NYC Retirees Protest Attempts to Push Them into Privatized Health Care

We reprint below an article from the labor website Work-Bites by its editor Joe Maniscalco. Reprinted by permission.

NYC municipal retirees march down Broadway this week protesting the city’s ongoing campaign to push them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. Photos by Joe Maniscalco

By Joe Maniscalco

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] can expect to catch a lot more hell from municipal retirees refusing to be pushed into a for-profit, privatized, Medicare Advantage plan.

Roughly one-hundred determined retirees, some of them 80-plus, rallied outside the UFT headquarters at 52 Broadway on Wednesday afternoon before marching onto the MLC offices at 55 Water Street.

“I want to keep the Medicare Senior Care I have now,” 74-year-old DC 37 retiree Aurea A. Mangual told Work-Bites. “I fear I’m not gonna be covered for the Medicare benefits that I have — and these [insurance] people are going to be denying me like they deny other people. If I need an MRI, if I need an echo cardiogram — they’re gonna start denying me, and by the time they approve it — it may be too late for me.”

Mangual recently spent 10 days in the hospital after suffering a heart attack. She spent another nine days hospitalized after complications from a certain medication caused unexpected bleeding and required a blood transfusion.

“I’m due for another surgery,” Mangual said. “I was never sick before, but now I’m starting to feel old, I guess. Everything is falling down, and even though I try to take care of my health, if it runs in the family, things happen.”

Dr. Donald E. Moore is an attending physician at NY Methodist Hospital, as well as a teacher at Weill Cornell Medical College, NYU and Hunter College. He is also board member of the New York Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.

On Wednesday, he told retirees they can expect to lose portability, access and choice if the Adams administration and the heads of the MLC are successful in pushing them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan.

“There’s so many plans — hundreds of those Part C plans, which means every doctor can’t be in every plan,” Dr. Moore said. “You may find one of your doctors in a plan. But the doctor [your other] doctor wants to refer you to, or you want to go to, will not be in your plan.”

“Fragmenting” traditional Medicare, Dr. Moore added, will only end up costing municipal retirees more money they can ill afford on limited incomes.

More than a year fighting against Medicare Advantage in the courts and on the streets has left many municipal retirees wondering who the heads of the MLC — UFT President Michael Mulgrew, DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido and Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association President Harry Nespoli — actually represent.

“We need to let Michael Mulgrew know he is representing us — not Mayor Adams and his desire to save on healthcare costs,” Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee [CROC] organizer Sarah Shapiro told the rally. “I think Mike Mulgrew has lost his way; he’s not quite sure what his role is. Is he representing us and the in-service workers — or is he working behind closed doors with Mayor Adams — the so-called arbitrator Martin Sheinman, who has absolutely no jurisdiction over any of this right at this moment — and Henry Garrido and Harry Nespoli.”

Work-Bites reached out to the heads of the MLC for comment, but has not received a response.

“What we really need after a year of bitter fighting about this — is a time-out,” fellow CROC member Martha Cameron said this week.

The organization — one of a large group of New York City retiree organizations fighting to maintain their traditional Medicare coverage — supports a proposal to utilize a half-billion-dollars over the next two years from the city’s Retiree Health Benefits Trust to shore up the ailing Health Insurance Stabilization Fund — from which roughly $1 billion was diverted during the Bill de Blasio era to help pay for UFT raises.

With the Health Stabilization Fund replenished, retirees say the city can then pursue real cost-cutting measures that don’t involve throwing municipal workers under the bus. Those measures include:

*Setting up a municipal self-insurance plan for all active workers, retirees and their dependents.

*Requiring lower costs from private hospitals.

*Consolidating union welfare fund drug plans to better negotiate lower rates for all.

*Auditing current insurance providers for fraud and waste.

*Clamping down on bad insurance management and inefficiencies.

“These are just some of the ways that we can make a longterm solution to these rising healthcare costs,” Cameron continued. “If we go with the plan the MLC and the city are currently fighting for — we do not solve the issue of the Stabilization Fund being used as a slush fund.”

Despite her health challenges, Mangual remains Associate Vice-President for Inter-Union Relations at the DC 37 Retirees Association.

On Wednesday, she reiterated a call made at an earlier DC Retirees Association meeting for members to stop donating to the group’s political action committee.

“Do not give them any more money,” she said, “because we don’t want them to use our money to help political people coming up, while they are hurting the retirees and [active] members.

by

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AND GRAD SCHOOL WORKERS REACH TENTATIVE PACT

A tentative agreement between two unions and the University of California may end the largest strike in the history of higher education, although the agreement must still be ratified by the unions’ membership. The vote taking place the week of Dec. 19 involves 48,000 teaching assistants and other graduate school workers – members of two unions affiliated with the United Auto Workers – who walked off the job Nov. 14. It had the support of most of the faculty and undergraduate students at the university’s campuses around the state.

Union leaders who were involved in the bargaining and the University of California officials hailed the agreement but some rank-and-file leaders were critical, which casts some doubt on its ratification. Under the proposed agreement the  lowest paid academic student employees, whose starting salary is $23,000, will get substantial pay raises of up to 55 percent over the next two and half years. There will also be increased health care and child care benefits.

The university of California relies heavily on graduate student workers in doing important lab research, grading papers, and providing instruction. California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed relief at the proposed pact.  A state budget agreement this year guaranteed funding increases for the university system for the next five years which, Newsom said, should pay for the cost of the new contracts without a tuition increase for students.

The pact has nation-wide implications. Graduate student workers are organizing into unions around the country, reacting to the fact that American universities have increasingly come to rely on graduate students to teach classes and handle other duties traditionally done by tenured faculty, with only a fraction of the pay and benefits. This yea alone graduate student employees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Clark University, Fordham University, New Mexico State University, Washington State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute all voted in favor of unionization.

The proposed contract has raised some opposition among union members who plan to vote “no” on it. While Rafael Jaime, president of one of the two UAW bargaining units involved in the negotiations, touted Friday’s agreement as a “historic” win, opponents of the pact urged its rejection. Their principal criticism is that the wage benefits won’t fully take place until the latter part of 2024 and would do little for academic workers living in high rent areas like Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area where many UC campuses are located. They charge that the contract abandoned the key demand to link wage gains and housing costs.

The vote ratification process will end Dec. 23.

NY Times, 12/16; Los Angeles Times, 12/16

by

OVER 500 AUTHORS GIVE STRONG SUPPORT TO HARPERCOLLINS STRIKERS

Striking workers at HarperCollins, one of the nations largest publishers, got a big boost in early December from over 500 leading authors. In a letter to the company, they expressed strong support for the workers in the editorial, marketing, design, and other departments who have been out on strike since Nov. 10.

Signers of the letter include Barbara Kingsolver, Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, and others including HarperCollins own authors and those associated with other publishers. “We stand with the people who mold and champion our work and ask that they be compensated justly and fairly for their labor,” the authors wrote. “We express deep concern about the long-term impact on our books and careers if the strike continues. Your refusal to reach an agreement with the union hurts us, your creators.” They vowed not to submit their work to HarperCollins until it reaches an agreement with the union.

The workers are demanding better pay, stronger union protections, and better family leave policies.

NPR, 12/8

by

AFT LEADER BLASTS POMPEO’S ATTACK ON TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS

In response to the attack on her and teachers unions, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten responded forcefully to the slander by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that she, not any of the world’s dictators is “the most dangerous person in the world.” In an interview with Semafor, Pompeo claimed that teachers’ unions are the most dangerous because “the filth they they’re teaching out kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing.”

“We fight for what kids and communities need,” Weingarten responded. In contrast with Pompeo who ran errands for Trump, pleasing dictators around the world, she said, her union fights for schools “that are safe and welcoming where kids learn how to think and work with others” and “against this kind of rhetoric and hate. Maybe spend a minute in one of the classrooms with my members and their students and you will get a real lesson in the promise and potential of America.”

Pompeo’s attack is another shot in the right-wing assault on public schools, teachers’ unions and inclusive curriculum. Across the country, they are campaigning to impose broad censorship of curriculum and books that do not reflect their view of the world and attacking teachers and school employees who do not reflect their thinking.

Common Dreams, 11/22

by

ONTARIO THREAT OF GENERAL STRIKE FORCES END OF ANTI-UNION LAW

Four days after he pushed  a law through the Ontario legislature outlawing labor’s right to strike, the governor was forced to announce its repeal. The humiliating retreat by the governor, Doug Ford was the result of a general strike call announced by the Canadian province’s labor movement set to begin Nov. 14.

Ford had rammed through the law in the face of stalled negotiations with the union which represents school employees other than teachers – education assistants, library workers, administrative assistants, custodians, early childhood educators, cafeteria workers, safety monitors, and social workers. In October after  months of fruitless talks, the union, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, voted 96.5 percent in favor of a strike. The strike took place anyway, amid threats that it was illegal and the unionbusting law would be enforced.

In response, the threat of a general strike against the law spread through the province rapidly as people rallied to the side of the union. Thousands joined the pickets Members of other unions were calling on their unions to join the strike. A committee was formed to plan a general strike. And finally Ford collapsed. He announced that the law would be repealed.

What a lesson in worker solidarity.

Labor Notes, 11/1

by

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA STRIKE ENTERS ITS SECOND WEEK

With tens of thousands of workers at the state’s university campuses still on strike, negotiations continue between the unions, affiliated with the United Auto Workers and the administration of the University of California. The strike, which began Nov. 14, involves some 48,000 teaching assistants, lab assistants, researchers and other UC employees.

Striking academic workers on the University of California, Berkeley, campus.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

At issue is pay which currently averages only $24,000 a year. Teaching assistants say that their rent alone takes up close to 60 percent of their wages. The university has offered an increase of only 5 percent the first year and 3 percent afterward which the union flatly rejected.

Campuses in the university system from Berkeley to San Diego were being picketed and many faculty members cancelled classes or transferred to Zoom rather than cross picket lines. “We’re the backbone of the university,” said Rafael Jaime, a doctoral student and president of UAW Local 2865, representing 19,000 teaching assistants, tutors, tutors, and other classroom workers. “We’re the ones who perform the majority of the teaching and the majority of the research.”

Graduate students have long been a way universities have avoided hiring more higher paid, tenured professors and saving money. Over the past year, these grad students around the country have voted to unionize and engage in collective bargaining to improve their conditions. They have successfully negotiated contracts at Columbia University and New York University and are seeking recognition at a number of other campuses.

NY Times, 11/14, KRON 4, 11/21

by

RE-EXAMINING LOWER MINIMUM WAGE FOR WORKERS WHO RELY ON TIPS

In the current tight labor market, an area that is currently coming under increasing scrutiny is the pay of workers who rely on tips for a living. Existing labor laws, both federal and in all but eight states, substantially modify prevailing minimum wage requirements. In these states, employers can pay tipped workers subminimum wages, resulting, in some cases, for the minimum wage for tipped workers to be as low as $2.13 an hour.

This has mostly affected workers in the restaurant industry where wages remain low and workers complain that they are often cheated by their employers out of their rightful tips, usually added onto credit cards. Many are immigrants who fear that there may be repercussions if they challenge employers they feel are withholding their tips. There are so many cases of employers cheating tipped workers that one former official of the Labor Department, David Weil, who headed the Wage and Hour Division, declared, “It’s baked into the model. And it’s very problematic.”

In some places, there have been steps to meet the problem. Michigan will scrap its subminimum $3.75 cents an hour for tipped workers in February. They will now be covered by the state regular minimum wage, set to rise from $9.87 to $12 an hour. Portland, Maine, has a referendum on the ballot this year to end subminimum base pay and raise the regular minimum wage to $18 an hour over a three year period. And the District of Columbia also has a ballot proposal to end the subminimum wage.

NY Times, 10/13

by

MICHIGAN NURSES WIN GROUNDBREAKING CONTRACT

Nurses at the University of Michigan hospital won a big victory Oct. 1 when they approved a contract with management that ends the impossible burden placed on them caused by the shortage of nurses nationwide.

That shortage has resulted in nurses working in extra-long shifts and neglect of the patients they serve. Their schedules were consistently changed and the hospital created an uncompensated on-call system and mandatory overtime. It became a routine strategy for the hospital to try to resolve the perpetual understaffing of nurses.

After six months of difficult negotiations and the threat of a strike, a contract was finally agreed upon and ratified by the nurses. It provides that nurses will not be used to resolve issues of short staffing; it was management’s responsibility to resolve the problem but not on the backs of its nurses.

“Our job is to take care of patients,” said Renee Curtis, president of the 6,200 member Michigan Nurses Association-University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council. “Our job is not to worry about who is being hired or how to hire or how to retain staff. That is management’s job.”

The problem dates back to the 1980s with the corporate takeover of health care systems and staff cutting became a way to cut costs and increase profits. Nurses have been demanding that staffing reflect a realistic nurse-to-patient ratio that accurately reflect the number of patients a nurse can care for. Otherwise, declared union member Anne Jackson, you’re just “running room to room putting out fires.” Another commented, “It can feel a lot of times in our health care system like nobody really gets the care that they deserve.”

This new Michigan contract breaks the ground for other nurses actions that can result in better patient care.

Jacobin, 10/8

by

RR AGREEMENT APPEARS TO BE BIG GAIN FOR WORKERS; IT NOW HEADS FOR VOTE

,

By now, much has been written about the narrowly averted railroad workers strike. Although salary issues are nearly always paramount in collective bargaining and was an issue here, the key sticking point was the punishing work schedules that was wreaking havoc on workers lives. Workers were expected to be on call at any time for weeks on end. They couldn’t take time off for a doctor’s appointment or a family emergency without being penalized with loss of pay beyond the loss of the day’s pay or possibly even fired.

The policy comes from a business model increasingly being adopted by other companies. It seeks to enhance its profits by cutting costs, which usually involves cutting the work force, thus cutting labor costs. It means that the existing labor force is pressured to do more and more to make up for it. Rail companies are now reported to be operating with 30 percent fewer employees than 20 or 30 years ago.

Thus, as the freight railroads have racked up record profits in recent years, their workers have suffered from burnouts, marriages and family lives have been upended, and workers’ health has been severely endangered by the scheduling policies.

Although all the details of the rail settlement have not been revealed in the press, it appears that the unions have gained important concessions on this. From initial reports, aside from important salary hikes, the companies have agreed to issue set schedules that allow workers to enjoy time off without being called back at the will of the company. They will also have days off for medical appointments or family emergencies without additional penalties.

The agreement now has to be ratified by votes of the membership of the 12 unions involved.

NY Times, 9/16

by

WRITING NEW BASEBALL CHAPTER, MINOR LEAGUERS VOTE OVERMINGLY FOR UNION

Most American baseball fans watching their favorite major league teams don’t think too much about the minor league players. If they do, it’s usually that these athletes are just being groomed for the high salaried majors.

But minor league players are among the most exploited people in the country with salaries that can be as low as $10,000 for the full season which amounts to less than the federal minimum. Their working conditions are miserable; up until this year the owners did not provide housing and players had to scrounge around looking to find shelter. When they are on the road, they endure long bus rides (no jet planes) and lousy meals. Most don’t make it to the majors and wind up with nothing when they hit their thirties and are let go for younger players. The teams used to be called “farm teams.” They are owned by major league organizations who have enjoyed record-breaking profits through lucrative TV contracts and as fans are rapidly coming back to the stadiums as the Covid epidemic recedes.

But the situation for 5,000 minor league players is about to change. In mid-September, they voted overwhelmingly to join the union that represents the major league players, the Major League Baseball Association. The union victory comes on the heels of the settlement of an eight-year-old federal lawsuit in August in which the owners were sued by minor leaguers over widespread violations of minimum wage laws. The settlement will result in some 23,000 current and former players sharing $185 million in back pay. The latest baseball unionization is part of the chapter that is unfolding all across the country as young workers, fed up with miserable pay and working conditions are discovering the meaning of solidarity and are forming unions.

And, breaking with the practice of other employers like Starbucks and Amazon, the union vote will not be challenged by the owners or brought to the NLRB. The players can now begin to look forward to collective bargaining with owners over their pay and working conditions like millions of other unionized workers.

The Nation, 9/16

by