Mayoral Control Under Attack, Assembly Dems Push Back - Call for Tweaks, Where Does UFT/Unity Stand?, Will UFT Snub Robert Jackson Again?

IDC, Unity - Is there a difference?

Angel Vasquez's work for an IDC member. He also works on the 14th floor at the UFT, where he advises Mulgrew on political policy along with Cassie Prugh (former Cuomo policy staffer and energy industry lobbyist) and others.

The UFT has endorsed Jackson’s opponent every time he’s run for the Senate: Marisol Alcantara, even though she was IDC and pro-charter. The first time she won and the second time she lost.  His opponent this time is Angel was her chief of staff.

You can link mayoral control in any city to resistance to class size reduction. They prefer to blame the teachers. So note this comment from Leonie Haimson on her blog re State Sentator Robert Jackson and follow the UFT bouncing ball.  

Sen. Jackson repeatedly threatened that he would hold back state funding if the DOE refuses to lower class size, as outlined in the his bill S6296A, and the same as Assembly bill, A7447A, sponsored by AM Simon. Jackson also implied that his support for continuing mayoral control was at risk due to DOE negligence on the issue-- and that in any case, he would not support an extension of more than two years.

THERE ARE RUMORS THE UFT WILL SUPPORT Angel’s Vasquez, PRIMARY OPPONENT OF LONG TIME FRIEND OF TEACHERS ROBERT JACKSON? Don't be shocked. 

Angel’s Vasquez'  LinkedIn profile shows that his only teaching experience was at a CO charter school.  Meanwhile, RJ has always been resolutely anti-charter – as well as the #1 proponent of class size reduction in the Legislature, and the sponsor of S.6296A  which would phase in class sizes caps at much lower levels starting next year.

WOULD UFT OPPOSE A STRONG SUPPORTER OF CLASS SIZE REDUCTIONS AND MAYORAL CONTROL OPPONENT -- DOING THE WORK FOR ED DEFORMERS.

James Eterno commented: Jackson is too pro-teacher.
Yes Virginia -- the leadership of the biggest teacher union is fundamentally, time and again, Anti-teacher.

Leonie reported this revealing point about Jackson at the recent
State Assembly and Senate Joint Hearings.

The topic of class size was first introduced  by Sen. Robert Jackson, the original plaintiff in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which after many years of advocacy, is finally bringing more than $1.3 billion in additional state funds to NYC schools. Yet the administration plans to invest none of these funds in lowering class size, though the city's excessive class sizes were a central issue in the lawsuit and the court's decision that our students were deprived of their right to a sound, basic education.  

... Leonie Haimson continues:

I’ve testified at countless mayoral control hearings since it was instituted nearly 20 years ago. Yesterday’s joint Senate and Assembly hearings far surpassed any of them.  You can watch the video here. Sorry to say there were very few news stories about it, because most of the education reporters were covering the Mayor's announcement about lifting the mask mandate in schools.  It was their loss, since the questioning by legislators was sharp and had a new seriousness about it, and the testimony from parent leaders was passionate and incisive.  - on her blog.

Attempts to raise the issue of mayoral control of the schools with the UFT/Unity leadership have been rebuffed since last year. The fact is the UFT has always been in favor of having the least amount of voices involved in decision making as long as the leadership (not the membership) had a seat at the table. The UFT/Unity mantra - the least amount of democratic voices possible. And don't forget their continued opposiiton to putting class size front and center in contract negotiations - plus the severe Mulgrew defeat on his city council class size initiative -- which I supported but of course was executed ineptly.

There have been some soundings coming out of fortress Unity calling for tweaks - like shifting some PEP choices to borough Presidents and maybe a seat or two for the city council - still a system where political operatives, not regular people have a voice. Maybe there should be a Unity Caucus rep on the PEP.

But after 20 years of mayoral control, more and more people have grown tired of one person dictating control of 1700 schools, one million kids and their parents, and 125,000 pedagogues. 

Here's Mayoral control stalwart opponent Leonie Haimson's full blog postm followed by a Politico and NY Post article.

Why Friday's hearings on Mayoral control were the best in twenty years

 and what was said about the need for smaller classes & more fiscal oversight

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2022/03/why-fridays-hearings-on-mayoral-control.html

Norm goes deep into #MulgrewCare: appears on Podcast, Lander Says NO to MulgrewCare, Ravages of our profit-making medical system

I went to one of my doctors yesterday and he's trying to pressure me into taking an expensive test I clearly don't need. The naked profit motive. Medicare will pay but I'm conscious of how that undermines Medicare in the long run. I'd be acting like Mulgrew. I won't do it. In the podcast I delve into the ideology of the UFT/Unity caucus that leads to decisions like pushing MulgrewCare and also 20 years ago, privatized education like charters. 

the advertising, the television commercials, the hamburger sliders, the endless catered lunches, the agency money, the plane tickets to Europe — are all, directly or not, contributing to this enormous cost.” --- This is what Mulgew supports.

 Norm - in his usual fog.

UnitedForChange - UFT

@ufcuft

·

Mar 9

Worth the listen! Norm Scott unpacks the failed attempt by@UFTUnity to privatize retiree Medicare with Mulgrewcare

@NormScott1has been a tireless union activist & once again proving his mettle in helping to lead organize our petition campaign.

Nice words from my UFC colleagues.

What a pleasure to Zoom meet Noah who interviewed me for his Professional Development: The New York City Teacher Podcast Monday night. He certainly does his research and the hour spent talking to a young NYC teacher was a pleasure - and I just signed up as a patron to get all his podcasts. He has been doing it since July and I am addicted, catching up on back issues. I first heard his of him with his Nick Bacon interview on the Feb. DA which was excellent: Ep 29- What REALLY Happened at the February DA.mp3

Hey Norm,

The show is up and ready to be heard! It can be found at the following locations (among others):

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-31-mulgrewcare-feat-norm-scott/id1579180451?i=1000553491155

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RKZJotWTV6Eo81n05R9kt?si=K6-3B2WoRgSUSrd-ajqkAg

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/63597160

Ep 31- Mulgrewcare, feat. Norm Scott.mp3

This week Norm Scott, a retired NYC DOE teacher, long-time unionist, and blogger, stops by to tell us all about Mulgrewcare, a foiled (or is it?) attempt by the UFT leadership to deprive retirees of their proper, hard-earned benefits OR balance the books after a poorly-executed contract negotiation by collecting their hard-earned money in the form of new, illegal premiums for the same coverage they have always had. We discuss the parallels between Unity's willingness to privatize healthcare and the neoliberal drive to privatize schools, most notably via the charter movement, and much more!

This week Norm Scott, a retired NYC DOE teacher, long-time unionist, and blogger, stops by to tell us all about Mulgrewcare, a foiled (or is it?) attempt by the UFT leadership to deprive retirees of their proper, hard-earned benefits OR balance the books after a poorly-executed contract negotiation by collecting their hard-earned money in the form of new, illegal premiums for the same coverage they have always had. We discuss the parallels between Unity's willingness to privatize healthcare and the neoliberal drive to privatize schools, most notably via the charter movement, and much more! Read more of Norm's work at ednotesonline.com

More on MulgrewCare

Lander calls on Adams to ditch new NYC retiree Medicare plan after court order - New York Daily News

An Essayist Navigates the Labyrinth of American Health Care. Barely.

Emphasizing the cruelty of Mulgrew in opposing true cost-saving solutions to costs of medical services by favoring profit making private insurance and degrading the public options.

"survived the ongoing catastrophe of for-profit medical care.... a ready solution to the problem — which, Maloney implies, is inseparable from the very structures of capitalism."

And one thing we know- in the 60 years of Unity Caucus leadership of the UFT, unmitigated support for the unfettered outrages of capitalism

 

NYT Book Review By Sarah Manguso

COST OF LIVING

Essays

By Emily Maloney

The illness narrative, ending in financial ruin and decreased quality of life, has become one of the classic 21st-century American stories. In her debut essay collection, Emily Maloney documents the complex intersections of money, illness and medicine. For Maloney, the primary experience of receiving health care is not merely a bodily or spiritual event but always, also, a financial one. She understands on a granular level the relationship of money to being ill, to developing a drug, to housing and caring for patients and, of course, to managing an unfathomable amount of debt. Her broad perspective is hard won; at different times she has been a multiply diagnosed chronically ill patient, an E.M.T., an emergency room medical technician, a drug rep, a data analyst, a medical writer, a medical debtor and an American citizen who has — so far — survived the ongoing catastrophe of for-profit medical care.

The precipitating event in “Cost of Living” is the author’s psychiatric hospitalization at 19: “It wasn’t that I had wanted to die, exactly. It was more that I just couldn’t keep living.” Maloney’s choice of a nearby, independent hospital’s emergency room over the bigger university hospital “where the state might pick up your bill if you were declared indigent” leads to the crushing debt at the heart of the book. “Sitting on a cot in the emergency room, I filled out paperwork certifying myself as the responsible party for my own medical care — signed it without looking, anchoring myself to this debt, a stone dropped in the middle of a stream. This debt was the cost of living.”

As Maloney pries deeper into the machine of American health care, she finds no central mechanism other than that of the eternal money-go-round. By the time she gets to the conference at which doctors are painstakingly comped for their attendance at brunches with “soggy pastries” amid “transfer of value” concerns, I had lost all hope for a ready solution to the problem — which, Maloney implies, is inseparable from the very structures of capitalism.

Each essay documents a different kind of structural failure, caused or complicated by capital and inevitably ending in harm to patients. In one, Maloney is prescribed 26 psychiatric medications for what turns out to be a vitamin D deficiency, hypothyroidism and a neurologically based developmental disorder. In another, as an E.R. tech she is trained to “bill up” — increasing charges if at all possible — but she secretly perfects the occult art of minimizing patient cost without tripping any corporate alarms.

Embedding herself into various corners of the bureaucratic medical machine, Maloney describes everyone she encounters with the same perspicacity. “There’s a fine line between a pain patient and a drug addict,” she writes, “and sometimes patients go back and forth across it.” “Elizabeth … was what we called a frequent flier, someone who was unable to make sense of the world she lived in and so she came to us instead, a kind of tent revival in our suburban hospital, for healing.” A medical student, meanwhile, is “a strange mix of sweaty and cavalier.”

Thanks to her experiences, Maloney is able to see the cracks in what a less informed patient might experience, simply, as care: “At my doctor’s office for a masked annual physical, my internist depression screens me. I know it’s because Epic, the online medical record system he uses, prompts him to do so. Northwestern Medicine is part of a program that uses an installation of Epic that depression screens everyone.”

While working as a medical publications manager at a pharmaceutical company, where she becomes a part of the conference circuit for the first time, she is struck by the sheer scale of the apparatus. “Yes, the research everyone does is important. Yes, the work to take a drug from preclinical stages to the market is huge and hugely expensive. But the rest — the advertising, the television commercials, the hamburger sliders, the endless catered lunches, the agency money, the plane tickets to Europe — are all, directly or not, contributing to this enormous cost.”

Maloney’s essays read as if they were begun in low light, with little sense of where they were going or how far. They start with a question and work things out on the page. They don’t seem concerned about arriving at a grand unified theory of anything. They notice everything and have nothing to prove. They don’t prematurely grasp at an ending. These qualities combine to elevate this collection far above the usual first-person essayistic fare. The challenges of Maloney’s background — familial trauma, poor medical care, occasional indigence — form part of the back story, but they are ultimately beside the point of this book. Her broad authority and the quality of the prose — astute, compassionate and lethally funny — are what make these essays remarkable. Maloney is an exceptionally alert writer on whom nothing is lost, who sees everything with excruciating clarity, including the unassailable fact that in this country, there is currently no tidy passage through the interconnected quagmires of illness, money and care.

Sarah Manguso is the author of eight books, most recently the novel “Very Cold People.”

 

Mulgrew in his own words - Brags about MedAdv Program HE Helped Design - Before he abandoned it

Listen to Mulgrew brag about the plan he designed and promoted and attacked those of us who were critical. Hear Mulgrew talk about how proud he was about the MedAdv - until he abandoned it after the judge ruled in our favor.

And don't forget -- if you support medicare for all/single payer, backing Mulgrew and Unity Caucus is a total contradiction.

https://youtu.be/8DxZrE5WGmM

 From United for Change blog:

Mulgrewcare Has Failed. Now, We Must Vote Mulgrew Out – #VoteMulgrewOUT

Mulgrewcare has failed because of Michael Mulgrew’s hubris.

Mulgrewcare was hatched in backroom secrecy after Mulgrew’s 2014 retro pay contract fiasco with the city that raided over a billion dollars from the Healthcare Stabilization Fund to pay for raises.

Mulgrew and De Blasio dipped into a fund solely designed to offset the healthcare inflation costs. And then Mike convinced the MLC to follow his lead.

Then, in 2021, when Mulgrew and the UFT-led MLC were backed into a corner by the mayor to replenish this now depleted fund, they designed and tried to sell us all, a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, that penalizes city retirees for their healthcare choices and burdens them with scores of pre-authorizations, to pay for his mediocre labor agreements of the past.

Mulgrewcare would have forced all of our city’s retirees into an ill-conceived managed plan, or retirees who opted out would have to pay well over $2000 to $4000 a year to keep their existing coverage promised to them by the City.

Thousands of retirees stood up and said: NO! They organized, protested, raised their own funds, and sued – AND WON!

On March 3rd, 2022, a Manhattan judge ruled in favor of the retirees who were opting out of this failed, coerced plan. The law says the city cannot charge retirees or active city employees for healthcare unless it is above the cost of the HIP plan. This is the language the judge used in citing the city’s administrative code: “

This section states unequivocally that “[t]he City will pay the entire cost of health insurance coverage for city employees, city retirees, and their dependents, not to exceed one hundred percent of the full cost of H.I.P.-H.M.O. on a category basis.”

The city and unions (the Municipal Labor Committee) were violating the law by agreeing to charge all of our city’s retirees who wanted to keep their current Senior Care supplemental Medicare insurance $191 per month if they opted out of the new privatized Mulgrewcare.

Now, that Mulgrewcare is dead, for now, we must make sure Mulgrew never again places our most seasoned civil servants, retirees, and our current in-service UFT members in harm’s way. He also has designs on our next UFT contract, too, with his penchant for healthcare givebacks and weak negotiating posture.

In April of 2022, UFT members must vote him and his Unity caucus OUT!

Vote United For Change, a coalition slate that stood with our city’s retirees in organizing against Mulgrewcare. 

 

• Healthcare Updates: Retiree Advocate Sunday Night ...
• A Cynical Mulgrew Abandons MulgrewCare - If he can...
• Birthday Present for me -- NYC Municipal Retirees ...

Minneapolis educators to strike Tuesday for safe and stable schools - Note Randi Comment of support----

--- While silent as NYC DOE with assistance from the UFT opens schools wide to variants by unmasking. Other unions won't sit by.

MEDIA NOTE: NEA President Becky Pringle will be on the ground in Minnesota on Tuesday (March 8) in solidarity with the educators of Minneapolis who are calling for safe and stable schools. The National Education Association is the national affiliate of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals and represents 3 million educators nationwide. President Pringle can provide the national perspective and is available for media interviews. Please contact Richard Allen Smith of NEA Communications at 202-716-6461 or rasmith@nea.org.

 

CONTACT: 

Natasha Dockter

Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and

Education Support Professionals

natasha.dockter@gmail.com

 

Minneapolis educators to strike Tuesday for safe and stable schools

 

MINNEAPOLIS, March 7, 2022 – The educators of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Education Support Professionals will go on strike Tuesday for the safe and stable schools students deserve. Despite days in public bargaining and mediations, including more than 65 hours in the last week, the district continues to refuse to work with MFT to create systemic change and remains entrenched in the unacceptable status quo. 

 

President Greta Callahan of the MFT teachers chapter, President Shaun Laden of the MFT ESP chapter and the presidents of Education Minnesota, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association will attend a news conference at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday outside Justice Page Middle School, 1W. 49th S., Minneapolis.

 

The members of the MFT will begin picketing outside their schools and other worksites at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. The membership will come together for a large rally at 12:15 p.m. at the Minneapolis Public Schools Nutrition Center, 812 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis, before marching approximately 1 mile to the MPS Davis Center, 1250 W Broadway Ave, Minneapolis.

 

Logistics:

• Picketing begins at schools and other worksites at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday
• News conference with MFT presidents and state and national presidents 7:30 a.m. Tuesday at Justice Page Middle School, 1W. 49th S., Minneapolis
• Rally starting at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday at Minneapolis Public Schools Nutrition Center, 812 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis

Laden said:  “This bargaining campaign started with the very simple idea that for the education support professionals who are told every day that our schools can’t run without us, one job should be enough. We’re the most racially diverse group of educators in a district with administrators who say they care about racial equity. We have been demanding that the administrators at the bargaining table put their money where their mouth is and they have refused. Now is the time for the school board to intervene and settle a deal that pays ESP a starting wage of $35,000 a year.”

 

Callahan said: “For almost two years, we’ve been trying to reach agreements around safe and stable schools for students and those closest to them, but the administration has stubbornly defended an unacceptable status quo. We are the defenders of public education and we’re not going to slow down, or give up, until we make real progress addressing the mental health crisis in our schools, reducing class sizes and caseloads so students are receiving the individualized attention they need, and increasing educator compensation so that we don’t continue to lose staff, especially educators of color, to surrounding districts and other professions.”

 

Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota, said: “Nearly 90,000 educators across Minnesota are standing with our union family in Minneapolis because what they’re fighting for is what we’re all fighting for: Schools that will give every student the chance to pursue their dreams. The same issues are being negotiated all over the state, from living wages for ESPs, to more mental health supports for students, to managing the crushing caseload for SpEd teachers, to recruiting and retaining more teachers of color,  to creating time for educators to give their students enough individual attention. We’re in a rich state with a $9.25 billion surplus. No educator should have to fight this hard for the schools our students deserve, but if that’s what it takes, we’re with you.”

 

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said: “With over $250 million in pandemic relief funds, the time is now to invest in the safe and stable schools that Minneapolis students need now more than ever. The three million members of the National Education Association are proud to stand with our siblings in Minneapolis. The last two years have demonstrated that the status quo is not good enough. Minneapolis students and their families have weathered a pandemic, continued police violence, and an economic system that has left students, their families, and educators behind. These students deserve class sizes small enough for one-to-one attention as well as investments in mental health services and social-emotional learning.  MPS must also invest in systematic changes that improve the recruitment and retention of educators of color as well as a living wage for education support professionals. Education support professionals represent a critical workforce in our schools providing essential supports students depend on. MPS has the resources to make these investments. The question is whether they value Minneapolis students as much as their educators do.”

 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said: “The federal government has provided an unprecedented amount of recovery funding to school districts to address problems related to the pandemic, including student recovery, staff shortages and school safety. There is no excuse for districts to make cuts in light of this historic infusion of funds. And the economy is showing real signs of growth. Indeed, Minnesota just announced a $9.25 billion surplus.

 

“Our kids, their families and educators have been through tremendous challenges in the last two years; they have done their share to navigate the rough seas together. Educators and students should be the priorities, and districts should provide the conditions and environment they need to succeed. School districts should respect their educators and ensure that students have the programs and services they need to thrive,” Weingarten said.

 

The union’s safe and stable schools agenda includes:

• Paying a living wage for education support professionals to stabilize this critical workforce, because students need the stability of working with one paraprofessional throughout the school year. For ESPs, this means raising the starting salary from about $24,000 a year to $35,000 through increases in hours and rate of pay.
• Making systemic changes to improve the recruitment and retention of educators of color, which benefits all of MPS.
• Improving student-to-mental health professional ratios because students shouldn’t have to wait weeks for an appointment with a counselor or social worker.
• Lowering class sizes because students learn best when their classrooms aren’t overcrowded and underfunded.
• Paying competitive salaries for licensed staff to stop the exodus of teachers from MPS. State data show the average salary of Minneapolis teachers is ranked 28 out of 46 districts in the seven-county metro area.

 

Healthcare Updates: Retiree Advocate Sunday Night Zoom, An instructive video, Does UFT/Unity Team Up with Private Insurer Lobby And Dem Party Central to Kill Medicare for All Proposals?

Last night RA Zoom. 

We expected maybe 50 - we had over 120 and had to buy more space. It was recorded and we will share the link when it is out.

 My recent posts:

A Cynical Mulgrew Abandons MulgrewCare - If he can't gouge retirees out of 2K a year he's not interested - Plus Satire alert 

Birthday Present for me -- NYC Municipal Retirees Claim Victory over MulgrewCare While Mulgew will declare victory for UFT -- Devil may be in details - Press Conf at 2PM - Don't count those chickens yst

 

Video: Here is a sweet and simple explanation of how we got to MAP from the legal team. Well worth a half hour of your time.

https://youtu.be/JITVzU3xS34
 ======

 

In other news: Exploring UFT/Unity Caucus links to Big  Pharm and Healthcare giants trying to kill public options for their own profit

If it looks like a duck, etc. The outcome of all Mulgrew policy is to kill Medicare and support the industry in partnerships. 

 

Think of MulgrewDoubleSpeak - He not only supported the MedAdv, but bragged about designing it. Then after the judge ruled he said he was no longer supporting it because if the opt-outers don't have to pay it is no longer worth it. Thus he reveled the intentions all along --- to make us pay for the savings along with the future denials of service for those who didn't opt out.

You might wonder why the UFT/Unity/Mulgrew team is so much against medicare for all and pro-privatized healthcare. 

 

Evil Anthem - Mulgrew Partner

• NYC selects Anthem for retirees’ coverage — after feds sue over alleged Medicare fraud - NY Post

Links between the UFT and  privatizing scuzballs are being explored. As we know the Unity/UFT leaderhsip is an outpost of the center right corporate Democrats so search there.  Here's one potential connectionThe Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF) from a few years ago. Remember, Mulgrew raided the stabilization fund in 2014 and made the deal to screw us on healthcare in 2018 to replace that fund.

Top Democratic Consultants Have Worked for Anti-Medicare for All Campaign

“The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF), a nonprofit created  to oppose plans to create a comprehensive, universal health care system, paid almost $760,000 to Bully Pulpit Interactive, a communications and digital marketing firm that has worked with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).”

 

Their reasoning: “The government would be expected to set premiums for the public option approximately 25 percent below market value for comparable private insurance plans.”  

 

Remember - Mulgrew says he wants to save us money - by opposing Medicare for all. 

Do you know who the UFT uses for its digital media?

• Bully Pulpit Interactive

Our old ICEUFT pal wrote this blog post:

 

https://underassault.blogspot.com/2020/11/dogs-sheep-wolves.html?m=1

Dogs, Sheep, Wolves

 

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/03/big-pharma-insurers-hospitals-team-up-to-kill-medicare-for-all/

Big Pharma, insurers, hospitals team up to kill Medicare for All

Biggest donor to this dark money outfit … Blue Cross who runs Mulgrew fave Anthem.

=======

Can the city force us into medicare Adv? Senior Care would have to reach an extremely high dollar threshold for that to happen.

Some people are reading the judge as giving the OK for the city to offer no options and force us into MedAdv.

Here is an explanation of what the judge said.

Yes, we won the case, but of course the City can appeal. 

Don’t be confused by the terms “threshold” or “statutory cap”.  They are effectively irrelevant because the statutory cap which the City is not obligated to exceed paying is $776 per person per month. Senior Care is $191 per month per person so we are nowhere near the cap or threshold. For now we are in the cat bird seat.

 I feel catbird seat may be the optimistic view. What I do know is that I was expecting to start paying almost $400 starting April 1 and now I don't. And I blew that money at my birthday dinner last Thursday. Parteeeeee every month.

A Cynical Mulgrew Abandons MulgrewCare - If he can't gouge retirees out of 2K a year he's not interested - Plus Satire alert

I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too! ----Mulgrew threat to Retirees

Read between the lines and the wicked witch of 52 Broadway will get even with those opt-outers.

MULGREW JUST KILLED MAP!!!  HE THINKS THIS WILL WIN HIM THE ELECTION!!  NO WAY!! VOTE FOR UNITED FOR CHANGE!! ..... A Retiree in Florida

By the way -- this retiree has often been critical of me for being too left and would never vote for the left wing in a UFT election. Which shows the real threat to Unity from a center/left coalition that UFC is. 

 

Actually I don't buy that he killed MAP -- I think he will work to kill off retirees behind the scenes to force everyone into MAP.  

His statement calls for satirical treatment.

 

Satire Alert:

For Immediate Release – Thursday, March 3, 2022

 

UFT President Michael Mulgrew on NYC Medicare Advantage Plus Plan:

We believe in the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus plan and the excellent range of benefits it would have provided our retirees. However, the judge’s recent decision will effectively eliminate the savings the plan would have produced and that would have been re-invested in health benefits for our members. That is because anyone with half a brain and the economic ability to opt-out would have done so but we expected those who did opt out to be gouged out of $191 a month and double to include spouses, almost 5K a year, for the same services they have been getting for free. Now that the bastard judge has screwed us we are dumping our support of MAP, a plan I  just spent almost a year bragging about how I created it. But the judge did give me an out by telling the city if they don't even offer an opt out they can force everyone into the wonderful plan with silver sneakers. I will sit idly by and  cheer - or more probably work behind the scenes - to make sure everyone is screwed.

 

While the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus plan is sound, the program has suffered from serious implementation problems and poor legal arguments, particularly on the part of the city. Don't blame me; I only control the UFT and the MLC.

 

Now that I feel compelled to say this, I suppose Our retirees deserve better. Given the judge’s order, the UFT is withdrawing its support for starting the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus plan on April 1, 2022, and will urge the Municipal Labor Committee to suspend its efforts to begin the program until all the implementation and legal issues are resolved. Then we will really screw the retirees, but at least that will happen after this UFT election is over and I can continue to gaslight and pull the wool over their eyes.

Yes, if this plan was as good as I've pretended it was all these many months we would simply keep it in place as an option and retirees would flock to it, but no, not happening. As I write, the city's servers are crashing with all the opt-out requests. Sorry for all the, how do I say it - tsuris? We'll regroup and try to screw our awesome seniors better next time. (Geof, sorry bro, you're fired.) Peace out!

The real Mulgrew

We believe in the NYC Medicare Advantage Plus plan and the excellent range of benefits it would have provided our retirees. However, the judge’s recent decision will effectively eliminate the savings the plan would have produced and that would have been re-invested in health benefits for our members.

 As one retiree put it to me, if everyone opted out and paid the $191 a month, it would bring in $600 million. But they couldn't charge people without a flim flam.

I have read the decision and the way I read it is the city can go ahead and have only 1 plan and that being the Medicare advantage plan and if they did so that would be legally okay. They just can't charge a premium if they give retirees a choice of plans. This to me is going to be the worst of all worlds. I guess the question is what are the unions going to do now to stop them.

Manhattan judge strikes down NYC's plan to force retired city workers to pay to keep insurance they were promised for life

By Marcia Kramer

March 3, 2022 / 5:02 PM / CBS New York

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/manhattan-judge-strikes-down-nycs-plan-to-force-retired-city-workers-to-pay-to-keep-insurance-they-were-promised-for-life/

NEW YORK -- There was a major victory Thursday for 250,000 retired city workers.

A Manhattan judge struck down New York City's plan to alter their health benefits and make them pay to keep the the insurance they were promised for life. CBS2's Marcia Kramer first exposed the city's efforts to disenfranchise its workers last year.

A handful of retired workers stood outside the gates of City Hall to bask in the glow of a hard won, David-over-Goliath victory over former Mayor Bill de Blasio and his successor Eric Adams.

"You know, there's an expression that you can't fight city hall. They did and they won," retirees' lawyer Steve Cohen said.

Cohen was referring to a decision by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lyle Frank that prevents the city from pulling a bait and switch with the health insurance of 250,000 retirees. The city wanted to switch them to a less expensive program or force them to pay nearly $1,200 a year to keep their old insurance.

The judge said that while the city could offer the less expensive program, it couldn't charge people to stay in the old program because they were promised health benefits for life.

In his ruling, the judge said the city "is permanently enjoined from passing along any costs of the New York City retirees' current plan to the retirees."

"New York City cannot take away their health insurance in retirement. They are allowed to keep the subsidy that the city has paid for the last 40 years and keep their doctors and their medical care that they've earned over their many years of service," Cohen said.

When CBS2 first broke the story, Kramer reported on the difficult choice faced by people like former NYCHA employee Bill Shenton and his wife, Susan, who said they would be forced to pay money they can ill-afford to stay in the old plan because the new one would cover only a fraction of the medicine Susan takes for chronic lung disease. One drug alone costs $130,000 a year.

"I feel like it's a betrayal. We were told we'd have the same insurance that we had when we were working and it would cover our family," Shenton said.

"We are so grateful that we will not have to pay the $192 penalty every month, which we cannot afford," retiree Sarah Shapiro said.

"Good, quality, free medical insurance is a human right for everyone," retiree Gloria Bram said.

The retirees called on Mayor Adams not to appeal the judge's ruling, but it's not clear what the city will do. A spokesman for the mayor said the city is reviewing the decision and "evaluating our options."

In a surprise development, the United Federation of Teachers, which had enthusiastically supported moving retirees to a new, cheaper plan, withdrew its support for the move. Union President Michael Mulgrew called on the Municipal Labor Council to suspend efforts to start the new program until all implementation and legal issues are resolved.