Rambling on - A Packed 24 hours + - Here's the first 4 hours - UFT Retiree meeting, ICE comes alive, Marianne videos expose Mulgrew

• To Ramble -

  talk or write at length in a confused or inconsequential way.

Confused and Inconsequential? –  a good way to define blogging and my current life.

 

Trying to write this blog in an organized manner by sticking to one topic has become difficult because there is so much info coming in, just processing and refining it into a comprehensive piece is too much for my scattered thoughts. So I'm just going to start writing until a certain time and just stop when I get distracted. So if this ends in mid-word or mid-sentence, I didn't die - probably.

This blog is 17 years old and as an extension of Ed Notes the newsletter, 25 years old. That's a lot of verbiage.

I was checking back to some of my reporting on the 2014 contract and I did 90 blog posts a month. This month I did 5 and 93 all year. So I decided to not worry about being coherent but just let things fly as they come into my brain, even if I forget most of it. 

ICE is still ALIVE!

Not having James Eterno to piggy back off since his illness in May has been a factor. His reporting on the issues we face was so important. Just before his stroke we had been discussing setting up an ICE meeting and since then I have been frozen in terms of ICE. As we reported, ICE has been in hiatus. His dedication makes it worth trying to keep ICE alive.

ICE did meet on a zoom  recently and it was nice to see people even on a screen. There was some money in the ICE account and we sent a donation to Camille. Keep James in your thoughts:

James Eterno Recovery Fund

 

 

 

  

 

It was clear that ICE people liked meeting in person so we are going to try at our favorite diner during the Xmas vacation. Rice pudding for all. If any of you are interested in rice pudding email me.

Thursday, November 30, 2023 - the last day of the hurricane season -- a big relief for us in Rockaway. Friday begins December and I need to get my car inspected -- 11 years old since Sandy hurricane.

I had an interesting 24 hours Tuesday/Wednesday. I took the 12:15 ferry to Wall St for the UFT Retired Teacher Meeting, which began at 3:30. They keep moving the day and time as a moving target to confuse people. And confuse people they did. What next, midnight?

UFT November Retiree meeting - Mulgrew was LIVE! Tom Murphy - Sort of.

There has been some speculation that Murphy has become so unpopular with retirees due to his role in healthcare issue and his undemocratic way of running meetings, that he might be replaced as CL in this spring's elections. At the ExBd, Mike Sill announced Debra Penny was stepping down as UFT Treasurer, an officer position.There were some who speculated she might replace Murphy. But the latest word is that Mulgrew is so paranoid over AmyGate and undercurrents in Unity being pissed at Mulgrew for her removal, he won't risk changing horses in midstream and trusts Murphy to be loyal to him.

That is the major modus operendi inside the UFT at this time, given the AmyGate affair where if you expressed positives about Amy you were moved to Mulgrew's growing shit list. Loyalty not to Unity or the UFT but to Mulgrew. We get sneak attack leaks from inside the fortress - that is exactly what 52 is. No one is storming Mulgrew's office - yet. Watch the body language of key people. 

Retiree Advocate in action

I met my compadres from Retiree Advocate early before the meeting in the back lobby of the UFT where people come early for the meeting and we get to talk to them. Gloria Brandman is like a tiger at organizing and she signed people up for our listserve and recruiting people to run with us in the chapter election in the spring. We are hoping for 300 delegates to the DA - Imagine if we won how that would impact the DA - and if you are retired and interested email me. If we win that would shake up the UFT.

We had a nice leaflet on co-pays – you know those pesky things you pay the doc that our leadership and the city seem to love so much? I love handing out leaflets and talking to people as they come in. I finally went up at 3:30 to get my bagel in a plastic bag and some cream cheese -- I miss the old days of Jeannette Di Lorenzo with humatashin and danish. I think we should make their return a main plank of our platform. Maybe rice pudding too. I didn't take a photo of the bagel in the plastic bag so as not to give you indigestion.

We won in court on co-pays through Marianne's group so far but the city is appealing and the UFT leadership is mum. When questioned at the meeting Mulgrew said co-pays were only meant to be temporary while they figured out ways to screw us in better ways. See the leaflet above.

This meeting Murphy seemed to try to not alienate anyone and made sure to call on 3 RA people - he even mentioned Gloria Brandman for the second question. Bobby Greenberg and Bennett Fischer were also on target with their questions but Mulgrew was ready with his sophistry. (See Marianne videos below for her breakdown of Mulgrew comments.)

I had my hand up too and was surprised when Murphy pointed at me but in the line of sight was former HSVP John Soldini and low and behold the lady with the mic was sitting right there. Does anyone smell a planted question?

I won't get into the details of the meeting because of so much good coverage by Arthur and Marianne.

Arthur actually listened online while my focus was getting the damn bagel out of its plastic bag and spreading the cream cheese without getting it all over my pants.

I have not been retired very long, but I already feel disrespected and stereotyped by UFT Unity bosses. Last month they cut short a meeting, citing a dangerous demonstration that appeared to be a big nothing. This month we were expected to sit through a PowerPoint about telephone scams and such. It’s like they think every single one of us is will fall for those scams, so why shouldn’t they pull one too? Mulgrew seems to suggest if we don’t capitulate and give in to his calls for a corporate health care plan, with Aetna deciding whether or not we get care, we will all be placed into HIP. You see, the city only has to offer one plan. He said it over and over. This is his new talking point, and he adores it.

Arthur broke the meeting down in more detail.

• Michael Mulgrew Takes Us for Fools: He weaves an appeal to fear, hoping we'll give up on preserving Medicare.

Marianne dives deep with a 4 part video. Mulgrew will probably go off over her having access from one of the 70 thousand retirees. I wonder which of her 20K NYC union fans it was? Imagine an election of Mulgrew vs Marianne. I take Marianne by ten lengths.

Here are the first 2 parts and I will add the next two when they come in.

1/4 Mulgrew @uftnyc Lied to Teachers about Medicare & Choice

https://youtu.be/EzZKIwXrHFY?si=LVNE1iEMVEhrB6w2

2/4 Mulgrew @uftnyc LIES to Retired Teachers about CoPays to Gloria Brandman

https://youtu.be/dh5XkmWCaq8?si=QILNxZbcTzzEtQwR

Mulgrew: I believe in democracy 

Marianne: Laughs out loud.

 

 

My time is up to finish this post  - crap - I only covered 4 of my 24 hours. More excitement to come. Look for Marianne's next 2 posts when they come in.

OK - here are links to part 3: https://youtu.be/dNXSP4khKDc?si=bVsSaqj37-MonlPT

Part 4: https://youtu.be/GjYf8WTX4SM?si=LrU2BIrK9c02gv0X

of the mulgrew lies videos:

  

In other news:

• UAW Launches Largest Union Organizing Drive in US History

When does the UFT organize a drive to unionize charters in the NYC?

The Worst Deal in NYC Labor History: 2014 + 2018 : MLC Minutes Reveal Mulgrew/Unity Caucus Healthcare Lies

An amazing expose by Arthur Goldstein and Daniel Alicea who got a hold of MLC minutes that prove Mulgrew has been a liar, aided and abetted by his fellow liars, or dupes, in Unity Caucus. 

Even Republicans are getting the point about Medicare advantage while Mulgrew defends it.

'It was stunning': Bipartisan anger aimed at Medicare Advantage care denials - POLITICO

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Barbara Bowen, former President of PSC-CUNY, inquiring about the deal specifics at the May 2014 meeting:

Union leaders of cops and firefighters, evidently endowed with common sense, opposed the billion dollar giveaway in no uncertain terms. Misgivings were expressed about future giveaways.

Was Mulgrew drunk? Asleep? On LSD? Desperate? Have you ever even heard of such awful labor deals? Many unions opposed what Mulgrew started. Alas, in MLC they are dwarfed by the combination of UFT and DC37, who constitute two thirds of the MLC’s weighted vote. Our extraordinary lack of vision means not only we, but also our brothers and sisters in the unions that opposed this nonsense are stuck with the consequences of our damaging agreements.

This is a seminal document that blows a hole into the Unity line we've been sold for ten years. But I must issue a warning: It is not just Mulgrew but the caucus. If for some reason Unity decided to dump Mulgrew for the 2025 election because he's toxic, don't be fooled again. Anyone in charge would lead us down the same path, but maybe with a bit more style.

ICE and Ed Notes and MORE at the time adamantly opposed the 2014 contract. Look through the archives of Ed Notes and ICE blog in April/May 2014 for numerous exposes and how we were at the DA at the Hilton in force to oppose the contract. One more highlight before I send you off to read the entire document:

Deliberately missing from the UFT highlights is this—they agreed to fund new raises by giving one billion dollars from our health stabilization fund, a fund designed to prevent members from paying premiums for GHI/CBP.  And if any sufficient funds are still available in it, they can be earmarked towards new benefits – like we’d done with PICA.  

In case the giveaway weren’t outrageous enough, the fund contained 1.8 billion in 2014, so they were giving away more than half. Not only that, but take a look at the pattern it funded:

1 percent — 1 percent —$1,000 cash — 1 percent — 1.5 percent —2.5 percent — 3 percent

What was not said in the UFT communique referenced here was that the thousand dollar bonus was in lieu of a raise. The city’s thousand buck bonus bought a zero percent raise for a full eighteen months.

Must read

Unity: Caucus of Knifing Membership in the Back - A parody of the Unity Caucus blog

Did you see this twisted, deceitful, ad hominem attack on the Unity website? It deserves an exposé showing what fucking liars and manipulators they are.  ... UFT retiree Sheila

It is such a mess Norm! I've been thinking a lot about your posts over the years since this all went down. Mulgrew refused to do anything for us and proposed the revote himself! The whole thing felt like begging for a plea deal .... Rank and file therapist no associated with opposition

Melissa Williams, Uncensored: "The game is rigged. It was rigged for two years. We are only now seeing the full force of the abuse of power in a union with one-party rule."

Melissa Williams, shares her experience as chapter leader for occupational and physical therapists under Michael Mulgrew's Unity - the partisan patronage caucus machine that controls UFT leadership.

Friday, August 11, 2023

Unity Caucus is the gift that just keeps giving. It has used its blog to engage in an assault of OT/PT Chapter leader Melissa Williams. Her is her eloquent response explaining the rational for resigning from a chapter that has been divided and undemined by the Unity leadership is below the parody.

The above comment from someone I've known since she was in high school and has never expressed political views on the UFT shows how their assault is backfiring.

Their recent post was exactly as Sheila characterized it: twisted, deceitful, fucking liars and manipulators.

Their attacks remind me of how the actions of Trump help energize the base of the Dems to vote against him. Sheila's reaction is an example. I predict that the Unity attacks on the opposition will have the same effect in future elections because the overwhelming majority of members either don't give a crap about them because they have not led and in fact have allowed working conditions to deteriorate. So their bombast calls for this type of parody - and is so easy to do. I may start a blog just to parody Unity. I will do a deep dive on Melissa's response soon. Note she is visiting family in Korea. I suggested she visit North Korea to get advice on bringing democracy to the One party Unity control of the UFT.

 

Unity, Caucus of Knifing OT/PT Chapter in the Back

When Unity caucus members were elected to ‘lead’ the UFT they promised to organize with an eye on the 2023 contract.

In the year that has followed the only “organizing” they’ve done is a “vote yes” campaign, with little foresight or strategy. They told people to vote yes and will turn their back on their members when the actual repercussions and consequences of the contract became apparent. Makes one wonder if these so called "leaders" were amplifying the voices of their members or driving their own Unity Caucus agenda regardless of their union members needs. 

Case in point:

60% of the OT/PT chapter voted NO on the 2023 contract, as they did in the 2018 contract, rejecting their Unity Chapter Leader's urging them to vote yes. Makes you wonder. Those who cannot lead, don't.

In the 2021 chapter election, the OT/PT voted down this misleadership and elected new leadership.

Nurses, Audiologists, and Supervisors of Nurses and Therapists demanded to be separated from the OT/PT chapter in 2018 and were promised that would be done at an Executive Board meeting in late 2018 but that was not done. They voted yes for the contract but their votes were drowned out by the no votes of the OT/PT chapter. Why were they part of the bargaining unit with the much larger OT/PT chapter in the first place and why was their request to be separated ignored then? Where was democracy for them? 

For the 2023 contract, the demands of nurses, audiologists, and supervisors of nurses and therapists found themselves still in the same bargaining unit and facing the same undemocratic process as they did in 2018. Where is the democracy and who is at fault? Clearly, those in Unity Caucus, who claim to lead but cannot do so.

In 2018, there was not a revote but a proper renegotiation of the contract with the DOE which was voted up by the OT/PT chapter in February 2019.

Yet, in 2023, the UFT leadership found an excuse not to renegotiate but instead to overturn the democratic vote of the OT/PT chapter, an unprecedented action. Where was the democracy in that?

What is the difference between 2018 and 2023? The loss of control by Unity of the chapter leadership and a two year assault on the leadership of the chapter by the Unity machine with the goal of using this revote to recapture control of the OT/PT chapter by unprecedented attacks on the current chapter leader.

Unity claims they have received over 1,500 emails from rank and file members of the OT/PT Chapter and other UFT liaisons expressing that they were sold a fake bill of goods from their chapter ‘leadership’. They claim the members of the Chapter, have asked for a revote. Unity has offered no proof other than some expressions of disgruntlement from the minority of YES voters and non-voters. Their virulent campaign will probably result in may of those who voted NO originally to refuse to honor the revote campaign by voting again, thus giving the disgruntled minority their opportunity to reverse a landslide democratic vote.

At the first sign of rough waters Mulgrew abandoned the OT/PT members and is asking them to vote again for the same contract 60% rejected just a month ago.

Seeing that their agenda was not the will of the chapter, UFT President Michael Mulgrew has thrown a tantrum and blamed chapter leader Melissa Williams, taken their renegotiation ball, and gone home by asking for a revote.

Case in point 2:

When Unity led an assault on retiree health care, with thousands of complaints from retirees being forced out of Medicare and into a privatized Medicare, first Emblem and then Aetna, Advantage plan, those pleas were not only ignored, but mocked as fake news. Yet so far a judge has supported the retirees and these nefarious plans to reduce retiree healthcare as a way to save the city money, have come to naught.

Makes one wonder – what’s more important to those in these in the leadership: the members or undermining or the interests of the leadership of our union in kowtowing to the DOE and Mayor Adams? 

Makes one wonder – is this how the leadership will handle dealing with management and the membership of our union should they be entrusted with leading it in the future? What will they do when the stakes are higher? Surely they don’t believe that it’s their way or the highway? What kind of democracy is that?

Those who can, lead.

Leadership isn’t for the fragile. 

VOTE UNITY OUT IN FUTURE ELECTIONS

 =====

See below the break for the Unity twisted, deceitful, ad hominem attack. I hope I exposed what fucking liars and  manipulators they are.

Unity History of Trying to Cheat a Vote, Mulgrew to OT/PTs: "Everyone loooooves democracy until I don't get my way?" - EONYC

How far will Mulgrew and Unity go out of their way to trample on our collective decisions by attempting to reverse this legal and valid contract ratification vote by using intimidation and coordinating a minority within the unit to get a revote with the results they desire?  Is there an orchestrated attempt by UFT leadership to reverse the OT/PT bargaining unit's ratification vote which turned down their proposed contract with the City? DUHHHHH! 

I've been following the attempt to discredit the non-Unity Chapter Leader of the OT/PT chapter, blaming her for the rejection of the contract, despite the fact they also rejected the 2018 contract with an even larger % vote despite the OT/PT chapter being under the total control of a Unity chapter leader and Exec Bd, all of whom recommended ratification. I've read some of the Unity backed communications that would make your eyes pop out but am not at liberty to share - yet. Some of the most outrageous are anonymous. So how do we know they are from Unity? Double DUHHHHHHHH!

When some of these communications from union officials and their minions are shared publicly -- well, the fun will begin. But first .....

 

I've been working on a few posts on the situation, but a lot of what I wanted to report is included in thie EONYC post to The Wire. In a recent post I went back to the 2018 contract which OT/PT rejected and ask people to compare how the leadership reacted when they didn't have a non-Unity CL to blame. 

• OT/PT - What Happened in 2018 When they Rejected the contract? Leaders negotiated a new one but in 2023 calling for a Revote

 

I'm shocked there's gambling or Unity will try to negate results they don't like

But first I want to add the historical notes on how Unity has operated over the decades when faced with losses. They try to negate votes and/or change rules.

To: Stroock & Stroock & Stroock & Stroock, LLP, FYI, KFC - Notice of Unlawful Impersonation of a law firm

As many of you know, the UFT has been paying Randi's former law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Stroock Stroock & Stroock & Stroock Stroock & Stroock & Stroock Stroock & Stroock & Stroock Stroock & Stroock & Stroock a million dollar a year retainer to threaten UFT members over such stuff as using the UFT logo but went over the top with threats to former ally Arthur Goldstein (My Union Dues Pay Lawyers to Threaten Me)  over his parody of a recent Mulgrew letter to members. 

I and others received letters from Stroock etc which I ignored - so sue me. UFT/Unity Threatens Opposition with Legal Action f...for Using UFT Logo Using Stroock, their million dollar a year firm - So Sue Me

I received it the day before my birthday - a special present. The lawyer sending out the letter is Alesha Dominique:  

Alesha Dominique, the head of Stroock’s Trademark practice, where she represents clients in intellectual property litigation with an emphasis on trademark, false advertising and unfair competition, copyright and patent matters.  Alesha began her professional career with two Teach for America placements — first in the Bronx and then in Chicago.

Don't you love TFA, an anti-union organization grads, suing union employees?

Bennett Fischer, from Retiree Advocate, posted his own parody as a comment on Arthur's blog:

ACME Legal Services

April 15, 2023

To: Strook & Strook & Stroock & Stroock, LLP, FYI, KFC

Re: Notice of Unlawful Impersonation of a law firm

Dear Stroock et al,

ACME represents rank and file members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) who, as you know, occasionally disagree with UFT president Michael Mulgrew and sometimes choose to exercise their First Amendment rights by publishing their opinions in public forums such as "Blogs" and "Websites." Our clients’ opinions may or may not take the form of parody and other forms of protected speech.

We understand that you purport to represent the entire UFT - the whole shebang as it were - including the members to whom you send "cease & desist" letters in the name of the union president. That seems weird. Why would you do that to the dues-paying members who pay your fees? You even scatter your letters with emboldened, italicized text that, I don't know, is that supposed to be scary? As you undoubtedly know that sort of typographic emphasis can seem threatening and laughable all at the same time - kind of like a parody of an actual legal letter. (Hey, wait a minute, good job!)

But really, this is a very serious matter to rank-and-file UFT members, many of whom are concerned with the so-called "legal advice" you've been dishing out to the union president lately. Advice like:

• Try to break NYC law by charging premiums for GHI Senior Care (until you are stopped by a retiree lawsuit).
• Coerce the City Council into changing the law you couldn't break (until you are laughed out of the Council chambers).
• Shut up and don't say a word while GHI imposes illegal Senior Care copays (until stopped by a retiree lawsuit).
• Threaten UFT members with cease & desist letters.

To that end, dues paying, rank-and-file UFT members demand that you immediately (1) retract the Fake Legal Advice you've been giving our president; (2) stop impersonating an actual law firm; and (3) cease sending threatening letters to UFT members.

Please confirm in writing, as of three weeks ago, that you have complied with our clients' aforementioned demands. The promptness and completeness of your response will determine future blog posts and other forms of protected speech.

Very truly yours,
ACME Legal Services 

 

UFT/Unity/AFT/NYSUT Bait and Switch Pro-Privatization Healthcare Duplicity, Playing Swap the Lobbyists Game

Oh, what a tangled web they weave,  

when first they practice to deceive! 

 

Always watch what UFT/AFT/NYSUT Leaders do, not what they say.

 

Ugh! I Mean UGH!!!!!!

 

• UFT political director (and former Cuomo aide) Cassie Prugh leaves for lobbying firm in December but UFT may retain her and her firm (rumor - @10k a month).
  
• Assistant UFT political director Angel Vasquez remains in place despite primarying (and losing) major UFT supporter Robert Jackson. 
• Mulgrew lists himself as a lobbyist along with Vasquez. Vasquez, as Prugh’s assistant, is tasked with lobbying on a city level. As he describes in his LinkedIn bio. Clearly he was responsible for the failed campaign to influence the City Council to amend 12-126. An attempt that hurts retirees and active workers as the code provides decades old safeguards protecting the healthcare of city workers. UFT Payments to lobbyists (Vasquez and Mulgrew?) are listed as 94K. Is this in addition to their UFT salaries?
  

I've been working on this story about UFT/NYSUT political directors that points to how our local, state, national union work in tandem with the corporate Democrats' aim to make sure healthcare remains under the control of private insurance. Remember how quickly Obama abandoned the public option in order to get the private insurance companies to support Obamacare because they are making a fortune? Fundamental neo-liberal concept that better profit making private than anything government. Reaganism from both parties. Only the Bernie left pushes back. 

Thanks to Daniel Alicea for doing the fundamental research. 

Daniel has provided some insights into explaining the reasoning behind the Mulgrew promotion of Medicare Advantage which is controlled by private profit making insurance over the publicly managed Medicare system. 

 

The key: the union is bonded at the hip to the corporate wing of the Dem party which is also pro-privatization which also promotes medicare advantage over Medicare. Biden even appointed a corp exec to run Medicare - the classic fox in the hen house. (see below for details). A gang of lobbyists do their thing very successfully.

Daniel's research into the history of our local, state, national teacher union positions on healthcare shows an evolution going from support for public option toward privately managed care with some careful managing of the language used.

In 2017, the unions flirted theatrically with Bernie Sander’s popular single payer Medicare For All plan supported by a supermajority of Americans. However, Daniel asserts that with the campaigns of Harris and Biden, the union machines like AFT and AFL-CIO fall in line with the privatized vision for private-public national healthcare system. 

 

There's a difference between single payer and medicare for all. Medicare for all Obama care style keeps the private insurers in the game. Single payer means the government pays all bills and also has the ability to control healthcare costs. 

Note this point whenever Mulgrew whines about healthcare costs going up:

In 1996 Pataki rescinded, decades-old practice of setting statewide hospital pricing.

Flashback: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/21/nyregion/pataki-is-seeking-to-end-regulation-of-hospital-rates.html

While mulgrew railed at high health costs his solution was to lower cost to city but never to use lobbyists to put hospital price controls in place by repealing the Pataki '96 giveaway to the hospitals. It’s acceptance that prices must rise and we are the ones who must pay, not the insurance companies.

And have you noticed how since then hospitals have consolidated?

The AFT’s shift on Medicare Advantage and privatization of Medicare 

into a few too big to fail groups?

And the disappearance or deterioration of public hospital options?   

• Here's a link to a dossier of links and documents showing this shift among our teachers unions from a strong anti-privatization stance for decades until the 2019-20 shift to privatization through Medicare Advantage and ACOs. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TmGybt3FwmrVOAxRaL-gd5AD0H-lRs3tV9JjtciTuHU/edit
  

Yes they call for universal coverage but in the model of an Obamacare system extension which is better than nothing but fundamentally is a windfall for private insurers. They are careful in not calling for a single payer system like we have with traditional Medicare. So when Mulgrew tries to move us from single payer Medicare to multi-payer Medicare Advantage, he is affirming the corp Dem (ie. Biden/Shumer/Pelosi, etc) position on healthcare vs the Bernie Sanders single payer wing.

 

Some Key takeaways:

• UFT/AFT leaders "claim" they want universal healthcare while doing everything they can to undermine the possibilities on all levels.
• Ditto for their partners in the Democratic Party run by a center/right connected to private health insurance lobbyists.
  
• UFT hires lobby firm representing healthcare industry.
• Biden chooses member of same firm to run Medicare. 
• Both Dems and UFT try selling universal healthcare for all but must go through private insurance companies instead of single payer.
  

Ed Notes' recent report on the coming changes in the NY State United Teachers (NYSUT News: Going - Pres. Andy Pallotta, Coming - Melinda Person Who? Has Never Been a Teacher - Succession or Coup?) we mentioned that lobbyist Cassie Prugh had left the UFT in December to go work for a private firm, Manatt, Phelps, and Phillips, LLP, leaving her UFT position vacant. Or maybe not. (See below for Prugh's lobby listings.) Also note above and below the letter Mulgew sent to state ethics listing himself and Vasquez as lobbyists at 94K a year while at the same time we hear they may use Prugh, now employed by Manatt, etc. as a consultant. Money to burn. Our money.

 

Want an example of litigation won by Manatt in California where they defended the right of hospitals NOT to reveal fees? Remember, Prugh comes out of the Cuomo admin - check his record on hospitals (and nursing homes).

Manatt secured a landmark victory for its client Dignity Health, a California-based nonprofit hospital system, on October 13, when the California Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the hospital in Gray v. Dignity Health. The decision affirmed the dismissal of a putative systemwide class action lawsuit that claimed Dignity Health unlawfully failed to disclose emergency room fees. The decision also held that Dignity Health complies with all state and federal pricing disclosure laws, none of which imposes a duty to disclose emergency room fees. The Court of Appeal held that the disclosure duty the plaintiff wanted to impose was directly contrary to a host of federal and state laws that prohibit hospitals from discussing cost with patients in the emergency room prior to treating them, thus “disregard[ing] the long standing regulatory environment within which emergency departments operate, which emphasizes that no one in need of emergency care should be deterred from receiving it because of cost.” 

Do you think this victory for hospitals helped them keep prices high?

 

Now how about this one as we tie the Biden admin to Manatt:

 

 

Jeez - the lady running Medicare managed the same firm that Cassie Prugh is working for. A tangled web indeed. Recently we found that Medicare was going to let the private insurers get away with billions in defrauding Medicare.

Daniel's next career should be investigative reporter.

No legislative reports at Ex Bd meetings 

Ok, so we have the link between Prugh and Manatt and the UFT.  For years we enjoyed former UFT Leg rep Paul Egan's reports at Ex Bd meetings because we wanted the latest soccer scores from Manchester United. We no longer get regular reports since Prugh left. Ask who replaced her and you get vague answers, including the UFT will now hire her and her firm as consultants. Now add to this that Prugh's deputy has been Angel Vasquez who outraged people by forcing Robert Jackson, probably the most loyal UFT supporter, into a primary for State Senate. We should not be using our dues to pay Angel Vasquez to work for the UFT. He was the agent of the right wing Dem attempt to purge a progressive. 

 

Here are some of Daniel's tweets on the story:

@manatt

is a VERY big lobbying firm.

@UFT

just secured them as their lobbying firm in Jan. Significant for a few reasons. 1. Manatt is one of the most influential lobbyists for Medicare Advantage & ACOs. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/WM/WM00/20190612/109618/HHRG-116-WM00-Wstate-Brooks-LaSureC-20190612.pdf 

 

2.

@UFT

fmr political director

@cassieprugh

who just left, now UFT lobbyist in Albany. 

 

3. Fmr managing director for Manatt is

@BrooksLaSureCMS

appointed by Biden as director for CMS. She is on record in her belief that the path to national healthcare is through privatization.

 

Prugh and her assistant,

@angelvasq104

have lobbied with

@UFT

FOR admin code 12-126. The provision that protects city worker healthcare. Vasquez still with

@UFT

and on payroll. He ran against

@SenatorRJackson

in 2022. And is responsible for lobbying pols in NYC like

@CnDelarosa

 

To clarify, Prugh and Vasquez lobbied for the ELIMINATION of admin code 12-126.

A single payer option is off the table on state & nat’l level for the big Dem machine. Despite lip service. See Biden & Harris vision for private-public plans. We see this vision in 2019 when

@BrooksLaSureCMS

testified before Congress. It’s as if she targets NYHA https://docs.house.gov/meetings/WM/WM 

This privatization vision is reflected in our teacher unions when

@rweingarten

voted against including Medicare for All on DNC platform. And after decades of anti-privatization policy

@AFT

passes a resolution in 2020 during #lockdown that opens path to privatization.

This shift away from anti-privatization from teacher unions is made evident when

@aft

and

@nysut

rejected separate resolutions seeking to reaffirm our past rejection of privatization of Medicare. This is the AFT reso that was REJECTED in committee and not brought to a vote.

 And some source material:

https://twitter.com/educatorsofnyc/status/1625840781075308544?s=20https://twitter.com/educatorsofnyc/status/1625840781075308544?s=20