Michael Mulgrew "Bitching" About Working Families Party Discussion Of Bernie Sanders Endorsement

Ken Lovett at the Daily News:

The head of the powerful city teachers union is trying to quell talk by some in the labor-backed Working Families Party about backing Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, insiders say.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew has been contacting heads of the building trade unions who help make up the Working Families Party, a source said. He’s “complaining and bitching” about the party and the discussions on whether to endorse Sanders, the self-proclaimed socialist US senator from Vermont, the source said.

Mulgrew, who declined comment through a spokeswoman, is also a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, which already has endorsed Clinton.

While the state Working Families Party does not have a presidential primary and does not have to set its ballot until September of 2016, its leaders have not ruled out publicly backing Sanders during the primary season to send a message to Clinton that she needs to go farther to the left.

Considering the damage Governor Cuomo has done to teachers and UFT rank and file, the end of the Lovett column is quite interesting:

The WFP, which was already feuding with Gov. Cuomo, isn’t doing its doing itself any favors alienating a major party player like Mulgrew and the potential Democratic nominee in Clinton, one source said.

In the analysis of this "source," we have Working Families Party and Sanders on one side of the political equation and Mulgrew, Clinton and Cuomo on the other.

That would seem odd, given how Cuomo has declared he wants to "break" teachers and public schools, until you remember that Mulgrew was said to have threatened WFP with financial dissolution if the party endorsed challenger Zephyr Teachout over Cuomo in 2014.

Just another sign that the "fight" between Cuomo and the UFT/AFT/Mulgrew/Weingarten crew is as "real" as something from professional wrestling.

That said, I don't particularly care whether WFP endorses Sanders or not.

Quite frankly, I don't "feel the Bern" after Sanders voted to continue the Endless Testing regime in NCLB Jr.

From my vantage point, Sanders is as full of shit as every other Democratic politician when it comes to the issue that matters most to me - education.

I will be voting Green come 2016 because I cannot and will not support a candidate who supports Endless Testing as a "civil right."

Feel The Bern NYC Meet-Up

That's right! We are the People for Bernie Sanders. He is the only presidential candidate that is truly a champion for the people. We are tired of talking puppets reading from a script. We are ready for a political revolution. We are ready for Bernie and boy do we #FeelTheBern! Join us to be a part of it to! At this momentous event, us Bernie supporters will be meeting with each other and sharing our stories, and then we will watch and listen to Bernie's live message about what is coming next. By the end of the night, we will all have had the chance to take the next steps to help elect Bernie Sanders as our next president. 


July 29

The Royal NYC

127 4th Ave, New York, New York 10003

Details here.

If you're angry about the top-down AFT leaders decision to endorse Hillary Clinton 16 months out from the election, this is a great opportunity to show the AFT leadership that there is plenty of rank and file member support for other candidates.

This Member Of The AFT Does Not Endorse Hillary Clinton For President

@lapham_katie @TeacherArthurG @sullio @perdidostschool @StevenSinger3 @teka21bat @Stoptesting15 @fraublucher606 pic.twitter.com/Bc3Qbuu7HC

— Bianca Tanis (@BiancaTanis) July 12, 2015
Starting the movement, to take back the union, to take back political power, to expose the AFT/UFT/NYSUT leadership as the political functionaries and expedients they are.

Say NO to Hillary Clinton.

Union Leaders Work To "Quell Pro-Sanders Revolt"

Some of that vaunted union democracy in action:

Richard Trumka has a message for state and local AFL-CIO leaders tempted to endorse Bernie Sanders: Don’t.

In a memo this week to state, central and area divisions of the labor federation, and obtained by POLITICO, the AFL-CIO chief reminded the groups that its bylaws don’t permit them to “endorse a presidential candidate” or “introduce, consider, debate, or pass resolutions or statements that indicate a preference for one candidate over another.” Even “‘personal’ statements” of candidate preference are verboten, Trumka said.

The memo comes amid signs of a growing split between national union leaders — mindful of the fact that Clinton remains the undisputed favorite for the nomination — and local officials and rank and file, who are increasingly drawn to the Democratic Party’s growing progressive wing, for whom Sanders is the latest standard-bearer.

The fix is in for Clinton, whether the unions endorse her in the primary or not, because union leaders will do as much as they can to undercut the surging Bernie Sanders.

It's kinda like how the unions helped out Cuomo in 2014, not by endorsing him, but by making sure Working Families Party did not endorse Zephyr Teachout.