NYC Mayoral Candidates—Save One—Shrink in Support of Municipal Retirees…
DC37 Mayoral Panel [l to r]: Henry Garrido, Jessica Ramos, Michael Blake, Scott Stringer, Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander, and Zellnor Myrie. Photos courtesy of Michelle Keller
By Joe Maniscalco
None of the six candidates trying hard to succeed Mayor Eric Adams at last night’s nearly 2-hour mayoral forum at DC37 stood up for New York City municipal retirees fighting back against the Medicare Advantage push—save one.
“I’m gonna say it…I want to be able to protect our retirees,” State Senator Jessica Ramos told DC37 Executive Director Henry Garrido during the tail-end of the program. “The promises made to our retirees should be as sacred as the service you have given to the City of New York.”
About 15 members of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees—the group behind nearly a dozen court victories blocking ongoing efforts to strip 250,000 municipal retirees of their Traditional Medicare health care coverage—were in attendance.
“Unfortunately, none of the speakers, except for Jessica [Ramos] in the end really acknowledged the retirees with their worth in the community,” NYCOPSR member Michelle Keller told Work-Bites following the event. “No respect for the shoulders they are standing up on—but we do vote!”
Other Democratic Party participants in the panel discussion included New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, former New York State Assembly Member Michael Blake, New York State Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, and New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie.
Collage of New York City municipal retirees attending Wednesday night’s mayoral forum at DC37.
Ramos, who represents residents in Queens and chairs the State Senate’s Labor Committee, added, “I want to be Henry and DC37’s partner in being able to support the bills that come along with that, so that we’re not taking things from Project 2025.”
High marks to Garrido for holding onto his mic and not actually collapsing onto the stage at that point—fact is, the head of New York City’s largest public sector union is on the same page with Donald Trump and Elon Musk in their national campaign to herd every single retiree in the country into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.
Garrido also continues to pressure members of both the New York City Council and New York State Legislature to withhold support of pending bills aimed at protecting the Traditional Medicare benefits retirees have earned on the job—largely all under the guise of “protecting collective bargaining rights.”
Garrido, in fact, attempted to put a button on last night’s mayoral forum by erroneously framing the Medicare Advantage fight as a battle to protect DC37’s right to collectively bargain for members’ health care.
“Will you support protecting the union’s power to negotiate healthcare for their members?” the DC37 head asked the panel. Asked that way, no one on the panel—including—Ramos could answer in the negative.
“The unions don’t need legislators’ support for something that they legally have,” Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees told Work-Bites. “However, if [Henry Garrido] wants to nuance his words to play on the fact that he wants to be able to control the retiree health benefits of current retirees, that’s not going to fly.”
Pizzitola lambasted DC37 executive director for “trying to mislead" candidates into thinking he has the legal ability to negotiate for current retirees.
“Under the law, he does not,” Pizzitola said. “He doesn’t want our legislation to be successful because then he won’t be able to take from us to finance his active worker contracts. And while I repeatedly say, I will never begrudge an active worker from getting a raise—it shouldn’t be on the backs of retired unionists.”
A New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees truck parked outside DC37 headquarters on Barclay Street Wednesday night pushes back on Executive Director Henry Garrido’s campaign to kill retiree legislation (Intro. 1096) in the NYC Council.
New York City Council Intro. 1096 aims to further codify the Traditional Medicare health insurance coverage municipal retirees and their dependents enjoyed up until Dec. 31, 2021. The bill recently picked up three new endorsements, and at the time of this writing has a dozen cosponsors.
Several of the mayoral candidates, according to those who were there, approached retirees after the forum concluded and pledged support for city and state legislation protecting the Traditional Medicare benefits retirees earned on the job.
“Nothing in those bills reduces the union’s ability to negotiate for their members,” DC37 Retirees Association member Neal Frumkin told Work-Bites. “Retirees are not members of DC37. We are no longer employees of New York City. Our benefits were negotiated when we were employees and members of bargaining units.”
Pizzitola applauded Ramos’ support, but said she would have appreciated if all the other candidates had also followed suit during the forum.
“As the chair of Labor she recognizes that once retired we are no longer in the union,” Pizzitola added. “They failed at protecting us and instead preyed on us. Which is why we need legislative protection. And of course, since we’re not in the union, and we are not employed, we are not subject to the Taylor law, or New York City collective bargaining—so our bill will not impair the union’s ability to negotiate for their members.”
New York City municipal retirees will be holding their own mayoral candidates forum at a date to be announced.
“You can bet that all the candidates will be asked about their healthcare commitments for city retirees,” Frumkin said.