Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
I did make it to the City Hall Rally for City Council Bill on Thursday but a little late. Good to see working teachers Nick, Judi and Ibeth get there to show support. It was a hot day and it looked like about 150 retirees showed up. I heard the end of the Charles Barron speech and Marianne made a strong speech. The great think was how many unions were present.
UFT hacks have been trying to discredit Marianne by whispering to City Council people she lives in Georgia and must be a Trumpy. It's the same slime we always see coming out of Unity. When they can't beat you to go dirty. And by the way - if the oppo ever threatens their control watch the dirt fly by doing the opposite - red baiting the oppo. Or maybe they will say we are secret Trunpies. And if we dare raise questions about the vote we are automatically Trumpies. Oh the quandry for the hacks -- trying to decide whether to attack opponents as right or left?
Here is the Working Bites link and full article below:
I also signed up for the July 25 sojourn to Washington. Seeing the movement grow from our own narrow interests here in NYC and plug into the national Medicare issue is a great sign.
Thank you for your interest in joining the NYC
Organization of Public Service Retirees, Protect Traditional Public
Medicare (PTPM) and Be A Hero in Washington DC on July 25th.
We
are so excited to have you join us in DC as we fight together to
Reclaim Medicare from Corporate Greed. Our goal is to make sure our
elected leaders in DC know that we support strengthening and improving
Medicare and that no one should be forced onto these private insurance
plans that delay and deny care. We are planning a press conference and
speakout on capitol hill and some lobby visits with elected officials.
“As
a matter of public policy, beyond the scope of our office’s specific
Charter responsibility for contract registration, I am seriously
concerned about the privatization of Medicare plans, overbilling by
insurance companies, and barriers to care under Medicare Advantage.... Recent investigations identified extensive allegations of fraud, abuse, overbilling, and denials of medically necessary care at 9 of the top 10 Medicare Advantage plans, including CVS Health, which owns Aetna. ... ‘Once
corporations privatize every inch of the public provision of health
care, we may never get Medicare back... Brad Lander
Wow! Brad Lander goes on my very small list of politicians I still vote for.... NYC Retirees
Friday, June 9, 2023
Good news. With the deadline to opt out (June 30) of MulgrewDisadvantateCare fast approaching, Brad Lander tosses a monkey wrench into the Mayor Adams/MRC/UFT deal to drag city retirees out of Medicare into the privately managed, profit making Aetna plan, due to take effect on Sept. 1. As you can see above, Lander went further than just talking about the specifics but went after the general attack on Medicare by the insurance lobby and its allies - our own union.
Fundamentally, the UFT/Unity backing of this change is anti-union and anti-worker. But with a union leadership that dovetails with the corporate wing of the Dem party, why expect anything else? We've noticed that some of the rhetoric coming from the mouth of Randi Weingarten and crew turn calls for Medicare for all into MedicareAdvantage for all --- meaning the standard neo-liberal attacks on government run programs as Medicare is.
Last week, the lawsuit was filed by retirees and yesterday a bill was supposed to be introduced by Charles Baron to the city council, with a large demo outside of retirees but that was postponed until next week - most likely June 22 - Thursday. It's important to have big crowds at these rallies -- politicians notice.
With Adams facing an election in two years, I imagine Lander has put himself into the running as retirees will vote heavily to oppose Adams and Lander just gave himself a leg up. Yes, politics do matter. Even it we don't win the medicare case, we can punish Adams in the next election - and Mulgrew too - both in 2025.
But there is some skepticism in that the Mayor can overrule Lander and will probably do so, so don't go crazy. However, Lander went much further than the narrow legal issues and raised crucial points we have been trying to raise at the UFT - that they were helping kill the only public option.
Yes, Mayor Adams may reverse
Lander’s decision. But we now have well positioned allies refusing to
sign off on retiree healthcare cuts. And that bodes well for the future,
even if it does mean our dear beloved Unity-led UFT leaders may need to
find their ‘healthcare savings’ elsewhere, as their debt
to the City passes its due date. And yes, with the spotlight on
retirees, we should expect those cuts to land on in-service teachers,
who have been promised the absurd: an ‘equal or better replacement to
GHI at 10% cheaper of a cost.’
When will that replacement be announced? You better bet it won’t be
until after Mulgrew tries to ram through a mediocre contract—and that
process will start as early as next week. So, before we vote on a TA,
let’s make sure we ask – what will only 90% of our current health plan
look like, and how will we afford it on a pay-cut?
Make no mistake: we can’t win the battle against healthcare cuts
solely on the good graces of well-positioned politicians. Ultimately, we
need to situate ourselves to be able to stop anti-labor backroom deals.
As Mulgrew is keen to remind us at DAs and executive board meetings,
health care is a part of our overall compensation. Well, we vote on
whether to accept what the City offers us in economic compensation. So,
both now and when we’re retired, we deserve a vote on changes to medical coverage too.
Since UFT leadership doesn’t see the problems everyone else sees with
reducing our coverage and tossing retirees onto MAP, we need a formal
and permanent mechanism to keep them from doing so.
I'm hitting all my docs before Sept. 1 - braving the smoke today to keep a cardiology appointment - I do preventive maintenance - like having my car checked regularly. I think today is a stress test which I think will show I have slowed down since the last one -- I'm thinking it's my weight which I can't seem to lose - probably due to the cheese cake at UFT Ex Bd meetings. Or maybe it's the stress of seeing my own union try to reduce my healthcare.
The email below was sent by a large medical group here in Delray Beach
regarding their feelings about Aetna. It's an important read regarding
their past dealings with Aetna.
Comptroller Lander Declines to Register Medicare Advantage Contract Pending Litigation
New York, NY – The
Comptroller’s Office declined to register the City’s contract with
Aetna to transfer City retirees to a Medicare Advantage program for
their health care coverage. A pending lawsuit, brought on behalf of
retirees, questions the City’s authority to enter into such an
agreement.
Comptroller Brad Lander issued the following statement:
“The
Comptroller’s Bureau of Contract Administration carefully reviewed the
City’s contract with Aetna and returned the contract to the Office of
Labor Relations without registering it. Pending litigation calls into
question the legality of this procurement and constrains us from
fulfilling our Charter mandated responsibility to confirm that
procurement rules were followed, sufficient funds are available, and the
City has the necessary authority to enter into the contract.
“As
a matter of public policy, beyond the scope of our office’s specific
Charter responsibility for contract registration, I am seriously
concerned about the privatization of Medicare plans, overbilling by
insurance companies, and barriers to care under Medicare Advantage.
“I
appreciate the work of the Municipal Labor Council and the Office of
Labor Relations to negotiate improvements to the Aetna contract to
address some of the concerns raised by retirees. However, the broader
Medicare Advantage trends are worrisome. Recent investigations identified extensive allegations of fraud, abuse, overbilling, and denials of medically necessary care at 9 of the top 10 Medicare Advantage plans, including CVS Health, which owns Aetna.
“As health care activist Ady Barkan wrote last month,
noting that half of Medicare enrollees nationwide have been transferred
from traditional Medicare to private Medicare Advantage plans: ‘Once
corporations privatize every inch of the public provision of health
care, we may never get Medicare back.’”
A blow to the corporate wing of the Democratic Party
Left leadership in Chicago and LA outflank corp Dem type UFT leadership in NYC as CTU elects one of its own as mayor while UFT suffers 30 years of failed mayoral endorsements.
Happy Easter Sunday,
It's a beautiful day and I have to put on my Easter bonnet and go roll some eggs, so I will make this quick without my usual convoluted meanderings.
The subject of the week for many of us has not been the Trump indictment, or even the Wisconsin Supreme Court election (over-hyped in that the Republican controlled legislature can impeach the judge), but the remarkable mayoral victory of former Chicago teacher and CTU organizer Brandon Johnson, the new mayor of Chicago. That would be like one of the UFT special reps becoming mayor -- OK, LOL yourself to death. Oh, one top level UFT employee did run for office - in the primary against Robert Jackson. one of our major supporters in the state senate.
(James is giving me tech lessons he learns from his daughter.)
Considering, its sort of funny how Sam Seder never addresses the UFT or local union issues (except for Amazon or Starbucks) while he covers union issues on a broader level. The newbie union movements are always sexier than the old staid unions tied to the corporate wing of the Dem Party, like the UFT. Delving into how undemocratic and corrupt they are can lead people to use that to promote anti-unionism, a card our own beloved union leadership tries to pull on the opposition to shut them up.
But with the Brandon victory (oh, did he mess up those Trumpie Let's Go Brandon chants), Sam's partner Emma V addressed the victory - twice this week. I'm hoping to get MR to do more on the comparison of the left teacher unions in LA and Chicago compared to the center right/anti-strike, anti-Democratic, Republican talking points UFT. Did RTC chapter head Tom Murphy screaming at the people who put up 3 signs in back of Tuesday's RTC meeting and calling for security and threatening to end the meeting remind you of Tennessee Republicans? (RetireeTeacherChapter Meeting - the Horror of Holding up a sign).
On Wednesday, Emma pointed to how the deck was stacked against Johnson - Police vs Teachers? Come on! The Chamber of Commerce, the Arne Duncan (who succeeded Vallas as Chi school head) and was Obama ed chief public school destroyer) crowd, including anti-leftist Obama working strings from behind the curtain? Yet Johnson got 80% of the black vote and built coalitions with many other groups, including the Working Families Party. Remember how the UFT did Cuomo's bidding and abandoned the WFP here in NYC years ago.
Jarod Facundo and Luke Goldstein, writing fellows at The American Prospect, join Emma Vigeland to discuss Brandon Johnson's unapologetically left-wing campaign for Chicago mayor, his rejection of the Chicago political establishment, and what his victory represents for progressivism across the nation.
They explain how Johnson even found himself in this runoff against establishment candidate Paul Vallas, after entering the race barely above 2%, and the role of local organizations like the Chicago Teachers Union and United Working Families in his success. Also, the positive impact of Johnson's riskier policy strategies, presenting a wide breadth of solutions to the voters’ public safety worries rather than taking a “tough on crime” tact.
Full interview with Jarod Facundo and Luke Goldstein: https://www.youtube.com/live/iyPmcmmF...
A definite must listen on how Johnson built a coalition and outpolled the incumbent and even Chewy Garcia who is well-known.
On Friday, there was a shorter segment with Alex Pareene, who is often a guest on MR. We loved
The
Chicago mayoral election between Brandon Johnson and Paul in some ways
came down to teachers union vs police union. Guess who won? Johnson, who
was backed by the teachers!
There is more to it than teachers vs cops but it was a close election and Johnson does not win for sure without the CTU.
The
analysis from Emma Vigeland and her guest Alex Pareene on Friday's
Majority Report should be played over and over to NYC teachers who feel
powerless. We can be just as powerful as the CTU. We just have to
remember we are a union and stand up for ourselves collectively.
Emma
said it perfectly: "Can you imagine if New York City had a teachers'
union as powerful as Chicago? Wouldn't that be awesome?"
I've been asked to write an article comparing the teacher unions in the biggest three cities in the nation and that will take a deep dive into history.
In the meantime I have to prep for tomorrow's RA organizer meeting with a rep from a State Senator who supports the NY Health Act, which the UFT opposes -- why back a public health plan when you can funnel money private corporations?
URGENT CALL TO ACTION - RALLY FOR OUR HEALTHCARE - APRIL 11, 12 PM AT CITY HALL
WE ARE THE UNION. WE CAN. WE WILL.
Dear friend,
Our allies, NYCOrganization of PublicServiceRetirees have put out this urgent call to action for a rally at City Hall this coming Tuesday, April 11, at 12 PM, to all city retirees and all active city workers:
**************
"This is a call to rally for us to be heard! Time is of the essence!
Bring your loved ones. This affects them too! This rally is for retirees and retirees in training (in-service/active workers).
This
is your healthcare that the Municipal Labor Committee - dominated by
the UFT and DC37, agreed to diminish. eliminating all our health plans
and forcing us into Medicare Advantage. This is anti-labor and
Un-American.
Medicare is a public health benefit! Be there with us!"
*************
In light of the unilateral decisions to force retired civil servants and essential workers who dedicated their lives in service to New York City into a diminished healthcare network and the MLC's secret, undisclosed proposed changes to active worker healthcare, its time we galvanize together to tell the City, and those who represent us, that we stand UNITED FOR OUR PREMIUM-FREE, QUALITY HEALTHCARE.
Make plans to attend this coming Tuesday. We need everyone there.
The Petition train continues to trail blaze. OVER +5K UFT members have signed it already.
Almost 3 weeks ago, together we successfully launched our member-wide referendum petition campaign
calling for a membership-wide vote for any significant changes to
active and/or retired members’ healthcare. These include any significant
changes of our healthcare carriers, limits to our choice of healthcare
carriers, or institutions of or raises to premiums, deductibles or
copayments, etc.
We also
demand that UFT members must be provided full disclosure of the wording
for such proposed changes, prior to the membership wide vote.
We continue
to vigorously move the needle to garner the 10% of member signatures
needed to trigger the UFT constitutional mandate compelling the UFT
executive board to bring a member-wide referendum vote to all members.
On Tuesday, April 18, at 7 pm we will have an organizing call for all those who want to help in reaching our goal of +20K signatures. To RSVP for our first Zoom organizing call, click here. We will map out a winning strategy together.
One vital way you can help is sharing this referendum with your UFT member contacts and networks.
Send an email to colleagues and friends. Better yet, call or send them a text.
Organize a petition drive at your school.
Share the website [hcpetition.educators.nyc] on your favorite social media networks, message apps and internet group sites.
Also, make a donationto
help cover the costs we are incurring for web hosting, the e-signature
and e-mailing platforms, postage and miscellaneous administrative costs.
Tell us if
you can host a petition signing event at a venue of your choice. We
will be announcing these signing pop-up events soon on our site and
newsletter.
