UFT Unity Is Passionate About Congestion Pricing

Your health, not so much.

From reading this column, you may have gotten the impression that all Unity does is make terrible health deals for the whole city, run RTC meetings where no one is allowed to vote on anything, or publicly celebrate ageism. But they do much more than that. For example, Unity absolutely opposes congestion pricing.

I don’t have a position on congestion pricing, so whatever yours may be, I’m fine with it. Personally, I’d just as soon scratch my eyes out as drive into Manhattan. I’d rather use the LIRR or park in Queens and take the subway. Still, I remember one day during the pandemic when the only place I could book my wife a Covid vaccine was a Walgreen’s on the Upper West Side.

Should another day like that arise, I’m sure congestion pricing will piss me off as much as it does everyone else. It’s just one more indignity on top of the thirty bucks to park the car. In fact, if you drive there every school day, that’s $1620 a year. That’s almost as much as Unity wanted those hilarious fixed-income retirees to pay to retain their insurance.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Michael Mulgrew does not want to pay nine bucks each day when he drives to Manhattan from Staten Island. Probably he will fume about it as he parks for free in the underground garage at 52 Broadway, the space and building our dues paid for. How dare they charge him? Those bastards!

What, does the city expect that he, Michael Frigging Mulgrew, should take that lousy Staten Island Ferry every day, and walk five minutes to work? Is he supposed to mix with the bootless and unhorsed, drinking that crappy coffee they sell on the boat? He already pays the frigging EZ pass, albeit at the discounted Staten Island rate, and now it’s another nine bucks a day? Sure, he makes over 350K, and sure, he has an expense account that will knock your socks off. But it’s the principle of the thing.

A man has to have a code.

So it’s important that Unity devote time and money to battle this frigging thing. After all, it’s only dues. Or COPE. Or whatever. Duespayers will never know the difference. Heck, maybe the ones that actually drive into Manhattan every day, masochists though they may be, will catch a break and vote for Unity—if they manage to stop this thing. It could be a campaign slogan:

Sure, we’re openly ageist, degrading your health care, and the worst negotiators on earth, but we fought congestion pricing.

There are, of course, places where it’s appropriate to charge people more. For example, if you get dumped into Unity’s Medicare Advantage and want your doctor to decide whether or not you need that heart surgery, you might need to pony up 5-10K each for real Medicare. If Unity has its way, Aetna can decide for you, perhaps using AI, or having some live bean counter decide just how many beans you merit. Or don’t.

After all, Aetna will spare no expense trying to spare Aetna every possible expense. In fact, Aetna admitted in court it would deny procedures. And the court said this plan would cause irreparable harm to retirees. Mulgrew says that’s not true, even if Aetna admits it, and that’s why UFT will support neither our court cases nor our legislative remedies. But Unity’s accomplished way more than that.

Didn’t we cleverly negotiate a 7% return on your TDA, while all other city employees still get 8.25%?

Visionary leadership from UFT Unity. After deals like that, Unity expects us to stop bitching about how they sold us out to Aetna Medicare Advantage, let alone the tiered care and premiums awaiting everyone else.

But hey, Michael Mulgrew has stood up and said he opposes it. Not only that, but he’s written one or two letters saying he did. And by the way, these were not just any letters. They were strongly worded letters.

Sure, the letters came back, saying he had no standing to submit them. And sure, no one bothered to remedy the issues and submit them properly, But hey, it’s the thought that counts.

Now Unity Big Shots are off bellyaching somewhere that Marianne Pizzitola, along with NYC retirees, managed to submit one of those letters, under the auspices of some other union. Who the hell do those cheeky bastards think they are? If Unity wants to write letters that go nowhere and accomplish nothing, NYC Retirees have no right to screw up their plans!

Didn’t UFT Unity try to offer retirees a golden opportunity to pay for the health care they now get for free?

And hey, if they can’t afford to pay five thousand dollars per couple, per year, this year (because who knows what it will cost next year), they can get by without that frivolous heart surgery. After all, the union fought the good fight on this congestion pricing thing, and face it, they’re never gonna be able to afford some Manhattan doctor anyway, so what’s the biggie?

Before I forget, don’t feel left out if you’re in-service. Mulgrew’s plan to replace Emblem/ GHI with something 10% cheaper (for the city) should be out any minute now. I’d bet you, though, that it won’t rear its ugly head until after the UFT election in May. Then, if they manage to win, Unity can dump you Wherever and give you three full years to forget about it.

What good is your health if it costs nine bucks to drive in Manhattan?

And heck, if Unity loses, so much the better. They can blame the opposition for whatever crap program shows up, and if there are premiums, they can just say they opposed them. What difference does it make that they agreed to them, in writing, when they sold us out to the city?

Unity is never, ever wrong. Otherwise, how could they muster the audacity to applaud someone for using juvenile memes to ridicule a protected group?

The important thing to consider, as far as Unity is concerned, is that they took a stand against congestion pricing. So if your doctor is out of network, if you can’t afford whatever it costs to retain your health care, if your compensation increases don’t keep up with inflation, or even if you’re just sick and tired of ostensible leaders who ridicule protected groups, that’s (possibly) nine bucks in your pocket every time you make the egregious error of driving into Manhattan.

Take that, all you folks whining about a better contract.