The Retiree Advocate slate received 17,226 votes, or 63 percent of the total, while Unity got 10,114 votes. The Retiree Advocate caucus, led by rank-and-file organizers, has fought against the city of New York’s efforts to switch their retired member’s health insurance from Medicare to Medicare Advantage.

Bennett Fischer who was elected as chapter leader, said “We’re teachers, we oppose the privatization of education. We should be equally opposed to the privatization of our great health care system”. Fischer also explained that he wants to bring democracy to the chapter. The retired teachers chapter has about 70 thousand total members.

The post Rank-and-File Organizing Leads to Upset Win in UFT Retiree Chapter first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Rank-and-File Organizing Leads to Upset Win in UFT Retiree Chapter appeared first on Labor Today.

Many medicare eligible NYC retirees live in our community.  We devoted years of service to NYC  working as EMTs, Police, Fire, Sanitation, Nurses, and Educators often  accepting smaller paychecks than private sector jobs offer due to the promise of continued, excellent health benefits when we retire.

However, we retirees have been in the fight of our lives for the past three years after learning that the city, along with the Municipal Labor Committee, and its current controlling bosses, (Michael Mulgrew from the  UFT, Henry Garrido of DC 37, and Harry Nespoli of the Sanitation Union), were about to change our fully subsidized healthcare which for most of us is traditional Medicare-plus-GHI-Senior Care Medicare, to an inferior Medicare Advantage Plan – without our knowledge or our support.

These private plans often  diminish healthcare at a time in one’s life when more and better healthcare is needed.

Three successful lawsuits by the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees (nycretirees.org) are being appealed by the City of NY and so the fight against this healthcare conversion continues.

Fortunately, retired UFT members will have the opportunity this May to fight back by taking control of their union chapter. We will be able to vote out the Unity leaders who are responsible for the healthcare changes,  in the upcoming Retired Teacher Chapter election and replace them with leadership that will truly act in our best interests.

I encourage all UFT retirees to vote for the entire Retiree Advocate Slate on which I am proud to be running in an officer position. This will send a strong message to the Unity leadership that their job is to represent and improve benefits/conditions for their members, both active and retired, instead of selling them out.

Gloria Brandman

The writer is a UFT retiree and an officer candidate in the upcoming Retired Teacher Chapter elections.

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Fight for Retirees Continue first appeared on Labor Today.

The post LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The Fight for Retirees Continue appeared first on Labor Today.