Ex-UFT borough official challenging union chief Michael Mulgrew for top spot
A former teachers union borough official is charting a path back to the upper ranks — challenging United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew for the top spot.
Amy Arundell was removed on October 2023 from her position as the representative for Queens after trying to soften a union resolution supporting Israel, as first reported by the Daily News.
On Monday, Arundell will announce her bid for teachers union president in this spring's elections with A Better Contract — one of two slates mounting a challenge to Mulgrew's Unity caucus.
A Better Contract is running on a platform including premium-free healthcare, raises that keep pace with the cost of living, pension reform, and being responsive to members. In a press release, the slate insisted Arundell's campaign be seen as an indictment of the union's current leadership.
'I have been an employee of the UFT for 21 years, and this wouldn't have been something I would've thought of doing,' Arundell said in an exclusive interview with The News. 'The culture of the UFT is you get picked by leadership, leadership decides who they think would be the next appropriate president — and I played by those rules.'
'But members are increasingly dissatisfied with a lot of the decisions that have been made by the UFT,' she added. 'And it became harder and harder to look people in the face and tell them, 'This was a good thing.''
Mulgrew, the UFT president since 2009, has won five consecutive elections — most recently in 2022. But after a lower-than-expected margin of victory last referendum, his challengers say he could be vulnerable in this year's contest.
Arundell herself worked on Mulgrew's campaign.
'The UFT is a democratic organization that thrives on a vigorous exchange of ideas,' read a statement from LeRoy Barr, chair of the Unity caucus, on the upcoming elections. 'Unity has a track record of improving the lives of UFT members and so we look forward to the campaign.'
Unity has been in power for more than 60 years.
Arundell oversaw all UFT business in Queens from 2017 until her sudden removal. Just days after Oct. 7, 2023, she privately proposed changes to a UFT resolution supporting Israel, including a suggestion to drop the word 'terrorist' to describe the Hamas attack.
Arundell explained she did not want to debate if Hamas was a terrorist organization, but to recognize that not all of the members she represented agreed with that statement — and avoid a public argument that she said ensued during the resolution vote.
'When I was reassigned, I did not know why. I was never told. And to this day, they have never actually told me,' Arundell said. 'I don't pretend I believe things I don't believe, but I also don't use my position as a representative for the UFT to push a personal agenda.'
Arundell did not challenge the UFT's decision to remove her, but told The News she thinks it was unfair, arguing it's one of a series of 'bad decisions' that did not consider the membership's point of view. Thousands of members came to Arundell's defense in a petition after her removal.
The union president hopeful raised concerns about an effort to switch retired teachers onto private healthcare, mayoral control of public schools, and 'everybody deciding how people should teach except teachers.'
'I held a meeting with 600 people to answer questions about healthcare,' Arundell said of the Medicare Advantage plan. 'I answered questions based on what I was told by leadership. And I will say now, I do not believe as a staff person at the UFT, I was told the truth about all the implications of this decision. And that's embarrassing to me.'
Mulgrew has since dropped his support for Medicare Advantage.
Most recently, Arundell questioned Mulgrew's attempt to secure raises for underpaid paraprofessionals through legislation, outside of the typical contract negotiation process.
While she agreed the special education staffers are overdue for a raise, she said she worried what precedent it would set to sidestep the city's longstanding practice of reaching a deal with one union, setting a pattern for all other contracts during a round of bargaining.
'Making 'pattern bargaining' the enemy is unbelievable to me, because its history is rooted in the idea that unions will not compete with one another, that we are one labor movement, and that we are stronger when we are together,' Arundell said.
The nomination process closes next month. The UFT will mail ballots to members and count votes on May 29. Members elected president and other officers will serve three-year terms, effective this summer.
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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ousted NC elections director led through chaos. Her replacement promises change
Karen Brinson Bell's departure from her post as North Carolina's top election official was hardly unexpected. For nearly a decade, lawmakers had sought to restructure the state's election apparatus to strip appointment power away from the governor — an office which Democrats have won in the last three elections despite Republicans maintaining strong majorities in the General Assembly. After five attempts were foiled by courts or voters, the sixth proved successful. The state's appellate courts allowed a new law to take effect transferring appointment power over the State Board of Elections away from the governor and toward the newly elected Republican auditor. So when the board's new Republican majority voted last month to replace Brinson Bell with Sam Hayes, a lawyer who had worked for the state's top lawmakers, it didn't come as a surprise to her. 'You know when you're in an appointed position that it can always come to an end,' Brinson Bell told The News & Observer in an interview. 'So I tried to treat each day of the job just like you're supposed to treat your life: you never know if you'll get another day, so just do with it what you can while you can.' With Brinson Bell gone and the board's partisan majority flipped for the first time in nearly a decade, major changes are likely coming to the way the state runs its elections. Procedures surrounding voter registration and military and overseas voting are in question. So is the agency's independence. And all of this comes on the heels of a dramatic six-month legal battle over the results of the 2024 state Supreme Court election. Hayes has promised change for the oft-embattled agency, but says it will not come at the expense of voters. 'We will focus not only on access to voting for eligible voters, but also on election integrity and making sure that voters trust the system. These two goals are not mutually exclusive,' he said in an email to The N&O. 'We can have secure elections that are also accessible to any eligible voter who wants to cast a ballot.' Brinson Bell's unceremonious ousting last month — in which the board refused to allow her to give a farewell speech — was not the cap she had envisioned to her 19-year career in elections. 'I wanted to give recognition to an incredible group of people at the state agency and across the state who really pulled off some very remarkable, unprecedented things and give that recognition as it was due,' she said about that moment. 'I think not only did it disrespect me, it disrespected the state staff and all 100 counties.' The vote came shortly after the state's Republican-dominated Court of Appeals allowed Senate Bill 382 — a wide-ranging power shift bill — to take effect. The bill stripped the governor of his power to appoint a majority of members to the State Board of Elections — a practice which has been in place for over a century. Instead, that power was given to the state auditor, Dave Boliek, the first Republican to win the office in 16 years. A trial court had ruled that the law was unconstitutional, but the appeals court reversed that ruling in an unsigned order that did not include the reasoning for the judges' decision. Within a week of that order, the new board had taken office and voted to remove Brinson Bell as one of its first actions. It was a dramatic end to a tenure that had already been far from ordinary. During her six years as director of the State Board of Elections, Brinson Bell contended with COVID, Hurricane Helene and an unprecedented effort to overturn the results of a Supreme Court election. Each disruption to the normal election process brought increased scrutiny to the board and to Brinson Bell herself, who Republican lawmakers frequently lambasted on social media or in hearings at the legislature. While state lawmakers had voiced concerns with the board before, hostilities reached a tipping point in 2020, Brinson Bell said. As President Donald Trump spread false claims of voter fraud nationwide, North Carolina dealt with its own challenges to voting. Prior to the election, an advocacy group had sued the elections board over its mail-in voting rules, arguing that voters needed more opportunities to get their ballots in given the COVID-19 pandemic. The board (which at the time had three Democrats and two Republicans) unanimously agreed to a settlement with the group that allowed the state to accept mail-in ballots up to nine days after the election and gave voters more opportunities to fix issues with their ballots. To this day, state lawmakers refer to this as a 'collusive settlement' and list it as one of the primary reasons the board needed to be changed. 'It's unfortunate, because it's sowing distrust in the system that obviously, fairly and securely got them elected — and they didn't question their results,' Brinson Bell said. 'So why are we questioning the results of other contests that were carried out the exact same way?' Only four years after organizing voting in a pandemic, Brinson Bell had to organize voting in the wake of a deadly hurricane that ravaged Western North Carolina. The storm was personal for Brinson Bell, who lived in the area for 20 years. 'I knew the creeks and the hollers and the ridge lines that were being affected, and I knew a lot of the people being affected,' she said. Shortly after the storm hit, the board approved a variety of rule changes to make voting easier for mountain residents — all of which were later adopted by the legislature. Despite Helene, voters in Western North Carolina actually outpaced the rest of the state in turnout during early voting. The board's response to Helene won the agency a national Clearinghouse Award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission — its fourth such award during Brinson Bell's tenure. But shortly after a national election in the wake of a massive hurricane, Brinson Bell had one more unexpected complication to deal with, one that would not be resolved until the very day the board voted to oust her. After all outstanding mail-in and provisional ballots from the 2024 election were counted, Republican Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin came in 734 votes behind Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs. The state proceeded to two recounts, which are standard procedure for a close election such as this one. But both affirmed the result. Rather than ending there, a novel and chaotic legal battle erupted. Griffin, alongside the NC GOP, challenged the validity of over 65,000 ballots cast in the election. Targeting a variety of longstanding voting and registration practices, Griffin sought to toss out tens of thousands of votes — potentially flipping the race in his favor. After six months of courtroom fights, Griffin conceded the race after a federal judge appointed by Trump decisively ruled against him. His concession came just as the election board's new Republican majority prepared to vote on replacing Brinson Bell. She alluded to the challenge in her farewell message, telling the attendees who stuck around after the board adjourned that she hoped election workers could be 'rewarded for their work, rather than vilified by those who don't like the outcome.' 'I hope we return to a time when those who lost elections concede defeat rather than trying to tear down the entire election system and erode voter confidence,' she continued. 'And I hope we recognize that the conduct of elections is the very core of our democracy.' Since taking over as director last month, Hayes has mostly worked behind the scenes. The new board has yet to meet since it voted to select him as director, and Hayes has not issued any press releases — other than the one announcing his hire. But changes are sure to come to the state's election processes under his leadership. While Griffin's effort to overturn his election loss is dead, the board is working to implement changes to the state's election policies based on the arguments he made. Griffin's main challenge argued that over 60,000 voters who didn't have a driver's license or Social Security number in the state's registration database should have their votes thrown out. Those identification numbers are required by a federal law called the Help America Vote Act, which includes exceptions for voters who do not possess either form of identification. The Trump administration sued over the issue late last month, asking a judge to order the state to fix the discrepancy within 30 days and cancel the registrations of any voter who does not provide the missing identifications. Hayes said he plans to work with the administration to address the problem. 'We don't need a lawsuit to tell us what's right,' he said. Voters with missing identification numbers will receive a mailing from the board informing them of how to fix it, Hayes said. If they don't respond, they will be contacted by phone and email. Instead of outright canceling the registrations of voters who don't answer at that point, Hayes said the voters would be flagged in the system to provide the missing information the next time they show up to vote. While Brinson Bell agreed that earlier registration practices were unclear pertaining to the HAVA numbers, she said Griffin's challenge of the election results was unnecessary and damaged trust in elections. 'It conveys such inaccurate information (and) a lack of understanding,' she said about the challenges. 'Just by filing it, you're sowing those seeds of distrust.' But Hayes shifted blame to the former board. 'I think failing to collect the information required by HAVA undermined trust in the 2024 election results,' he said. Collecting that information won't be the only change under Hayes. Despite being exempt from the state's voter ID law in the past, military and overseas voters will have to provide identification in future elections to have their votes counted in state and local races. This was another issue Griffin had sued over, though he only challenged voters registered in Democratic-leaning counties for this part of his complaint. While his effort to have those ballots canceled was unsuccessful, courts agreed with him that these voters should be subject to the ID requirement going forward. Changes could also come from the state legislature through the budget process. The House's budget proposal would add seven new employees to the State Board of Elections who would be exempt from the State Human Resources Act — essentially making them political appointees. Brinson Bell said this move could chip away at the agency's independence. 'You're losing the established public servant who works for the state, who works for the voters,' she said. ' And now inserting someone or individuals who — that's not who they answer to — they answer to that person who appoints them.' Hayes confirmed that he requested this change be added to the House budget, saying it would give him staffing flexibility. It isn't the only staffing change he's made. Shortly after taking office, Hayes hired Brian LiVecchi as his chief of staff — a position that had not previously existed in the agency. LiVecchi previously served as chief of staff to former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. He resigned in the midst of Robinson's gubernatorial campaign after bombshell reporting from CNN tied Robinson to a series of sexually explicit and disturbing online comments. Hayes said that most other agencies have a chief of staff and that he chose LiVecchi because he has a 'wealth of experience in election law and administration that will be of great benefit to the agency.' Amid this change, an audit is likely coming. Hayes said he asked Boliek — who appointed the board's members — to conduct a performance audit of the agency. 'It will help us determine where we need to spend energy and resources in the future to ensure we are efficiently fulfilling the many duties and responsibilities of this agency and providing the best possible service to voters, candidates, and the 100 county boards of elections,' Hayes said. As for Brinson Bell, she plans to continue working on elections — though she isn't sure exactly how, yet. Her husband calls her 'the busiest unemployed person he's ever met,' she said, as she continues to connect with election directors across the country and share advice on best practices. To her successor, Brinson Bell also has one piece of advice as he assumes the role of elections director for one of the country's most consequential swing states. 'He should never forget that he is now the caretaker of democracy,' she said. 'And that's a pretty big charge.'
Time Magazine
a day ago
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Mahrang Baloch Writes From Prison: ‘Speaking Up for Justice Is Not a Crime'
It has been more than two and a half months since I was thrown into prison —Hudda Prison, in Quetta, Pakistan, the same place father was caged nearly two decades ago, also for promoting the rights of the people of Balochistan. Since my arrest, Pakistan's state secuity agencies have deployed every tactic to break me. I have been offered a deal: stay silent, avoid political activity, and you can be home. I refused. The state has failed to produce a single piece of evidence linking me to any act of violence or criminality. The only "proof" they cite is a press conference I gave a few days before my March 22 arrest. I spoke to reporters after armed militants had hijacked a train and held 300 passengers hostage for hours. The attack occurred in the Balochistan, the largest province in Pakistan, and was carried out by Baloch separatists who have been fighting with the state for decades. At the press conference, I spoke not to defend the hijackers—our movement, the Baloch Yakjehti [Unity] Committee, has always renounced violence. Indeed, my intention was to draw a distinction between those who confront the state with arms and those who confront it with words. It's a crucial distinction, one the state prefers to blur. In Pakistan, 'terrorist' is a label pinned on anyone who advocates for Baloch rights. Those who speak up run the risk of arrest by military and intelligence agencies. After their arrest, they might never be seen again. If they are, it is often as a body, produced after a violent incident like the train attack. This was why I asked reporters: Who were the more than two dozen 'unidentified' bodies brought to Quetta's Civil Hospital after the hijacking? And why were 13 of them buried overnight without being named? The attackers, the Baloch Liberation Party, had released pictures and details of the 12 militants it said were killed. The identities of the rest were a mystery, but we had our suspicions. In Balochistan it is common practice, after violent episodes, for the forcibly disappeared persons to be put to death, and their bodies produced as those of militants. I demanded DNA testing of those who had been buried in the dead of night. Families of the disappeared feared, with good reason, that their loved ones were among them. Read more: Pakistan Jails Baloch Human Rights Activist So I am in jail for insisting on the distinction between peaceful activism and violence. My work had already drawn unwelcome international attention. In May 2024, Pakistani officials were outraged after I visited Norway at the invitation of PEN Norway, the Norwegian branch of PEN International and the World Expression Forum. I was even harassed on Norwegian soil by individuals linked to Pakistan's embassy in Oslo, whose intervention was ended by the Norwegian domestic security agency, PST. When I returned to Pakistan, I was immediately charged with sedition, and treated as if I had returned from an ISIS camp in Syria or Iraq rather than one of the most peace-loving countries in the world. In October, the government's smear campaigns amplified with my inclusion on the TIME100 Next Emerging Leaders. I was called 'Malala 2' and a Western puppet. Surveillance around me intensified, and I was placed on the Fourth Schedule, an anti-terror watch list typically reserved for hardened militants, and which restricts the movement and activities of the listed. I was barred from travelling abroad. I am learning the price of peaceful activism. For decades, Pakistan has kept the rest of the country, and the world, in the dark about Balochistan. It remains an information black hole. Among those the military and intelligence agencies have forcibly disappeared, killed, or forced into exile are journalists who dare to write about these atrocities. According to the Balochistan Union of Journalists, more than 40 have been killed since 2000. Foreign media are denied access to the region. From this darkness, a woman leading a grassroots movement for Baloch rights was unacceptable. The hostility of the state intensified with the BBC's 100 Women list, and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. But if international pressure has prevented my being killed, I face psychological warfare, threats, and the constant spectre of danger. I write this the day my sister told me that the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K) released a 100-page Urdu-language booklet accusing me of being a Western agent. Their "evidence"? The TIME honor and Norway trip. Other BYC leaders are in jail with me: Sabghat Ullah Shah Jee, Beebarg Zehri (a disabled man), Gulzadi, and Beebow. I tell them: We are not the first to be imprisoned for demanding peace, justice, and rights. From Nelson Mandela to Narges Mohammadi, we walk the same path. We draw strength from their courage, intellect, and defiance. Our movement is rooted in peace. We speak against enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, forced displacement, and the systematic denial of basic rights to the Baloch. We are the rightful owners of the Saindak Copper-Gold Project (worth billions of dollars, but the profits are not shared with the local population), the Reko Diq mine (estimated to hold copper and gold reserves worth over $60 billion, but the benefits are not reaching the Baloch people), and Gwadar — the gateway to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Yet, 70% of Balochistan's population lives below the poverty line. Read more: Pakistan Bars Activist From Traveling to TIME Event Honoring Her The state is offended and brands us terrorists and violent. But we are not violent. The state is armed, powerful, and ruthless. It uses violence to silence those who ask for justice. The practices once reserved for the Baloch, considered lesser citizens, are now expanding to other parts of Pakistan. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party are now under the military's wrath. He is jailed. Is Imran Khan also a terrorist? Are members of his PTI party now "agents of hostile agencies"? If the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies are as competent as they claim to be, why have they failed to present a single piece of credible proof? Why have they not held a fair, transparent trial? Because this isn't about the law; it's about fear, their fear of our truth. This prison is more than bricks and bars. It carries the memory of my father. As a child, I visited him here. I didn't grow up playing with toys. I grew up holding posters of my father, who was detained and then disappeared. When I turned eighteen, I received his lifeless, tortured, bullet-riddled body. This is not just my story. It's the story of every child in Balochistan. Childhood here is shaped by grief, fear, and posters of the disappeared. When our generation came of age, those of us raised in the shadows of state violence, we vowed: No child after us should suffer the same fate. We are fully aware of the power imbalance between us and a nuclear-armed state. It controls the media. It runs smear campaigns. It weaponizes the judiciary. It deploys overwhelming force. It controls the parliament. It operates proxy groups and armed militias. Our confinement is part of a war of narratives. Speaking up for justice is not a crime. Raising our voices against state violence is not treason. Demanding rights is not terrorism. It is humanity. And one day, we believe, this struggle will succeed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ communities for a safer, more equitable and inclusive Canada
OTTAWA, ON, June 10, 2025 /CNW/ - Pride Season is a time to raise our voices—and our flags—to celebrate the strength, resilience, and contributions of Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other sexual and gender diverse (2SLGBTQI+) communities. It is also a time to recommit to building a country where everyone can live in safety and dignity. Today, as the Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag was raised on Parliament Hill, the Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism), announced $1.5 million to support the security needs of Pride festivals across Canada. This funding—administered by Fierté Canada Pride through Canada's Action Plan on Combatting Hate—will help cover the rising cost of safety and insurance planning, so organizers can continue building welcoming and inclusive spaces for all. As we begin Pride Season, the Government of Canada remains committed to working with 2SLGBTQI+ communities to build a future where no one is left behind. Quote "Everyone deserves to feel safe and supported in their community. That starts with action—and with empowerment. Standing with 2SLGBTQI+ communities means building a Canada where everyone can live authentically and thrive. Today's funding matters. It strengthens local efforts to protect and uplift 2SLGBTQI+ communities and helps ensure Pride events across the country are safe, inclusive, and joyful for all." The Honourable Rechie Valdez, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Secretary of State (Small Business and Tourism) Quick facts As part of Canada's Action Plan on Combatting Hate, an investment of $15 million was committed to combat hate towards 2SLGBTQI+ communities. WAGE's public awareness campaign Unity addresses the stigma faced by members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities. It encourages Canadians to come together and play an active role in reducing that stigma by increasing the knowledge and skills needed to create a more inclusive future for all. Associated links Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan 2SLGBTQI+ Unity awareness campaign Women and Gender Equality Canada Fierté Canada Pride: Community Safety Fund Follow Women and Gender Equality Canada: Website Equality Matters newsletter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram YouTube SOURCE Women and Gender Equality Canada View original content: Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
