Concerns About Retiree Healthcare Swirl Around New TWU, MTA Pact
Several active union and retired members expressed concern to Work-Bites that under the terms and conditions of the new contract as distributed retirees could lose the unfettered access to traditional Medicare (Option I) they say they currently enjoy, as one of three options offered through the existing union contract.
By Bob Hennelly
Editor’s Note: This story has been revised from a previously published version.
The tentative contract deal reached earlier this week between TWU Local 100 and the MTA provides for “solid annual raises of 9.8 percent compounded over three years-and $4,000 in Essential Worker Cash Bonus payments-that are substantially better than the city pattern,” according to the union’s press release announcing the deal.
Back in February, DC 37, which represents close to 90,000 municipal workers inked a five-year deal with Mayor Adams covering from May 2021 to May 2025 which called for three percent annual raises with 3.25 percent in the fifth and final year.
Both contracts reflected management’s concerns over worker retention with the municipal pact providing a one-time $3,000 ratification bonus and the MTA offering a more generous two step “Essential Worker Cash Bonus payment with $3,000 upon the contract’s full ratification by the rank and file with another $1,000 coming to employees Oct. 31 of next year.
Both contracts were being negotiated while workers’ wages were still being eroded by inflation that’s somewhat moderated from its near historic 8.5 percent last summer. According to the most recent Department of Labor data, wage gains continued to be outpaced by inflation, which is hovering around five percent.
Over 110 TWU Local 100 members died as a consequence of Covid, and their families have received the $500,000 special death benefit. In the initial first wave of the deadly virus, MTA management pushed back against Local 100 members wearing N-95 masks, a course of action it eventually reversed after prodding from the workers and the union. Under the terms of the new agreement, healthcare insurance coverage will be extended to the families of the union members who died after contracting the deadly virus.
Early on in the pandemic, the union sought out the independent scientific expertise of New York University School of Global Public Health to survey the union workforce. In October of 2020, the NYU research found at that point in the pandemic nearly 25 percent of Transport Workers Union Local 100 members had contracted the coronavirus, and 90 percent of them feared getting it at work.
Under the pending labor pact, maternity/paternity leave will increase from two Company-paid weeks to four Company-paid weeks with birth mothers to receive Company-paid eight weeks of Recovery Leave before their maternity/paternity kicks in.
Articulated bus operators will see their differential bumped by $2 per hour.
“It’s a good contract if you are a Bus Operator but falls short for the other departments,” said Roberto Martinez, a Bus Operator at the Jackie Gleason Depot, and critic of the current leadership. “Considering the 170 lost lives across the MTA to Covid, and the fact we Members, not Management nor the Union, kept the city moving, we Members deserve more. It’s not a great contract nor is it a poor contract, it’s a ‘fair’ contract. The so-called “essential” bonus is a snare to get the Members to bite.”
NYCT Subway Conductor John Ferretti, with the Local 100 Fightback caucus, called the deal a “slap in the face” to the workers killed by Covid, as well as “the tens of thousands of transit workers who suffered during the global pandemic and have had their standard of living savaged by inflation caused by corporate greed. By the end of the three-year contract members will actually be experiencing a wage cut and continued erosion of their purchasing power.”
The TWU Local 100’s Executive Board voted 39 to 2 to accept the contract deal which now will be submitted to the union’s 40,000 rank and file members for their approval over the next several weeks by mail ballot. The three-year deal is the first one completed under the leadership of Local 100 President Richard Davis, who was promoted to the top leadership post late last year after Tony Utano stepped down.
“These victories, and others you will see in this package, were not easily obtained,” Davis said in a statement. “The MTA took a hardline stance, not wanting to give an inch of ground on wages or benefits. In fact, the MTA wanted us to pay for our own raises and contract improvements through significant concessions and givebacks, including doubling our paycheck deductions for healthcare from two percent to 4 percent, and expanding OPTO with the removal of conductors from trains. Those demands were defeated.”
Davis asserted in that same update to members that the union had “enhanced medical coverage for retirees. In the great tradition of trade unionism, we are taking care of our members as well as the old, the young and the sick.”
Several active union and retired members expressed concern to Work-Bites that under the terms and conditions of the new contract as distributed retirees could lose the unfettered access to traditional Medicare (Option I) they say they currently enjoy, as one of three options offered through the existing union contract.
“I have what’s called Option I, and it’s traditional Medicare where your doctor is the decision maker — not some bean counter in a for profit Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan,” said Tommy McNally, a retired bus operator and TWU safety inspector. “I had a friend whose doctor said he needed an injection and Aetna denied him. The doctors don’t have the time to argue with these people or to do the paperwork. People give up and that’s how they make their money. If the doctors say you need something, you should get it.”
McNally said his review of the new contract doesn’t have his current option listed.
The decision by Mayor Adams and the city’s Municipal Labor Committee to force the city’s 250,000 retired civil servants into Aetna Medicare Advantage to realize hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies has sparked widespread protest from retirees who want to maintain their access to traditional Medicare.
Several groups of New York City municipal retirees, led by the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] continue to protest the push into Medicare Advantage — an effort dating back to the de Blasio administration — citing a profit-making business model that relies on delaying and denying people care through the use of prior authorizations. Roughly 1,000 retired civil servants and their supporters rallied outside the gates of City Hall ahead of an April 11 City Council hearing to protest the Aetna contract.
The 21-page proposed TWU contract released by the union never mentions Medicare Advantage per se but offers details on two options of “TWU Enhanced Benefits Coverage” that the MTA and TWU agree “will not be a diminishment of benefits for Medicare eligible retirees.”
“Nowhere is there a mention of Medicare Advantage but in speaking to retirees they said there used to be three plans now there are just two and they appear to have taken away the one with traditional Medicare,” said Ferretti, with the caucus Local 100 Fightback. “Your doctor doesn’t determine what’s medically necessary, Aetna does. They knew what kind of struggle went on with New York City retirees. They knew this would be unpopular. The retirees should have a vote.”
“I am still researching this,” said Seth Rosenberg, an active train operator and member of Local 100 Fightback. “I want traditional Medicare when I retire. I feel very strongly I want control of my healthcare. I don’t want Medicare Advantage because it’s for insurance companies to make money by being gatekeepers and by denying care and limiting my options.”
In a statement in response to a Work-Bites query TWU Local 100 said there was “no comparison” to New York City’s Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan for its retirees.
“There is no comparison the coverage for our retirees is far superior,” TWU Local 100 asserted. “Part of the reason is that we have had Medicare Advantage options for more than a decade with locked in standards and requirements that the coverage and service cannot be diminished. Aetna can’t now put in hoops to jump when those hoops have not been in there all these years. We are actually improving coverage - significantly. There are massive improvements.”
The union statement continued. “We demanded millions of dollars in federal funds go to the TWU Enhanced Retiree Medical Coverage with the two Aetna Options, including an improved Option 1, which features zero co-pays for generic drugs, emergency room visits, primary care, for preventative care and hospitalization.”
Specifically, the union maintains “members and spouses both will get $500 ($1,000 total) for Medicare Part B reimbursement. Currently, only $297 is available for a retired member. Coverage continues in all states; Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, with Medicare providers accepting Aetna payment. Option 2 continues to have modest co-pays and FULL standard Medicare Part B reimbursement.”
The MTA is reserving comment on the contract.
“The union is now commencing their ratification process with membership, and during this time, the MTA will not comment on the tentative agreement until the union’s process has concluded,” said John J. McCarthy, MTA’s Chief of Staff for External Relations, in a statement. “We are grateful for the leadership of Governor [Kathy] Hochul and the New York State Senate and Assembly for passing a budget that secures mass transit, and we acknowledge the hard work and dedication of both negotiating sides to reach this point.”