VOTE NO, Unity Caucus Bullying Ramps up attacks on critics, major target Nick Bacon hits the Pentafecta - 5 times heckled in two days

The heckling needs to stop! Educators wouldn’t allow this in a classroom but here in the DA it’s condoned. Whatever, anyway I did buy a car without reading the contract, and you know what it mostly turned out okay!.. Mike M comment on NA blog

Yes, imagine a world where unionists were allowed to speak and honestly debate our contract. Imagine a world where the UFT staff members who we pay to protect our rights didn’t try to tear down working teachers for having even the slightest critical thought. Ha! on your car... BaconUFT: June 14, 2023, DA Votes yes to Send out Contract without a Copy: UFT Delegate Assembly – 6-13-2023 - comments

I'm not surprised that paid union staffers are heckling me (heckling increases) ---- Nick Bacon at Monday contract meeting

They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred. --- FDR, 1936 Madison Square Garden speech, what Nick Bacon may be thinking about Unity slime.

I love Nick Bacon --- delegate from MORE exiting the DA

Sunday, June 18, 2023

I was leafleting at the end of the emergency Delegate Assembly on Tuesday as people emerged. After hearing the stories about the two days of Unity heckling Nick Bacon because he wanted to see what he was voting for, I was loudly calling for a "stop the Unity bullying campaign." 

 

Two young female delegates I didn't know asked for leaflets and as they walked away, turned around and said, "we were just talking about the bullying and it was very upsetting to us." Unity is turning Nick Bacon into a folk hero - and providing fuel for his fire.

Unity Caucus is more and more becoming the Trump party of the UFT. And like Trump, they have no shame, which at one time they at least seemed to have. They've reached the stage where for the first time I am doubting they would run an honest election. Their desperation to hold onto all power is calling on them to resort to desperate means. To me, their increasing undemocratic tactics is a sign they feel they are losing control. 

 

As you can see, while the bullying may energize the union hacks, there are independents who are turned off. I heard even some Unity were turned off. The attacks also energize the opposition. I hope they keep it up - they are organizing for the opposition.

 

The Unity Caucus machine has ramped up attacks on critics - not just on the contract, but on any criticism at all. Don't dare say something bad about the tie Mulgrew is wearing. You will be vilified. For some in the opposition, these type of attacks is working to make them somewhat gunshy. But for Nick Bacon, it is fuel.

Now, I loved these attacks when they came at me. It shows they are feeling the pinch. All authoritarian regimes revert to bully tactics when they have no real answer to critics and feel a threat to their control. Just watch the dirty tactics to come in chapter elections next year and in the 2025 general election. 

Nick received an ovation from 25 oppo people on Tuesday when he emerged from the UFT Delegate Assembly at 6PM - he was heckled and booed at the 2PM contract committee, the 3PM Exec Bd and the 4PM DA -- the trifecta. And this after facing the same reaction from the Unity serfs on Monday at the 4PM contract committee and 6PM Exec Bd meetings. Nick set a 2 day record for Unity hatred with this Pentafecta.

 

Nick, a Unity defector two years ago, seems to irk Unity slugs more than anyone in the opposition. Fundamentally, he is being attacked for his outrageous demand to be able to read beyond a UFT/Unity press release on the contract. He asked for the MOU and both Mulgrew and Barr lied and said it was online. It wasn't. 

Nick noted in his notes: when will the MOA even be on the website? I ended up being the only person allowed to speak against, though many other hands were up, and that paragraph is towards the bottom.

 

Nick is purposely being allowed to speak to help make him a target and also to keep him from making his often cogent points.

Here is his full statement:

Sorry to even be in a position where I have to speak against this, but I’m on the negotiating committee, the executive board, and the DA and have not seen this MOA. We don’t even know when it will be on the website for our members to see. You don’t buy a house based on a PowerPoint the realtor showed you, or a used car based on the PowerPoint your used car salesman showed you. You look at the contract. There were issues with the last PowerPoint – not because anyone was trying to lie, but because it’s hard to see fine print in a PowerPoint. We need to see the fine print before we tell our members this is a deal worth voting yes on. *Around now, being heckled by UFT staffers* It’s OK, I’ve been being heckled all day, mostly by UFT staffers. We’ve also mostly heard from UFT staffers about why we should vote for this contract. They haven’t read the MOA either, and they also don’t have to live with the consequences. Working teachers – and other titles – will have to live with the consequences. We need to know what’s in this contract before we vote on it.

Here's where we really miss James Eterno's real time DA minutes because the burden falls on Nick to be active and take notes.

One of the more outrageous comments came from UFT VP Mary Vaccaro, who misused James Eterno's history of opposition to Unity by claiming he trusted the leadership. If not for James' condition, that would be an LOL moment.

 

 Here's an example of James' trust for the leadership re: the 2018 contract:

UFT MISLEADS MEMBERS AS RAISES IN PROPOSED NEW CONTRACT WON'T BEAT EXPECTED INFLATION PROJECTIONS

Here is an excerpt from a UFT bulletin trying to sell the proposed new contract by saying raises will beat inflation.

New salaries: Raises of 2%, 2.5% and 3% produce a three-year compound rate of 7.7 percent, above expert predictions of inflation of 6.2 percent (Federal Reserve Bank) and 6.8 percent (International Monetary Fund)

UFT spin, spin, spin=mislead, mislead, mislead.

Arthur shows how trusting UFT leaders ends up:

http://nyceducator.com/2023/06/vote-no-on-uft-contract-here-is-why.html

Juliwoo too:

Under Assault: teaching in NYC

It's all about trust, ain't it. -

 

A no vote sends a strong message to leadership on healthcare. It sends a reverberating message that our rank and file want it improved and not diminished.

 

 A comment from a delegate - corrected-

I was at the DA meeting over the phone. This is what I DIDN'T hear being talked about:
1. Healthcare.
2. Why our raises don't meet or exceed current inflation.
3. Why they added 25 minutes to the instructional workday. It was 6 hours and 20 minutes and in the tentative contract at a glance it says it is 6 hours and 45 minutes. Mulgrew said there were no givebacks or concessions. This doesn't look like what he said.
4. Fixing of Tier 6. I'm tier 4 but I feel for Tier 6 and believe it needs to be fixed.

I already know I will be voting NO.

The UFT bureaucracy’s avoidance of strike-readiness undermines the union’s bargaining power. 

 

Other unions seem to get it:

 

 

More links:

UFT Contract PSA: Beware of Distracting ‘Perks’

UFT Tentative Agreement Online (Mostly) – Not as Rosy as Mulgrew’s Presentations

Examining the 2023 UFT contract draft – a ‘tentative’ analysis

Return to the Bargaining Table with a Strike Plan

Vote "No" on the UFT-DOE tentative agreement, and call on the union to leverage its power for more

RoNNIE ALMONTE

 

As expected, the agreement veils pay cuts with sub-inflation raises and non-pensionable bonuses, and improves only a narrow range of non-economic issues. Therefore, I encourage us to send the Negotiating Committee back to the bargaining table. The Mayor sits on enough money to concede more. When they arrive at your school, vote “No” on your ballots. Persuade your co-workers that there’s room to augment the gains in the tentative agreement. Convince them the UFT should renew its contract campaign with transparent demands and a plan for strike preparation, because only strike-ready unions threaten employers enough to grant costly concessions. 

 

 

See a UFC vote no video.

 

Op-Ed: Thoughts on the 2023 UFT Contract STATEMENTS, UFT SOLIDARITY NEWS

An interesting point of view from Eric Severson comparing salaries over the decades and showing how UFT members have relatively lost ground when inflation is taken into account. He focuses on starting salaries. I would like to see a comparison of salaries after 23 years and how those compare based on inflation. I retired in 2002 at 70k a year but a contract was signed weeks before my retirement with retro and my salary jumped to 76k. That was after 34 years. 

Let me remind people that in 1995 the top salary was at 20 years and the first contract was voted down mainly because it raised it to 25 years. The NO vote forced a renegotiation and they came back with 23 years, so we lost 3 but gained two from the NO vote. When Unity slugs tell you there are never givebacks, remember that one and this time just VOTE NO --- and ignore the threats that you won't get a contract. History proves you will do better. But even assume that the contract is ratified, the bigger the NO vote the better long term it is for you because it sends a message to the leadership and the city. - Norm

 

solidarityuft.org/?p=11421&frame-nonce=711ce9dc38

 

As we mull over the tentative contract agreement, let us consider some historic trends to let us know where we currently stand salary and benefits-wise.

 

I am just finishing my 17th year at the DOE, which means that when I first joined the UFT my salary was $41,172 a year. When we plug that into the CPI inflation calculator, we can see that a $61,712 would be the bare minimum to keep up with inflation, and the current first year teacher salary falls just short of that coming in at $61,070. In other words, before this current contract we are slightly behind just in terms of keeping up with the cost of living generally, and New York City is known known for getting less expensive over time.

 

So, a first year teacher entering the profession now is making slightly less than I did back in September 2006 when inflation is factored in. That first year teacher also has a more expensive Tier VI pension which they will need to pay into until the day they retire if they make it that long. They also have a workday loaded with five teaching periods and one C6 assignment, an arduous and stressful tenure process involving jumping through hoops to meet every Danielson criteria, and a $30 copay to see any medical specialist. Even if the salary increases in the 2023 contract do keep up with inflation over the next five years, any new or recently joined teacher has it worse than I do, and things needed significant improvement in the not quite as bad old days of 2006!

 

So far UFT leadership is pushing a narrative similar to the one we heard in 2014, that this contract is a raise without givebacks and a victory for members. Last time Mulgrew and Company pushed that narrative we ended up with worse health care coverage and ‘common planning time’ that we don’t really have control of, so I am awaiting details before fully forming an opinion. At best, this is a contract that barely keeps up with inflation assuming the Fed’s 2% target is met soon. At worst, the devil will be in the details and we’ll give up rights, benefits, or autonomy even more than we already have. Even in the best case scenario we’ll be better off than with no contract as we were in the Bloomberg years, but let’s not allow those in power in our union to call this a victory when at best it’s avoiding even further setbacks.

About the Author: Eric Severson is a veteran Special Educator in a large Brooklyn high school. He has ran for office in the 2016, 2019, and 2022 UFT elections with UFT Solidarity Caucus and United for Change.

 

Obfuscation, Resistance, Ignorance: UFT Retiree chronicles the winding path through the UFT maze to get a simple question answered

Direct our phone calls to the right department. Don't throw us off to an outside entity when a question about a UFT Zoom meeting has nothing to do with them. Put some more contact and program information on your website, or fix your search engine to be able to find things. Circulate your own notes from the meeting. And for heaven's sake, don't project on me the bad feelings you're harboring against us pesky retirees.-- JuliWoo at Under Assault, https://underassault.blogspot.com/2023/06/building-blocks.html

We do the work - badly: Unity Caucus slogan

Julie, My old pal at ICE called me yesterday with this story and I begged her to blog it. Tom Murphy's pathetic, snowflake response, "Sorry you see the worst motives rather than the best in people," is endemic to the Unity Caucus reaction to any criticism. Just trust us - after breaking trust numerous times. Remember how Mulgrew and Murphy tried to tell us the original Emblem retiree contract was awesome - only to tell us the new Aetna version is way more awesome. And Remember it was Murphy who went ballistic at recent Retiree meetings when we held up small signs:

• Retired Teacher Chapter Leader Tom Murphy Calls for Decorum - After screaming at people for posting signs in back of UFT meeting hall and calling security
  

Sorry, Tom, given the record of the leadership, I don't assume best intentions.

It's not all Tom's fault. The UFT brilliant leadership replaced people on the phones who actually knew what they were doing with Salesforce.

• UFT Outsourcing to Salesforce Update - Workers sue UFT over being replaced by Salesforce as they slam Mulgrew

• UFT Staffer - The face of the UFT is Salesforce - Calling the UFT is like calling Amazon (except the UFT is not as responsive as Amazon) 

• UFT Update: Unity Slogan #wedothework- badly - #WePutYouOnHoldWhenYouCall

 

June 14, 2023

Building blocks

=

I never thought I’d come out of retirement to write another UA post, but here we are.

 

So I was trying to find out the name of the speaker at yesterday’s Zoom meeting for retirees on the new Aetna PPO. It had been mentioned early on, but I thought I wouldn't need it and hadn't written it down.  

But a question came up in the last half hour, and the speaker told us to contact her if we knew a case where a drug would cost more in the new SilverScript plan than what we pay for it now in Express Scripts. She would bring it up with the plan's actuaries, which was quite frankly more than I expected. 

As it happens, I did have a good example for her. A 60-day supply of the generic for Restasis eye drops cost me last week $7.50 – even cheaper than what I remembered from the last time I bought it. The same generic on the Aetna hotline (1-855-648-0389) was priced at $386.41 for a 90-day supply. Now, if only I could find that lady to let her know . . .

 

 

I called the UFT main switchboard, who put me through to someone who didn't know. I was transferred (or referred) to various other extensions in an order I can't remember now, but one was the retiree chapter (who told me specifically and unbelievably that the director "didn't know" who the speaker was), the automatic "forms" line of the Welfare Fund (idiotic), the Welfare Fund live person, the Aetna hotline (I knew that wouldn't work, because though the speaker was an Aetna rep, she was talking at a UFT meeting), and back to the UFT retiree programs.  From this last nice person, I did get the first name of the speaker, but that was it. Called Aetna again, and though they couldn't help me with finding the person I was looking for, the service person was equally shocked at the price discrepancy between the two companies and said she would escalate my question northward, someone would get back to me.

I then decided that the UFT needed to know about this unnecessary run-around, so I tried to find an email address for Tom Murphy, which is not on the website (or again: not obviously on the website) and the people at healthbenefithelp@uftwf.org. But I did find Tom's email in some old correspondence and wrote the following (some typos corrected):

Dear Mr. Murphy,

The retirees attended a Zoom meeting yesterday, June 13.

One of the two speakers on the new Aetna plan was Dr. Serrano.

There was another lady who did most of the explanations, worked for Aetna: I think her first name was Sabrina, but nobody at the UFT knew her last name when I called this morning.  Unbelievable.

She specifically said to contact her if we knew of drug that we cost MORE in SilverScript than it costs currently in Express Scripts. She would want to let their actuaries know if it needs a new pricing.

[gave them the pricing of the drug in both plans....]

My drug . . . will cost more in SilverScripts, but I don’t know how to tell her this because I’ve made 6 calls to the union today (kept being transferred, dead-end everywhere, and one to Aetna helpline) and nobody seems to know who the speaker was at yesterday’s general meeting — nor how to report this difference in pricing. 

I find this union obfuscation/resistance/ignorance pretty disgraceful, that no one could tell me who spoke at a Zoom meeting that you said had more than 3000 attendees.  

 

And nobody can tell me how to report this pricing discrepancy to this lady?

His pretty quick response was nevertheless strange:

Sorry you see the worst motives rather than the best in people. Her name was announced several times and her contact information was posted there and on our website. 

I am forwarding your messages to her.

In solidarity,

Tom Murphy

Anyone who knows me knows I couldn’t let this go unanswered. 

Explaining in my next email that the speaker's name was not mentioned in the last half hour of the meeting when I needed it, that I had made many phone calls and checked several webpages on the UFT site to find it, and that my purpose – and here's the main thing – was not only to have her look into the pricing of that popular drug, but to circulate my notes from the meeting to my union friends and the Medicare counselors I work with through Westchester County and the library system (see https://seniors.westchesterlibraries.org/senior-benefits/ and http://seniors.westchesterlibraries.org/demystifyingmedicare/), I concluded the exact opposite and told him so: 

It is YOU who were looking for bad motives, not me. My question for the speaker (which nobody on the 6 phone calls could help me with) and the hours I put into getting these updates to people who need them are signs of dedication and helpfulness. Not a bad motive in sight. 

If union leadership objects to the words "obfuscation," "resistance," and "ignorance," they can do something about it. 

Direct our phone calls to the right department. Don't throw us off to an outside entity when a question about a UFT Zoom meeting has nothing to do with them. Put some more contact and program information on your website, or fix your search engine to be able to find things. Circulate your own notes from the meeting. And for heaven's sake, don't project on me the bad feelings you're harboring against us pesky retirees.

The building blocks are in your hands, not ours. 

 

Notes from Nick on New Contract - Taking Apart Unity Propaganda Machine

Nick Bacon came under vicious heckling and attack Monday and Tuesday from the Unity Caucus slugs for daring to ask to read details on the contract aside from the Unity propaganda of selling a used car with a bad engine. When he emerged from the DA, a crowd of opposition gave him a standing ovation - OK -we were already standing. I gave him a few boos to remind him of the scum he just left. Unity is fast helping turn Nick, who was in Unity as recently as a year and a half ago, a folk hero. 

 

And note -- they are hiding the health care givebacks - as usual - Norm.

 

Examining the 2023 UFT contract draft – a ‘tentative’ analysis

There’s a tentative contractual agreement between the UFT and the DOE that will soon be sent out for ratification. Before I give my complete take on it, I’ll need to actually see it. I can’t yet of course. Even though I’m on the much touted ‘500-member negotiating committee,’ the executive board, and the delegate assembly, neither I nor the other members of those bodies have been afforded a copy. All we’ve seen are the contract at a glance and a PowerPoint, and only the latter was ready in time to actually be read before those aforementioned votes. Both documents have a purpose – they’re part of a pitch to convince members that the contract would be a good deal if we approved it. To that end, we should read them, but read them critically and with more than a grain of salt. Because there’s no actual tentative agreement yet to which we can compare the presentations, we must be particularly weary about omissions. Indeed, the sales pitch in 2018 left out some serious givebacks on healthcare and salary. There’s precedent to be worried here.

Still, not everything is omitted from these presentations. Some of the potential contractual changes are reported. So, salt in hand, let’s look at some of what UFT leadership and staff have told us so far, and think about some possible ways that fine print could matter.

Money: Here is the pitch on money, and the new predicted salary schedules. Yes, as expected, it’s the same bad pattern as DC-37. That matters, because when adjusted for inflation, 3-ish percent annual increases solidify a pay cut. The ‘raises’ are below what workers on average are getting in the U.S. – and most workers are not unionized. Indeed, our raises pale in comparison to what was achieved by unions like UTLA, who used their strike-readiness to their advantage and got more than double the wage increases that we’re getting. If we look at the details of how we’ll get the economics of our pattern into our pocket should we accept this deal, we see some further annoyances.

• There are ‘bonuses’ that call out as deal sweeteners, but which are in actual truth carved out of the same pattern. In other words, that money could just as easily have been a part of our raises. Instead, in perpetuity, a portion of our income will be in the form of these bonuses, and therefore will not be pensionable. Let’s be clear – that makes the so-called ‘bonuses’ a giveback.
• We won’t get any of this money until September, so despite this contract being thrown at us at the last possible minute so that we ‘won’t have to wait til after summer,’ we won’t see any money until Fall, anyways.
• Some raises are delayed. For instance, we don’t get the 3% raise for 2023-2024 until January of 2024, meaning we actually get less than a 3% raise for next school year. That’s somewhat buried in fine print, making the UFT’s take on the pattern look better than it actually is.
• There is nothing mentioned about healthcare here. That’s big, because the worst giveback in the last contract was our commitment to finding hundreds of millions of dollars in healthcare savings. That ‘backroom deal’ has led us to Medicare Advantage for retirees (and future retirees) and a mysterious in service plan for which RFPs sought 10% in savings. What little we got in raises this year could easily be eaten up by new member-facing healthcare costs of which we won’t be notified until after this deal goes through.
• There is nothing on joint lobbying for Tier 6 pension reform. Tier 6ers like myself will still be stuck contributing large percentages of our salary for life, despite getting much fewer benefits than our peers in Tier 4 and below.

Time: Here is the pitch on time, -- continue reading - 

Examining the 2023 UFT contract draft – a ‘tentative’ analysis

 

 

UFT Contract Imminent - Emergency Ex Bd at 3, Delegate Assembly at 4. Unity to grant 30 seconds to read it

There was a closed to non Ex Bd people meeting last night where there was not contract. The contract committee met at 4. Now there is a contract. 

What changed during the night? Probably nothing.

The Passover last 2 days are restored and a day off the day after Easter from reports and some deal on remote learning. 5 years, includes last year. Raises are 3, 3, 3.25, 3.25. A 1k per year bonus.

UFT called an ex bd meeting for 3PM - since so much of the board are UFT staffers, there should be no problem in getting a quorum. DA is to follow. Contract committee meets at 2.

This just popped up with more details:

I'm going to try to meet up with some UFC folks to hand out a leaflet. I'm also going to be pushing the vote on health care petitions.  See ya later. I will update this post tonight.

Comptroller Lander Attacks Plans to Reduce Medicare as he Declines to Register Medicare Advantage Contract Pending Litigation

“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. 

Nick has notes at NAC on the story:

New Action – UFT

Mulgrew: the Comptroller is worried about MAP. Why aren’t you? -

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.  

 

Here is Lander's complete statement:

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 8, 2023

Chloe Chik, (646) 761-2914 cchik@comptroller.nyc.gov press@comptroller.nyc.gov

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.’”

###

 

Message from NPE - A Sharp Turn Right: A New Breed of Charter Schools Delivers the Conservative Agenda

Dear Norman,   We were not surprised by the approval of a religious charter in Oklahoma this week. Betsy DeVos and her allies are determined to use education to advance "God's kingdom" along with their political agenda. And the spread of right-wing charter schools, combined with vouchers and the culture wars, are part of the plan. That is our conclusion following an in-depth investigation of the accelerating growth of right-wing and Christian nationalist charter schools.   Click on the image below to read our groundbreaking report.

A Sharp Turn Right documents how right-wing politicians and operatives are involved in the establishment and governance in these schools, sometimes even benefiting financially. It also exposes the religious and quasi-religious symbols and practices in which many of these schools engage, blurring the line between church and state.    This is a report you will not want to miss. Please share it on social media today.   NPE cannot produce our groundbreaking reports without your help. Please make a tax-deductible donation today.

Donate Here

Our Tenth Anniversary Conference with its line-up of outstanding speakers will be our best and most important conference yet as we gather to fight against the right-wing forces determined to destroy and defund public education and turn it into a marketplace system of unregulated voucher schools, homeschools, online schools and yes, Christian nationalist charter schools.   We meet in Washington, D.C. on October 28 and 29. Please join us.    Our nation, democracy, and our children are depending on us Register today.

Register Here

 

Rallies Weds and Thurs Postponed due to air. quality

 DUE TO AIR QUALITY ISSUES - Look for rescheduling dates.

The May 24 rally - Medicare switch looms, but retirees’ opposition persists - The Chief -

Congrats to reporter Charlotte Robertson who is interning at The Chief this summer and this was her first assignment. Nice job.

 

There is another rally at the UFT DA Wednesday June 7 supporting the NY Health Act and yet another at City Hall on Thursday June 8 at 11.

Oy, when do we go to the beach?

 

Also note this:

NYC Retirees are organizing with retirees from several other states to escalate the campaign against forced enrollment in Medicare Advantage. Along with 39,000+ other current and future retirees, I wrote a letter for the Action Network letter campaign: End Auto Enrollment into Medicare Advantage. Let's contact our Elected Officials and let them know how forcing us into Medicare Advantage plans will negatively impact us.

It takes just a few minutes to send your letter thru this link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/roll-back-medicare-advantage-auto-enrollment?source=email&

Thanks!

WHAT I WROTE (& other info on Medicare Advantage & auto-enrollment below):

We are American Retirees & future retirees from all over the country, who are all facing the same issue, having our former employer or union auto-enroll us into a Privatized – For- Profit Medicare Advantage plan and removing us from Traditional Medicare with a supplement.

Medicare Advantage Plans were founded to be a choice, not a mandate. They are inferior to Traditional Medicare, can cost more for some retirees, and many providers do not accept them, leaving retirees without continuity of care. As elected officials, you have surely heard that many of these insurers are under investigation by the Department of Justice for Medicare fraud and that the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General found these insurers to wrongly delay and deny care. If we are to protect the Medicare Trust Fund, we should not be allowing private insurers to drain the public coffers by up-coding and putting a burden on the American taxpayers.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy stated, “in December 2000, a provision was added to the statute regarding employer or union sponsored group Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which gave the secretary the broad authority to ‘waive or modify requirements that hinder the design of, the offering of, or the enrollment in [such MA] plans. This provision paved the way for the creation of the automatic enrollment process whereby employers or unions could automatically enroll their retirees in an MA plan so long as they provide advance notice and a mechanism to opt out.”

Sadly, they were not required to provide a plan to opt out into, leaving them only to re-enroll themselves into traditional Medicare but most likely without a supplemental plan. That is because you would be subject to underwriting if over 65, and in many cases no access or expensive premiums if you are disabled and under 65.

We implore you to roll back this statute (42 U.S.C.A. § 1395w-27 (West 2003))that was implemented with no public comment period in 2000, and allow Americans the ease of access to Traditional Medicare that has been customary and requires the employers and unions to live up to the promises they made to retirees. In many situations, retirees will be forced to remain in Medicare Advantage because they cannot afford to "opt out." This only benefits the Insurer and not the Medicare Beneficiary or the United Stated Medicare Trust. This also permits the unions and employers to cease providing promised benefits to retirees who can no longer negotiate as because they are no longer employed. Many of us are currently fighting for our earned and paid for Federal Medicare. Some are in Continuing Care Residential Communities where Medicare Advantage is not accepted and many of our doctors do not accept them either.

STATE ELECTEDS: While this is a FEDERAL STATUTE ISSUE, Elected Officials on the STATE LEVEL MUST be aware, as this is affecting YOUR constituents! Employers and unions NATIONWIDE, are "auto enrolling" retirees; the disabled and seniors, into these plans and out of Traditional Medicare where they may never be able to secure a supplemental plan (pays the last 20% of medical bills Medicare does not) because of a lack of State wide guarantee issue rights.

The Federal government should not be permitting retirees, seniors and the disabled to be auto enrolled into privatized Medicare plans and out of Federal Medicare that they paid into since they earned their first paycheck.

We urge you to support retirees who want to remain enrolled in Medicare with the Supplement they were promised decades ago. Many of our former employers or unions made promised to us. Now, is not the time to renege on them.

Yours truly,


Links to articles: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html

HHS OIG: https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-09-18-00260.asp

https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/OEI-03-21-00380.asp


MEDICARE ADVOCACY AUTO ENROLLMENT: https://medicareadvocacy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Issue-Brief-MA-Auto-Enrollment.pdf

 

 

Medicare switch looms, but retirees’ opposition persists

Following a Wednesday morning rally at City Hall Park at which they spoke out against the city’s imminent switch to a private Medicare plan for its retirees, the former municipal workers walked toward where Mayor Eric Adams was dedicating new public space under the Brooklyn Bridge to continue their protest.

RICHARD KHAVKINE/THE CHIEF

Posted Saturday, May 27, 2023 3:01 pm

BY CHARLOTTE ROBERTSON

Even as the city proceeds with a shift of its 250,000 municipal retirees to a private Medicare Advantage plan, scheduled for Sept. 1, former city workers continue to voice their opposition, if in fewer numbers. 

As they have on occasion since city officials announced the change, dozens gathered near City Hall Wednesday to once again denounce the effort. 

“We will fight this as long as we have to,” said Sarah Shapiro, a former city teacher of 28 years and United Federation of Teachers retiree. She has been protesting the Advantage plan for the past two years. 

Shapiro, sporting a baseball cap inscribed “Adams Screws Retirees,” said she remained determined. “I’ve been around, and so have these other retirees. We’ve worked our entire lives for the city,” she said. “We have been active in our unions our entire lives. We are aware and we are engaged.”

Following years of litigation, push-back from former municipal workers and a contentious arbitrator's ruling, Adams administration officials signed the five-plus year contract with the managed-care company in early April. The administration’s endorsement followed ratification of the Aetna contract by the Municipal Labor Committee, the umbrella group of city unions, a month earlier. 

Both the de Blasio and Adams administrations have argued that the switch was necessary given the escalating cost of health care. Officials have said the switch will save the city about $600 million a year. The savings, in the form of federal subsidies, will be funneled into the city’s Joint Health Insurance Premium Stabilization Fund, which finances the unions’ welfare-fund benefits, among other purposes.

Ever since its conception, though, municipal retirees have fiercely opposed the Medicare Advantage plan — or “DisAdvantage plan,” as some referred to it on numerous posters and banners they carried during their rally, arguing that quality of care offered by the managed-care giant would pale in comparison to their plans.

‘There are alternate ways’

The rally took place as the City Council’s Finance Committee conducted hearings on the executive budget, inviting testimony from residents. 

“We thought we would have our own public hearing outside about our issue,” said Gloria Brandman, another UFT retiree and founding member of the Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC). Echoing Shapiro, she emphasized that retirees had no significant say in regarding a proposed plan switch. 

“There are alternate ways for the city to save money. It is a small percentage of the budget, it is very small, what this would save,” she said.

Shapiro noted that retiree health care will consume less than 1 percent of the city’s $105 billion budget. “Don’t we matter? After years and years of dedication to the city?” she asked. 

Retirees argue that the Advantage plan will place limitations on their care. Brian Wonsever, who worked in the Department of Homelessness Services for 33 years before retiring, noted that while the vast majority of doctors accept traditional Medicare, far fewer accept private Medicare plans. 

Opting out of the Advantage plan and into HIP VIP plan, he continued, would cost people about at least $6,000 a year. “It’s a matter of choice,” he said.

But some have argued that many don’t have that choice, saying they accepted lower salaries to work for the city in return for the promise of superior health benefits in retirement. 

Without that, many said they were struggling to envision a healthy future — with even some current city workers becoming fearful. “I soon plan to retire and I see that it’s going down the drain,” said Anatoly Kantorovich, a current employee at the Department of Health and a self-described retiree-in-training. 

Across the board, the retirees argued that the Advantage plan prioritizes money over adequate and accessible care. “I’m just going to say it plain: If you have ever dealt with an insurance company, you know they are not about efficiency,” Wonsever declared. 

Camillo Biener, who retired from the Human Resources Administration after 26 years with the city, agreed. “It’s a total fallacy, the efficiency argument,” he said. 

“Medicare Advantage gives less than Medicare. So what happens essentially is that these companies that run these plans get more money, and they give less services,” Biener said. “Does that make any sense at all?” 

A faction of UFT members opposed to the switch — which was supported by the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew — has since begun petitioning for a vote regarding any future proposed changes to health-care plans. “Our union never asked us if we wanted to change our health plan,” Brandman summarized.

The retirees read dozens of testimonies from those who could not attend the rally, some because of health issues. 

Shortly before 11 a.m., the retirees headed from City Hall Park toward where Mayor Eric Adams was dedicating new public space under the Brooklyn Bridge. Biener followed, walking his dog, who wore a sign reading, “If my daddy dies because he had to wait too long for pre-approval, who will take care of me?” 

As he walked to the bridge, Beiner told The Chief, “My suggestion to all the media and everybody is to follow the money. … I wish somebody would look into this stuff, because this thing is a lot deeper, and a lot more troubling, than what people think.” 

Shapiro, while frustrated and angry, retained some optimism. “We want to remind everybody that retirees vote,” she said. “We cannot risk the demise of public Medicare when these ‘Medicare disadvantage’ plans are taking over the market.”