Sunday, January 8, 2023

Diane Ravitch, Arthur Goldstein: Why Is My Union Selling Out Its Members’ Healthcare?

First they came for the retirees. And if you don’t think they’re coming for current employees next, I have a lovely bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. --- Arthur Goldstein, NYC Educator

I think Mulgrew has already bought that bridge in Brooklyn, using stabilization fund money to buy it.

Oh, the fur is flying, with Monday's hearings on the bill to change the admin code coming up for comment. I hope to go, though actually having the opportunity to give testimony is going to be iffy. I'm working on my statement and will post it in a follow-up blog Monday with more links as the press has been picking up the story. My sources sent me a list of where the council people are voting - it's running 50-50 it seems, with the right and the left backing retirees while the whishy middle is - well, wishy.

In the meantime, here are a few to tide you over:

Here is Nick at New Action – UFT

Open Letter to Members of NYC City Council -

Eterno on ICEUFT Blog

CITY COUNCIL HEARINGS ON MULGREWCARE MONDAY MORNING -
You can testify in-person or on Zoom. Sign up here, please. The New York City Organization of Public Sector Retirees is organizing and along with other groups will be there at Monday's Civil Service and Labor Committee hearing.
Arthur has been back in action with an editorial in the Daily News. Arthur packs a lot of wallop and can't be hurt by Diane Ravitch joining the fray in support: (check the comments)

https://dianeravitch.net/2023/01/08/arthur-goldstein-why-is-my-union-selling-out-its-members-healthcare/#comments

The City of New York wants to cut the cost of health benefits to retirees. The unions support the cuts. This is hard to understand. Many retirees worked for decades at low salaries, assuaged by the guaranteed benefits after retirement. The United Federation of Teachers has taken a leading role in pushing members, active and retired, to switch from Medicare to a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan. Some retirees have fought back, knowing that not all doctors are part of a MA network and that they will have to get pre-approval for major care.

This article was written by veteran New York City Arthur Goldstein and published in the New York Daily News and reposted on Fred Klonsky’s blog.

I have a personal stake in this issue. I am on Medicare. My secondary is my wife’s union healthcare plan. She worked for 35 years as a public school teacher, principal, and administrator in New York City. In 2021 I had open heart surgery. Neither my referring cardiologist nor my cardiac surgeon are part of the city’s MA plan. The total bill for the surgery and a month in the hospital was over $800,000. Medicare paid almost everything and probably negotiated a lower price. The secondary picked up whatever Medicare didn’t pay. The surgery and rehab and six weeks of at-home care cost me $300. Seniors like me who face serious health issues stand to lose a lot if the city sand the union force them off Medicare and into a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan.

Arthur Goldstein wrote:

There was a joke in the movie “Sleeper” about how UFT President Albert Shanker started World War III. Our current union president, Michael Mulgrew, won’t be starting any wars. In fact, Mulgrew is now battling to have the city pay less toward our health care. What’s next? A strike for more work and less pay?

Union can be a powerful thing. It empowers working people. It raises pay for union workers, which tends to raise pay for non-union workers as well. Union enables weekends, child labor laws and workplace safety regulations. There are reasons why wealthy corporations fight us tooth and nail. Without union, they can hire Americans at minimum-wage with no benefits.

Mulgrew wants to move all city retirees backward from Medicare to a distinctly inferior Advantage plan. Far fewer doctors take Advantage plans. If Mulgrew gets his way, retirees will have a NY-based plan like we working teachers have. Retirees, unlike working teachers, often live elsewhere. If they do, they’d better not get sick.

As a working teacher, I’m good in New York, but outside this area I’ll find few to no doctors that take my plan. In fact, while trying to persuade me that Advantage would not be so bad, a union official told me he lived in Jersey and had a hard time finding doctors who accepted our plan.

Then there are the pre-approvals. When you’re over 65 and having a health crisis, you probably don’t want CVS/Aetna deciding between your health and their profit. Mulgrew says there will be a quick appeal process. But what if you lose? Is dying quickly now a benefit?

It’s tough being union when your leaders actively campaign for management. You’d think they’d campaign for improved health care at a lower cost to us. Instead, they’ve gotten the City Council to hold hearings on changing the law so the city could contribute less.

This all stems from a 2018 Municipal Labor Committee deal. Rather than insist the city pay us cost of living raises, the MLC geniuses agreed to fund them ourselves, via health care cuts. On Oct. 12, 2018, Mulgrew told the UFT Delegate Assembly his deal would result in no additional copays. Time has proven that untrue. He also promised no significant costs to union membership. Yet any couple wanting to keep traditional Medicare, under Mulgrew’s plan, will pay almost $5,000 a year.

How can we trust our leaders when they clearly don’t know what they’re doing? Are they simply incompetent, or outright lying?

Rank and file had no voice in the MLC deal that was done behind closed doors. It seems the backroom dealing continues. Weeks ago, the Council was “lukewarm” about revising 12-126, which sets a minimum the city must meet for our health care. Now, they’ve done a rather sudden and spectacular turnaround.

What has changed? I can’t help but suspect my union leadership, along with others, quietly reached out. Maybe those union contributions would slow for Council members who voted to uphold health care contributions. After all, it isn’t us, but rather leadership holding union purse strings. And will Council members get funding from Mayor Adams for their pet community projects if they don’t vote his way?

Mulgrew wrote us an email saying we would have to pay $1,200 a year if we didn’t change the law and screw our retired brothers and sisters. This is a classic zero-sum game. America has never achieved universal health care because that’s how it’s presented. If we give those people health care, it will damage yours. Frequently based on racism, Americans accept these ideas and thus reject proposals that would improve things for all of us.

A fundamental notion of union is that a rising tide raises all boats. Rather than embrace that notion, Mulgrew threatened us. If we didn’t support diminished health care for retirees, our own health care would be diminished. By pitting one union faction against another, Mulgrew and other union leaders took a fundamentally anti-union position.

Union ought not to be in the business of abbreviating health care for its members. Union ought to be in the business of not only expanding our care, but also ensuring the rest of our community enjoys the same benefits we have. That’s why it’s sorely disappointing that Mulgrew opposes the New York Health Act, which would provide health care for all New Yorkers. Rather than work out differences with its sponsors, UFT takes shortcuts. In doing so, we hurt the most vulnerable of my union brothers and sisters.

First they came for the retirees. And if you don’t think they’re coming for current employees next, I have a lovely bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

 

Thursday, January 5, 2023

MulgrewCare Update: CM Carmen DeLaRosa Wages War on Labor (NYC Retirees and Active workers) - video

A slideshow from Wednesday's successful rally!

 





More pics - ttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PwCs1D7Lu4zUlCOINW6_3AOix7GyPRaq?usp=sharing

News & information.

This Monday, 1/9, at 10 am in the Council Chambers at City Hall, there’s a hearing by the Committee on Civil Service and Labor, on “A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to health insurance coverage for city employees, city retirees, and their dependents.” For convenience, here’s a pdf of the legislation file that’s linked at the hearing notice above. If you want to testify, visit this link for instructions.

This is the next step in the saga of the City and the major municipal labor unions’ attempt to shift retirees over to a Medicare Advantage plan from the current coverage. Here is a link to my December 19 statement on Medicare Advantage (also printed in a previous edition of this newsletter) and related coverage in The Chief (“Retirees’ Medicare Fight has Council Ally”).


 
How? By putting forth a proposed code change to Administrative Code 12-126 that would put ALL our healthcare in the hands of TWO unions (DC37 & UFT). 
 
 WE WILL CALL ALL PROGRESSIVE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. UNTIL THEY SEE A NYC RETIREE EARNED AND PAID FOR THEIR BENEFITS ND WE ARE NOT FOR SALE. LET THEM HEAR YOU. BECAUSE IF THEY SUCCEED IN CHANGING THE CODE, COME ELECTION TIME, THERE WILL BE MANY NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS; SEATS FILLED BY PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT SENIORS AND THE DISBLED. WE ORGANIZATED OVER 100,000 RETIREES IN TWO YEARS AND RAISED MILLIONS. LOOK FOR OUR ENDORSEMENT, OUR SUPPORT. RETIREES WILL HELP ANY COUNCILMEMEBER THAT PROTECTS US, AND THAT PROTECTS YOUR BENEFITS TOO! 
 
 
1 Hon. Christopher Marte CMarte@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7259 District Office: 212-587-3159 2 Hon. Carlina Rivera clrivera@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7366 District Office: 212-677-1077 3 Hon. Erik Bottcher ebottcher@council.nyc.gov District Office: 212-564-7757 4 Hon. Keith Powers Powers@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7393 District Office: 212-818-0580 5 Hon. Julie Menin JMenin@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6865 6 Hon. Gale Brewer GBrewer@council.nyc.gov District Office: 212-564-7757 7 Hon. Shaun Abreu SAbreu@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7007 District Office: 212-928-6814 8 Hon. Diana Ayala dayala@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6960 District Office: 212-828-9800/ 347-297-4922 10 Hon. Carmen De La Rosa CDeLaRosa@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7053 District Office: 917-521-2616 11 Hon. Eric Dinowitz edinowitz@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: (212) 788-7080 District Office: (718) 549-7300 12 Hon. Kevin Riley kriley@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: (212)-788-6873 District Office: (718) 684-5509 or 347-326-8652 13 Hon. Marjorie Velazquez MVelazquez@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7375 District Office: 718-931-1721 14 Hon. Pierina Sanchez PSanchez@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7074 District Office: 917-409-6376‬ 16 Hon. Althea Stevens AStevens@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6856 District Office: 718-588-7500 18 Hon. Amanda Farias AFarias@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6853 District Office: 718 792-1140 22 Hon. Tiffany Cabán tcaban@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6963 District Office: 718-274-4500 25 Hon. Shekar Krishnan SKrishnan@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7066 District Office: 929-293-0206 26 Hon. Julie Won JWon@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7370 District Office: 718-383-9566 27 Hon. Nantasha Williams NWilliams@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7084 District Office: 718-776-3700 28 Hon. Adrienne E. Adams aeadams@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6850 District Office: 718-206-2068 29 Hon. Lynn Schulman LSchulman@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6981 District Office: 718-544-8800 31 Hon. Selvena N. Brooks-Powers sbrooks-powers@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7216 District Office: 718-471-7014 or 718-527-4356 33 Hon. Lincoln Restler LRestler@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7348 District Office: 718-875-5200 34 Hon. Jennifer Gutierrez JGutierrez@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7095 District Office: 718-963-3141 35 Hon. Crystal Hudson CHudson@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7081 District Office: 718-260-9191 36 Hon. Chi Osse COsse@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7354 District Office: 718-919-0740 37 Hon. Sandy Nurse SNurse@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7284 District Office: 718-642-8664 38 Hon. Alexa Aviles AAviles@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7372 District Office: 718-439-9012 39 Hon. Shahana Hanif SHanif@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6969 District Office: 718-499-1090 40 Hon. Rita Joseph RJoseph@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7352 District Office:718-287-8762 41 Hon. Darlene Mealy DMealy@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7387 District Office: 718-953-3097 43 Hon. Justin Brannan jbrannan@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7363 District Office: 718-748-5200 45 Hon. Farah N. Louis flouis@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-6859 District Office: 718-629-2900 46 Hon. Mercedes Narcisse MNarcisse@council.nyc.gov Legislative Office: 212-788-7286 District Office: 718-241-9330

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Healthcare/Airline Meltdowns - Neoliberal Failures - Connecting the dots to Mulgre/RandiCare - Aetna can become Southwest Air

Are entire parts of the economy, mostly under privatized profit making corporate control, coming apart at the seams? Transportation (rails and air), Healthcare meltdowns as Covid exposed the flaws in a profit making system. Note how many urgent care places are popping up. Note how many covid testing sites are all over the place. Note how healthcare professionals are stressed to the point of leaving. (Three of my doctors have retired in the past 5 months). Fact is Medicare - traditional medicare run by the federal government is one of the few bulwarks to meltdowns and Mulgrew/Weingarten are trying to undermine it by making it a sieve for more money to flow to profit but they try to fool people by branding Medicare Adv as just a version of Medicare. Does it Remind you of charter schools claiming to be public schools? See James' take down of leadership.

UFT INCONSISTENCY ON PRIVATIZING SCHOOLS VS HEALTHCARE COULD COME BACK TO BITE US

Meltdowns. If Mulgrew loses in the city council will Unity melt down?

If you can be there Jan. 4, 9 and 19th. De La Rosa is the target - she has been selling herself as a progressive - she won't live this one down. See A Message to NYC Council.

 


Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2022

The hits keep coming in - I started this blog post 5 days ago - the goal here is to link the attempted move of retirees to privatized Medicare Advantage as part of the 5 decade old neo-liberal project of both political parties. Medicare has been a target since almost its beginning in the 60s. But there's work to do as breaking events keep coming. Before I get to the stuff I wrote before the latest info, here are a few updated links:

New Year’s Surprise: NYC Council Member De La Rosa Introducing Bill to Help Push Retirees Into Medicare Advantage

By Bob Hennelly

New York City Council Member Carmen De La Rosa, chair of the Council’s Civil Service and Labor Committee, will introduce a bill to change the city’s Administrative Code that’s been sought by Mayor Adams and the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] to clear the way for its 250,000 retirees to be enrolled in a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. (READ MORE)

Overworked, Underpaid And Understaffed: EMS In Crisis As NYC Faces Tridemic-- Work Bites

 
Back to business of trying to tie it all together by looking at the Southwest Airline debacle.
 
Are we in a stage of across the board meltdowns? Blame deregulation and the removal of public oversight.

I'm always trying to look for consistent themes and the recent airline chaos with Southwest struck a parallel with the healthcare crisis we seem to be in the midst of where at times of stress, things break down. And because we don't have built-in resiliency - which I attribute to our entire economic system being in the hands of private industry where profit and shareholder value are king and customer and employee needs are second. 
 
There was a time where many industries did take care about their workforce which they viewed as an investment - they had good salaries - often forced on them by unions - and good pensions -- now rare as they've moved to 401.ks. Many observers believe this trend began in the 70s and accelerated into the increasing attacks on government involvement and regulations - call it the neo-liberal revolution where govt/bad, private/good.

That in the midst of one of the historic health crisis in recent history, our own union leaders would choose to attack one of the successful underpinnings of government over the past almost 60 years - Medicare -- is an astounding breach of faith. The leadership refer to people like me as charlatans -- only interested in political advantage -- like my own health security being threatened at the almost age of 78 is meaningless.  But I will return to this theme in the future. Let me get onto the Southwest story, which is not as simple as presented.

Someone asked me the other day if Southwest will survive -- you know - the Wall St Journal etc says let the market make them pay, not the government. My answer was not only will SW survive, they will probably get bailed out by the government -- and the anti-government people won't say boo. Fact is SW has a monopoly over air travel on certain routes and it is low-cost and if they go under, whole areas won't have service, especially California.
 
The Southwest Airline story is even bigger than we think and the elements of big stock by-backs and dividends and profits over customers and employees is endemic to neoliberal "anything goes" thinking over the past 45 years, which is tied to the decimation of unions (they see unions as violating the free market -- let every employee negotiate their own contract - see charter schools for a perfect example.

So we have been pounding the very idea of Medicare Advantage private health insurance as doing exactly what Southwest has been doing -- profits, high exec compensation, stock buybacks, dividends over customer service. That is the future of Mulgrew/RandiCare. Why have we added RandiCare? Because she is also claiming and promoting Medicare Adv privatized programs as just a version of medicare for all. Randi talk out of 12 sides of her mouth? I'm shocked.

I saw samples of two contrasting editorials on Southwest from the Wall St. Journal and the Washington Post. The Post discussed the money that went to shareholder value instead of upgrading the system and called for government intervention. But who? Mayor Pete who doesn't want to offend potential corporate supporters for his future presidential ventures? He may go down as one of the biggest failures as transportation czar - don't forget his role in screwing the railway workers.
Bernie Sanders called for major fines for airlines. Let's not forget the scam they all pulled in taking a lot of pandemic money to keep people on the payroll and then drove people to retire. 

I met a bunch of Southwest Airline pilots who put on a silent demo on Wall St. a couple of weeks ago.
 

Southwest Airlines pilots union official describes how ...
CBS News CBS News

Below are a few articles from the NYT, WAPO and LATimes

Saturday, December 31, 2022

URGENT CALL TO ACTION FOR NYC RETIREES - CITY COUNCIL BILL TO CHANGE ADMIN CODE - Save these Dates: January 4, 9, 10, 19th

Updated Video Message Updated Video Message Dec. 31

 PLEASE WATCH!


 Dec. 31

OK GANG - It's Crunch time. The Adams/Mulgrew/MLC/OLR/DRACULA TEAM HAVE FOUND A FLUNKIE TO INTRO A BILL TO CHANGE THE ADMIN CODE ---  

Council Member Carmen DeLaRosa, Chair of Civil Service & Labor and Speaker Adrienne Adams will bring the MLC Admin Code amendment to the floor on Wednesday January 4th. Tentative hearings on Jan. 9, 10 and Vote on Jan. 19.

We are hearing rumors from city council people that the UFT is threatening those who vote not to change the code with loss of UFT endorsements - pretty funny when Unity at a recent exec bd meeting argued that no one issue should be used to deny a politician an endorsement.

Mulgrew can win but still lose
If Mulgrew wins this he still loses support from segments of the retiree chapter, where there will be a chapter election in the spring of 2024.  Retiree Advocate received 30% of the vote in 2021, up from about 15% in 2018. If the vote gets to 40% anti-Unity, that becomes a threat to Mulgrew in the general election in 2025.
 
Here is an update from Jan. 2
 
#protect12dash126
 
This is your assignment.
 
First, it has been confirmed that the Chair of the Civil Service & Labor Committee Carmen DeLaRosa will be bringing the bill drafted by the MLC and OLR to the floor on Wednesday, January 4th at Noon.
 
It is suggested we go to the hearing they scheduled on January 9th and the final vote on January 19th. (SEE BELOW).
We will put out more information regarding these dates and how YOU can testify.
 
Lastly, because this is going to her committee, you will need to call & email them daily. The list is below.
***************************************
List of City Council Members on the Civil Service and Labor to be called:
(CALL BOTH NUMBERS)

28 Speaker Adrienne E. Adams Legislative Office: 212-788-6850 District Office: 718-206-2068

10 Hon. Carmen De La Rosa Legislative Office: 212-788-7053 District Office: 917-521-2616

3 Hon. Erik Bottcher District Office: 212-564-7757

5 Hon. Julie Menin Legislative Office: 212-788-6865

11 Hon. Eric Dinowitz Legislative Office: (212) 788-7080 District Office: (718) 549-7300

15 Hon. Oswald Feliz Legislative Office:212-788-6966 District Office: 718-842-8100

21 Hon. Francisco P. Moya 212-788-6862 District Office: 718-651-1917

22 Hon. Tiffany Cabán Legislative Office: 212-788-6963 District Office: 718-274-4500

37 Hon. Sandy Nurse Legislative Office: 212-788-7284 District Office: 718-642-8664

40 Hon. Rita Joseph Legislative Office: 212-788-7352 District Office:718-287-8762

49 Hon. Kamillah Hanks Legislative Office: 212-788-6972 District Office: 718-556-7370
 
EMAIL THE CIVIL SERVICE & LABOR COMMITTEE:
 
Copy/Paste these email addresses into your email:

 
aeadams@council.nyc.gov
SpeakerAdams@council.nyc.gov

CDeLaRosa@council.nyc.gov
ebottcher@council.nyc.gov
JMenin@council.nyc.gov
edinowitz@council.nyc.gov
ofeliz@council.nyc.gov
fmoya@council.nyc.gov
tcaban@council.nyc.gov
SNurse@council.nyc.gov
RJoseph@council.nyc.gov
KHanks@council.nyc.gov
 
The File for the List of CM is here if you want to save it: https://mcusercontent.com/.../b8e.../Civil_Service_labor.pdf
 
 
SUBJECT: PROTECTING Admin Code 12-126 PROTECTS RETIREES
 
Dear CM________,
The City Council is being threatened that if they don’t amend the statute to force retirees into the Medicare Advantage, the Mayor will do that on his own. Amending the statute does the same thing! Why should the City Council amend the law if the Mayor will do this anyway? Why do his dirty work? Let the Mayor take the political hit for hurting retirees and remove City Council Members from the ire of retirees and constituents in their next election. If the Mayor does this act, the Retirees will be able to challenge and win this in court where we have been successful because the City has violated the law and this is his way around it. If the City Council amends this Administrative Code, they will affirmatively be hurting retirees and preventing us from winning this in Court. Don’t prevent us from winning again in court. We served our time as employees and have a right to enjoy our time as retirees with proper care that we earned and paid for.
 
Don’t buy the Big Lie. Don’t amend the Code, protect it like every City Council before you has against a greedy Mayor. Protect 12-126. Scheinman has no jurisdiction over the City Council nor the Retirees.
 
We request that you do NOT support the bill being introduced on January 9th by Civil Service and Labor Chair DeLaRosa.
 
Thank you for protecting us from financial peril and losing our healthcare.
 
Name _________________, Retiree or Employee
Agency, years of service, year retired
 
******************************
**************
Target Dates
January 4th @ 12pm City Hall: Bill to be introduced
January 9th @ 10am City Hall: Civil Service and Labor Committee Meeting **JOIN US AT THIS HEARING!!!
January 19th @ 1:30pm City Hall: Stated Meeting and Vote on the Bill **JOIN US AT THE VOTE

 
If you are on Twitter and Instagram, please comment and share our messages.
We also created an OPEN FaceBook Page https://www.facebook.com/NYCRetirees
 
 
 RRRRRR
 
 
 

Here is one of Marianne's video from a few days ago:

 

https://youtu.be/x01lJwQ8c08

Hello Everyone!  
 
It appears the MLC has been working overtime like the Grinch.    
This is a call to arms.

Please reserve on your calendar the FOLLOWING dates: January 4, 9, 10, 19th. YOU MAY BE ASKED TO CONVENE AT CITY HALL ON EVERY ONE OF THOSE DATES. We will update you next week.

PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO IN THIS EMAIL.

It explains that Council Member Carmen DeLaRosa, Chair of Civil Service & Labor and Speaker Adrienne Adams will bring the MLC Admin Code amendment to the floor on Wednesday January 4th.  YOU MUST ACT NOW and tell them NOT to amend the Administrative code and remind them the Scheinman paper they all think is arbitration is NOT.   It was paid propaganda and his OPINION,  and it is NOT legally binding.   EMAIL EVERY COUNCIL MEMBER, a sample script is below!

This is the list of Council Members. Click to open!  Make sure you send emails to CM Carmen DeLa Rosa and Speaker Adrienne Adams when you email all the others!

If you are on Twitter or Instagram find us and share our message. @NYCRETIREES
Next week we will advise you the next steps. SHARE THIS MESSAGE!

Yours in TRUE Solidarity, 
The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

PS:   In addition to our private FaceBook Group, we created a PUBLIC Page so you can share our messages! https://www.facebook.com/NYCRetirees 


If you need a sample script when emailing or calling the Council.

We have been advised that Civil Service and Labor Chair Carmen DeLaRosa and Speaker Adrienne Adams will be bringing the MLC Administrative Code Modification to the City Council floor on Wednesday January 4th at NOON. YOU HAVE HOMEWORK EMAIL City COUNCIL, especially CM DeLaRosa and Speaker Adrienne Adams (the Full list is here: https://mcusercontent.com/036ef3a3db4831f1dc593990d/files/df85df38-69ff-72b6-9621-fe82156dc2d4/Council_Member_List.pdf ) 
 
A sample Email: Hi! My name is_____________ and I am a retiree/ (if you are active/in-service say that!). We want you to know the Scheinman report is NOT a “ruling”, it’s an opinion and IS NOT BINDING! It’s paid propaganda and they’re hoping the city council falls for it… it is not a decision, it is not a ruling, it is not an award!! The retirees have identified at least $300 million in savings. OMB knows about some of these savings options, and has NOT implemented them NOR informed the city council… and OMB is unaware of others! Which is worse? HOW CAN THE MAYOR OR THE COUNCIL MAKE A DECISION IF THEY ARE NOT BEING PROPERLY INFORMED BY OMB? DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGE TO THE AMINISTRATIVE CODE! Please reach out to the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees for real facts! The MLC doesn't want you to know they sold off ALL of our healthcare for raises! Yes, that includes you! Please remember this as we go into the New Year. Happy New Year! AND DO NOT AMEND THE ADMINISTRATIVE CODE 12-126!

Signed, YOUR NAME AND YEAR/AGENCY YOU RETIRED or Where you work
 
 
 

Your friends, and retirees in SOLIDARITY...

The NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
 

**************

 Donations are Needed!  It is fall, copays, inflation, etc, but we need to keep donations coming in to fund our October litigation!

 

TO DONATE TO THE LEGAL FUND

Donation Instructions to Support Our Class Action Suit Against the City To Protect Our Retiree Healthcare:

We worked decades for our benefits! Let’s make sure the City and the MLC don’t take them away!

A suggested $25 Donation* will help start the fight to keep our current benefits. Give more if you can, and/or often!  If you cannot meet the minimum suggested donation, we appreciate whatever you can give towards this fight for our benefits.  We also added the option to make your donation recurring (monthly) as was requested. 

The fundraiser group is incorporated as a Non-Profit. ALL proceeds go to fund the organization and its legal challenge. Volunteer retirees are running this effort.  Our 501C3 is pending.

TO DONATE, HERE ARE 4 SIMPLE WAYS!

1.Zelle using email NYCOrgofpublicserviceretirees@gmail.com

2. Make your check out to:
NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees PO Box 941
Venice, FL 34284 (our treasurer lives in FL)

3. Or click on this Paypal link:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=Q4VWJEYVJ9HTW&Z3&fbclid=IwAR0pEOc51x9xhc-CBb8vqAIkX97Bgg1Z02f1r9gQh9S3dOsVmAdob5jBbw8

4.  We Now Accept Donations via VENMO

VENMO is a Phone App or can be used on a PC or Tablet
You can download and install the Phone App from the Android Play Store or Apple App Store. There may be fees involved using this method.

Our ID is: @NYCRetirees


If you are on this list, it is because you subscribed to hear what we are doing as an organization that represents all NYC Municipal workers in protecting their Health benefits in retirement.   Currently, we have a FACEBOOK page located here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/888622578669131

If you are not on FACEBOOK, we will be updating you here. And Check our website for FAQ www.nycretirees.org

Thank you for signing up for our newsletter and pass this to a friend to sign up too!

 

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Exposing our union on privatization - RandiCare anyone? Plus Defending Our Healthcare - Bigly Raucus Retiree Rally outside UFT followed by March to DC 37

Let me start by saying last week's rally outside UFT HQ at the DA with well over 100 people was fabulous.  The outside game. I will report on the inside game at the DA separately. Below are videos, photos and other info from media on the rally. Not bad for old foggies on a freezing day - I wore 12 layers and was still chilled and ran to get the ferry home a bit early because for me a chill is an open door for getting sick.

Ok, I'm late with this and other reports. I plead LAZINESS and watching all kinds of crap on TV.

I have a number of events and their consequences to report and so much information has been coming in my problem is deciding what to include in these reports.

Tuesday, December 27, 2022 - Happy almost New Year

How does our union support corporate interests? Let me count the ways:

  • Private health care industry - Medicare Advantage
  • The educational industrial complex - testing companies, initially charter schools
  • The military industrial complex though massive defense spending - our union is fine with the current defense budget while schools are starved.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] can expect to catch a lot more hell from municipal retirees refusing to be pushed into a for-profit, privatized, Medicare Advantage plan. Roughly one-hundred determined retirees, some of them 80-plus, rallied outside the UFT headquarters at 52 Broadway on Wednesday afternoon before marching onto the MLC offices at 55 Water Street.... Emergency Rally to Say NO to threats to Healthcare, Dec. 21, Unity machine shaky, Irony: Republican (Ariola) and Left Dems (Caban) on City Council Support Retirees, center/liberal Dems Waffle

“Fragmenting” traditional Medicare, Dr. Moore added, will only end up costing municipal retirees more money they can ill afford on limited incomes...... Work-Bites

Daniel Alicea over at Educators of NYC has done some research along with Illinois retired teacher unionist Fred Klonsky to show that privatizing Medicare to get the insurance companies richer is not just a local issue but NYC is up against a huge, national Medicare privatization push that the AFT endorses.-- ICE blog, CONNECTING THE DOTS ON WHY MULGREW IS NOT BACKING OFF ON UNPOPULAR, ILLEGAL MEDICARE ADVANTAGE FOR NYC RETIREES
Boy do we love it when dots are connected and James, Daniel and Fred Klonsky are helping make sense of what on the surface looks like a weird attempt by a public service union to undermine a major government health support network known as Medicare. 

There are deep ties to the Democratic Party corporate wing. The right wing is correct that there is corruption in the Dem Party -- they just don't point to the right type of corruption and our own beloved union at the local, state and national level. How can you be pro-corporate and pro-union? You can't.

The UFT/AFT/NYSUT leadership for decades has been married to the corporate center Democratic Party and its pro-corporate policies which often translate into anti-government. You might think it weird to bring such a charge at the supposed pro government and supposedly pro-labor Dem party. Is Joe Biden pro-labor?

....like his predecessors, Mr. Biden effectively seeks to manage the long-term decline of labor in a relatively humane way — by making favorable appointments and enacting measures that help at the margins — but has yet to take the sorts of risks that would restore power to workers. ..Mr. Biden has “gestured in interesting ways in certain moments,” said Gabriel Winant, a labor historian at the University of Chicago. “But it doesn’t seem like he has the stomach to see the gestures through.”
By the way - have you seen any comment from our union on the railway issue? Sick days? What are sick days? Slaves to Dem Party policy. Randi and Mulgrew follow the same policy - talk a game, but do nothing. Our union no longer even bothers to talk a game.

Follow Norms dictum: Watch what they do, not what they say. UFT/AFT real policy echoes the policies of corp dems. Remember - Mulgrew was a Biden Delegate to the 2020 Dem convention - which by the way Randi joined in the refusal to include Medicare for All on the platform.

Fragmenting is a perfect word by Dr. Moore at our rally Wednesday at the UFT DA. Fragmentation is a key to the privatization movement in healthcare and other industries. Do you recognize it from the charter school fragmentation of the public school system? It's the same neo-liberal de-regulation (airlines, trucking, railroads) bug that stuck us 40 years ago under the right wing philosophy of government-bad, private- good. How's the total unregulated fragmented trucking situation working out?

Along with neo-liberalism privatization comes the destruction and undermining of unions. [See above - Biden is more humane at managing the decline of labor, which makes him more "pro-union" than Obama and Clinton.] What took place in the private union sector is hitting the public union sector, which has been the strongest part of the remnant of the union movement.

What has been fooling people is that our own union leaderships are taking the shortsighted approach of being handmaidens to private interests. Our teacher union leaders especially have been such handmaidens, even in education. For 30 years until Bloomberg went to far and embarrassed the UFT leadership by closing 19 schools in one shot, they didn't really oppose closing schools, nor did they really oppose the charter school movement, despite the obvious outcome like we saw in New Orleans of the destruction of the entire public school system and its replacement by non-unionized charters -- a wake-up call of sorts.

Do we as union members even have a say in such decisions? Not according to Mulgrew -

MICHAEL MULGREW:THE UFT DECIDER; WHY NOT LET MEMBERS DECIDE ON MEDICARE ADVANTAGE?

When an entire organization has built its image and its message on the "fact" that they have never made a mistake - well, that's where Unity has landed. Unity - according to themselves - are never wrong. They never apologize, because to admit error is to blow up their myth of infallibility.... Arthur Goldstein, Shirking--Our National Pastime

 
We in Retiree Advocate, the UFT caucus representing the dissidents in the UFT retiree chapter, which has 60k members. Mulgrew and Unity hacks have mocked the Retiree Advocate resistance on the healthcare issue as being a tiny dissident and even anti-union group. Really?

 
In the last two significant elections in the UFT, the chapter election in 2021 and the 2022 general election, 30% of the voters vote for us. That's over 8,000 in last year's election. Tiny? We've even been hearing from Mulgrew's own caucus - Unity - retirees and even current working members - that they support us even if they can't do so publicly.

So the rally we called for this past Wednesday in front of the UFT Delegate Assembly, was for me a test of sorts. How many people would show up on a cold day, a few days before Xmas? I have to admit, I was very presently surprised at the showing - around 125 people. And there were speakers using the brand new RA bullhorn. Since we heard of the healthcare debacle, RA has been outside every DA - sometimes with a few people, sometimes with large rallies. We work in consort with our United for Change friends who are delegates.

A friend who is in mid-career and active politically in the UFT half-jokingly said what's the use of these rallies since Mulgrew doesn't give a shit. He  misses the point. I don't see a rally as a means of influencing Mulgrew but as a way to build capacity of people to fight back. I'd bet if thousands of retirees showed up Mulgrew would notice. I don't expect that to happen but I actually thought we might have a dozen instead of ten times that number last week. so who knows?

 Ok, let's get to the business of the rally. Here's a short video I believe edited and produced by our leader, Gloria Brandman -- the one who does the most work.

 https://youtu.be/v1KBrGvwuZU

 

  
 
 
Scores came out despite the freezing cold to yesterday's Rally and March to tell our union leaders that we will not let them take away the healthcare we'd been promised. NO to Medicare Advantage! Take a look.
 
 

Dr. Donald Moore at 12/21 Rally

 
 
 
 
 

 
Don't miss this by Nick Bacon:
 
Why UFT members don’t get a vote on Healthcare – Notes on the December DA There are two stories on the December, 2022 DA. One is the protest outside the DA, where hundreds of retirees and supporters gathered in front of 52 Broadw...   
 
And a comment from Arthur's blog:

UFT's Unity Caucus says dissidents are spreading misinformation. I guess I'm a dissident, now that I've decided retiree benefits should not be cut. Leadership's decision to encourage cuts by pitting in-service members against retirees goes against everything a union should stand for.

Leadership now cries anyone who doesn't follow the party line is a liar. This, of course, is their standard MO. And make no mistake, it's argumentum ad hominem, the practice of insulting your opponent rather than engaging in honest discourse. It's logical fallacy. That's what you go to when you do not, in fact, have an actual argument.

There's no reflection, and no introspection. There's not even the echo of a thought that anything could have been done better. This is the way it is, this is the way it's always been, and if you would only clamp down your festering gob, it could be this way forever

I expect this sort of thing from morally bankrupt politicians, the DOE and  imagination-challenged administrators. Lately, though, it's exactly what I get from my union leadership. In 2018, filled with hubris from a 2014 deal, they made a supreme screw-up, one of their very worst. Self-funding a raise is a terrible idea even if it works, as it seemed to in 2014. When it does not, like now, it's far worse.  
 
When an entire organization has built its image and its message on the "fact" that they have never made a mistake - well, that's where Unity has landed. Unity - according to themselves - are never wrong. They never apologize, because to admit error is to blow up their myth of infallibility.

NYC Retirees Protest Attempts to Push Them into Privatized Health Care