In December, I wrote about the assassination of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare , which made considerable profits on the denial of health procedures. Less than a week after his murder, the accused culprit, Luigi Mangione, was found and charged. This young man has since become a folk hero in every sense of the word. Not surprising, given the abject nature of the health care industry, in which the extremely wealthy Brian Thompson was exemplified. No one, in the public, is shedding a tear for this dead CEO - other than his company’s stock holders, other petrified CEOs and Michael Mulgrew. Yes, Michael Mulgrew. You see Mr. Mulgrew has been shot at as well. Not fatally and not with a bullet - but with a ballot. As Mr. Thompson amassed a fortune for himself and his company’s stockholders, Michael Mulgrew has amassed considerable power (and money) for himself and his sycophants in the Unity Party. They lost the election in an attempt to place retirees into a for profit health care service which makes its profits via denials , much like Mr. Thompson‘s company.
As it was right before Christmas I couldn’t help but think of Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol’ and recall a biblical passage - ‘What does it benefit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?’. According to news accounts Thompson received warnings in the form of threats, but met his death without changing or repentance. People celebrated his death, as he was correctly seen as a capitalistic monster. Capitalism was his religion - an economic concept that is widely and openly celebrated in our country. Mr. Thompson’s actions were not contrary to those values - indeed they were completely synchronistic. He held on tight to those Marley like chains as tantamount and it cost him his life.
Thompson’s philosophical purity contrasts considerably to Mulgrew’s. His philosophy, as president of the UFT, should be unionism ( with its requisite willingness to fight), inclusivity, the protection of workers rights, the promotion of those rights, and by extension the protection and promotion of public education. All of those tenants have been ignored or outright rejected. The recent retirees success at the ballot box gave the risk avoidant Mr. Mulgrew an excellent opportunity for course correction, that the deceased Mr. Thompson did not take. Unfortunately, Mulgrew and Unity only care about the fact that they lost the retiree election. They are not willing to engage in self reflection, learn or improve from their loss. Mulgrew and Unity have and are now engaged in everything from ageism to physically separating retirees in order to insulate, exclude, marginalize, bully and reject the not so subtle call for change. What awaits Mr. Mulgrew if he refuses to change? Not the same fate as Mr. Thompson, but a consequential fate nonetheless. A complete loss of power and influence, in which Mr. Mulgrew would be removed as president of the Uft and one in which Unity would no longer hold power. And like Brian Thompson, no one will shed a tear, except his ‘stock holders’, Unity.
