Can I Be Laid Off? Are Our Pensions in Jeopardy?

At the end of Mulgrew’s Town Hall livestream a member asked “Can I be laid off?”, a question on the mind of many in the audience. Mulgrew restated the theme of his remarks, we are facing an “existential crisis,” the future of public education and teacher unions are at risk, and we must fight back together, in the courts and on the streets. 

The AFT is already challenging Trump actions in court, teachers in large numbers participating in rallies across the nation, and the coalition is growing by the day.

Let me get more pragmatic, days before the opening of school in 1975 the city laid off thousands of teachers, under state law, by license, elementary school teachers with 5.5 years or less, French teachers with 15 years or less, the union enthusiastically went on strike, the city was preparing to declare bankruptcy, in the final hours before filing the declaration of bankruptcy UFT President Al Shanker agreed to the Teachers Retirement System buying city bonds to avert bankruptcy, averting a bankruptcy proceeding that can change any contract including pensions. The State cannot “diminish or impair” public employee pensions, bankruptcy judges have sweeping powers. 

We need leadership who can steer us , who understands power, Mulgrew thwarted Bloomberg who was trying to lay off excess teachers and remove tenure, he refused to negotiate and waited for the next mayor as well as mobilizing labor across the state. Bloomberg blames us for his futile run the presidency, 

A response from the opposition caucus, scare tactics, the UFT election is ballots are mailed on May 1 and I suggest you check the Unity box.

These are scary times.

I’ll admit it, I’m a nerd, I try to read every source I can find. From Paul Krugman “WorldWide Financial Collapse ”  to Heather Joy Richardson, Noah Smith (“This is called Capital Flight ” and “Worst Case Scenarios for the Trump Economy” and Michael Lange (“The NYC Generation Gap”) and Politico. 

Our future under Trump and Musk appears bleak, unless the gals and guys with the white hats prevail and we will only prevail as an army, united, not fighting among ourselves. 

The news sources have not been concentrating on the impending budget crisis.

You can’t approve a State budget without a Federal budget and you can’t approve a City budget without a State budget. Voters in the 700 school districts across NYS vote on local budgets and elect school boards in mid May, without a State budget you can’t construct a local budget. 

The House of Representatives is inching towards approving a budget, the battle is among the Republicans, the Freedom Caucus, the ultra budget hawks are demanding drastic cuts, Medicare, Medicaid, Education and on and on, once approved the two Houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives must reconcile the two budgets and send along to the President, maybe by the end of May.

The Governor’s Preliminary Budget, released in late January is in the shredder, there will be fewer federal dollars, can New York State fill in the gaps caused by reduced federal dollars? 

The state budget is well past its April 1 deadline. The Governor and the Assembly speaker are tossing barbs at each other. Will they have enough revenue to make up for the loss in federal dollars? Will they have to prioritize? Who will be at the front of the line?

Mayor Adams and City Council leader Adams negotiate the city budget, due by June 30th, always done by mid-June, this year is unique. Both are running for mayor: how will the mayoral campaign impact the city budget?

Will drastic reductions in federal dollars to New York State lead to drastic reductions in New York City? Remember, New York City has no taxing authority, only the State can write tax bills,

Even scarier is the impact of almost daily changes in the threat of tariffs. The world financial system is intertwined, and is shaking as Trump threatens “the testicles of the universe” (read a dense discussion, talk about scary ). Humpty Dumpty can cause the world financial system to fall.

And, we’re only three months into Trumpmania.

What can we do? What can you do?

Attend the rallies, contact your electeds. Send a few bucks to the DNC,  bitching and blaming does not change the landscape, we need one union, together, this will be a long struggle, with many twists in the road, everyone has to be onboard.

Are we facing layoffs? Can our pensions be reduced?

No one can predict the future, and, as Ben Franklin said,

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”