That's what NYSUT Unity is promising this year. This begs the question, why would anyone expect anything otherwise? If they weren't, there'd be no call to say any such thing.

The wording is curious too. The campaign will be clean, they say, but they don't promise it will be honorable. The election with be honorable, but there's no indication it will be clean. I'm curious why they didn't assign both adjectives to one, or better yet both of these things. If I needed to assert that, I certainly would have clarified. I'd also offer examples rather than just my word. But that's me.

Here's the promise:

A promise for a clean campaign & honorable election - https://t.co/EwaxXUUFSe #unionpride @nysutra2017 @AndyPallotta #RepresentationCounts pic.twitter.com/0Bu6JHYS9r

— NYSUT Unity Caucus (@Unity_Today) February 28, 2017

Yet my sources tell me that NYSUT has yet to agree to debate Stronger Together. Is that honorable? I hear that the implication, for reasons they haven't bothered to enumerate, is that ST Caucus is not honorable. I have my own issues with Stronger Together, but they mostly amount to an honest disagreement. I have very vivid recollections, though, of traveling all over the state to forums with Unity/ Revive, and I recall very well how they were arranged.

The first one was in Long Island, and was pretty much open. We had no idea what the questions would be and each side got a few minutes to answer. I'm pretty sure that anyone in attendance would tell you we kicked their butts all over the place. Alas, of those that followed, all but one was much more tightly controlled. Some entailed everyone reading statements with no interaction. One like that was somewhere in Westchester and run by a Revive supporter.

There was another, in fact, in Saratoga Springs, where they spoke, we responded, and then they got to speak again. Two to one. That's clean and honorable, isn't it? I remember that pretty vividly because I slept in some crappy hotel that night, woke up at maybe 4 AM, and then drove like hell to make it to work the next day. There was one in Newburgh, NY where they said they couldn't show because of work commitments. I felt very little sympathy because I went, drove home in a blinding rainstorm, and made it into work the following day.

March 16th in Mount Kisco there will be a forum, and NYSUT Unity has not yet committed to it, Why? Likely as not because it will follow the same format as the one in Long Island did. I got to observe Andy Pallotta pretty closely over those forums, and I can tell you this--unexpected questions were not his forte. This notwithstanding, fielding questions from your constituents, whatever they may ask, is fundamental.

What Pallotta is good at is reading statements. He's a very good reader. When he has a script he can sound commanding and persuasive. On the other hand, Martin Messner, who happily peddles MetLife/ NYSUT insurance that costs twice as much as Allstate, had trouble with that. This guy, who works with NYSUT finances, did not appear to understand what he was reading. Maybe that's why he can endorse an insurance plan that makes us pay double. Who knows?

Let's talk honorable. Is it clean and honorable to dump the sitting President for acting like a President? Once Richard Iannuzzi took action against Andy Pallotta for supporting a Cuomo gala, his fate was sealed. Iannuzzi curtailed Pallotta's money supply, which was a big no-no. NYSUT finances are a mess, in fact, according to my friend Harris Lirtzman, among others. I'm not sure why that merits re-election. I'm not even sure why the deteriorating pension tiers or the APPR that's brought morale to a low I've never seen in three decades teaching merits it either. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only legislative victory Unity/ Revive achieved was to get double pensions for the officers, so they wouldn't have to go through what they put Lee Cutler through.

How about Karen Magee? I'd heard almost two years ago that she wouldn't be getting a second term, because she somehow labored under the misconception that being elected President meant she was President. A friend of hers told me Magee herself didn't hear about that until January 2017. Anyway, it appears they're now doing away with the fiction that Pallotta doesn't run NYSUT and he's running for President, so we'll grant at least one point for their honesty.

As for clean and honorable argument, the person in charge of the NYSUT Unity campaign feed is purposeful but less than admirable in that he traffics largely in logical fallacy. As far as I can determine, he would not know a proactive argument if one were beating him over the head. His prime argument against Iannuzzi was that he lived like a king because he held meetings in some club they'd joined in Albany. The Unity/ Revive folk said they'd prefer to hold meetings in Starbucks. Hey, Governor Cuomo, meet us at a Starbucks so we can negotiate an APPR that doesn't rely on junk science. How do you suppose that would work out? How many times do you suppose they did that?

The last time I read the NYSUT PR guy he'd posted a personal attack piece against me. Among other things, he called me a part time teacher and a part time unionist. I discovered this piece because AFT President Randi Weingarten tweeted it and commented how good it was. I pointed out, on Twitter, that this managed to libel not only me, but also every working chapter leader in New York City, and Randi took it down. The rest of the post was strawman/ ad hominem nonsense. Several of my friends wrote me that they left comments, but this particular clean and honorable NYSUT Unity guy doesn't post them. That's one way to avoid argument, I guess.

Another, of course, is to refuse to show up to a forum. What about it Andy? Are you willing to debate Michael Lillis? How about you Martin? Ready to debate finance? Are you guys willing to put your money where your mouths are and participate cleanly and honorably? Are you willing to stand alongside your opponents and let the public see how able you are next to them?

Hey, it doesn't matter to me. I'm a New York City high school teacher, and like my 20,000 colleagues, I'm not represented no matter who wins. But since we have the honor of paying your salary and at least one of your pensions regardless, it would be nice to know that your campaign consists of something more than telling us how honorable you are. I have never known anyone, honorable or otherwise, to advertise not to be honorable. Saying how honorable you are, to me, means less than nothing. But hey, any time you want to show me you're honorable, I'm here every day, ready to accept your PR guy's apology.

Alas, if you have any honor, you're also gonna have to stand in public and defend your record, repeatedly, and all over the state. So what's it gonna be, NYSUT Unity? Are you gonna answer unscreened questions? Or are you fraidy-scared?

Inquiring minds want to know.

That's how much UFT will pay to send people to the New York Hilton for the NYSUT Representative Assembly on April 7-8. This is an important event, because there will be an election that will determine whether NYS Unity or Stronger Together controls NYSUT. We all have an interest in that because as UFT members we all pay NYSUT dues.

Of course we all know that Unity votes Unity, and approximately exactly100% of them will be doing just that. So given that, why are we spending half a million dollars to send 800 New Yorkers to New York? In fact, I live in Long Island. I could take a train there from work on Friday, take the LIRR on Saturday, and maybe see the whole thing for thirty or forty bucks out of pocket.

I'm hoping to go as press and write about it, which is what Jonathan Halabi, Norm Scott and I did at the AFT Convention in Minneapolis last summer. If my constituents can't have a vote, at least they can know what happens. I've made a few inquiries. Alternatively, I guess I could go as the guest of another union. That would be fun to write about.

So here's the thing--I'm one of seven people elected by 20,000 high school teachers, and as such I'd deem it my business to know what goes on there, Still, I haven't got a vote in NYSUT, and consequently, neither have any of us. Unless the majority of high school teachers want to give a blank check to Unity to vote Any Damn Way They Are Told, this is not what I'd call an ideal form of democracy.

But let's not dwell on petty politics. Let's take a look at what sort of deal this can be if you're a loyalty oath signer. So you get $617 to go to the convention. You take the subway there and back a couple of times. That's what, $11.00? If you live outside of the city, you add a round trip LIRR fare, and you're out around 40 clams. You've got $566 left over. This could come in handy if you decide to buy $14 beer at the Hilton, but really you could eat on the cheap and pocket $500 easily. That's pretty good pay for sitting around a five star hotel and listening to a few speeches.

Alternatively, you could give $150 each, save hundreds of thousands of dollars, and use it on the organizing that hasn't been done in decades, so as to preserve the United Federation of Teachers as an entity when Friedrichs 2 comes down the pike next year. And if you really want to save money, you could send one representative to vote eighty thousand times. Now it may not be sufficiently dramatic watching Mulgrew sit by himself and do that. Also maybe you need someone who can speak, so you send LeRoy Barr. That's a few subway fares, and then you have to cover the Staten Island Ferry for Mulgrew. Let's say you budget $1000 for both of them, and let them eat any damn place they like. Let them take cabs if they want to.

For this particular convention, I'm not sure I covet a vote. I'd probably lean toward Mike Lillis over Andy Pallotta. I'd choose activist Bianca Tanis over just about anyone. I can't think of any earthly reason why anyone would choose Martin "Buy NYSUT Auto Insurance Even Though Allstate Is Half the Price" Messner for any job more challenging than lifeguard at the car wash. But that's just me. Of course I've got no vote, just the great honor of paying dues. Whichever side wins (because theoretically, at least, it is a contest), the 20,000 NYC high school teachers I represent get no representation whatsoever (and thanks a lot to both caucuses for that).

I could see spending a lot of money to go somewhere if they were going to represent membership and deliberate about something important. I could see spending a lot of money if they were going to make decisions. But they aren't. They're gonna sit in some room, someone from leadership is gonna tell them how to vote, and they'll vote that way or no six hundred and seventeen bucks next time around.

A bunch of people go to the Hilton and pretend they're doing work. They go to meetings they're told to go to, vote how they're told to, and the preordained winners win. That's not a lot of bang for the buck, or more accurately for the 500,000 or so bucks. Given our share of paying for the common rooms, gala luncheons, and whatever the hell else goes on it will likely be more.

Perhaps leadership imagines this sort of thing will inspire all the Trump voters to pony up $1300 a year, as they'll be forever grateful we didn't mention his name when bemoaning his awful practices. On the other hand, maybe we could just buy them off and it would be a wash. But there are a whole lot of ways we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars that weekend, and a whole lot of better uses for that money.

Maybe, while we still have dues deducted from our paycheck, leadership should give some thought toward giving us a vote in organizations our dues support. I shall nonetheless sit while waiting for that to happen.

UFT Unity Response-- From Facebook: I'm a life member of nra and uscg retiree besides a social studies teacher. So you boys sound like a bunch of cry barbies .follow the advice of Ted Kennedy. " instead of saying " why say why not " and maybe you goathumpers will win an election and affect change.

I'm always astonished when people in authority act without thinking. Perhaps I'm naive. What with Donald Trump blabbering all over about everything, it's pretty much par for the course in America these days.

I shouldn't be surprised, really, because I've seen these things over and over. The other day I blogged about a topic that NYSUT leadership found sensitive. I know this because they tweeted a response that was baseless and absurd. I can only suppose you don't go the baseless and absurd route if you've got a better one.


Ridicule can be effective sometimes. For that, though, it needs to be based on what the subject did. Sometimes it just seems to come out of nowhere, and then itself becomes a worthy target. For example we've all seen UFT President Michael Mulgrew musing about flying saucers and martians, in an effort to ridicule Common Core opponents. Years ago, we saw former UFT President Sandra Feldman declare anyone who thought we could improve on her 25-year longevity must be "smoking something." (Yet I was pretty glad to hit maximum at 22 years after we'd defeated her agreement.)

So making absurd statements is not an original notion from NYSUT's version of Unity.When Mulgrew said, in front of God and everybody, that he was gonna punch faces and push them in the dirt to defend Common Core, well, it almost cried out for ridicule. It was a sensational story, and was widely covered. In any case, Revive NYSUT, or NYSUT Unity, or whatever they're calling themselves this week, deemed the following an apt response to my blog:

@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

Let's take a look at that. First, there's the accusation of bias. Bias is generally associated with prejudice. The blog they criticize was not created out of whole cloth. I'm certainly opinionated, this blog reflects my opinions, but my opinions are formed by years of experience, reading and observation. Bias is when you look at something you don't like, fail to consider it, and then condemn it for a predetermined reason, which is likely tantamount to no reason at all. Someone's biased here, but it isn't me. Let's take, for example, the assertion that the blog was "fact free."

I count four sources for that blog. There was the Times Union article suggesting that NYSUT leadership wanted to cut benefits for its employees, who specifically referenced pensions. There was a Politico piece specifically referencing a law that allows NYSUT leaders to accrue double pensions. There were quotes from PJSTA President Beth Dimino suggesting NYSUT tried to bypass local presidents to solicit VOTE COPE contributions, and there was a quote from former NY Deputy State Comptroller Harris Lirtzman, who'd done some homework analyzing the NYSUT pension system.

So that's what I based my opinions on. What did NYSUT Unity base their opinions on? Absolutely nothing but their own prejudices, as far as I can tell. Now the upstanding individual who likely writes this stuff did a hit piece on me a while back, calling me a part-time teacher. (I'm not linking to it because it doesn't permit comments and no one reads the blog anyway.) I don't remember exactly what I wrote to cause him to do this, but he wrote a long piece about what he decided I thought. That's easier than actually confronting what I may have said or done, and that's what you call a strawman fallacy. It doesn't get into the difficult business of addressing whatever the argument was I'd made. Rather, it invents an easy target, something that it claims I think or believe and simply attacks that easier target.

These are the sorts of things you do and say when you have no argument.

And as Revive NYSUT broke promise after promise, I know I've done the right thing by exposing and opposing them. They were against Common Core, they said in the pamphlet above, but President Karen Magee, at an AFT Convention, suggested the alternative to it was a "free-for-all." They said they were against APPR but haven't moved a millimeter toward its repeal. They said they were against Cuomo but failed to oppose him in two primaries and a general election. They say they're for NYSUT transparency, but when you mention their verifiable actions they accuse you of being a lunatic.

All of this is troubling. What's most troubling, though, is these are the people who are negotiating for us at a state level. It's no wonder Cuomo walks all over us, and at the very nadir of his popularity is able to make APPR even more draconian, with the aid of his Heavy Hearts Assembly. Can you imagine people who think the genius who wrote that tweet should be representing us? Can you imagine people with that brand of judgment negotiating for us on a state level?

I can. And sadly, it explains a lot.

NYS Unity Caucus, of course, is the one that's behind Revive NYSUT. This is the Caucus that promised to oppose Common Core and Cuomo. Yet Karen Magee, pictured at left, offered the logical fallacy that it was CCSS or chaos at an AFT convention. That's called a black and white fallacy, insinuating that there are only two possiblities when there are, in fact, many more. Another Revive lie, also in the picture, was its claim to be against Cuomo. Revive/ Unity failed to oppose him not only in two primaries featuring the incredible Zephyr Teachout, but also in the general election.

Revive was a coup in NYSUT that was supported by Michael Mulgrew and his loyalty oath signing UFT Unity Caucus. UFT is by far the largest group in NYSUT and is pretty much the tail that wags the dog.

The NYS Unity blog is a largely self-congratulating tool, a piece in its ineffectual social media arsenal. It doesn't publish much, but just attacked my friend PJSTA President Beth Dimino. It is not widely read, and I'd never seen it until someone sent me the link. I'm not going to link or send traffic to it, but I will respond to it. Let's begin with the first sentence:

It is with great regret that we feel compelled to respond to a recent yet familiar rant by Beth Dimino, Chair of the Stronger Together Caucus and President of the Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association on Facebook. 

First of all, this is classic passive aggressiveness. We're sorry, but.... Everyone knows that once you say "but," you can disregard everything that's come before it. If they regretted it so much they would not say it. A claim like that is plainly disingenuous.

The UNITY Caucus has taken the high road for a year and a half but eventually, enough is enough.

I'm not particularly sure what the high road is for Unity Caucus. This smells like the same writer who did a similar hatchet job on me, full of nonsensical strawman assertions. In fact, AFT President Randi Weingarten thought that was just fine, and linked to it on Twitter.  She removed the link after I pointed out that the writer, by falsely calling me a part time teacher and part time unionist, managed to insult not only me, but also every UFT chapter leader in the city.  

I will spare you some of the invective, but this piece revolves around her refusal to pay into VOTE-COPE, known in NYC simply as COPE. This is the political fund used by NYSUT and UFT. It is, in fact, completely optional. There are things, most obviously NYSUT's failure to oppose Cuomo, and its dominance by folks who mistake logical fallacy for argument, that cause people like Beth (and me) to question their judgment. Here's more from Unity:

By publicly encouraging others to defund VOTE-COPE on Facebook, “Go into school tomorrow and reduce your VOTE-COPE contributions to $0.00!” she is feeding conservative legislators the ammunition they need to pull our union apart.

First of all, it wasn't Beth Dimino who gave tens of thousands of dollars to Senator Flanagan, who has helped enable the reforminess now making NYSUT members miserable statewide. It wasn't Beth Dimino who supported Senator Serphin Maltese, who helped break two Catholic school unions. Nor was it Beth Dimino who supported George Pataki, who thanked us by vetoing improvements to the Taylor Law. No, that was our COPE money. 

Some might say she should consider joining in with the Koch brothers and other right winged-politicians if her goal is to kill the union.

Let's be clear--this writer just said that, while attempting to sugar-coat the statement with "Some might say." Let's further examine the logical fallacy inherent in this sentence. Obviously, there's that strawman. Beth Dimino is one of the most passionate unionists I've ever met. The notion that she wants to kill union is preposterous, a pure concoction of the Unity writer. Secondly, by invoking the Koch Brothers, there's guilt by association, another logical fallacy. 

Let's be further clear that there is a movement to kill union and it is in no way supported by Beth Dimino. It is enabled, however, by our history of concession to reforminess. Look at the UFT 2005 Contract. Look at Michael Mulgrew helping to craft the APPR law. Look at him praising the Heavy Hearts legislature for making it worse. Look at Bill Gates addressing the AFT Convention. And those are just a few of the low lights.

When you cannot muster a proactive argument, logical fallacy is one way to go. What's truly pathetic is that this is what our leadership chooses to put forth as their voice. Among teachers, there are quite a few thinkers, quite a few creative and passionate souls. Judging from what passes for argument among leadership, and how they choose to treat people who speak their minds, they haven't got the remotest notion what a creative and passionate thinker even is.

Related: PJSTA defends its President. 

Related: ICE-UFT blog