In the midst of publicly trading blows with the mayor over pay raises and suing the Department of Education, teachers union president Michael Mulgrew is up for election.
Appointed to the post last summer by the United Federation of Teachers’ executive board, Mulgrew’s shot at a three-year term will be decided by the thousands of paper ballots the American Arbitration Association will count on April 7. Like his predecessors, Mulgrew will have to work harder to drum up any interest in the election than to win it.
While school closings have left many UFT members feeling angry and vulnerable, the union’s rekindled war with the DOE and Mulgrew’s aggressively worded emails and speeches have made him popular among the UFT’s largest political group, UNITY caucus.
“He’s fighting back and it really increases his popularity,” said Peter Goodman, a longtime UFT member. “I think he’ll win overwhelmingly, but he won’t come anywhere near the percentage she [Randi Weingarten] got,” he predicted.