At the Delegate Assembly on March 19, UFT President Michael Mulgrew spoke to the delegates about the threat posed to UFT in-service members and retirees by the cuts and layoffs in government agencies by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Mulgrew said that lawsuits filed by unions and a team of 20 attorneys general had fended off the worst cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security — but he warned that the fight was far from over.

Mulgrew warned that the mass layoffs would hobble the operation of the agencies that administer Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

“We’re assuming the plan here is to break the agencies that administer these programs and say we — meaning them and the billionaires — can do a better job and privatize them,” Mulgrew said. “It looks like that’s where they’re trying to go on all of this.”

He said such drastic action was unnecessary and heedlessly destructive. “The Social Security Administration has never been an agency that people said was not efficient,” Mulgrew said. “It actually was one of the best-run federal agencies.”

Other lawsuits filed by the AFT and its allies have also had an impact. One lawsuit has so far thwarted the administration’s bid to make Americans’ personal data — including student loan and tax information — available to DOGE. In late March, the Trump administration reopened the online federal applications for income-driven repayment plans for student loans after the AFT sued the U.S. Department of Education.

But Mulgrew said more organized opposition to the new administration was needed. “We’re going to have to organize more, working with the AFT and NYSUT, and really start to reach out to partners,” Mulgrew said.

He also took issue with the administration’s sustained attack on efforts to educate students about racial injustice and celebrate ethnic diversity in K–12 public schools. He said the federal government was trying to “get out of Title VI,” the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Turning the traditional meaning of “discrimination” on its head, the administration sent an FAQ and a “Dear Colleague” letter to all state education department leaders warning them that no educational institution that receives federal funding may treat students differently on the basis of race.

Mulgrew said the threatening letter was another instance of the administration flouting legal barriers. “All these precedents have already been set in court,” he said. “An FAQ and a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter do not supersede legal decisions that have already been determined.”

Mulgrew gave a special shout-out to the legal work being done by New York State Attorney General Letitia James to block the new administration. “Tish James has been phenomenal,” Mulgrew said. 

Mulgrew reassured UFT members that New York City schools have not changed course in the face of these headwinds. “Our chancellor has been very clear that we will continue to teach the programs that we’ve been teaching,” he said.

But, he cautioned, unions and their members need to remain vigilant because “there is a lot at stake.”