting big bucks while the little people suffer? Are they, in fact, expecting working people to pick up the tab for their lavish lifestyles?

That's not what I'd call setting an example. We need to be better than the likes of Rahm and Cuomo. We need to show them that things can be done better.

For my money, NYSUT leadership is doing precisely the opposite.

Bonus: Here's the rapid response from NYSUT Unity. Note that they utilize ridicule rather than argument. These are the people running our union.

@TeacherArthurG One of your most biased and fact free posts ever. Congrats!In other news aliens have landed and they are in fact dinosaurs

— NYSUT Unity Caucus (@Unity_Today) August 20, 2016

Revive NYSUT Targets This Blog

I wrote a little blog about rumors I was hearing the other day, and it seems to have provoked a reaction from NYSUT bigshot Martin Messner:

@NYSUT despite some who claim "secret sources" there is no deal on APPR. Far from it. NYSUT APPR Taskforce 2 be released soon. #localcontrol
— NYSUTSec/Treasurer (@nysutTreasurer) January 26, 2015

It's actually fairly common to use unnamed sources, and fairly common for people to confirm or deny what they say. (In fact, it's also common to use quotation marks for actual quotes.) Here in NYC, it's pretty hard for us to accept at face value what we hear from leadership. For one thing, there's no disputing that our union is run by an elite, invitation-only group called the Unity Caucus that operates in secret and demands a loyalty oath for entrance.

There are, of course, perks to the loyalty oath. At the lowest rung of the ladder, you get to go to conventions and vote however Mulgrew instructs you. As you move up, you go from after-school gigs at UFT HQ all the way to the Holy Grail--a full-time gig that gets you out of the classroom altogether. So there are those of us who question the motivation of many of those who ostensibly represent us.

Some of us were particularly curious when Michael Mulgrew announced that we were going to fight on funding but not evaluation. I make no apology for trying to find out why the hell leadership declines to confront Cuomo's insane ideas, nor for sharing what I hear with readers of this blog.

Here's another leadership chestnut trotted out by Messner:

@nysut it's sad when people spend time trying to create internal divide when the enemy is at the gates. We must fight together 2 #stopCuomo
— NYSUTSec/Treasurer (@nysutTreasurer) January 26, 2015

This is exactly what UFT invariably says to those of us who oppose their secretive machine, and the degradation of our profession over which it's presided, contract after contract. We all have to stick together, they repeat, and anyone who disagrees needs to sit down and shut up.

Those of us who believe in transparency and democracy find that unacceptable. It's always time to oppose Bloomberg, or Cuomo, or whoever we've failed to oppose in the election. It's always time to stand as one. Except, for example, when leadership makes Bill Gates keynote at a convention. Or when Messner participates in a coup to topple sitting NYSUT leaders. That's OK, somehow. Should there be yet another coup, in which, say, Messner takes the presidency from Karen Magee, I'm sure that would be fine too.

And make no mistake, Revive NYSUT, despite its explicit pledge in the campaign literature above, failed to oppose Andrew Cuomo in the last election. Brilliant and inspirational Zephyr Teachout sought the WFP nomination, and could have posed a strong threat to Andrew Cuomo. NYSUT did not support her. Had it chosen to do so, Cuomo would have faced a real problem. NYSUT also failed to endorse Teachout in the Democratic primary. These are odd actions for people who claim to oppose Cuomo. I oppose Cuomo, and I supported Teachout. I contributed to her campaign several times, and met her at a Suffolk rally.

Maybe, just maybe, the time to oppose demagogues is when they run for office. We all knew what we were getting with Cuomo. Maybe what we need is leadership that will take decisive action when the time is right. Revive NYSUT's tactic of sitting on its hands during elections and hoping for the best is clearly not working out all that well.

Nor is its tactic of failing to keep its explicit campaign promises. 

Revive NYSUT Benefits Revive NYSUT

I used to teach business letters, but I rarely do so anymore. In fact, I rarely even write them anymore, given the immediacy and availability of electronic communication. Nonetheless, one of the first things I taught was that your name goes at the bottom, as does your title. So it surprises me a little when I see a letter that opens like this (slide past the advertising to the right and enlarge to view):

My name is Martin Messner. I am a teacher and a NYSUT member who was elected as NYSUT’s Secretary/ Treasurer this past spring.

I have a few issues with this. One is that his name and title, of course, are included as a signature, and that this is redundant. You'd think with all the money we pay NYSUT they could find a high school grad to proofread. More to the point, Messner doesn't really work as a teacher. He’s full time at NYSUT these days, making 238K a year before benefits.

However, Messner and his Revive buds made sure they’d be able to keep their teaching gigs in case this whole NYSUT thing doesn’t work out. Thus, while they are out there in Albany doing whatever it is they do, they need not worry about being unemployed in case Mike Mulgrew decides they aren’t doing what he wishes. In fact, they managed to get legislation passed to ensure that. Sure, they couldn’t stop junk science ratings, tier 6, the GEA, the tax cap, and they couldn’t work for a pro-teacher candidate like Zephyr Teachout.

This was particularly important for them for several reasons. The primary reason is that the Revive NYSUT team is denying Lee Cutler, Messner’s predecessor, the severance pay that all the other leaders UFT Unity tossed out are receiving. Cutler, like Messner, had to leave his job before actually retiring. While Revive is willing to screw Cutler it’s important that they themselves be protected.

Messner is jumping for joy about potential savings for NYSUT members.  Not only do they save a few bucks by screwing Lee Cutler, but they also have fabulous insurance programs. Messner saved $375 by switching his home insurance, and another $190 by switching his car insurance. Ain’t that fabulous? This will certainly aid his bottom line, along with the double pension he and his buds negotiated for themselves.

Ironically, the only reason Messner was elected was because of UFT support. Lee Cutler is much-loved around the state, and basically kicked Revive’s ass outside of the city. Of course, UFT has 28% of the members, and 33% of the vote. This is because, in NYSUT’s peculiar vision of democracy, anyone who can’t afford to travel for a weekend at the NY Hilton doesn’t get a vote. I won’t belabor the fact that UFT is a rubber stamp for leadership, with a loyalty oath that makes sure all delegates vote as instructed.

The thing is, though, that MetLife can really suck if you’re a UFT member. For one thing, if you live around a flood area, like I do, and like UFT President Mike Mulgrew does, they won’t cover you at all. This has been the case for at least 20 years, because though I had insurance with them soon after I bought my home, they refused to cover me.

The other thing is that their rates for auto insurance in the metro are are simply awful. When I signed up with them, about 20 years ago, they were competitive, and I did indeed save money. But I trusted them to keep up, and in fact they did not. I bought a car last May, and the salesperson asked me who my insurance company was. When I told him, he said he was absolutely sure he could save me money.

I was a little wary. After all, this was a union-negotiated benefit, and they’re looking out for me. But having a teenage driver in my family, and now with three cars, my rate was pretty high—over $7,000. My wife was next to me, and she was pretty insistent. So I went into an office with a salesperson who saved us about $3,000 a year by switching me to Allstate.

Since it’s UFT that controls NYSUT, shouldn’t they choose an insurance company that offers competitive rates to not only Martin Messner, but also those of us who constitute the very largest local in the country? Shouldn’t Messner aggressively look for an insurance company that doesn’t redline those of us who were victims of Hurricane Sandy? Should Mike Mulgrew consider punching him in the face, rather than only Common Core oppenents, if he doesn’t look out for us?

Or is it the case that what’s good for Martin Messner is good for the entire state? Judging from NYSUT’s legislative record this year, which benefits Messner and his Revive BFFs rather than working teachers, that’s what they’ve concluded.

Revive NYSUT Leadership Takes Care of Revive NYSUT Leadership

 It was inspiring to a lot of people when the Revive NYSUT ticket appeared last year. Naturally, there were frustrations with NYSUT, and a few people I respect explained some of them to me. In fact, when I first saw them, I thought it might be a good idea. Like most UFT members, I had little contact with NYSUT, but I knew UFT needed a revival, so why not try this? It wasn't until weeks later I discovered that UFT leadership was actually behind this movement. I was recruited to run for Executive VP of NYSUT, and I traveled all over the state going to forums. I learned an awful lot about NYSUT.

For one thing, it's clear new NYSUT leadership follows UFT in every way. UFT makes up 28% of NYSUT, but has a 34% voting bloc, because many locals simply cannot afford to spend a weekend at the NY Hilton. Therefore, they get no vote. Of course all UFT reps have signed loyalty oaths. They vote as Mulgrew dicates or risk not only a punch in the face, but also expulsion from the elite, invitation-only Unity Caucus and all the privileges membership entails.
 
This is ironic because one of Revive NYSUT's biggest cheerleaders criticized the old leadership for belonging to the Fort Orange Club. NYSUT claimed membership was 15K a year, that the membership preceded their tenure for decates, and that the space was needed. Current Secretary Treasurer Martin Messner, in particular was vocally livid about this "perk." Not only this, said Messner, but NYSUT officers were taking first-class flights. He was gonna get to the bottom of this and make sure there was transparency, and no more perks! NYSUT could hold high-level meetings at Starbucks, suggested Revive, and save these crucial member dollars. Ya think they invited Cuomo to Starbucks to discuss endorsement plans?

Here's the thing, though. It was tough to recruit people willing to run for NYSUT office. You see, the UFT has a deal with the city that while its members work union jobs, it compensates the city for salary. Full disclosure--I'm chapter leader at a large school, and I get one period off to take care of union business. I believe UFT covers 20% of my salary. For those who do more work, or even all work for UFT, their salaries are covered too.  Even more full disclosure--I don't think it's a bad idea.

Of course, I didn't run for office bitching and moaning that current officers had too many perks, were living like kings and lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills. In fact, I ran demanding representative democracy, saying there was precious little of it in UFT and that this model was not one we ought to emulate. I ran complaining about anti-teacher legislation, particularly APPR, Cuomo's punishing tax rule that districts need a supermajority to help kids, and Tier 6 pension. I was amazed to see the APPR labeled as an Iannuzzi bill, and  that no one from Revive seemed to remember their staunch supporter Mike Mulgrew taking credit for it.

 Anyway, while NYSUT leadership can't oppose Common Core, while it can't oppose Cuomo, while VAM is still enshrined in law, and while pension is still severely diminished for members, it managed to quickly and quietly get legislation passed to make sure leaders Magee, Messner, and Pecorale have their pensions covered. Unlike Iannuzzi, none of them have thirty years in. Now NYSUT will make sure that if they resign or retire, or even if they get blackballed by Mulgrew, it will be like they were at their old jobs.

When is Martin Messner gonna take a principled stand, resign his old job, and demand a salary cut from hard-working NYSUT members? When is he gonna protest that this bill was passed so surreptitiously and demand transparency? Personally, I suggest you sit while you wait for that to happen. 

This is hypocritical not only because they, particularly Messner, were so adamant about not taking perks and being transparent. It's also hypocritical because former Secretary Treasurer Lee Cutler was denied the transition pay that ex-officers receive, and NYSUT is fighting to make sure he doesn't get it. Not only that, but Cutler resigned from his position to work with NYSUT. Neither Magee, Messner, nor Pecorale are showing this level of commitment, even as they work to make sure Cutler isn't compensated.

Current NYSUT leadership takes good care of current NYSUT leadership. You and me? Meh. Why do they support Common Core, despite explicity promising they were against it? Why do they support Jeff Klein? Why won't they oppose Governor Cuomo in favor of pro-teacher, pro-labor Zephyr Teachout? Why did Governor Andrew Cuomo sign a bill that protects NYSUT leadership when we have such a hard time getting substantive pro-education bills realized? Why is Tier 6 good enough for new members?

I'll leave that to your imagination. You might also be interested to know that, far from a principled salary cut, NYSUT Board of Directors voted a 2% raise for officers, already making at least 250-300K or more. And why not? What does 250-300K even buy nowadays?

I can't be sure. I only know it's a hell of a lot more than most working teachers will ever be able to afford.