Amy Arundell running for President of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is a very frightening thought. If you read nothing else in this post, just read through the Transcript-Nov. 2 2021 call to an unvaccinated UFT member forced out of her employment because she requested a religious accommodation. Amy told her that she had “no right” to her salary. Shame on Amy. I have posted this also below. The audiotape sent to me was transcribed by a professional organization, Ubiqus. Female Voice 1 is Amy Arundell.

I know Amy Arundell personally because my office at the UFT in Manhattan was next door to her office. She gave me wonderful advice and helped me alot on my quest to understand how the UFT worked, so I am pained to write this Editorial about her. However, the rank and file members of the UFT want me to tell all of you what Amy did to help them before, during, and after the COVID Mandate:

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Mike Mulgrew solved this problem by not even engaging in any discourse with anyone. He never reaches out to individual members with an email “How can I help?” I’ve never seen it. Actually, a paraprofessional who was reassigned to 25 Chapel Street, Brooklyn, in about 2009 told everyone that she “knew” Mike Mulgrew, and she was going to be placed back to her job in a few days…. and then she was not in the Rubber Room anymore. I might guess that she “knew” Mike or someone who was in the VIP category of the UFT but don’t quote me on this. (Or do, I don’t care). We know how that works. 

What I and too many other people have seen is that Amy Arundell has been propelled into sky-high levels of wonderfulness by people who very effectively have used social media, Petitions, and other vehicles of misinformation to get her there. However, the information they are marketing is simply not true for the rank and file members who Amy should be representing but isn’t.

The Petition in support of Amy is an example. In that Petition, Steve Swieciki writes: 

“As UFT members, we are educators first and foremost. If we can’t have thoughtful, respectful discussion about difficult topics, how can we expect our students to? We should strive to start any dialogue with the assumption that the people we disagree with hold their beliefs in good faith and that there is way more that we agree on — especially belief in the basic dignity and value of all human life.

Amy Arundell embodies that shared belief. She embodies the very best of what the UFT is all about. Her record of fighting for the membership is beyond question.”

This vote of confidence in Amy’s fight for the membership is almost completely false. She does support certain people who she thinks can help her. Arthur Goldstein is an example. I’ve Been Kicked Out of Better Places Than This. I don’t think any large PR firm could do any better. Both his work and that of Michael Kane selling Amy to the masses  over the past several months have been impressive. Good work Arthur and Mike! I just wish that you weren’t marketing false information. 

Amy has been supporting the Palestinian Cause for many years. Some say her pro-Palestine anti-Israel stand was the reason for her losing her position as UFT Queens Borough Chief. Norm Scott wrote an extensive article on his blog about Amy that I think is worth reading.I’ve known Norm a long time, and in my opinion, no one does a better job of  spreading inside dirt on the UFT than he does.

How can a person who stands up in favor of Palestinians run for President of the UFT or any Union? Especially in New York City, where there is a huge Jewish population educators within the NYC Department of Education. These people want to be represented too, and deserve to have the same representation as anyone else.

I think Amy’s anti-Semitism was one reason for her removal, but her pro-vaccine mandate policy and her verbal insults said to members who could not, would not, and did not get the COVID vaccine is another. The UFT couldn’t hide their animosity for unvaccinated members after Amy openly attacked members who did not get vaccinated. 

I met Arthur Goldstein in 2007 or thereabouts, through my late beloved friend Eric Chasanoff. His Blog School Daze was the most informative of all, on topics of the UFT. My opinion. I had just started my Blog NYC Rubber Room Reporter and ATR Connect. So I listed a link to Arthur’s blog on mine, and he listed a link to my blog on his., for a few days. That’s how blogs get seen. But when Randi Weingarten hired me to work at the UFT as a Special Representative for the Rubber Rooms, Arthur suddenly canceled me. So did fellow blogger and close Goldstein ally Jonathan Halabi. I have never found out why. I was erased from the eyes and ears of the membership of the UFT. To the present day, nothing I say and do, no matter how much it informs the UFT members and no matter if I help get relief from the decimation of someone’s life and career, Arthur has not posted a single thing that whispers my name. I have no idea how I earned such obliteration. I no longer care. I also luckily have my own voice channels – my Websites and blogs, so even if he thought I could be silenced by his canceling, he is wrong about that.

UFT and the Problem Code

Amy Arundell and I had a good thing going about the problem code when I worked at the UFT. I had discovered the Problem Code in about 2004, when I found a database under the “Monitoring Unit”. I don’t buy the bulloney (my spelling) that the DOE set up the flag on personnel files in 2012 as she testified at PERB in the 10-year litigation with the NYC DOE. See

The New York City Department of Education’s “Problem Code” is an Unlawful Flag on an Employee’s Fingerprints

In NYC the Absent Teacher Reserve and The Rubber Room Are Both Strategies For Unlawful Denial of Tenure Job Protections

The New York City Department of Education, UFT, Problem Code, and Perpetual Fog Machine Continue To Prevent Unvaxxed Employees From Working

The Codes in America – Big Brother is here

Down The Rabbit Hole: The NYC Department of Education’s “Problem Code”

The Problem Code, Fingerprints, The FBI, and the COVID Mandate

Mallory Sullivan Reply Affirmation

BOARD OF EDUCATION C-105

I started working on helping people get off of the problem code soon after I heard about the Code, because it made no sense to me whatsoever. Brennan Decision. When I was at the UFT, and people knew that I had information about the problem code, the members would call me and ask me if they were coded or not. I would ask for their file number, then say “hold on”, go next door to Amy, who asked me for the file number of the caller, I would give it to her, and she would look at her computer for a few seconds and say “yes” or “no”. I would take this answer back to the person on my phone in my office. My phone rang alot with this question, and Amy was terrific, giving me the “yes” or “no” quickly.

When I was asked by the Attorneys on the New Yorkers For Religious Liberty lawsuit – Barry Black, Jonathan Nelson, Sujata Gibson and Sarah Childs – to write a Declaration about the DOE placing all unvaccinated employees on the problem code on and after October 4, 2021, I of course said “yes”. I put the information about a person helping me at the UFT, but I left the name anonymous. The person mentioned in my BETSY COMBIER DECLARATION 6-2-22 who gave me the yes or no for the problem code on a personnel file, was none other Amy Arundell.

After I left the UFT in 2010, I still referred members to Amy whenever I was asked whether a person was on the problem code or not. Suddenly, Amy’s answer was “Never heard of it”. I stopped referring members to her. I was very perplexed until an Administrative Law Judge at PERB asked me in 2022 if I wanted the final decision in the UFT-DOE lawsuit on the Problem Code. The case had finally ended. Of course I said “yes”. I was sent the decision, and then I obtained the entire litigation file, all 1000+ pages. I saw why Amy had denied knowing anything about the Code. The UFT had filed a PERB complaint against the DOE in 2012 for being secretive about the problem code. In order for the UFT to successfully file their PERB Complaint, Amy needed to pretend that she did not know about the Problem Code until 2012 because at PERB there is a 4-month statute of limitations. In her papers she insisted she had never heard of this flag until 2012. This was, of course, false.

That is why it pains me to write this article on why Amy should not be UFT President. She gives misinformation whenever she needs to, and the rank and file rarely get any help from her. I do not know a single UFT member who Amy assisted in getting removed from the problem Code in the Galaxy database. 

UFT Policy on Unvaccinated Members

Municipal workers in New York City have had it rough the past couple of years. Forgive me for calling it “rough” when I mean so much more: the demolition of lives and careers by the sudden, wrongful termination from employment without rights to due process, without healthcare, a way to pay bills, and proper representation by the Unions who were colluding with the Enemy: the governments of the City and State of New York, and the Federal and State Courts. This was, and is, a nightmare.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew and his long-term sargent-at-arms Amy Arundell actively , deliberately and intentionally harmed all UFT members who could not, would not, and/or did not get vaccinated against COVID-19 by making sure all of these “miscreants“- UFT members – were removed from their UFT memberships and their salaries and punished with a permanent problem code. See here as well.

Almost all UFT members know that the UFT wanted all members to be vaccinated. In October, 2021 Commissioner Choshi issued an Order saying that all NYC Department of Education employees had to get the vaccine or be termination. But the Order issued October 15, 2021 had a clause allowing religious and medical exceptions.

On October 6, 2021, UFT President Michael Mulgrew held a Zoom meeting in which he said that anyone who did not hand in a vaccination card to the NYC DOE showing they were vaccinated against COVID on or before October 4, 2021, could not be employed. One of the UFT members I represented at the Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) taped the entire meeting, and she recorded the meeting. I was sent the tape. I paid for a certified transcript of the tape, and you can read it below:

October 6, 2021, Townhall Zoom meeting: Transcript-Oct 6, 2021 Townhall

On November 2, 2021 Queens Borough Rep. Amy Arundell called a former teacher who was fighting the UFT at PERB for allowing the NYC Department of Education to put her on Leave Without Pay (“LWOP”) without a hearing called Section 3020-a arbitration” (Article 21G in the UFT Contract, and the Law: Rights of Tenured Teachers). Amy told this now unsalaried employee of the DOE and member of the UFT that she had no right to her salary and she would be terminated if she did not get vaccinated. The call was recorded and I was sent the tape. I requested a certified Transcript: Transcript-Nov. 2 2021 call

Amy was hostile to this member, and clarified that as the DOE required her to be vaccinated on or before October 4, 2021, and she was not vaccinated, she had to be removed from her pay. However, October 4, 2021 was in the middle of the pay period, i.e. Oct. 1-15, and as the DOE is a huge bureaucracy which cannot change the automatic deposit suddenly between pay periods, she had to repay the salary given to her by the DOE for pay period Oct. 4-15, because she was absent without notice and therefore this was called an “unauthorized absence.”

Huh? Amy made a tremendous error here. So did the DOE. First, Amy violated the UFT Contract Articles 16, 20, 21, 22 by supporting the DOE against the members who were removed suddenly from salary without a fair hearing on their medical or religious exception/appeal. All unvaccinated members of the UFT who were active on October 1, 2021, were suddenly removed from their salaries on or about October 4, 2021. Martin Scheinman, arguably the most powerful Attorney and Union arbitrator/negotiator in New York State, wrote an Impact Bargaining Opinion (see SCHEINMAN AWARD SEPT 10“)  wherein he called this sudden separation “Leave Without Pay” or LWOP.

In Human Resources law, there is no such policy where an employee is forced into a leave without pay and found guilty of misconduct for abandoning their job. This is crazy.

This lawless decision violated bed rock Constitutional Law in these United States, namely that Constitutional rights are never changed or waived during times of emergencies.

Our Founding Fathers put unalienable rights into our Constitution and established this Country on the Rule of Law, enforcing these individual rights—until COVID-19 hit. We saw individual rights, constitutional rights, and laws being trashed to protect the state’s “compelling interests.” This is hard for anyone to digest. We saw that the trust we had placed in people at the helm of our governments and courts was misplaced and that our unalienable rights took second place to our government’s so-called “interest” in protecting the collective ‘we’.

With only a few days’ warning in September to November 2021, members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), employees of the NYC Department of Education, and municipal workers from all professions were shoved off their salaries and targeted for termination because their religious beliefs, medical conditions, or personal philosophies prohibited them from getting vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. At least, that was the stated reason for the mass terminations. See the unilateral decision of the UFT to deny all Step 2 Grievances filed by any member who was removed from salary for not getting vaccinated.UFT -GRIEVANCE DENIAL 12-29-21

To anyone who knows the UFT contract due process clauses, this is a fraud. The UFT Grievance Office wrote:

“Your grievance claims a contractual violation for being placed on an unpaid leave of absence. 

The New York City Department of Health ordered that all Department of Education staff must be vaccinated. After a Municipal Labor Committee lawsuit joined by the UFT failed to stop the mandate, the UFT filed for impact bargaining. The resulting arbitration decision modifies the CBA. If the DOE is complying with the award there is nothing to
grieve.”

and,

“…being placed on an unpaid leave due to vaccine non-compliance is not a contractual violation. Therefore, the Union will not be taking the case to the Chancellor’s level or to the Executive Director of Human Resources at this time.
You have the right to appeal the Union’s decision but we want to make sure you understand the Union’s rationale for not pursuing your grievance.”

This is one of the most shocking statements I have ever read. It is totally baseless in fact and law. The Contract was never changed. Additionally, thinking about how this mindless policy statement by the UFT caused the suffering and financial nightmares for so many people gets me so riled up it’s hard to do anything but try to breathe. 

The Scheinman Award never changed or modified the UFT Contract (CBA). Why? All changes to the Contract must be voted on and ratified by members. There never was a vote and the Scheinman Award never changed the Contract. Amy Arundell, Mike Mulgrew, and the Executive Board knew this, but went along with Martin Scheinman anyway. After the Impact Bargaining Award was issued, the UFT never filed any objection or Appeal, such as an Article 75.

Sadly, neither Amy Arundell not Mike Mulgrew have any empathy – certainly not for the UFT rank and file.

The real reason for this policy by the UFT and the NYC DOE was to take the COVID pandemic as an opportune moment to remove thousands of New York City municipal workers from the payroll in order to save as much money as possible in the dwindling budget. Laws never stopped the government from claiming a “compelling interest” as the reason for violating the rule of law and individual rights which everyone with government-funded positions had to agree to support. I include judges in this group.

The road to termination after well-known Arbitrator Martin Scheinman created Leave Without Pay (LWOP) was and is lawless. The argument that the COVID vaccine mandate changed any agency’s terms of employment is bulloney. This Impasse Bargaining Agreement was paved with bad intentions by the UFT, whose President, Michael Mulgrew, and his UFT representatives, especially Amy Arundell, never supported anyone who had unvaccinated status. The UFT deliberately and intentionally interfered with unvaccinated members ‘ rights to work. Amy’s removal evidently was a step too far on the support for Palestine. Don’t worry, all you fans out there. Amy has been reassigned to the Manhattan UFT office and is getting paid to do nothing. Thanks, members, for your dues.

NYC teachers union official apparently out following debate over resolution on Hamas terror in Israel