By the time this weekend is over, Richard Iannuzzi will likely no longer be president of New York State United Teachers, the largest state affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers which has garnered accolades from hardcore progressive traditionalists and conservatives for its opposition to the Empire State’s implementation of Common Core reading and math standards. And Michael Mulgrew, the boss of the AFT’s Big Apple local, the United Federation of Teachers, will have succeeded in his goals of ousting his chief rival for influence over education politics in New York State, in helping the local reassert its control over NYSUT, in helping national AFT President Randi Weingarten end the embarrassment of Iannuzzi successfully leading a partly-successful battle to kibbosh full implementation of Common Core (which the national union cagily supports), and, ultimately, in building support for his long-term goal of succeeding Weingarten as national AFT president.

wpid-threethoughslogoBut no matter what happens this weekend, the winner of the battle to control NYSUT will have to deal with an affiliate whose financial troubles will continue to undermine its goals of defending traditionalist policies, and the reminder to teachers — as a result of Iannuzzi’s ouster — that the AFT is only interested in listening to them when it suits its interests.

Why is Iannuzzi at risk of losing his place as one of the nation’s most-influential teachers’ union bosses? This is especially curious in light of the fact that Iannuzzi’s bellicose, occasionally Karen Lewis-like style has helped NYSUT occasionally beat back school reformers at the state level, and thwart the efforts of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has emerged as one of the nation’s strongest reform-minded governors. Last month, NYSUT won a partial victory against implementation of Common Core when it convinced the Empire State’s Democratic and Republican legislators to write a provision into the 2014-2015 budget barring student test score data from tests aligned with the standards from being included in student grades. This move, in turn, will likely force Cuomo and Education Commissioner John King to bar the use of the same data from being used in teacher evaluations, handing NYSUT (as well as the Big Apple and national AFT) another win.

But since this past January, Iannuzzi has been the proverbial dead man walking. His fate was sealed in January, when Karen Magee, a boss of a local in Harrison, N.Y.,  announced that she would challenge his bid for another term as affiliate president, and effectively gained the backing of Iannuzzi’s second-in-command, Andrew Pallotta, a former UFT apparatchik and Mulgrew ally. It was confirmed later that month when Mulgrew announced that the Big Apple local, along with those in Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, would back Iannuzzi’s ouster. While Iannuzzi retains the backing of 300 AFT locals within NYSUT, they only hold 24 percent of the seats on the affiliate’s governing assembly. The UFT, along with its allies, hold 56 percent of the seats on the assembly, and thus, have won the day.

The fact that Iannuzzi is heading to defeat this Saturday is just another reminder that there are few matters more interesting in American public education than intramural squabbling inside a teachers’ union. After all, the battles and the power grabs expose all the talk of union solidarity as just that. And this is especially true when it comes to the AFT, whose leadership — especially Weingarten — always claims to listen to (and represent) all teachers.

For seven decades, the union has been controlled at the national level by the Progressive faction and at the Big Apple level by Unity; Weingarten and Mulgrew control both coalitions. Both Progressive and Unity are ruthless when it comes to ensuring their hegemony over AFT politics — and beating back dissidents to their party line. For Unity, this includes allowing retired teachers — many of whom are loyal to Unity, and ultimately, Progressive — to cast votes in union elections, often at the expense (and to the ire) of younger, more reform-minded teachers (who now make up the majority of the rank-and-file), and traditionalist-minded Baby Boomers still working in classrooms.

Progressive’s and Unity’s control of AFT used to extend to NYSUT, the union’s largest state affiliate. In fact, the UFT controls one-third of the seats on NYSUT’s governing board, while Iannuzzi himself was a protege of Thomas Hobart, a Shanker ally who ran the affiliate for four decades. But over the past eight years, NYSUT has escaped from under Progressive’s and Unity’s thumb. Thanks in part to a 2006 merger with an affiliate of the National Education Association (a move that brought NYSUT back into the fold of the AFT’s counterpart and rival), and the retirement of longtime UFT honcho Alan Lubin as executive vice president of NYSUT and overlord of the union’s political action committee, the state affiliate has embraced a somewhat hardcore traditionalist agenda (as well as confrontational approach) that at times runs counter to that of the national union and the Big Apple local. Let’s be clear: Iannnuzzi isn’t the second coming of Lewis, who is the proverbial bull in the china closet. But within an AFT that has embraced a co-opt reformers approach to preserving its declining influence, Iannuzzi is more than willing to spar with the opposition.

More importantly, NYSUT has been willing to throw its political weight around, opposing state legislators and politicians that don’t support its agenda. This includes going toe to toe with Cuomo, who has been among the nation’s strongest reform-minded governors. Four years ago, it refused to back Cuomo’s successful maiden campaign for governor. This year, it was threatening to not back the governor’s re-election campaign — and in the process, make sure that one of its allies, the Empire State affiliate of the AFL-CIO, would also not give its backing. [This is why Iannuzzi fumed last January over a move by Pallotta to spend $10,000 in union funds for a table at a Cuomo fundraiser.] Cuomo doesn’t exactly need NYSUT’s or AFL-CIO’s backing; he is an overwhelming favorite to win re-election. But losing the backing of the biggest players in state Democratic politics would have been particularly embarrassing for Cuomo, who is likely looking to follow up on his gubernatorial campaign with a run for the Democratic presidential nomination (and a fierce battle with Hillary Clinton) in the next two years.

None of this is to the liking of Mulgrew or Weingarten, his longtime sponsor. For the ever-ambitious Mulgrew, Iannuzzi is a competitor for influence over education policy, both at the state level and within the national union. The fact that Iannuzzi has seized control of NYSUT’s political action committee from Mulgrew ally Pallotta (and therefore, has weakened UFT’s control over state education politics) is not to Mulgrew’s liking. More importantly, Iannuzzi’s aggressive stance against systemic reform also fuels complaints from dissident Baby Boomers within both the Big Apple and national AFT that Mulgrew (along with Weingarten) is far too willing to give in to reformers on rolling back the traditional teacher compensation deals and other arrangements the union has long fought to gain and preserve.

Meanwhile NYSUT’s agenda — especially against Common Core implementation — undercuts Weingarten’s efforts at triangulating the school reform movement at the national level; it’s hard for her to declare that the AFT some reforms (while otherwise preserving the status quo) when the union’s largest affiliate loudly opposes all of them. As it is, Weingarten has had to figure out how to deal with Iannuzzi’s colleague, Lewis, who has become the darling of hardcore traditionalists for her efforts to roll back the reforms undertaken by former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and successor Rahm Emanuel. Damage control against Iannuzzi has push back against Common Core is one reason why Weingarten is attending NYSUT’s pow-wow this weekend.

But in ousting Iannuzzi, Mulgrew and his ally, Magee (along with Weingarten) will end up with two big messes on their hands.

The first is financial. As Dropout Nation reported this past December, NYSUT is in a state of virtual insolvency. Thanks to the affiliate’s fiscal fecklessness, NYSUT has just $102 million in assets against $336 million in liabilities. Between 2008-2009 and 2012-2013, the affiliate’s pension and retired staff liabilities increased by 61 percent (from $190 million to $305 million). Considering that economic realities will mean that there will be fewer teachers being added to payrolls — and therefore, no new dollars for NYSUT coffers — the affiliate will have to raise dues even higher just to pay down its liabilities and at the same time, spend heavily on political campaigning. Some help may end up coming from the national AFT, which subsidized NYSUT to the tune of $12.1 million last fiscal year (as well as from the NEA); but the national union itself is struggling financially and must also concern itself with stemming declining national influence. Considering how poorly NYSUT has managed its finances — and the likelihood that Magee will be less successful than Iannuzzi in beating back reform efforts at the state level — rank-and-file members would be right to wonder if handing more of their hard-earned cash to the union is worth it.

The second is political. The fact that the AFT’s governing faction has ousted a moderately dissident voice within its ranks proves once again that the union only “listens” to teachers when it suits its own agenda. or both sides, the AFT at both the local and national levels hardly represents an organization that “listens” to teachers. This has always been clear. For younger teachers, the AFT has always proven to be more-interested in preserving seniority-based privileges (including quality-blind Last In-First Out layoff rules that protect longtime veterans at the expense of younger teachers in the ranks) than addressing their concerns about elevating the profession. As for traditionalist-minded Baby Boomers? The fact that AFT’s affiliates such as that in New York City structure voting rules to ensure that retirees are better-represented than they are is particularly grating.

This is no small thing. AFT membership isn’t voluntary; even those teachers who don’t want to join the union are still  forced to pay dues in the form of so-called agency fees. And when the union that proclaims to listen teachers does anything but, then it is time for teachers of all philosophies to move away from the AFT (as well as the NEA) and embrace a different form of professional representation.