Michael Mulgrew wins teachers union election in a landslide
Michael Mulgrew has won election to his first full three-year term as the president of the city’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers announced today.
Mulgrew was elected with 91 percent of the vote over James Eterno, a candidate from an opposition group within the union. UFT spokesman Dick Riley said the union was still waiting to hear the final vote tally, which will be released tomorrow.
Mulgrew, 44, became union president last year, when the UFT’s executive board appointed him to serve the remainder of then-president Randi Weingarten’s term after she left to run the national union. A relative newcomer to the union — only five years ago he was a high school teacher in Staten Island — Mulgrew became Weingarten’s designated successor after winning an internal run-off race she held.
UFT presidents typically win reelection by huge margins, but Mulgrew’s win is impressive even compared to his predecessors. In 2001, the first time former UFT president Randi Weingarten ran for office, she won with 76.6 percent of the vote.
The Unity caucus, which has dominated UFT politics since the union’s beginning, won all of the seats in contention. The six high school seats on the union’s executive board, which are routinely the most contested,