New York City Municipal Retirees

Pension Ponzi Scheme by UFT & DC37!

Dear Retirees and Retirees in Training, 

The UFT & DC37 lied in 2021 when they said Medicare Dis-Advantage was better.   Garrido & Mulgrew lied when they said there were no prior authorization and we can see any doctor.  They lost in court, they imposed copays.  They lost in court, they appealed - 5 times and counting.  They agreed to impose the "nuclear option" and eliminate ALL plans except the Medicare Dis-Advantage and they lost in court then too and the City appealed.  We head back to court in May. 

We still fight the copays - but we are being told they aren't going away and more are coming with deductibles because they needs raises! (This includes active workers!)

They are finalizing the active worker/under 65 plan and they are talking about the same things as before - increasing copays, increasing deductibles, prior authorization and tiering hospitals with higher copay/deductible schemes depending on which hospitals you go to according to someone who overheard Henry Garrido talking - oh and eliminating choices of plan.  Because the new plan is more expensive, they have to bog it down to reduce the city's premium and if there are more choices of plan, the insurance company won't get a big a profit - so they want it all.  If they leave the choices - you will pay more.

Of course Henry Garrido who Medicare DisAdvantage was implemented under, isn't telling his members all this - and we were told Henry made everyone sign a non disclosure to keep the secrets both in DC37 and MLC secret committees.  Imagine, E-Boards and union members around the city have no idea what is being hidden and built into their health plan that is supposed to be finalized by April and announced after Mulgrew's UFT election (so as to not piss off anyone that might vote for him!) and implemented January 1, 2026. 

Not only did they do this, then Garrido & Mulgrew in another secret back room deal many UFT bloggers and us exposed- hid a pension bill in the NYS Budget that would reduce what the city has to pay into the pension systems of NYCERS, TRS, BERS by $600 MILLION/year for several years.  Does that number sound familiar.  Fire & police pension systems told them NO! 

Garrido/Mulgrew both said they were against the legislation only after it was exposed.   But NEITHER have activated their members or retirees to lobby against it.  THEY DID ACTIVATE THEM TO LOBBY AGAINST RETIREES LEGISLATION HOWEVER!   Garrido and his AFSCME run Retirees Administrator send out emails & links against retirees intro 1096, lobbying against our state legislation and Mulgrew has his staff in City Hall lobbying against 1096.  Shills..  all of them.   They don't know how to negotiate so they steal from people no longer in the union or managerials who were never in a union, try to force privatized Medicare on retirees, reduce funding to the pension system that could impact the City's ability to pay in the future years of the balloon payments and cause a tier 7 or reduced wages... Have we not learned anything from the "kick the can down the road" mentality?  Guess not.  And they will be on some beach drinking margaritas when that chicken comes to roost.   Mulgrew admitted to working on this for TWO YEARS, which we knew already - and called them out on - as we were informed they did it when we won Bentkowski in 2023! Garrido has amnesia.

Please continue to call/email the legislature in the links we provided.   If you no longer live in NY, do it too because this is important!   The campaigns we have here. 

Focus for this week on #1 - calling the state on the pension bill.  Tell them NOT to support Re-Amortizing NYC Pension Liabilities in Budget Bill 70043-04-5, A BUDGET BILL submitted by Governor Hochul.

Our Homework assignments are now on our website.  Please concentrate on the first one to the state. The budget must be passed and this is of major importance.   Call and email daily!   

The Second Priority is the City Council email/call campaigns.

There are no court updates.

Dates to remember: 

April 17th 6:30 pm IN PERSON MAYORAL FORUM WE ARE HOSTING!   REGISTRATION COMING! 

May 15th, Registration to come to Albany to hear the oral argument in our case coming soon. 

Friday Night Live Update

Please join us at 6 PM Friday night for our weekly LiVE! This week we will be hosting Scott Stringer who is running for Mayor.

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FaceBook Link: CLICK HERE

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