Following Monday's completely successful retiree showing at the City Council, the Council would be ignoring the will of the retirees if they were to change Administrative Code 12-126. Marianne Pizzitola and her New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees completely outorganized the UFT and DC 37. Opposition to Medicare Advantage (Mulgrewcare) is strong.
The Retirees also sued to stop the copayments Michael Mulgrew and the Municipal Labor Committee agreed to that started last year. Marianne's lawyers were ready and they, not Mulgrew, sued. The retirees have won an injunction to stop the copays. Mulgrew has reacted with a strange email that he and Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy sent:
Dear James,
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank on Jan. 11 issued a preliminary injunction against the city, EmblemHealth and GHI that temporarily bars them from charging any of the co-payments in the GHI Senior Care plan that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.
We told the city, the Municipal Labor Committee and EmblemHealth that we are informing our retirees that they don’t need to pay those co-pays as of today, pending a final decision in the lawsuit or other court rulings.
If your doctor’s office or medical provider still requires you to pay this co-pay because they are not yet aware of the court ruling, you should pay the co-pay and keep the receipt.
If this preliminary injunction becomes a final ruling upheld on appeal, we will work to recoup every penny that our retirees have spent on these co-pays since they went into effect on Jan. 1, 2022.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew, UFT President
Tom Murphy, Retired Teachers Chapter Chair
The implication is that the UFT had something to do with this lawsuit. They had nothing to do with it. It was filed by Marianne's lawyers. Mulgrew was a major player in agreeing to the copayments.
This is from 2021 from the Professional Staff Congress (CUNY professors union that I am honored to be part of):
The NYC Office of Labor Relations (OLR) and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) negotiated the copays PRIOR to their agreement to move most NYC retirees from traditional Medicare to the privatized Medicare Advantage plan. The copays were scheduled to go into effect much earlier, but implementation was delayed until 1/1/22. We alerted members at our December chapter meeting of the impending copays. Advance notice, however, doesn’t make them more palatable.
Mulgrew negotiated the copays that he now wants to be refunded because of 12-126 which he is trying to get the City Council to weaken. Does he have a clue?
Marianne slams him much better than I ever could in her latest video. Mulgrew does need a "Come to Jesus" moment.
I think the members of Unity Caucus and the wider UFT need to have that come to Jesus moment too.
10 comments:
If there are ANY Unity supports of Mulgrew, the time has come for you to realize that the cult of Unity is over. Your cushy, double pension job is done and you need to remember where you came from. Please stop sucking off the teat of Mulgrew and remember where you came from.
There’s no way, no how, Mulgrew should be able to survive this. He’s been proven a liar, an opportunist and worse of all, not only disloyal, but perfidious to his own members. Truly a disgusting and prime example of a monarchical, handpicked ‘leader’ - (thank you again, Randi Weingarten). He should be made to answer for his treachery, and there should be a call to arms to oust him once and for all.
Oh but he will survive. I don't think this is on most active teachers radar at all. And for most, it's happening to others, not them. They are so busy trying to keep their heads above water trying to lay low doing their lesson plans and trying to avoid taking a hit from Danielson. Most of the newer teachers are not even going to make it to retirement anyhow. The UFT has already done the worst that they could possibly do to us during the pandemic when they sent us back in the building in the initial lockdown time. And Mulgrew survived.
As a matter of fact, Mulgrew used the copays as a selling point for Med Disadvantage. At the RTC Healthcare Committee meeting in July 2021 - when we met with the Alliance CEOs - Mulgrew, and Emblem CEO Karen Ignani, informed us the Senior Care copays were coming. He said there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. It was a done deal, like the ebb and flow of the tides, or the passage of time - out of his hands. Ignani concurred; so regrettable. So, only a delusional fool would opt out of copay-free Mulgrewcare!
To Teacher Mom: I agree with you that the healthcare debacle is not on most teachers minds at this time. However, it WILL effect them because any changes to retiree healthcare means that the exact same plan will be forced on all inservice members. Those teachers might soon wake up and realize that they got put in a shitty Mulgrewcare plan and will be wondering what the hell happened.
Can you explain how these union representatives end up with a double pension? Are they paid as teachers even though they are not in the classroom?
Contractually, the UFT officers are allowed fully credited leaves from their City jobs so they get their City pension as well as their UFT pension. We pay for both through taxes and dues.
Although I do not have a crystal ball, I predict that if the Medicare debacle does not work out the way the city and MLC want then Mulgrew will retire and leave the mess for somebody else to clean up.
I agree with Sha - except I think he's gone either way. Maybe get hired as an exec with Emblem. Unity people are not very happy with this debacle.
Marianne you are the best a huge thankyou
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