New York City Organization Of Public Service Retirees Responds to Union Boss Henry Garrido’s Misrepresentations & Smears on NY1 with Errol Louis
On Thursday, June 22nd, District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido delivered a two-page missive declaring legislation (Int. 1099) proposed by Councilman Charles Barron of District 42 in Brooklyn, the most irresponsible proposal in the history of the City Council.
That same day, the NY Daily News reported how Mr. Garrido was planning on threatening council members who supported the legislation – not because the bill to protect Medicare for retired public servants has merits – instead, due to him making a deal with the devil to trade away those benefits for his own enrichment.
Accordingly, to try and clean up his bullying, he went on a P.R. sprint to justify his actions by going on an unchallenged interview on NY1 with Errol Louis to misrepresent and distort his actions without any fact-checking or pushback.
Several Unions – not all – within the Municipal Labor Committee bulldozed the Municipal Retirees into an inferior Medicare Advantage Plan that will cause some to lose access to their doctors, physicians, and treatment facilities while undergoing severe ailments like cancer and dialysis run by a company – CVS/Aetna – that’s under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for defrauding the Federal Government for Medicare Fraud.
Moreover, the NY Post Editorial published an OpEd laying out the true reasons for this switch to a Medicare Advantage Plan by stating, “The projected savings help fund the latest round of municipal labor contracts that hike wages for cops, teachers, firefighters, sanitation and clerical workers.”
There we go.
“Mr. Garrido admits his Stabilization Fund is empty, but he’s not telling you they misused it and now are selling off retirees and the disabled for a cash infusion. There are no $600 million savings to the NY taxpayer as that money goes to the same unions stealing the benefits earned and paid for by senior citizens and people with disabilities. He should collectively bargain for benefits, something retirees can no longer do. We live that adage, ‘If you don’t have a seat at the table, you must be on the menu. Mr. Garrido picked the wrong main course!’” said Marianne Pizzitola, President of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees.
NYC Municipal Retirees, all former Union workers, are being forced into a privatized plan that will cause us harm in funding current workers’ raises. That is just wrong.
We thank Councilman Charles Barron and the brave co-sponsors of the City Council for standing up to this thuggery by Mr. Garrido and introducing Int. 1099, which will protect the earned Medicare benefits of their constituents.
Banner Image: Healthcare. Image Credit – Hush Naidoo Jade Photography
Marianne Pizzitola NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
On August 13th, 2021, a group of retirees from many different city agencies got together to form an organization to fight the impending changes to our healthcare. Two and half hours later, five people volunteered to form the Board and one became an advisor to the Board. In the next few weeks, we grew to five officers, four Trustees, five Advisors, started our Facebook group, filed for NYS incorporation, opened our PayPal fundraising account and were approved by the State to conduct business. Six weeks later we met our initial fundraising goal to pay the attorney's retainer and had filed our article 78 petition. Our Facebook page has over 18,000 members and we have an email list of almost 10,000 and both continue to grow. This is a major accomplishment! But we need to grow larger. We need to reach 250,000 retirees!