For Immediate Release
Press contact: Mike Schirtzer
(917)683-7014
(New York, N.Y.) The "A Better Contract" slate is sounding the alarm on a desperate, undemocratic move by United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew and his Unity Caucus in the upcoming UFT union-wide officer elections. Despite paper ballots being mailed out to members on May 1st, Mulgrew has decided to add his own election rules and block several attempts to increase voter participation.
After years of rejecting electronic voting—even though our sister AFT union, PSC-CUNY, already uses it successfully—and watching turnout plummet, Unity is now pushing a last-minute in-person voting plan at select, controlled locations. Meanwhile, they’re rejecting the one solution that would actually boost turnout and empower members: in-person voting at our own schools and worksites, the same way we vote for our union contract, Chapter Leaders, Delegates, and Paraprofessional Representatives. The fact we elect our building representatives in school, but not who leads our union is absurd.
Online voting would also allow for members with disabilities, such as those who are visually impaired, to cast their votes independently. This would be considered a “Reasonable Accommodation” under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
“They had no interest in increasing participation when members demanded real reform,” said Amy Arundell, UFT Presidential challenger. “Now that they’re losing their grip, they want to stage controlled, in-person voting sites where they can feed you, give you a gift—and convince you to vote again.”
Here’s the catch: if a member votes again in person, that vote overrides their mail-in ballot. That means your original vote—already cast —gets thrown out and replaced. It’s double voting with a twist: only the second vote counts.
Even more concerning, many of these in-person voting events are being held at special dinners and award ceremonies—mixing voting with celebrations in a way that creates the appearance of impropriety. This raises serious ethical concerns and calls into question the legitimacy of the entire process.
“They won’t let us vote at school or online—but they’ll hand out dinners, awards, and gift bags, then tell members to vote again. First vote tossed. That’s not democracy—it’s a scam,” said Daniel Alicea, candidate for UFT Vice President of Middle Schools.
“This is about one thing: control,” said Arundell. “Unity knows the only way they can hold onto power is by stacking the deck—selecting who votes where, while their loyal insiders run the show.”
To make matters worse, the so-called “nonpartisan” election committee is anything but. It’s filled with Unity Caucus members and paid union staffers, making this entire process biased from the top down.
The A Better Contract slate has filed a lawsuit to stop this manipulation and is demanding a fair election—where every vote counts, no matter how or where it’s cast.
“This union belongs to the educators in our classrooms—not to a political machine clinging to power,” said Arundell. “We’re not backing down.”
Link to full lawsuit here
A Better Contract is an independent slate of over 550 UFT members that will challenge the over six
7 comments:
What a misleading headline. ABC suing the UFT to reduce voting options is not a "legal consequence" for Mulgrew. Who was that other person who spread conspiracy theories about democratic institutions and put forward all sorts of election lawsuits? Oh right, Trump.
Oh the cries of outrage from unity who. ANC is trying to block from manipulating the voting by giving voters a second bite of the Apple. And the last minute notice that anyone running can’t observe. Sure, unity never had to try to cheat when they knew they would win. Now they will do anything to win when threatened.
Excellent post, as always. One of Mulgrew’s toadies is reporting that the election rigging lawsuit was thrown out yesterday. Rather hard to believe if it’s true.
Election Rigging by Mulgrew and Unity - Lawsuit Filed
https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2025/04/abc-uft-media-mulgrews-election-tactics.html
It was thrown out of court. But the idea was to call attention to their games. I have to find Amy's comments on the case. From the very beginning even before this came up many in the oppo believed this was the election to worry about and when they dumped the AAA for some fly by night group worry became justified and then they try to claim I was the one who raised in person voting -- one of the Trump like half truths since what I raised was how AAA limited the ability of those who did not get their ballots to come in to AAA HQ and vote. I keep asking how many ballots came in late last time and they go mu, but one time it slipped that there were thousands. So in person at the HQ of AAA in the final week was OK with me but not at UFT events. will they steal the election by stuffing ballot boxes? Here's another one - count will be at 52 on May 29 and we can observe but they won't finish that day so ballots will be left overnight at 52 with some security-- how comfortable are you with that? Imagine someone looking at names who did not vote and dumping in a batch of votes for Unity in their names? Likely? No - if Unity is winning. And let's face it --- they are favored so they may do nothing. But at the in person events they give out goodies and I can imagine quiet conversations with people to vote Unity even if they had voted oppo by mail. I may try to vote at every event to check the system.
You’re dead wrong. The supreme undemocratic hypocrites, Unity and Mulgrew, copy all Trump’s actions (to win elections) and are happy to get Kamala results for us.
Does anyone really believe this is anything but a stunt? ABC is in full kitchen sink mode - hoping something catches. Its their only chance to not come in 3rd. Their meetings have been underwhelming and the videos they are posting suspiciously do not include any audience members. Their officer candidates are online arguing with the same members around the clock while the other two campaigns continue to gain support. This is not what a campaign would look like if it were about to beat Unity.
Convince us how ARISE has a way to win no matter what their campaign is doing. Campaigns begin in the schools with convincing colleagues to vote for your slate. Unless something has changed here, that same process will go on - except for 2 factors -- the retiree and para chapter votes -- 70k retirees and 27k paras. That's where the election can be decided. If all the groups split the retiree vote - with the edge to ABC due to Marianne support, and ABC alliance with Fix Para Pay filters down to paras and they vote in force, ABC has a path to victory if there are some big in service Unity defections --- which is why both Unity and ARISE are attacking ABC, sometimes with the same talking points. Despite the attacks on Amy by both groups, Amy may have the largest name recognition in the UFT aside from Mulgrew - and while she may have alienated some people she has also made a lot of friends, many who are CL who can bring an entire school along with them. Think of the largest borough which she ran for years and even ran CL training for new CL this year and did a great job. Odds may be slim for ABC to win but they are better than the odds for ARISE - none.
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