Unity and MLC Actively Oppose New Legislation to Protect Medicare

But they've got talking points, so it's all good.

When you want to make something happen, you work for it. For example, NYC retirees, like me, have had traditional Medicare, premium-free for three years more than Unity intended us to. This is entirely due to the efforts of Marianne Pizzitola and NYC Retirees. I support them regularly, and so should you.

NYC Retirees are doing the work we pay Mulgrew and the Unity Patronage Cult to do. Were we solely dependent upon Michael Mulgrew and Unity, the ones who signed an actual loyalty oath to do whatever, we’d be paying quite a bit to retain our care—so much that a great many retirees could not afford it. 5K a year (to start) would be a hit to my little household as well—a cut in my pension.

I have to say—it’s a very tough week for those of us who advocate for public education. The 2024 GOP platform wants to expand “school choice,” end teacher tenure, and adopt merit pay for working teachers. They say they will not cut Medicare, and we shall see, but Project 2025 aims to make Medicare Advantage the default. If enacted, this could lead to the end of traditional Medicare.

Randi Weingarten told us that she would push for Medicare protections if a Democrat won the national election. That did not happen, of course, so her promises seem highly unlikely to bear fruit. Mulgrew’s empty gesture of a resolution at AFT now appears to mean even less than it did when he brought it up. Given the abysmal prospects of realizing any of their intentions, we really need to look locally.

And locally, we are once again pitted against our so-called leaders in efforts to protect real Medicare. A Work-Bites piece quotes NYC Council Member Robert Holden:

“Unfortunately, the MLC is waging war against retirees, pitting active members against them, while City Hall, under Mayor Adams, relentlessly fights to strip retirees of the healthcare they were promised—despite retirees winning repeatedly in court”

This is true, to an extent, at least. It’s certainly true that Unity and the Municipal Labor Committee sold us out in order to achieve the mediocre contracts for which they are renowned. I’d argue, though, that they also sold out in-service workers by promising to find a plan that would cost Eric Adams 10% less. Given Unity’s rampant misrepresentation of MA for retirees, (not to mention years of inflation) I don’t trust them to find a program as good or better for 1% less. Forget about 10.

After losing the retiree election, Unity took a stand against a new in-service plan, blaming the city. After all, Michael Mulgrew is a modern-day Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way, so nothing is ever his fault.

Unity also paid valuable lip service to opposing the move to Medicare Advantage, again blaming the city. However, Mulgrew still clings to misrepresentations about the MA plan. Here’s what he told RTC Chapter Chair Bennett Fischer:

We cannot, however, support this lawsuit, as there are many untrue allegations about the proposed AETNA plan. For example, it claimed that retirees would be denied access to doctors, prior authorizations would prevent retirees from receiving needed treatment and that retirees would be subject to high out-of-pocket costs. These allegations are patently false and the UFT would never have agreed to a plan that had this effect on our members. We cannot sign on to a lawsuit that spreads harmful misinformation.

Aetna admitted in court it would deny coverage. I don’t know about you, but I trust my doctors more than parasitic insurance companies. Doctors told retirees they would not accept the plan, and the NY State Supreme Court said as much. Meanwhile, Unity sends letters that have no effect whatsoever and expects us to rely on their good intentions. Unity refuses to support us in court cases that have, in fact, preserved our coverage for three years.

Of course, they don’t consult us. They don’t give us a vote.

Instead, they ask us to trust them and hope for the best. If we lose at the NY State Court of Appeals, Mulgrew claims he will help us. Aside from the fact his credibility is shot, I question the wisdom of waiting until we lose in the highest court in NY State before taking action. It’s abundantly clear Unity’s superficial reversal is based solely on losing the RTC election by a landslide.

Had that not happened, we’d still have monthly meetings in which Unity Bosses lectured us about quilling, told us how good we had it, and suppressed our voices, allowing voting on nothing whatsoever. They take us for rubes, and fully expect us to mistake their hollow gestures for action.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Work-Bytes piece goes on to discuss Intro 1096, a new City Council bill:

Intro. 1096 seeks to amend New York City’s Administrative Code to “preserve health care choice for retirees from city service” and compel the city to offer Medicare-eligible retirees and their Medicare-eligible dependents “at least one Medigap plan with benefits equivalent to or better than those available to City retirees and their dependents as of December 31, 2021.”

That sounds like a good solution to me. Furthermore, it would preclude the Mulgrew Tax, the co-pays set to begin January 1, 2025. However, the MLC, Unity included, opposes it, claiming the following:

"....the substance of the bill is preempted by state law and is illegal. While this bill was introduced under the guise of protecting retiree health benefits, it actually threatens them. History has shown that when benefits are removed from collective bargaining in favor of legislative control, they are subject to unilateral reduction.”

Given their history, I don’t trust MLC. Therefore I don’t accept it’s illegal until and unless it’s proven. MLC offers no such detail. They pushed the Advantage scam on us, and wanted to charge us 5K per annum per couple to retain Medicare. That was illegal, and was established as such in court. While they unsuccessfully tried to change the law to accommodate their scheme, the fact remains they don’t seem to know the law very well at all (let alone bother to study it before making their grand pronouncements).

You’d think our paid union representatives would want us to have a safety net, which is absolutely what this is. You’d think wrong. They oppose it. Protecting our health care is clearly not their priority.

As for “collective bargaining,” recent history has shown absolutely that the MLC’s interpretation seeks to strip us of the health coverage we’ve been promised our entire careers, or alternatively charge us 200 bucks each, per month to keep it. My father told me, when I began teaching, that I’d never get rich, but would enjoy great health coverage in retirement. Up until very recently, he’d been right.

The fact is, as retirees, we have no say whatsoever in collective bargaining. While we get a fractional vote on UFT leadership, we do not vote on contracts, at all. In fact, most city unions do not consider retirees to be members.Having union bosses “bargain” to diminish or charge for the insurance coverage we’ve been promised all our careers is unconscionable.

Oh, and those compensation increases they negotiate? We don’t get them either. How dare these people sell out our health care?

Diane Ravitch wrote of having heart surgery that was not for a standard reason. I myself just underwent a surgery for a non-standard reason. Aetna could have denied either of us, choosing to put our lives at risk to keep up their bottom line. Again, though Unity evidently did not get the memo, Aetna admitted in court it would deny doctor-recommended procedures.

We need to repurpose the MLC to serve members, to collectively negotiate improvements rather than potentially catastrophic losses. In case it isn’t yet evident to you, we need new leadership for that. We need leadership that will stand up to improve our health care, not reduce it. We need leadership concerned with putting money in our pockets rather than the city treasury. We need action, not good intentions. The nebulous “support” we get from Unity doesn’t cut it.

May is coming, folks. And we shall have our say, once again.