'Elections Have Consequences': NYC Teacher Retirees Save Their Medicare

City retirees marched in 2023 as part of a three-year campaign to defeat their unions’ push to switch them to a for-profit Medicare Advantage plan. After the retiree chapter election, the UFT dropped the plan. Photo: Jenny Brown

https://labornotes.org/2024/07/nyc-teacher-retirees-save-their-medicare

July 22, 2024 / Jenny Brown

The dissident Retiree Advocate caucus in the giant New York City teachers union won a decisive victory over the incumbents in the retiree chapter election June 14, winning 63 percent of the 27,000 votes cast. Turnout jumped compared to previous elections.

In addition to running the 70,000-member Retired Teachers Chapter, they will send 300 delegates to the union’s delegate assembly.

The leadership of the union got the message and abruptly dropped its support for Medicare Advantage, after three years of vigorously campaigning to impose a for-profit plan on 250,000 city retirees to save money for city officials. United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew sent letters on June 23 withdrawing support for the plan, marking an abrupt break with NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

“He did this because we had an election, and elections have consequences,” said incoming chapter president Bennett Fischer, a former school chapter leader who taught in Brooklyn for 29 years.

FULL story at link above.