Work-Bites by Joe Maniscalco
Michelle Keller, Stu Eber and Neal Frumkin (l to r) join New York City municipal retirees fighting the campaign to privatize their health care at a rally outside the DC 37 Retirees Association office on March 6. Photo/Joe Maniscalco
Published: Mar 7, 2024
Angry municipal retirees do not care what AFSCME Retirees Director and newly-appointed DC37 Retirees Association Administrator Ann Widger says the union’s decision to put the retirees chapter in receivership last month, they insist, is retribution for fighting back against ongoing efforts to privatize their health care.
Plain and simple.
“You want to see me die but I’m not going to die,” cancer survivor and former school crossing guard Sally Robinson said this week. “I’m gonna still be around and what these people are trying to do to us is just not right.”
Robinson was one of more than 100 municipal retirees from several different organizations successfully working together to block the City of New York’s ongoing campaign to privatize their health care who gathered en mass outside the DC 37 Retirees Association’s Manhattan offices on Wednesday.
AFSCME, the parent union of District Council 37 the largest public sector union in New York City swooped in and suspended DC 37 Retirees Association officers on Feb. 22, after putting the group into receivership, claiming, in part, that they failed to properly file their tax returns.
Retirees, however, call that bunk and say the real reason for the AFSCME takeover has everything to do with the ongoing legal battle to save real Medicare from the onslaught of privatization and Medicare Advantage.
New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees President Marianne Pizzitola says those trying to push Medicare Advantage on retirees have “woken a sleeping giant.”
“What [AFSCME] did to DC 37 Retirees was an attempt to stop funding the litigation so that it would cripple our fight,” retired EMS first responder and NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola said. “[But] what that did is make it stronger because what that did is make more of you upset that they tried to silence them.”
Suspended DC 37 Retirees Association officers have an AFSCME hearing coming up on March 14, but already those involved say the restrictive process where they are barred from representation has all the hallmarks of a “kangaroo court.”
“After the retirees helped support maintenance of traditional Medicare benefits through three lawsuits and a second City Council hearing, AFSCME began to threaten the DC37 Retirees Association based on charges of misusing our retirees’ dues,” Stu Eber, president of the Council of Municipal Retiree Organizations declared from a prepared statement. “When the RA resumed financial support for NYCOPSR, AFSCME then used the accountant’s failure to file IRS Form 990 to take over the administration of the RA. This subterfuge speaks for itself constructive criticism of union policy will not be tolerated by your national union.”
Widger issued a statement the same day as the DC 37 Retiree Association rally pushing back against the assertion that suspending the group’s officers was a retaliatory act.
“While the reasons for the Administratorship are clear and serious, some will continue to believe that the current debate around retiree health care for New York City retirees is to blame,” Widger said in a statement. “It is not. Differences over policy and strategy – even very heated ones – sometimes happen. But they do not rise to the level of needing to place an affiliate under Administratorship. A decision like this is never taken lightly and is only reserved for very serious violations. Sadly, the situation at the Association met this threshold.”
COMRO President Stu Eber (with mic) says his organization will continue to “work together with our DC 37 Retirees Association colleagues for healthcare justice and equity for all New York City municipal employees, active and retired.”
Julie Schwartzberg, a member of the Cross-Union Retirees Organizing Committee, expressed profound disappointment with her former union.
“We have been in the streets for three years [fighting back against privatization and Medicare Advantage] and we are not stopping,” she said. “This is just the beginning of a real fight. I was an officer in the DC 37 local and they fought for me. The union fought for me, they fought for gay rights for me. What happened to them? It just breaks my heart. We are going to fight back and we are going to win. It is so disgusting what they are doing to their members and retirees.”
Retiree Michelle Keller called the DC 37 Retirees Association “true to the fight to save and preserve traditional Medicare for all Americans” and “true to our sisters of color in all of our unions who do the work on minimum salaries because they love New York City front-facing, vulnerable and often unseen.”
Widger’s statement, in contrast, contains no such commitment to preserving and strengthening real Medicare only “making sure that retirees have the best health care possible.”
“My message to all our members is that this Administratorship is about putting the Retirees Association’s affairs back in order so we can continue to organize effectively for the issues they care about,” Widger said, “including making sure that retirees have the best health care possible.”
DC 37 retiree Aurea A. Mangual urged her fellow retired trade unionists to withhold vital support for union activities including withholding contributions to AFSCME PEOPLE, the union’s political action fund.
DC 37 retiree Aurea A. Mangual is urging her fellow retired trade unionists to boycott AFSCME’s political action campaigns.
“I was an organizer,” the heart attack survivor and septuagenarian said, “I fought for them…and I will never ever again volunteer to do phone banking…no money for the People program, nothing. They have a lobby day in Albany on March 12 no retirees should be in those buses, not one.”
Ninety-year-old municipal retiree Evie Jones Rich reminded AFSCME that retirees comprise a “volunteer army” that votes.
“Don’t touch my Medicare,” she said. “Last year, Aetna made $1 billion on the backs of retirees like you and me. We have right and justice on our side and they have money and greed on theirs. We will win.”
New York City municipal retirees successfully blocking Mayor Eric Adams’ administration from imposing a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan by Aetna on 250,000 city retirees will return to the courthouse on March 21. Those interested in attending the proceedings at 27 Madison Avenue are encouraged to arrive by 2 p.m.
“They can shut down an office,” said Bennett Fischer, a retired New York City school teacher who is part of the Retiree Advocate/UFT slate of candidates vying to win control of the Retired Teachers Chapter in May’s upcoming election. “But they can’t shut us up.”
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