On the Hottest Day of the Year, We Stand for 1096

Politicians stand with us. Our union? Not so much.

Today I went to a demonstration at City Hall Park to support Intro 1096, the bill that would preserve health care for retirees as it was before Michael Mulgrew and Unity started selling us out for sub-inflationary contracts back in 2014. This bill, unlike the nebulous declarations of Eric Adams and Michael Mulgrew, would ensure we got the real Medicare we’d been promised since we began working for the city.

Furthermore, Intro 1096 would roll back The Mulgrew Tax, the odious $15 co-pay Unity imposed on us in order to make their crappy Medicare Advantage Plan look a little less crappy. The selling point was that there was a cap on co-payments with Aetna, but none with real Medicare. What those informational presentations neglected to point out was that, before the Mulgrew Tax, there were no co-pays whatsoever for GHI Senior Care.

I realize, if you happen to be in service, I may appear petty complaining about co-pays that are lower than what you pay. That’s understandable, but understand this as well—unlike you, we pay premiums for our pharmacy plan. That’s 150 per month, or 300 if your spouse is enrolled as well. You are refunded, I think 900 bucks for the member only. Retiree couples ultimately pay 2700 bucks a year in premiums (the ones Mulgrew opposes so fervently), and that’s before we pay for drugs, which can cost way more under this plan.

You’ll be retired one day too. And if we, that is NYC Retirees and those who support us, win this war, you’ll be grateful. Marianne Pizzitola is the President of the group, and she was there, along with a lineup of politicians who supported us. Evidently we have one additional councilperson supporting us, but Adrienne Adams, the council speaker, won’t even bring our bill to the floor.

Interestingly enough, I just saw an official UFT post on Facebook complaining about how the para bill has not been voted on, or something to that effect. They’re demanding a hearing for that bill. Now I don’t blame them at all. Spending the entire day with one student, with one period off, is a very tough job. I’m not at all sure I could do it.

I’d like to see the paras get more money. They certainly need it because when Unity had a chance to grant them a real, permanent, pensionable raise, and the funds to do it, they didn’t lift a finger to help.

It was only after my friends in Fix Para Pay scored 75% of the votes that paras suddenly became important to Unity, facing a general election. Unity didn’t give a crap about para pay for half a century. Facing a tight election, it suddenly became a vital issue. The motivation was pretty obvious to non patronage cult members who bothered to pay attention.

You know what, though? No one from Unity bothered to stand with retirees outside in the sweltering 96 degree heat. Who showed up? There were a few people from CROC, a few of us from ABC, and a whole lot of retirees from various city unions.

Over the last few months, I’ve heard a lot about the RTC Labor Solidarity Project. They do worthwhile things. They show up when other unions go on strike or have issues. I get newsletters saying they went here and there and did this and that. Furthermore, they’ve influenced UFT at large to establish a similar org, and they’re very proud of that.

Well, neither group showed up today. I’m sure there are good reasons. One person suggested that’s not what the group is for. Okay then, but if we can support other unions, why can’t we support ourselves? That brings up a few more questions—First, weren’t we elected specifically to battle for retiree health care? Also, didn’t we overwhelmingly pass a resolution to support 1096?

I’m pretty sure we did the latter, because I wrote it, brought it to the floor, and managed to get it passed. My efforts to promote it were shot down at the RTC Executive Board, as the person presiding chose to table it, most members agreed, and it never came up again.

Hopefully, we can do better. Meanwhile, Unity lifts not a finger in our support. Mulgrew hopes for the best, granting us valuable lip service from time to time. Mulgrew’s ducklings are still out writing nasty things about Marianne, without whom we’d all be stuck in inferior Medicare Advantage programs. They hate her for doing the job that we pay them to do—representing our interests.

It’s funny to hear Mulgrew say Trump did one thing to distract from another, as he did at the last DA. As far as I can tell, that’s Unity’s MO. Rather than admit they screwed up, making stupid deals for years, they launch personal attacks against a DC37 retiree who battles for us, even as they do not.

I read a rather disgusting column involving Marianne’s mother (!), ostensibly written by a Unity big shot, but more likely by AI. After all, the article used punctuation, capital letters, and was in a completely different voice from that the person generally uses. However, AI or not, the choice to put this out was despicable—the work of someone so morally bankrupt that shame could not have been a factor.

Another Unity person decided to label Marianne a racist, another despicable baseless claim, because of whom she’d endorsed. The fact is that NYC Retirees have an endorsement process. Anyone who completed it received their endorsement. There was no skin color requirement, and any people of color who met the requirement got the endorsement as well.

This writer suggested that the NYC Retiree requirements were akin to “kissing the ring.” This is an interesting accusation. It’s particularly interesting because UFT also had a pre-condition for endorsement, requiring candidates to do the following:

For mayoral candidates to be eligible for the UFT endorsement, they will need to spend at least seven periods in a public-school classroom, helping the teacher and paraprofessional with lessons, classroom management, and whatever needs to be done to keep the students engaged.

Like most of us, I never saw this as it played out. I have no idea how the classrooms were selected. But before the city shut this whole thing down, candidates were certainly being asked to kiss the ring. (Not only that, but even if they did, no one got an endorsement.) I got to watch Mulgrew question candidates at the Spring Conference. He pushed them all on the para bill, but devoted not a single moment to protecting retirees. (Thanks for the leadership, Mike!)

I’m here to tell you that spending seven periods in a classroom does not tell you what it is to be a teacher or a paraprofessional. Planning, for me at least, does not take place in a classroom, ever. Of course I’ll alter my plan based on what students do and how they react, but what I do behind the scenes often determines how well (or poorly) my lessons go.

What did I know about teaching after one day doing it? I knew I was totally unprepared. It could’ve been quite different had I been in a classroom supporting experienced teachers and paras. (I was hired in an emergency, had no student teaching experience, no training whatsoever, and it was sink or swim.)

Furthermore, it’s insulting to suggest that somehow politicians can understand our jobs via one day in a classroom. In fact, it’s somewhat insulting to invite them, and the city was right to put a stop to it.

Would a law firm invite political candidates to join negotiations with clients? Would a hospital call them in to help the doctors? If I’m a good teacher, it’s because I have years of experience, because I know how to deal instantly with a wide variety of situations, few of which would occur if Andrew Cuomo were standing in back of the classroom.

Honestly, were that to happen, I’d be too busy projectile vomiting to focus on anything else.