NYC Educator: Mulgrew on Who Will Be Punched in Face, and When

NYC Educator: Mulgrew on Who Will Be Punched in Face, and When:

Mulgrew on Who Will Be Punched in Face, and When

Good morning dues payers. It's me, Mike Mulgrew, your president. A lot of you have been asking about my remarks at the AFT Convention a month ago. Though we live-streamed them, we didn't really think anyone would watch outside of the convention. We made it a point not to post my remarks over at the AFT website. But that darn Norm Scott came to the convention and filmed the whole thing, including my remark about punching anyone in the face who tried to take my Common Core.

That darn Zephyr Teachout is out badmouthing Common Core. I've got an entire team of UFT employees examining the issue of whether and when I'll have to punch her in the face. Frankly, we're hoping this whole residency thing will blow over, because if I punch her in the face without punching Cuomo in the face it will look like an endorsement. We're hoping to sit out this race and just let AFL-CIO endorse. 

A lot of people have been asking why I didn't punch anyone in the face when we went six years without a contract. For example, I could have punched Mayor Bloomberg in the face. But in solutions-based unionism, you have to look at the consequences. Mayor Bloomberg has a whole lot of money, and could have tied us up in court for a long time. Had I punched him in the face, I would have spent a lot of time in jail, sorely limiting the number of people I could punch in the face. And even if I'd punched them ALL in the face, I'd only have an hour of daily yard time to push them in the dirt. It just wasn't practical.

That's why I made it a point to tell the delegates I'd punch them in the face. Now you have to understand we were only in LA for a few days, so there wasn't a whole lot of time for face-punching. There are a lot of people in the Chicago Teachers Union, and while I'd certainly like to punch them all in the face, I'm not traveling to Chicago simply to do that. That would run at least 500 bucks of your dues money, even if I were to fly Spirit Air or some such thing. And that's not counting whatever the Hilton is charging this week. Just a NYC Educator: Mulgrew on Who Will Be Punched in Face, and When: