Adams Throws Mulgrew Under the Bus

Says Medicare situation was UFT's fault, but that he will resolve it. How? Your guess is as good as mine.

It’s a new season of reality TV, and today there’ve been several developments in the NYC Retiree Health Care Hunger Games. NYC Mayor Eric Adams is concerned about being primaried by Brad Lander, and has decided to try to get ahead of it. This is great news (and I’m not being sarcastic). It means that our issue will color and influence the mayoral race.

In a meeting today with senior citizens in the Bronx, Adams suggested he was upset about the Medicare situation. Several people asked him about it. Adams launched into an impromptu history lesson, recounting that the UFT was responsible for this. Of course, that’s not entirely accurate. UFT never got a vote on this, and it was hidden from us in the contracts. Michael Mulgrew and his “very smart” Unity big shots did this unilaterally.

Adams made sure everyone knew that our brilliant leadership, along with the equally brilliant MLC, gave the city a billion dollars from our 1.8 billion dollar stabilization fund. They did this in exchange for money teachers earned years ago, and had to wait even more years to get. Mulgrew also cleverly managed to negotiate a crap pattern for the city for several years, including a year and a half of zero.

Adams contends the stabilization fund was healthy before Mulgrew made his momentous deal. He further says UFT created the problem, but we’re now running from the problem. Adams makes a mistake many members make—he conflates leadership with the union. Hey, I’m union as much as Mulgrew ever was. I had no notion of the givebacks inherent in 2014. I had no notion of the further givebacks in 2018.

Adams says the givebacks are now costing the city 50 million dollars a month. I guess that’s what happens when Mulgrew makes deals behind the backs of membership. No one at the meeting brings up the fact that retirees, who benefit not at all from contract negotiations, are somehow supposed to finance them anyway by being tossed into Medicare Advantage plans.

Adams, who appeared to oppose the plan as a candidate, claims he was unable to understand the situation until he became mayor. He then musters the incredible audacity to suggest we should continue to fight in court, so as to find a plan that will not bankrupt the city. However, this plan is not bankrupting the city at all. Adams doesn’t think we can make that logical leap. Evidently, like Mulgrew, he takes us for fools.

If Adams, in fact, supported our efforts in court, HE WOULD NOT BE OPPOSING US. He claims, correctly, that he inherited the plan. Rather than take a stand for us, he blames the city lawyers.

He claims he’s working to figure this out. However, there are only two ways this can go. He says our health plan is his health plan. He says he’s a union member, and he’s in this with us. That said, he owns multiple properties, and his current salary is $258,750. If you think your pension is gonna look remotely like his, I have a bridge in Brooklyn with your name on it.

Unlike most city retirees, Adams can afford real Medicare whether or not the city subsidizes it.

Adams claims he hears us loud and clear, and the next mayor won’t be dealing with this issue. That said, he offers no suggestion of how it will be resolved. Well, I have great news for the mayor. I have an immediate solution to this issue that vexes him so. He can tell City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to get our bill passed, the one that would resolve this issue in our favor once and for all.

All due respect, I shall sit while I wait.

There is no quick answer. But we know exactly who caused this problem. It’s Michael Mulgrew, and the “very smart people” in his Unity Caucus, the ones he loves to boast about. And if Michael Mulgrew wants to be the big hero, he can stop offering us lip service, and work to help us.

Here’s the thing—neither Adams nor Mulgrew has demonstrated they want to do anything but talk. Talk is cheap. That said, it’s UFT Unity’s stock in trade.

On Twitter, when I complain that we’re taking a contract that fails to meet cost of living, Unity members lecture me on the unbreakable pattern. It’s made of iron, steel diamond, whatever. The thing they don’t know is this—I believe them when they say once the pattern’s been established we’re pretty much stuck with it.

However, when there is a decent pattern and we don’t get it, that’s another story altogether. When Mulgrew was negotiating the remarkably awful deal we got in 2014, he lectured us that retro pay was not a God-given right. So basically, when the pattern sucks, we must take it. When it’s halfway decent, we may or may not get it. Way to battle for us, Mike.

Beyond that, as far as I can tell, all the MLC does is make deals to demean our health care. Why on earth can’t the city unions come to an agreement that the minimum raise must meet cost of living? Unity folk say things like, “Oh, that would be infringing on the rights of the other unions.”

Well, infringe away, say I. I’m not getting up and battling for the right of unions to negotiate sub-inflationary contracts. I’m not even battling for the right of my own union leadership to make disastrous deals like the one that brought us to this point.

We might as well go on strike for more work and less pay.

Mulgrew? Adams? Do something. We’re not as stupid as you think we are, and neither of you is getting another term until and unless you fix this.

Thanks to Daniel and Marianne.