Retiree Advocate Newsletter: Good News on UFT Retiree Healthcare: Judge Frank Grants TRO for Switch to MAP

I was going to post on some of these issues, so this is welcome relief from doing the work. Thanks RA. I will be back later today with more on the healthcare issue and the mystery of the missing contract outcome, probably buried in the catacombs.

 

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July, 2023 Join Retiree Advocate/UFT - Become a member: $20 annual fee Send check made out to Retiree Advocate/ UFT P.O. Box 22567, Brooklyn, NY 11201-2567 or click this link to pay with Paypal Retiree Advocate is a member of  UNITED FOR CHANGE https://retireeadvocate.org Good News on UFT Retiree Healthcare: Judge Frank Grants TRO for Switch to MAP Nick Bacon, New Action Caucus, July 7 Today, Judge Lyle Frank granted a TRO (temporary restraining Order) which will temporarily halt the City and the MLC from switching all retirees from GHI SeniorCare to a for-profit Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan. While the case is far from over, this is a very good omen. These excerpts in particular bode well:   “First, the Court finds that the petitioners have shown by clear and convincing evidence that there is a likelihood of success on the merits. The Court agrees that it is likely that this Court will ultimately find that the respondents are estopped from switching retirees into a Medicare Advantage Plan and that New York City Administrative Code section 12-126 does not permit the action that the City plans to take….The petitioners have shown that numerous promises were made by the City to then New York City employees and future retirees that they would receive a Medicare supplemental plan when they retired, and that their first level of coverage once that retired would by Medicare.” Make no mistake: the timing of this TRO decision alongside a new contract that is almost sure to be ratified within the next several days is meaningful. Mulgrew’s nightmare scenario of a ratified contract followed by the necessity of making major negative changes to in-service health care plans now seems more likely and more imminent than it did before. Mulgrew, after all, will still need to find savings to pay back the City for promised healthcare spending reductions. Now, however, he will have to pillage elsewhere than our retiree coverage. For those next steps, we must wait and see; against those next steps, we must be ready to fight. For more from the New Action / UFT Blog, check out the website here. More information From the PSC  The decision temporarily enjoins the City, until further order of the court, from requiring any City retirees and their dependents from being removed from their current health insurance plans and from being required to either enroll in an Aetna MA Plan or seek their own coverage.  The court said they plaintiffs met the standards for winning a preliminary injunction, as 1) they have a likelihood of succeeding on the merits of their first cause of action, which alleges the city made a  promise of future Medicare benefits that retirees relied on "to their detriment" (making a decision based on that promise that concretely affects them, such as not taking another job), 2) there would be "irreparable harm" if they have to wait to complete litigation before receiving a court decision, and 3) the "balance of equities" (is the harm greater from granting or not granting an injunction?) favor the plaintiffs.   It can be difficult to appeal from the issuance of an injunction, as normally appeals are heard only from final decisions. Nevertheless, it's fair to assume the City will appeal. Meanwhile, the judge will begin a process in which he requires the City to provide evidence that satisfies him that, for example, retirees won't be denied coverage/treatment they would have received under Medicare. More from the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees.  Please note that the good news is only temporary in that: There will be subsequent hearings in court to determine if the Temporary Restraining Order should become "permanent" or if it should be lifted, and if so, on what basis; The City still has pending before the state Court of Appeals the appeal it filed on last year's case (which had said that the City does have the right to offer the Medicare Advantage Plan (the one it had offered before) but that the City has no right to auto enroll us or to make us pay for our already-existing Medigap plan).  We do not yet know what the status of that Court of Appeals case is - whether the Court will allow it to continue, or dismiss it or what. The City still has an appeal pending on the 'co-pay' case. We still need the City Council to pass Int. 1099-2023 so that we can permanently secure our rights to our existing health insurance benefits without having to go back and forth to court - a very unaffordable and time/labor-intensive process. So the organization has asked that we continue to donate (details below) for the mounting legal expenses and try to get our friends and others impacted by the City retiree health insurance rules and policies to do the same. TO DONATE, HERE ARE SEVERAL SIMPLE WAYS! 1.  Make Your Check or Money Order payable to:        NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees       Mail to: NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees  c/o JSH Accounting Services, LLC         PO Box 143538        Fayetteville, GA 30214 For your convenience, you can set-up AutoPay with your banking institution so that you can determine an amount and date to have funds automatically transferred. 2.   PayPal (Click to link to their Secure Site, a PayPal Account is not required.  The organization is charged a fee)  3.   ZELLE: (Go to Your "On-Line" Banking Website) Locate the ZELLE service & use our email:       NYCOrgofpublicserviceretirees@gmail.com     Check with your Bank to understand how ZELLE works. It's usually a service on their website.  When you locate and fill out the form and you are asked for the email or phone number, use the email address, above. Make sure it's correct! No phone number is required. The next time you use Zelle, the email should pop into that field.  You can check your bank account to make  sure the transaction went through. It's Quick & Easy 4.   VENMO: We Now Accept Donations via VENMO (The Organization is charged a fee. VENMO is a Phone App or can be used on a PC or Tablet. You can download and install the Phone App from the Android Play Store or Apple App Store. Please follow the instructions to Sign Up. Please read and understand how VENMO works before you donate! There may be fees involved using this method. Our ID is: @NYCRetirees2 Here is a quick Venmo  Tutorial: Old News but Still Important News Why do we need a petition to request a member-wide referendum to vote on healthcare changes?   According to the UFT Constitution, members can demand a member-wide referendum vote on any issue other than a constitutional amendment or actions on the status of an individual member.  First, ten percent of the membership must petition the UFT executive board for a referendum, and then the executive board must bring the matter to the entire body for a member-wide vote.  Given the serious nature of the healthcare changes that have been made without member input or democratic decision-making, we must take this matter into our own hands. So sign this petition today. We deserve a say on healthcare. Quick Facts Mulgrew voted in the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) to force retired City workers off of traditional Medicare and onto an Aetna-managed Medicare Advantage Plan (MAP). Despite knowing full well that there was significant opposition, Mulgrew denied membership the right to vote directly.  Major changes to our healthcare were made as part of our citywide contracts in 2014, and again in 2018.  Mulgrew was instrumental in negotiating both. In the last healthcare agreement, in 2018, he agreed to $600 million dollars in healthcare savings for the City for every year, in perpetuity. These changes and agreements were negotiated behind closed doors without member input. UFT chapter leaders and delegates were not given Appendix A to read beforehand which delineated the healthcare concessions when they voted in support of our 2018 contract.   UFT Leadership is currently working on a mysterious new health plan for in-service members that would replace GHI with something cheaper. As of now, membership will not have a say in this decision either, or given meaningful details about our potential options. Even without switching us off of GHI, UFT leadership has greenlit various new, significant healthcare expenses for in-service members without a membership vote.  For instance: ER visits now cost us triple digit copays, which are waived only if a patient is admitted, even if they are deemed to need emergency care.  Copays for most urgent care centers (including CityMD) have also risen to triple digits, from $15 to $100, since 2016. Major providers, such as CityMD, Montefiore, and almost all radiology centers, are no longer ‘preferred,’ leading to higher copays. Despite many healthcare expenses more than doubling, UFT leadership has not fought for fair increases in pay. Because we did not even attempt to stop DC37 from accepting a sub-inflation wage increase, UFT members will not only be seeing higher health costs – they’ll be taking a pay cut.

Want More Answers? From the PSC.  A very thorough list of questions and answers Medicare Rights- Medicare Interactive Choosing a Medigap Policy - 2023 Medicare Consumer reports choosing a drug plan UFT Retiree Health Care Update May 16 Advocacy and phone counselors from Medicare Rights Retiree Advocate Links NYC Retirees Homework until new litigation check regularly with them PSC Plan to solve the problem https://nycretirees.org/  The group behind the legal challenges Wendell Potter - corporate health insurance whistle blower Evidence of Coverage UFT Welfare Fund Court Documents Petition to stop the new Federal Government plan, REACH, a direct contracting program that will automatically enroll new retirees into a privatized version of Medicare aka Medicare Advantage. What is REACH? What's happening on the Federal Level More from the federal level See also PSC retirees Len Rodberg on how Medicare Advantage shortchanges patients while lining its own pockets and Bonnie Nelson on what it will cost us to waive the Aetna plan and buy our own insurance

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Why A NO Vote on UFT Contract is a NO Brainer, UFC Vote No Town Hall June 21

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 21 -- summer solstice - the longest day- and I'm off to Times square for a yoga class. And don't forget to check in on the UFC HS Ex Bd crew on the No Vote zoom tonight at 7:30 -

• EONYC - UFT Contract Town Hall - Wed, 6/21 at 7:30 PM: Why Voting 'No' Gets Us a Better Contract

And see some very cute NO vote videos on Tiktok: here, here, here, and here. 

Good Morning UFTers,

You are going to read lots of analysis on the contract from the VOTE NO crowd and I'm linking to resources below. Share these with your colleagues so at least they get the full view instead of just hearing from the Unity propaganda machine. My argument, as one who has voted NO for every contract since 1970, is just do it as a demonstration of unhappiness because even Unity (other than the hardest hacks) won't argue this is one of the greatest contracts ever. I will leave it for others to get into the contract nitty gritties. I urged a NO vote a year ago - VOTE NO on Whatever Contract Unity Negotiates/ Res...

I received some grief on twitter from a Unity apologist for calling for a NO vote a year before being able to read a contract. Hey, Unity is calling for a YES vote before giving people a chance to read the contract, so why not calling for a NO vote on principle alone? 

 
I know unity leadership for 50 years. They have been incapable of delivering a decent contract since early 70s that I could vote YES. It's just not in their DNA to fight hard enough. That would take even the hint of a possible strike but they trash any talk of that as scare mongering. Just the class size issue alone plus grievance process, real protection against abusive administration, etc for non-monetary issues as we've seen an erosion of teacher autonomy and increasing micromanagement. So as long as unity is in power my vote would be NO on non-monetary stuff alone since I  had a 2 income home without children, salary never my issue.

 

An overwhelming YES vote will send an awful message of "we will accept anything, so keep shitting on us." So I start with the idea that the contract will probably pass. But it 's a real difference if 40% vs 10% vote against. So go and vote NO and assume you will still get a few below inflation bucks anyway and get another shot in 4 years.

In fact, the greater the NO vote, the better the next contract.

But what if a miracle occurs like it did in 1995 when we rejected the contract and sent them back to the bargaining table? The biggest giveback in that contract was bumping the number of years to reach top pay from 20 to 25. Six months later they came back with 22 to top salary. So that NO vote has saved generations of teachers a lot of money by not accepting that 25 year max. Imagine retirement where you average your pension over 3 years with a 25 year top? No full pensions for a lot of people who took 55-25 option.

Another NO vote occurred in essence on the retiree health care plan, as the UFT leadership led by Mulgrew and Retired Teacher chapter leader Tom Murphy, tried to sell retirees a worn down model of the Emblem MedAdv plan in the spring of 2021 - according the Mulgrew, the greatest MedAdv plan in the world - and then it was in essence voted down by the court case in the fall of 2021, which led to Emblem dropping out and Mulgrew going to Aetna for what he's admitting and selling as a much new and improved MedAdv plan over what he tried to sell us originally.

So we have samples of forcing them back to the table and seeing a better deal.

Thus the essence of my argument comes down to:

VOTE NO even if you think the contract will pass and even if you think it is not terrible to put pressure on the union leadership and the city for the future and hope that the union does some strike prep for next time, at least to present a credible threat - but  that is still wishful thinking as a strike threatens Unity jobs and even their precious teacher center jobs through the loss of dues checkoff. The biggest fear Unity has is going back to teach in the dreadful conditions they've allowed to occur in so many schools

And expect that if the NO vote actually wins out, you will end up with something better, even if a slight adjustment of making more money pensionable.

You might want to read the analysis of a math teacher at Stuyvesant HS who crunched the numbers:

Jeremy Shahom, Mathematics Teacher at Stuyvesant High School breaks down the newly proposed UFT contract. The math ain't mathing!

Op-Ed: How the Proposed Contract Attacks Our Pension and Healthcare Benefits

The other day I chronicled how Unity tried to shut down debate and harass even those who called for reading the MOU - and we heard how LeRoy Barr and Mulgrew openly lied to the DA when they insisted the MOU was up on the web and how Unity thugs almost physically attacked Nick Bacon for calling them out on it.

 

To show you how much more repressive Unity Caucus has become, the 1967 contract was debated for 4 hours at DA (I had just started teaching) and the 1995 contract had a long debate at the DA - I was there as a CL - and Pres. Sandy Feldman even allowed Bruce Markens, the only non-Unity elected District Rep (Yes, Virginia, we used to elect DRs), a long speech in opposition and they even provided the video of the debates to the schools. Many of us who were around then have come to see Sandy as being considerably better than her successors.

But despite all the evidence piling up to vote NO and despite the lame Unity arguments for YES - (we go to the back of the line, the best we can do in bad times, city money is going to dry up --It's been drying up since I joined the UFT in "67), you won't see money for a while, $bonuses, $bonuses, $bonuses (non-pensionable), don't worry about bad para pay -- just think of yourselves, etc.), their funniest argument was that the future estimate of social security inflation bonus (this year over 8%) will be 2.9% in 2024 --- so see, we got you .1 over next year's inflation even it that turns out to be true - it won't and watch Saudi Arabia jump gas prices just in time to try to make Biden lose to Trump.

Mulgrew on Brian Lehrer yesterday -- first question from retiree - let us vote on healthcare. 75% would say no. Mulgrew who me? MLC handles that. Brian could have pointed out that he has 35% of the MLC vote so why doesn't he vote the way retirees would tell him to?

https://www.wnyc.org/story/teacher-contracts-charter-schools-and-more/

 

The first call was a retiree asking why he doesn't let retirees vote on healthcare changes and he was like, Who Me? It's the MLC. To listen to Mulgrew, one could get the impression that he doesn't control the MLC, that the MLC and the UFT are entirely two separate entities. Brian either didn't know or care to challenge him on the fact that if he listened to UFT members he could have voted NO.

Here are some more sources.

NICK AT NAC

New Action Caucus has gone over the good, bad, and middling parts of the 2022-2027 tentative UFT agreement. Ultimately, we agreed that this is a contract members would be better off voting ‘no’ on.

Largely, our decision came down to sub-inflation wage ‘increases,’  including a disappointing new precedent of converting a percentage of our pay into unpensionable bonuses, as well big unanswered questions on healthcare. But we also agreed that this contract draft is disappointing in other ways that could be corrected by going back to the negotiating table. It’s not just that we didn’t meet a single of the 5 demands released by New Action in collaboration with the rest of the United for Change coalition, not to mention the demands of our larger caucus-specific list. It’s that we don’t see improvements even in places that we expected – such as special education, where we had implicit leverage but inexplicitly failed to make any major gains. It’s that one of our only workplace wins–the ability for teachers/paraprofessionals to work from home for parent engagement time–is conditional on new micromanagement and the ability for principals to take that ‘privilege’ away at a moment’s notice, without due process (a troubling new precedent).

Sifting Through the Propaganda

CONTINUE:

New Action/UFT Suggests Voting No on the 2022-2027 Tentative Agreement

 

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Reasons to VOTE NO on the UFT Contract: MORE UFT Caucus

MORE UFT shares 5 big reasons to say "NO" to this tentative contract. Share these with your UFT friends and colleagues.

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From MORE

• Feel free to join some of the great organizing that's happening. There are two great ways to get plugged in this week: 

  Tuesday, June 20th, 7pm

  MORE Contract Committee

  It’s crunch time! Come help us organize against Unity’s bad TA and organize for a better contract. Register here!

  Wednesday, June 21st, 7:30pm

  United For Change Townhall: Why Voting No Gets Us a Better Contract

  Come here from the opposition members of the UFT executive board and talk about why voting no will win us a better contract. Register here!

  Let's send the UFT leadership back to the bargaining table and win a better contract!

  Link to MORE's FAQ about the Tentative Agreement. Consider printing this out and leaving it in your chapter's mailboxes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1duePs88vJ0R6J-eTVw6JtQydbqHGavSq/view?usp=sharing
• Link to MORE's one-pager with the top FIVE reasons to vote no on the contract: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NtyzQPbTtlH5NiRlOkOC1JrrNpre3EjmbcV0LZEOCDE/edit?usp=sharing
• Link to a folder including multiple VOTE NO resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rv6sW4QwNoBGzk73kxiRedcOJuQvGUMK
• Link to Monday's segment from the Brian Lehrer show where multiple educators spoke critically about the poor contract: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/bl/segments/teachers-weigh-tentative-contract-deal
• Slideshow from MORE's 6/15/23 General Meeting: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IzkRyPUbSHwZUBaxOvkYMztEK_o5Uf0dh0rqoBcyF4c/edit?usp=sharing
• Multiple articles explaining why to vote no, including from current executive board member Nick Bacon, current executive board member Ronnie Almonte, and former executive board member Arthur Goldstein. 
• A series of short explainer videos from MORE on Tiktok: here, here, here, and here.

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Excellent article by Wendell Potter for The Lever on the current (grim) status of health care Inbox 

https://www.levernews.com/the-system-makes-patients-sick-and-ceos-rich/?utm_source=newsletter-email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter-article

Wendell Potter (a 35 year health industry expert) on why the for profit health system makes patients very sick and CEO's very rich.