Every so often, you catch a whiff of something in the UFT air that doesn’t just smell bad — it smells manufactured. And this week, it reeks of Unity panic.
The Setup
For weeks, rank-and-file members have been asking one simple question: What’s going on with the investigation into that shameful DA incident two months ago?
You may remember. They dropped "piss on my face" cards with a women's face into the men's urinal during a scheduled widely-attended meeting. When decent people (from a caucus that is not that Unity Caucus) removed them, they placed another set back again. It wasn't just any women. It was Amy Aurndel, the same woman who led the election campaign against them and the very same woman they have publicly mistreated for several years. They just. couldn't resist one more insult. As you may know, Amy was fired days later. This, naturally led to complaints from leading ABC members including Daniel Alicea.
The answer to those complaints from UFT’s legal team, specifically Beth A. Norton, has been a masterclass in delay and dismissiveness. one member, who has been politely but persistently emailing for updates, got nothing but stonewalling and as dismissive a tone as professionalism would allow.
Enter a group of us — frustrated, fed up, and ready to put our names on a joint letter demanding accountability. A professional, united appeal to the union’s top lawyer. We knew a letter like this would put more pressure on the leadership than a single member’s email could ever do. And it would protect individual signers by spreading out the risk of retaliation from Unity’s ever-watchful loyalists.
The letter was drafted. A text thread buzzed with sign-up energy. We were almost ready to hit send.
The Leak
And then — surprise! — the update we’d been waiting for magically appeared in an inbox. No warning. No explanation. Just… there.
The timing? Suspicious.
The content? A “nothing burger” with extra lettuce. It only repeated everything in the original complaint. The "update" was clearly a rushed job.
The conclusion? Somebody tipped them off.
That somebody has a name: Karen Feldman.
Karen’s résumé is pure hardliner — an ardent vocal opponent to anything she perceives as anti semitism. She has been featured in the Jerusalem Post alongside others who have taken a similar stance in the UFT. When entered in Google, her telephone number shows her to be the contact person for NYCPS Alliance yet her name is conveniently missing anywhere on the website. Most recently, she made headlines in that same paper urging members to withhold dues because the UFT supported a socialist for mayor. (Yes, you read that right — a Unity insider literally teaching people how to pull their dues). Word is that several weeks ago, she resigned over this issue. As the word goes, she felt city classrooms were not a welcoming environment for all.
Yet there she was, on our text thread.
And somehow, Beth Norton was suddenly in possession of insider knowledge about our joint letter before it was even finalized. The result? A scrambled, subpar “update” clearly meant to get ahead of whatever we were about to send.
The Damage Control Attempt
Norton’s update offered nothing new — just a regurgitation of facts we already knew, wrapped in an “I’m doing my job” bow 🎁. The gaps were glaring. The holes were big enough to drive a DOE payroll bus through. But the real takeaway wasn’t the content. It was the speed.
This wasn’t about informing members. Someone in that sprawling union needed to control a narrative. And that's just what they did.
And that tells us one thing: that someone is feeling the heat.
Why It Matters
I just want to say that, in a healthy union, leadership welcomes scrutiny from its members. In Unity’s UFT, scrutiny is a threat. The fact that a single group text about a joint letter prompted this much of a defensive scramble speaks volumes about how nervous they are about losing control of the story.
It also says a lot about how Unity uses its internal network — not to organize against management or advocate for better contracts, but to monitor dissent and squash it before it gains traction. That's how they see their job. To monitor and squash dissent by any means necessary. I, for instance, fully expect retaliation from them when I get back to my school in September. Why? Because this is who these Unity folks really are: They monitor and squash dissent by any means necessary.
Karen Feldman didn’t just happen to be in that thread. She was there to watch. And when she saw something that might embarrass Unity leadership, she ran it straight to the attorney.
Oh, and the letter? It advocates for women's dignity!! Data shows that Karen Feldman read the letter on August 11. The update came the next day. Karen never signed the letter.
She didn't even advocate for the basic dignity of her own gender while she was stopping by. What a hero.
The Playbook Is Old — But the Moment Is New
Unity’s been playing this game for decades. What’s different now is how quickly their alert buttons gets pushed. In this case, it was pushed before we even finalized our letter. Stalin wasn't even this paranoid when he ran his organization. This means they’re watching everything. That is how strung out on fear and loathing and paranoia they really are.
It also means they’re worried enough to act on scraps of information. I am going to go troll town on that one in the coming months!
Maybe the rest of us should take this as a sign — not to be quieter, but to be a bit louder, sharper, and more coordinated in our efforts.
Because if one carefully worded joint letter can make them twitch, imagine what a hundred signatures would do on a petition? Or fifty members attending an open Executive Board meeting. Or 25 of us going to the press. The UFT Opposition has seen better days. But the Unity Caucus has never, in my career, been more weak.
Or more dangerous. So watch