Contribute to the Cause
I feel for all dogs, but for those above in particular. Who wants to do the same thing over and over? Should we leave our compensation and health care in the hands of a few tired old bosses?
Not a tough call for me. I’m grateful NYC Retirees fights in court for us, and on Friday I sent them a contribution. Feel free to do the same. Not a retiree? Short on cash? Tired of paying those hundred dollar co-pays Mulgrew cleverly introduced?
Here’s another way you can contribute, in-service or retired, without spending a dime. How can we build a stronger future for ourselves, and our union brothers and sisters? Please take a few minute to fill out this survey and let people know what you think. Let’s find out what needs fixing and what needs changing from the ground up. That beats having it dictated to us from people Up High, collecting salaries for telling us what to do.
A great article about Mulgrew’s empty words
I’m growing ever fonder of Work-Bites, a labor-themed website that isn’t afraid to expose golden calves. Yesterday, they asked what Mulgrew was actually doing to stop the Advantage plan he once adored, but now claims to oppose. Evidently he, or someone, wrote a letter, perhaps even a strongly-worded one. It appears to have had no effect whatsoever. What has he followed that up with? Nothing I’ve heard about.
Adams, despite his own lip service, is still appealing decisions that halted our being dumped into an inferior plan. And the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), very much including the UFT, still has an amicus brief in support of stripping retirees from real Medicare. Time for Mulgrew and Unity to walk the walk (or just take a walk). Real unionism makes things better, not worse, for working people.
Screw widows and orphans, says Swaggery Mayor Adams
Well, not necessarily orphans, but you get the idea. Certain police and fire unions cover widows after losses. I’m hearing there was a labor management meeting on Friday, and the city said the stabilization fund was virtually bankrupted, and that it would therefore no longer pay for widows’ drug plans. Unions would need to pick up the slack. Some unions may not be able to, I hear. Lo sentimos, viudas. Sorry, but Mayor Adams has other things to worry about.
How did this come about? Mulgrew, the Unity Caucus, and their fellow MLC geniuses presented the city with one billion of the 1.8 billion fund back in 2014 in exchange for a pretty miserable pattern bargain. This time it was UFT, rather than DC37, inflicting it upon the rest of the city. Mulgrew and Unity remain the undisputed champs at surrendering our health care for sub-inflationary contracts.
Loyal for LeRoy—the Unity charm offensive
Unity Chair LeRoy Barr has ordered Unity members to some big meeting a week from today at Westinghouse High School. Having sold out our health care, and having overwhelmingly lost two elections, there’s no joy in Unityville. Concurrently, likely under LeRoy’s orders, they’re suddenly visiting my Facebook and Twitter pages. There’s projection, name calling, and various people spouting vitriol without providing real names.
Their arguments are beyond absurd. Over on Twitter Unity suggested all doctors would take Aetna MA. despite the many members whose doctors told them directly they would not. In fact, the Work-Bites article quotes a TRW retiree who lost his doctor with Aetna MA. Unity also contended that the new Whatever to replace Emblem would be as good or better than what we have now (even though the Great Leader now claims to oppose it). But I love that they're trolling me. Maybe I’ll get a full column out of it.
Give a hospital, take a hospital
There’s a lot of talk about Memorial Sloan Kettering, and its disgraceful inability to come to an agreement to help the people who serve its community. Teachers teach children of those who work there. Police and firefighters preserve their safety. But screw us all, says MSK, they need more of our money or we can all just drop dead, perhaps literally.
On the same day Unity’s Mulgrew excluded retirees from the UFT Town Hall, he sent us an email that the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) had some kind of health concierge agreement. That’s fine, I guess.
A real issue, though, is that HSS has a contract just like MSK. Like all contracts, it will expire and need to be renegotiated. What out-of-pocket costs will pop up for members, if it’s even renewed? Members deserve better, as do all New Yorkers, as do all Americans. While we’re divided nationally, while we wait for our country to catch up, perhaps we can work to craft and pass a New York Health Act that will work for all New Yorkers, including city workers who’ve moved out of state.
We will protect our health care.
There’s nothing more important than our health. Sometimes our younger members don’t understand that, and it’s on us to school them. As chapter leader, I always met with new members in September. Among other things, I urged them to sign up for health insurance immediately.
Once, I learned months later that a new teacher in my department had not bothered to sign up. I recall tracking her all over the building, finally finding her, and having her ask what the big deal was. I told her about health costs in these parts, and about catastrophic medical bankruptcies. I managed to persuade her that healthy though she was she was not, in fact, Supergirl. She filled out the papers that day.
I sincerely hope she’s never had a sick day since, but just in case, I’m glad she’s covered. We really need a way to cover everyone.
I hope you are healthy and strong, and I hope you get the care you need when you aren’t. It’s on us to save not only ourselves, but also those who follow us. We have a lot of work ahead of us.
I’m all in.
That was the longest short take I ever read
Power to the People!