Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Chapter Leader Meeting on Wednesday Sept 22 at 3:30pm
We'll
be outside the first CL Meeting at the UFT at 52 Broadway starting at
3:30 to let our working educator brothers and sisters know what happened
to our health care and to warn them that negative changes are also in
store for them. Help us greet them with smiles and informational fliers.
Street Theatre Die-In on Friday Sept 24 at 4 pm
NYC municipal retirees present A
Street Theatre “Die-In”onBroadway
in front of City Hall Park between
Murray
&
Park
Sts. to publicize
the life-threatening danger faced by 250,000 retirees as the City
prepares to switch their traditional Medicare coverage to a privately
managed Medicare Advantage plan on Jan 1, 2022.
Produced
by: CROC
(Cross-Union Retiree Organizing Committee
We still need "actors" for this event. No experience necessary. Please send an email to : retireequestions@gmail.com if you are interested
“There’s definitely some fishiness going on. This contract doesn’t
make any sense,” said Marianne Pizzitola, president of the FDNY’s EMS
Retirees Association and a rep for the New York City Organization of
Public Service Retirees, whose groups are affected by the contract.
Pizzitola said retirees were “kept in the dark” on the deliberations
and raised the appearance of a conflict with Teamsters’ head Floyd
sitting on the board of the winning bidder.
“How is that not fishy?” she said.
This may be a biggie -- let's be clear -- we don't want Aetna either. No Med-Disadvantage plans -- but if this screws the pooch -- go at it.
New York’s largest private Medicare administrator is suing the Big
Apple and its local union leaders for allegedly awarding a $34 billion
“tainted” contract to an unqualified rival bidder.
Insurance giant Aetna’s bombshell lawsuit against New York City and
the Municipal Labor Committee alleges that the bidding process was fixed
to favor Alliance, a consortium that includes Emblem Health and
Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield, to operate the Medicare Advantage Plus
program, which administers health benefits to 250,000 retired city
workers.
“OLR [the city’s Office of Labor Relations] has selected an
inexperienced and unqualified bidder through a procurement process that
violated New York Procurement law, lacked transparency, and violated
principles of public trust and fairness for a procurement that could
last up to a minimum of five or as many as eleven years and generate $34
billion dollars in claims revenue,” Aetna alleges in its suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month.
Aetna and Alliance were the two finalists that city officials and
union leaders considered for the whopping contract, which is anticipated
to save the Big Apple about $3 billion over five years, or roughly $600
million a year.
Aetna is asking the court to nix the contract, which takes effect Jan. 1.
Retired city workers are eligible for Medicare, the federally run
program that provides health insurance for people who reach 65 — but
their union contract also calls for the Big Apple to pick up the cost of
their monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient
care as well as other supplemental services not covered by Medicare.
Gregory
Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, is associated with Alliance
partner Emblem Health, who was awarded the city’s Medicare program
contract over Aetna.
Aetna is arguing that it has more experience than Alliance in
handling such matters. And even city officials have acknowledged that
Aetna, the nation’s third largest health-insurance provider, was clearly
the more experienced bidder in running Medicare Advantage programs
across the country.
One of the criteria in the proposal was that bidders had to have provided service to a client with at least 50,000 subscribers.
Aetna currently runs New Jersey’s Medicare Advantage program for
196,577 retirees, the United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust
with 140,305 members, the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System with
96,106), the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund with 75,369
members) and Verizon with 73,176 members, according to the lawsuit.
Aetna alleges that Alliance failed to meet even this “low bar.”
Alliance has noted that one of its partners, Indiana-based Anthem,
ran the Medicare Advantage program for the Colorado Public Employees
Retirement system with 50,000 members. But Aetna claims that Anthem’s
contract only covered 43,000 retirees, which should disqualify the
Alliance bid for the city work.
Other concerns raised in the lawsuit involved:
Costs: Aetna claimed its prescription-drug plan was at least $30
less expensive per worker monthly than Alliance’s plan and offered free
prescriptions for certain generic medications. It also said its plan
premium was $366 lower per year for every worker than the advertised
Alliance rate.
Breach of confidentiality: The insurer said a
city evaluator wrongly disclosed some of its cost proposals at a meeting
with union members, which “tainted” the selection process by alerting
rival Alliance to its figures.
Arbitrator/familiarity: The city
and labor unions turned to a state arbitrator to help resolve an impasse
over the selection of a winning bidder — a decision that was not
mentioned as part of the procurement process.
During the early evaluation process, city officials
favored Aetna because of its experience running Medicare Advantage
programs, the suit says. But union leaders preferred the Alliance
because partners GHI/Emblem Healthand Blue Cross had more of a history providing medical benefits to city workers, according to the papers.
The parties asked arbitrator Martin Scheinman —
who recently ruled that religious exemptions can be granted from COVID
vaccine requirements for public-school teachers — to be brought in to
issue a recommendation on which final bidder the city and the unions
should choose. At the time, Scheinman chaired a city panel to find
health-care savings.
Scheinman chose Alliance, arguing that its “familiarity” with
providing benefits to the city workforce trumped Aetna’s superior
experience in running Medicare programs, the documents say.
Sanitation Department workers collect garbage near 675 Central Avenue in Brooklyn on March 10, 2021.
James Keivom
His voice helped tip the award to the Alliance, the suit says.
But Aetna argues in the court documents that “the Solicitation and
applicable procurement law did not provide for this action … and
Arbitrator Scheinman’s recommendation was based on a new criterion
mentioned nowhere in the procurement documents.”
Aetna also claims that Alliance reps were afforded the opportunity to discuss matters with Scheinman, while its people weren’t.
Aetna received the highest scores during the early phases of the evaluation process, the suit says.
Other sources familiar with the negotiations said it appeared that
Alliance had an inside track because of its connections to labor
leaders. Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd, for example, sits on the board of Alliance partner Emblem Health.
Some advocates for retirees joined Aetna in questioning the granting of the contract.
First
responders arrive at a construction site in Hudson Street to Vandam
Street in Manhattan after a man fell 20 feet into a shaft on September
14, 2021.
William Farrington
“There’s definitely some fishiness going on. This contract doesn’t
make any sense,” said Marianne Pizzitola, president of the FDNY’s EMS
Retirees Association and a rep for the New York City Organization of
Public Service Retirees, whose groups are affected by the contract.
Pizzitola said retirees were “kept in the dark” on the deliberations
and raised the appearance of a conflict with Teamsters’ head Floyd
sitting on the board of the winning bidder.
“How is that not fishy?” she said.
Nicholas Paolucci, a rep with the city Law Department, told The Post
in an e-mail, “The City is committed to selecting providers that are in
the best interest of the City and it’s retirees. We’ll review the case.”
Meanwhile, union leaders in the Municipal Labor Council dismissed Aetna’s lawsuit as the desperate gambit of a sore loser.
“We got it done. It was fair and right to the point. I haven’t heard
anything wrong with that particular contract, the way it was done.
Everything was done to the T,” said Harry Nespoli, chairman of the
Municipal Labor Council and president of the Sanitation workers’ union.
“To me it sounds like sour grapes. Aetna had their shot at it. It
does save money for the city of New York. What’s wrong with that? I
thought it was a spectacular deal. I still think it is,” he said.
Teamsters Local 237 President Floyd said his role sitting on the
governing board of bidder Emblem Health didn’t pose a conflict. He voted
to award to Emblem/Anthem-Blue Cross.
“It’s only a conflict if I was the only union leader voting or if I
had the most influential vote. It wasn’t the case. I had one vote — that
was it,” Floyd said.
“This a stupid lawsuit. Aenta put in a bid, and they lost the bid. They’re a sore loser.”
Harry
Nespoli, president of the Sanitation workers’ union, argues insurance
company Aetna is acting “like sour grapes,” with their city lawsuit.
William Farrington
Noting that Aetna is one of the country’s largest private health-insurance companies, Floyd said, “How greedy can you get?”
Floyd said contracts expire and that there will be opportunities for
future business — but he added that Aetna is burning its bridges.
“I have a long memory,” Floyd said.
He said Aetna currently administers prescription-drug benefits to his
members, who work as security officers in schools, homeless shelters
and NYCHA complexes.
In that case, Aetna replaced HIP/Emblem Health because the union
didn’t like the latter’s performance, and Aetna is doing a “good job,”
the Teamsters boss said.
There is no question that Medicare Advantage is unsustainable in the long term. It’s driving up Part B
premiums, eroding the Medicare trust fund, and costing taxpayers tens of
billions a year more than traditional Medicare. The plans are also taking a toll on federal coffers, due to overpayments and disenrollments in the final year of life,
among other factors. “The
current state of quality reporting in [Medicare Advantage] is such that
the Commission can no longer provide an accurate description of the
quality of care......
UFT Plays 3 card monte with our health
Audits Of Some Medicare Advantage Plans Reveal Pervasive Overcharging
Our union leaders are leading us into the Med Adv Mob. Some might take the attitude that they don't care if the medicare system is ravished into oblivion. I don't. We need a fraud proof Medicare for all system and Med Adv profit makers are the opposite direction. Mulgrew can tell us till the cows come home how Med Adv is as good as traditional medicare --- except for the scams profit making companies are willing to pull. It's not just about them making money over cutting services but also about scamming Medicare and ultimately making it untenable for anyone.
The DOJ Says A Data Mining Company Fabricated Medical Diagnoses To Make Money
The Justice Department has accused an upstate New York health insurance plan for seniors, along with amedical analytics company the insurer is affiliated with, of cheating the government out of tens of millions of dollars.
The
civil complaint of fraud, filed this week, is the first by the federal
government to target a data mining company for allegedly helping a
Medicare Advantage program to game federal billing regulations in a way
that enables the plan to overcharge for patient treatment.
The
lawsuit names as defendants the medical records review company DxID and
Independent Health Association, of Buffalo, which operates two Medicare
Advantage plans. Betsy Gaffney, DxID's founder and CEO, is also named in
the suit. DxID, which shut down in August, is owned by Independent
Health through another subsidiary.
Medicare Advantage plans are paid more for sicker patients
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pays Medicare Advantage plans
using a complex formula called a "risk score," which is intended to
render higher rates for sicker patients and less for those in good
health. The data mining company combed electronic medical records to
identify missed diagnoses — pocketing up to 20% of new revenue it
generated for the health plan.
But the Department of Justice
alleges that DxID's reviews triggered "tens of millions" of dollars in
overcharges when those missing diagnoses were filled in with
exaggerations of how sick patients were or with charges for medical
conditions the patients did not have.
In an email, Frank Sava, a spokesperson for Independent
Health, stated: "We are aware of the DOJ complaint filed late [Monday]
and will continue to defend ourselves vigorously against the
allegations. Because this is an open case I cannot comment further."
Gaffney's lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
The DOJ complaint expands on a 2012 whistleblower suit
filed by Teresa Ross, a former medical-coding official at Group Health
Cooperative in Seattle, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious
health plans. Among the entities Ross sued were Group Health, DxID and
Independent Health.
Ross alleged in that suit that Group Health hired DxID in 2011 to
boost revenues. The company submitted more than $30 million in new
disease claims — many of which were not valid, according to Ross — to
Medicare on behalf of Group Health for 2010 and 2011.
A patient with an "amazingly sunny disposition" gets a label of "major depression"
For
instance, Ross alleged that the plan billed for "major depression" in a
patient described by his doctor as having an "amazingly sunny
disposition." Group Health, now known as the Kaiser Foundation Health
Plan of Washington (a company unrelated to Kaiser Health News or the
Kaiser Family Foundation), denied wrongdoing. But in November 2020, the
insurer settled the case by paying $6.3 million.
Now the Justice Department is taking over the case and
targeting DxID for its work on behalf of both Group Health and
Independent Health. The department alleges that DxID submitted thousands
of "unsupported" medical condition codes on behalf of Independent
Health from 2010 to 2017.
"Hopefully the case sends a message
that coding companies that exist only to enrich themselves by violating
many, many CMS rules will face consequences," said Max Voldman, an
attorney who represents Ross.
Timothy Layton, an associate
professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School who has
studied Medicare Advantage payment policy, said he has not seen the
government take legal actions against data analytics companies before.
"They
are often the ones doing a lot of the scraping for [billing] codes, so I
wouldn't be surprised if they came under more scrutiny," Layton said.
" 'Trolling' patient medical records to gin up ... 'new' diagnoses"
In
the legal complaint filed Monday, the Justice Department alleges that
Gaffney pitched DxID's revenue-generating tools as "too attractive to
pass up."
"There is no upfront fee, we don't get paid until you
get paid and we work on a percentage of the actual proven recoveries,"
she wrote, according to the complaint.
The 102-page suit
describes DxID's chart review process as "fraudulent" and says it
"relied on 'trolling' patient medical records to gin up, in many cases,
'new' diagnoses exclusively from information derived from impermissible
sources."
The complaint cites medical conditions that it says
either were exaggerated or weren't supported by the medical records,
such as billing for treating chronic depression that had been resolved.
It also cites allegedly unsupported claims for renal failure, the most
severe form of chronic kidney disease. The suit alleges that Gaffney
said these cases were "worth a ton of money to IH [Independent Health]
and the majority of people (over) 70 have it at some level."
The
complaint says that CMS would have tried to recover money paid to the
health plan improperly had it known about DxID's tactics and "has now
done so via this suit."
The Justice Department is seeking
treble damages in the False Claims Act suit, plus an unspecified civil
penalty for each violation of the law.
While popular with seniors, Medicare Advantage has been the target of multiple government investigations, Justice Department and whistleblower lawsuits and Medicare audits. One 2020 report estimated improper payments to the plans topped $16 billion the previous year.
At
least two dozen whistleblower cases, some dating to 2009, have alleged
fraud by Medicare Advantage plans related to manipulating patient risk
scores to boost revenues.
In July, the Justice Department consolidated six such cases against Kaiser Permanente health plans. In August, California-based Sutter Health agreed to pay $90 million to settle a similar fraud case. Previous settlements have totaled more than $300 million.
Kaiser Health News
is a national, editorially independent newsroom and program of the
Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
UPDATE NOV. 30 - After a packed Bat Mitzvah a few weeks ago in a tent at 38 degrees with over a hundred unmasked people - I got the Moderna booster two days later with no side affects at all - in fact I was juiced up for weeks -- give me one every month.
Happy Yom Kippur -- Sept. 16, 2021 - I'm fasting - my wife hid all the bags of chips and that's all I want to eat. Tonight will be hog heaven without the hogs. Many Jews only use daity to break the fast and I've got my eyes on the herring in cream sauce.
My son is a biologist
doing cutting edge genetics research. He advises us to hold off on a
booster until they develop one for the upcoming variants that will avoid
the mRNA protection.
Breakthrough for Delta means you can catch it if you have the mRNA in your body, but it will not harm you.
This protection will not wane after 8 months
The current push for boosters vs Delta is a sales pitch.
Pete Farruggio, PhD Associate Professor, Bilingual Education (retired) University of Texas RGV
History
repeats. As with the 1918-20 flu epidemic, the waning of the first wave
of viral spread induced a premature relaxing of caution (e.g.
reopening unsafe schools), which caused a second larger wave. This
pattern caused a third wave through 1920. Instead
of vaccines, what ended the epidemic was the killing off of the more
susceptible, as in previous plagues (herd immunity).
I don't want to be one of the susceptibles and was ready to take the booster in 3 weeks. But what if there is a new vax that provides more protection from variables in a few months. Do you get a 4th shot? My doc says hold off.
So I'm rethinking getting the third booster shot. Pete's
advice correlates to that of my primary doc. Friends have been to
him in the past few days and here is what he told them:
Our doctor does not believe in over vaccinating. He is testing for my antibody
levels. When or if they are low then he recommends the booster. If they reconfigure the vaccine to deal with the variants then we can have a further discussion about boosters ... from a friend
We use the same doctor - for the past 20 years and have gotten many of our friends to go to him too, so there is a lot of trust. Last spring he told us to not get the shingles shot yet because he felt
we might need a booster in the fall. My friends did the antibody test and found they had sufficient immunity at this
point. Doc says retest in 3 months.
[ MORE info from patient with same doctor - Sept 17 --- Our
doctor told us that each lab determines the antibody count in their own
way so you can`t compare numbers from lab to lab. The lab where MY
results will come from has 200 as the magic number of normal. Anything
OVER 250 will just come back as over 250 but no further number will be
given. I asked him about the benefit of
having a LOT of antibodies--way higer than normal--from getting the
booster now. He said that a lot of learning is going on now about all
of these things but one thing that MAY be true is that too many
antibodies could interfere with the T cells and keep them from being
effective at what they need to do. He said that it MAY be the case that
LESS is more in this situation! He also
said that if the booster was comprised with more ability to fight the
Delta variant than it might be wise to get the booster sooner, but since
it is NOT comprised any differently than what we already have in our
systems you are not getting more of an ability to fight Delta (as long
as your antibody count is normal). We will wait another 3 months and
retest. When our number goes below normal is when we will take the
booster. ]
Interesting. One of the right wing criticisms of Biden and vax mandates is that those who had COVID have antibodies too --- and they argue that they should not be forced to be vaxed. There is a point and I wonder if you present an anti-body test result, that counts as vaxed.
There are outbreaks in Israel which is highly vaxed with third shots. Covid seems like a raging fire which no matter what we do will find places to burn until it burns itself out --- herd immunity.
Look at the south as cases begin to come down after their wave and now we in the northeast escaped, we will be facing a surge, based on back to work and open schools.
You know the case they make for those who are vaxed as being safe from hospitalization or getting real sick even if you get it -- it will be mild. But I don't even want a mild case due to stories of long covid which hits 30% in some cases. I know people who are still very affected even a year and a half later. I don't need to spend the rest of my life battling issues I didn't need to battle.
If people want to risk death, must we stop them? What if their risks affects the rest of us? Do people have the personal right to drive recklessly? Why is risking the health of others and over taxing the hospital systems any more dangerous than reckless driving?
I might also ask -- are the economics driving De Blasio to open schools a risk that touches on the same risky behavior of the unvaxed?
By the way, I was walking past a testing truck in Manhattan on Friday and got tested for the first time - not rapid but the nose swab - and had the results the next evening. Others standing there with me needed a test for travel before they could fly. Oh my, those damn governament regulations. I'm outraged every time I have to show my drivers license when I have to fly - and why can't I carry a box cutter onto planes?
So you might take the position of fuck em - if they want to risk death.
Now imagine someone ready to jump off a building. Do you say fuck em? Or do you try your best to talk them out of it? Or do you get together with others and hold a blanket to try to catch them? Do you care about their pain? Or is it that you don't give a shit about them but are worried they might fall on you and kill you?
Well, there are versions of all these arguments in the vax vs anti-vax angst.
Biden's new toughness is resonating with most people who are fed up with the anti-vax personal freedom bullshit from people who have given up so much personal freedom in so many ways. Chris Wallace questioned the gov of Nebraska yesterday, who is outraged at Biden, about the loss of freedom to choose over about 10 Nebraska vax mandates in order to go back to school. The response was those vax's are tested. No more tested than the current vaccines.
So let's talk about the freedoms Biden is taking away and the over the top Republicans politicizing this. I heard George Will on NBC and Chris Christie talking about how Biden is violating the constitution - and stopping him is a higher priority than stopping people from dying. That's like telling people to jump and pulling away the blanket to catch them like Lucy does with the football.
Like we are not in an emergency that is not only killing people but the economy. Would they worry about the constitution if it were Ebola? Didn't they suspend all airline flights for weeks after 9/11? Like a 1000 times more people have died from COVID than on 9/11. This is not an emergency?
I was frustrated that Stefanoplis and Chuck Todd didn't bring up how Lincoln threw out the constitution during the Civil War emergency. Or how FDR pushed the boundaries during the depression.
I understand the fear of some people about vaccinations. I don't love them. I avoided the flu shot for years until my wife and my doctor scared me into them. I still don't have the shingle shot and want to get it but my doc told us to not pump too many vaccines into us in a short period of time. He told us that in May when we asked about shingles and he said we would probably need a booster in the fall. The other day he told someone to hold off on the booster as long as possible. He is wary of over vaxing. This is at least rational advice. I do want to take the booster at 8 months which for me is Oct. 10. What about the flu shot and when?
Meanwhile, watch out for the freedom from government control people when crossing the street. Stop lights are too much government control.
Is de Blasio and his partner Mulgrew risking lives in opening schools
fully (the former) and supporting people who don't want to be vaxed
(the latter)?
If you are a fan of the Osterholm weekly podcast, he just
stopped short of putting De Blasio in that frame as he mocked the 3 feet
distance rulings -- and said the CDC people would one day have an
accounting over that issue. He also put the learning loss argument on
trial. And masking too - the least effective barrier to the disease. If
he had a choice between ventilation and Hepa Filters or masks, he would
choose the latter. Oh, and testing once a week is a joke. He also raised the issue of economic pressure leading to bad decisions - and we can pretty much say that is the situation here in NYC ---
He said that
NYC with back to school would be a bellweather for the nation.
Oy! Good
luck DeB and Mulgrew. Anyway - a must listen.
This week, Dr. Osterholm provides insight
on the state of the pandemic in the US and internationally, the
importance of keeping children safer as schools go back in session, and
the risk of outdoor events for fully vaccinated individuals.
You know that bogus Einstein quote about the definition of insanity:
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes.
One thing never tried it a total boycott of UFT elections.
Sunday, Sept. 12 -- I keep asking myself this question every single election cycle. What's the point of running if you are bound to lose? Over 30 years the best the opposition could do was once win 13 Ex Bd seats (1991) and win the 7 high school seats most of the rest of the time. History counts -- the vote totals on all the elections are pretty consistent.
Why is this year different/ (I know, it's Yom Kippur coming up, not Passover.)
Well, there is the always eternal hope that there will be a head to head confrontation between a united opposition and Unity -- which we had (sort of) in 2016. Then there is the unpopularity of Mulgrew. Then there is the mishandling of the pandemic by the UFT on so many fronts. Then there is the union's turning off so many retirees, the lifeblood of Unity, by taking away their medicare. Then there was the OT/PT functional chapter revolt where MORE swept the chapter leader and delegate positions, a sigificant event. Then there is word from other functional chapters. Then there were the school chapter elections last year where anti-Unity voices made some headway. Then there is Educators of NYC run by Daniel Alicea who actually voted for Unity in 2019 but has become a strong critical independent voice. I bet there are a bunch of people out there like Daniel.
Then there is ...... PLEASE STOP TRYING TO CONVINCE MYSELF TO PUT ANY TIME OR EFFORT INTO ANOTHER UFT ELECTION.
There is the history of elections where no matter how I get my hopes up the outcome is pretty much the same.
I was deeply involved in UFT elections in 2004, 07, 10 (ICE), 13, 16 (MORE). I was out of the 2019 elections as I was in the process of being purged from MORE for publicly disagreeing with the faction in control of MORE that engineered the decision not only to not run with other groups but to purposely run in a way to not contend for any winnable positions - A minimalist campaign for what purpose I still can't figure out. Ed Notes covered the contradiction in their position in March, 2019.
My final words to the MOREs was to either run with everyone in a serious manner to maximize the anti-Unity vote with the aim of winning the high schools and taking a serious shot at the middle schools or not run at all but use the election (which occupies a great deal of time) time saved as an organizing tool for the caucus. I told the MOREs that an election is like a high stakes test for a caucus. At the very least it must hold its own in vote totals but most people other than hard core organizers (like I was) get discouraged if these numbers don't grow. I can't tell you how many people I saw pass through the groups I was in over these 50 years.
I have been urging boycotts of UFT elections in every election since 2010 to emphasize the undemocratic nature of the UFT itself where winning an election is almost impossible. Why run of the outcome is pre-decided? John Lawhead from ICE and now Solidarity Caucus came up with the idea of uncaucusing for the elections and focusing on issues of concern to the members without engaging in the cumbersome and often distracting election process. Behind my idea was to leave the membership with no options on the ballot other than Unity as a wake-up call. I know that prospect actually scares the Unity people because it exposes them. If there were no opposition running Unity would make one up.
I was overruled every time and ended up throwing myself deep into the elections. I ran the petitioning campaigns for MORE in 2013, 2016 along with Ellen Fox. The MORE decision in 2019 relieved me of all that work and sitting out the election was a relief.
Now we are upon yet another UFT election cycle for 2022 and we are in the same position - will the opposition come together this time with a united front challenge to Unity? So far most of the various caucus and uncaucus groups have spoken as Retiree Advocate, ICE, Solidarity, New Action, Educators of NYC - and even this lonely spot - Ed Notes - have endorsed that idea with rumors that MORE was taking a membership vote that ended Friday on a positive note.
The hard part would be to put everyone together in a room and lock the doors. The best thing about this election is that I will be outside that room blocking the exits.
Brace yourself, everyone. The city has decided, with almost everyone in
attendance, that it only needs a fraction of the testing it did when it
only had a fraction of the students. If you can't see what that spells,
you may just be hard of reading. ... NYC Educator.
Scary story: Last night we hear about a healthy late-30, early 40-ish vaxed teacher who had some mild symptoms and got tested and came up pos for covid. Important point-- he went and got tested on his own, NOT BY DOE. If he went in today he would have subjected 60 colleagues. His wife, also DOE, is getting tested but still must go into work today. They are keeping their middle school kid home and actually intended to keep the kid home all along. Both of them have been very careful with masking etc.
Today I am going into the city for the first time in 6 weeks, taking the ferry. Why am I as nervous as I was a year ago before I was even vaxed? Tell me how it is not likely I'd get real sick. That's not enough for me. I don't want to get anywhere near this virus due to possibly long-term effects. You don't end up with reduced kidney function with a cold.
Sep 1, 2021 — Doctors are unsure why Covid can cause kidney damage. Kidneys might be especially sensitive to surges of inflammation or immune system ...
I'm 76 and in one month it will be 8 months since last vaxed and I will be first in line to get the booster.
It's now about testing, especially since there will be loads of unvaxed working in the same space.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Good morning everyone on back to school day, the most nervous day of the year for me for 35 years, but joyful for the past 19. After two months of total freedom, I was bummed but also ready to see colleagues and students and parents. Butterflies but excited butterflies.
Every single year began with some chaos in my various schools. But today I feel butterflies for all the people who have to go back in the midst of as much fear and chaos as I've every seen. Teachers in LA and Chicago, due to strong progressive unions, may feel safer than NYC school employees - due to the political ambitions of de Blasio, whose political ambitions will crash even further than they have when things fall apart.
Mulgrew and Randi actually met with the leader of the unvaxed group while ignoring the calls of the majority of UFT members calling for some remote options, not for them but for parents, whose fears that lead to them not sending their kids to school may be met by DOE investigations instead of support. Mulgrew is silent.
As Arthur points out, the reduced testing is a head scratcher.
He mocks the 3 foot distance rule and even the learning loss argument for forcing kids back to school. It's being driven by the it's the economy, stupid. Osterholm should be on TV more than Fauci -- and actually is appearing as the absolute realists. He also feels we are not doing enough testing.
Here is another must listen -- Michael Mina on Brian Lehrer advocates rapid testing as being as important as vaccines -- he even says we won't vax ourselves out of this pandemic but we can test our way out.
Michael Mina, MD, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health,
talks about how schools are preparing to test students, the science on
boosters and who gets them, and more of the latest COVID-19 news.
Dr. Mina: Absolutely. COVID and quarantining is
really an information problem. We quarantine a child and we say, "You
can't go to school for 10 days because you've been exposed," because we
don't know whether or not they've been infected, so we say, "Go home and
quarantine." We actually have the tools now to know if they are
infected and infectious and [unintelligible 00:03:35] a simple rapid test that a lot of people have now been finally hearing about.
Instead of quarantining the child or a whole classroom of children
because somebody else turns up positive in the class, we can do what I
call test to [unintelligible 00:03:53]. That's instead
of having everyone quarantine, you just have them use a simple rapid
test at home before school and you do that each day that they would
otherwise be quarantining. You say, "You've been exposed potentially. We
don't know if you're infected," so on Monday, use a rapid test in the
morning, and if negative, go to school. Tuesday, use rapid test in the
morning, and do that for the week. Most people don't actually turn
positive who ended up being quarantine.
This is in a critical tool that we haven't really utilized very well
at all in this pandemic to keep society running. This works for
businesses, for schools. It's an information problem and we know how to
solve that problem.
Brian: We always hear that the rapid tests aren't as
accurate as the so-called PCR tests, the full nose swab. Are the rapid
tests accurate enough for use like that and still protect the other kids
in the class?
Dr. Mina: Absolutely. The rapid tests that have been
authorized thus far in the United States are very accurate to answer
the question, am I infectious? This is a very different question than
have I been infected in the last few weeks? The question is, and why we
quarantine people is we are worried about whether or not they are
spreading the virus today. These rapid tests do exactly that, they
detect infectiousness. I actually like to call them-- These are public
health tools that I think should actually be called contagiousness
indicators or something along those lines, because that's really what
they excel at. They are very, very good to answer that question.
Brian: I see you have this Twitter thread going
that's partly aimed at the Los Angeles public schools in particular. Is
LA and outlier for some reason or typical of this issue?
Dr. Mina: This is happening all over the place. That
was just one of the first big news reports to break. That was that day
one, day two of school there were a huge number of quarantines and now
we're seeing people and the teachers unions and such pushing for more
extreme quarantines, that when one child becomes positive in a class, to
quarantine the whole classroom. This is not the way to go. It wasn't
last year and it still is not.
Kids have been out of school enough. The last thing we want to do in a
pandemic is to have the societal ramifications be worse than the virus
itself. We need to figure out and utilize the tools that we have
available to us to ensure that children remain in school, to ensure that
businesses keep running and we don't just keep using these brute force
methods of closing things down and make major quarantines to solve a
public health problem. Those solutions should be considered public
health failures, and we have ways not to have to utilize those.
Petition text:
Petition for More COVID Testing in Schools
Dear Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Porter,
Everyone who works for NYCDOE must protect students’ safety. To keep our communities safer, we demand more COVID testing in New York City’s public schools.
Children aged thirteen to seventeen have the highest positivity rates in New York City. For children aged five to twelve, the positivity rate increased tenfold over the summer. In the second half of August, about one in twenty school-aged children has been testing positive. That rate translates to at least one COVID-positive student in every K-12 class in New York City.
Just when schools need more COVID testing, NYCDOE plans less. Last year, once every week, NYCDOE tested 20% of the students. This year, every OTHER week, NYCDOE will test 10%. Testing half as many kids, half as often, reduces safety. Breakthrough cases are common, but NYCDOE will not test vaccinated staff or students. NYCDOE now allows families to refuse in-school testing. We still do not have testing for 3K, pre-K, or kindergarten; citywide, that leaves about 14% of our students in classes that never get tested.
The following measures will keep our city safer:
Test 40% or more every week. Larger sample sizes detect spreading cases. More frequent testing detects cases while there’s still time to act.
Test the vaccinated. When the Delta variant breaks through, vaccinated people spread COVID. Everyone stays safer if vaccinated students participate.
Require participation. This year should be like last year: families should acknowledge that their children will be tested, but testing should not be optional.
Test early childhood. Random testing cannot monitor untested classrooms. Include 3K, 4K, and kindergarten.
Restore staff testing. Every day, principals and assistant principals enter nearly every classroom. Educational administrators travel school to school. None of us wants to pass COVID to the students we love. If administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, school aides, custodial staff and kitchen workers all test alongside our students, we know our kids are safer.
You charged us with opening schools and keeping them open. More testing leads to more early quarantining, but less testing eventually results in more cases than our city can ignore. Another systemwide shutdown would undo everyone's goals for mental health, physical wellbeing, and academic learning.
We need early detection to maintain student health and public trust. Give us more testing, more often, for much more safety.
Guy1: What are those round marks on your forehead? Guy1: From the ten foot poles.
The origin of the phrase not to touch people with a ten foot pole comes from previous plagues.
If I were still working, my unvaxed colleagues would have round marks on their foreheads. Imagine you are in the staff room and one of these characters walks in to eat lunch.
I call on the UFT and de Blasio to issue ten foot poles to all vaccinated school employees. There certainly should be one in every staff room. Or just use that window opening pole.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew is working to get religious and medical exemptions
from the city's COVID vaccine mandate. He should be working on getting
at least as many safety precautions in the schools as there were last
year when COVID was at a lower rate in NYC than it is now
but instead, Mulgrew is doing his best to placate an intractable loud
minority of anti-vax mandate UFTers, many of whom are anti-union.
Mulgrew is part of the bipartisan consensus among Democrats and
Republicans to open full in-person learning no matter what is happening
with the Delta variant. How many UFT members are we talking about who aren't vaccinated?.... James Eterno, ICEUFT blog
My religion is the cult of the cat. If I were still working that's my excuse. If I were working and I knew colleagues who refused to get vaxed I'd stay so far away from them I'd need binoculars to see them. Or just walk around with a 10 foot pole.
We just might have beaten the coming Delta school-based deluge IF all teachers and eligible students had been vaccinated. But they haven't been, so here goes more lock downs.
James has been covering the UFT capitulation to the anti-vaxers at the ICE blog. You've got to read some of the comments to see why covid test cases are rising.
We love Eduwonkette who we helped get started with her blog over 15 years ago which became one of the hottest education blogs in the nation.
My tweet in response has gotten some play:
In Rockaway, Breezy Point (11697), which is supposedly over 90% vaxed,
despite being 80% Trump territory, has a 15% testing rate, possibly the
highest in the city. How is that possible? A friend from Breezy told me
that there is a massive amount of children with Covid. I get that about
children under 12. Far Rock Zip 11691 has one of the lowest vax rates in
the city -- 39% --- and also has high infection rates -- that has been
throughout the epidemic -- with loads who have died.
James followed up with a slam at the so-called "choice" people -- do they refuse to show their drivers license when they fly?
Hi Norm - I'm a former chapter leader and recently elected UFT delegate. I
want to be a part of a movement to defeat the Unity Caucus in 2022.
As a former member of Unity I see it is clearly a cult and it is so important to defeat them.... from a contact from UFT Delegate Assemblies.
In UFT elections, if the overwhelming majority of 70,000 classroom
teachers were to vote against Unity Caucus, they would only win 23 out
of 100 Executive Board and zero officer positions. And therein lies the
essence of "democracy" in the UFT.
Oy! Another election - at my age? After being deeply involved in the 04, 07, 10, 13, 16 elections? I missed the 19 election (thankfully) after the MORE Caucus purged me (double thanks, I didn't need the drama.)
This guy is right about the Unity cult but actually defeat Unity? While there are some intriguing new possibilities for the 2022 UFT election, the first step is to understand how the process works and the enormous obstacles the anti-Unity forces face. So let's do a deep dive on the process for today's post and explore elections possibilities in follow-up posts. First -- the appetizer, which explains a lot:
Sept. 1, 2021
Good afternoon. Welcome to the September 1 jitters - and joy for retirees.
The UFT is a democratic organization --- isn't it?
There are elections every three years (it used to be every year in the early 60s, then every two years through 2001) and the majority winner has been Unity Caucus since 1962. That is democracy. But there's democracy and there's "democracy." Let me 'splain.
Functional chapters - Support - Paras, secretaries, guidance, soc workers, OT/PT,
attendance, home bound, speech etc. --- include non-school based
teachers. etc): 45,000
Retirees are also considered functional: So add 70,000 to the 45,000- In elections, 24,000 votes are allowed and fractionalized if there more vote but in recent elections 23-24000 have voted.
Total UFT membership: Over 185,000
If Unity wins 80% of the vote how can the UFT be undemocratic?
The Don't Give a Crap Caucus
Less than 30% vote, with retirees having the highest returns, over 40%. Over 70%of working UFT members are in the DGAC - Don't Give a Crap Caucus. A key to seriously challenging Unity is to make them give a crap.
But let's face facts: Unity gets almost 80% of those who do vote, with only high schools breaking around 50-50. How can we be critical of the leadership on democratic grounds? Maybe it's the failure of the groups opposed to Unity? They never take blame and only point fingers, which should be pointed at themselves.
But let's examine the ways the UFT is not democratic and in future posts lay out what the opposition could do to create more democracy since actually winning an entire elections is almost not possible.
Read
parts1 and 2 of this series that will go on through infinity - or at
least through the final outcome of the UFT/2022 election ending in May.
How did the UFT get so old so fast? --- NYC
Board of Ed official c. 1970 There were no fisticuffs or even enormous
disagreements when Leo a...
At-Large Elections - A key to Unity Caucus control -
The Bias of At-Large Elections: How it Works
“The Oldest Trick in the Book”
If
you want to rig a local election, there’s an easier way than stuffing a
ballot box, gerrymandering a district, or amassing a campaign war chest
to scare off challengers. Have your city or county adopt
winner-take-all “At-Large” voting, where, instead of using districts,
all or most council or school committee candidates must run “at large,
city or countywide.
At-Large block voting—also known as the “plurality-At-Large voting method”[1]—has been called the oldest trick in the book.[2] Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg
cited this method, along racial gerrymandering, as a preeminent
second-generation way to deny equal opportunity for minority voters and
candidates.
Congress has banned At-Large voting
for all federal elections. It’s been discarded by most states. No
voting method has been subject to more litigation for its discriminatory
impact on local elections. Yet, while the covers are off the
discriminatory impact and intent of At-Large voting, it persists in
hundreds of local jurisdictions.... Read more about at large voting
I will leave the "What can be done to break the Unity stanglehold, if anything?" to Parts 4 or 5- First let's understand how the UFT election game works.
How UFT elections work
General elections every 3 years. Next, spring 2022
Officers (12) - President, Secretary, Treasurer, and including VPs for elementary, middle and high schools. All voted for at-large - which includes retirees.*
* Until 1994, the 3 divisional VPs - elem, ms, hs - were elected by classroom teacher votes only from their division, not at-large (all union members). When Unity lost the HSVP in 1985, they changed the rules to at-large in 1994 to prevent that from happening again.
Why is this important? Because retirees don't vote in elem, ms and hs and until 1995 they also didn't vote for the VP of each division, now, not only retirees, but every UFT member decides on the HS. MS, El Veep who are part of the 12 officers. This assures Unity total control of the Adcom, which runs the entire union.
*** - only teachers in the schools vote for the three division VPs -- non-teachers in schools vote as functional.
Exec Bd (100 members, including the 12 officers):
The Ex Bd is a rubber stamp- it meets every 2 weeks, usually on Monday's at PM and is open to all UFT members. It doesn't have to be a complete rubber stamp if opposition win enough seats to push back.
Just think - even with Unity dominance they still make 12% of the Ex Bd the officers.
What about the other 88 members? How are they apportioned?
Remember this point that --- if the 70k classroom teachers were to vote against Unity, even if overwhelmingly - say 70% - they would not even have a quarter of the Ex Bd seats, which are apportioned this way:
At large Ex Bd - 45 - add the 12 officers and Unity is guaranteed 57 EB seats, a clear majority.
Non- At-Large Ex Bd seats -- 43
Elementary: 11 Middle School: 5 High Schools: 7 - total 23
These are the most winnable positions because they are not at-large and retirees don't vote.
Functional chapters: 20 - Support personnel - a bastion of Unity support (until recently). Retirees are part of the functional chapter and can run for these ex bd seats.
In essence, the functional chapter functions as at-large by lumoing all the chapters together instead of each chapter getting a seat on the board. Thus, add these 20 to the 57 and you get 77, leaving only 23 winnable EB seats. In a future post I will lay out how to win these seats and posit how doing so would be a major cataclysm for Unity even it they are a minority -- it would demonstate the leadership has lost the classroom teachers.
Retiree vote
The general election is riddled with at-large voting to assure Unity Caucus of control. And a key is that retirees vote for most positions: all officers and the majority of Ex Bd seats.
There are 70,000 retirees, though the current limit is 24 thousand that count - that limit has been raised over the years and often accounts for well over 40% of the total vote.
AFT/NYSUT Delegates: 750-800
I didn't mention this category in UFT elections but it is a key to controling the state and national unions, as winner take all gives Unity all of them and is a major perk of joining Unity. If the opposition were to get 49% of the vote it would get no delegates.
The Delegate Assembly (about 4000 members) and Chapter elections - every 3 years -- last one just ended - next 2024.
In some ways these elections are more important than the general elections as a way to challenge Unity control. The general UFT elections have no direct impact on what is termed the chief democratic body of the UFT -- the DA, which consists of all chapter leaders from the schools and functional chapters -- there are supposedly around 1800 - and school and functional based delegates in a 60-1 ratio -- Unity pushed its members to run for these positions as a way to control the DA. The retiree chapter alone gets 300 delegates winner take all Unity delegates and they play an important role. In the recent election Retiree Advocate received 30% of the vote and no delegates. Imagine how retired UFT opposition activists could bring their experience to delegate assemblies.
Generally, no more than 700 show up, mostly Unity Caucus, with a handful of opposition people.
These elections are important because if the opposition ever could elect a few hundred and they acted together, they could begin to take some control over the Delegate Assembly -- though if they ever got close, Unity would change the rules.
MORE claims to have elected 100 and other groups also elected people -- if they all work together --- rather than each caucus use the DA to focus on its own caucus building -- there could be an impact to counter Unity dominance of the DA. Caucus hegemony has been one of the major obstacles to mounting an effective opposition.
We will know where things stand at the first DA of this new 3 year cycle in October. Meeting in person is a threat to Unity so don't be shocked to see the leadership use the pandemic as an excuse to move that meeting to Zoom, while at the same time advocating for teacher to go into classrooms.
More to come on where things stand in forming a united front, the only way to challenge Unity. Here are a few previous posts:
Retiree Advocate/UFT posted this notice calling for a united opposition in the 2022 UFT elections.
August 30, 2021
Retiree Advocate, a caucus in the UFT, calls on all opposition caucuses and non-affiliated individuals within the UFT to come together and form a full and united slate to run against the Unity Caucus in the 2022 United Federation of Teachers union-wide elections.
Our goal is to transform the Retired Teachers’ Chapter (RTC) into one that is democratic, powerful and responsive to the members and not simply a calling card for the UNITY
leadership. The Unity caucus leadership, in power for 60 years, has felt free to engage in actions that are detrimental to the interests of the membership.
Retiree Advocate urges further cooperation during the upcoming school year on points of common interest such as, lowering class size, fighting against changes to in-service and retiree member health care, rights of members to a healthy and safe teaching and working environment and advocating for a more democratic UFT.
Only a credible threat from a broad based opposition that threatens Unity's hold on the union can force the UFT leadership to be more
accountable to the membership.
What is Retiree Advocate/UFT?
We are a caucus in the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Our goal is
to transform the Retired Teachers’ Chapter (RTC) into one that is
democratic, powerful and responsive to the members and not simply a
calling card for the UNITY leadership. To do this, our chapter must
critically evaluating leadership’s policies & programs and create
real alternatives that protect retirees, support working members and
fight for social and economic justice for NYC’s public education school
communities.
We believe that the Unity caucus leadership, in power for 60 years, has
felt free to engage in actions that are detrimental to the interests of
the membership. Witness the recent undemocratic decision to convert our
traditional Medicare coverage to a privately managed Medicare Advantage
Plan. We were able to alert the membership about this deceptive action.
Only a credible threat from a broad based opposition that threatens
their hold on the union can force the UFT leadership including our
chapter (RTC) to be more accountable to the membership moving forward.
We have been running slates in UFT elections for 20 years. Our program can be viewed here-
RA-UFT
Platform. This past April we received practically 30 percent of
the vote, our highest ever!
We need you to join us so that we can continue to grow, achieve our goals and take control of OUR union.
