Never Give Up, Never Give In!
Ninety-one-year-old New York City municipal retiree Evie Jones-Rich isn’t giving up today—how can you? Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Having spent the last three years following New York City retirees and their counterparts in other states beat back repeated attempts to force them into profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance, we at Work-Bites are probably feeling less anxious about what comes next in this frightening country than some others might be today.
That’s because the retired teachers, EMTs, administrative staffers, and other civil servants who have put their “golden years” on pause since 2021, and instead taken to the streets, courthouses, and halls of government to stop the private health insurance industry and its kowtowed lapdogs from stealing their hard-earned Medicare benefits have shown working class people something.
They’ve shown us that no one is riding in to save us—and, more importantly, they’ve shown us all that we do not need anyone to ride in and save us.
More than any other established union, worker alliance, or grassroots organization out there you wanna name—none of them has embodied the militant working class ethos of “When We Fight, We Win!” more powerfully than New York City municipal retirees and their counterparts in other states fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push.
They are a model and a source of inspiration for every working class person out there feeling beaten down and crushed under the corporatized wheels of the increasingly fascist state. And they are not alone. They are joined by increasing numbers New York City Transit workers also organizing and rebelling against the Medicare Advantage push, as well as marginalized home attendants determined to end the slavish 24-hour shifts the industry in the Empire State tells them they must work.
These working class heroes have been told a lot of things by the power elite. Everything from “It’s a state problem” and “It’s a financial decision,” to “We have no choice…because that’s the world.”
New York City home attendants stand in solidarity with municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push.
Nothing is sacred anymore—if it ever was. Take away the health insurance coverage 9/11 first responders and their spouses were promised? Use AI bots to make them jump through hoop after hoop before ultimately denying them the care they need? Sure—everything is transactional. Everything is, indeed, a “financial decision.” Just make sure you don’t mess with the important people’s money.
But the municipal retirees and excluded workers Work-Bites has been steadfastly covering since our inception have refused to accept that fundamental betrayal and, instead, put to shame all those putting their own careers and self-interests ahead of what they ought to know is right.
Cancer-stricken and arthritic, many in their seventies and eighties, every one of these working class heroes has shown more backbone and integrity than all of the bullies bent on robbing them combined.
And they’re winning. It’s been three years, and the City of New York still hasn’t been able to impose its profit-driven Medicare Advantage scheme on municipal retirees. Retirees keep winning in court to the chagrin of Mayor Eric Adams, and have even forced UFT President and powerful Medicare Advantage proponent Michael Mulgrew to back up.
“When We Fight, We Win!”
Maybe you haven’t had the opportunity like we at Work-Bites have had to be around these working class heroes, to be strengthened by their courage ,and uplifted by their spirit.
But it’s a big reason why we aren’t despairing about the ultimate fate of the nation today—and why we are more determined than ever to speak truth to power and report on the stories that matter most to working class people and their families.