Active, Retired NYC Municipal Union Workers, Advocacy Organizations Protest To Protect Their Healthcare, Demand Transparency

ACTIVE UNION MEMBERS, RETIREES AND ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS PROTEST IN SOLIDARITY TO PROTECT THEIR HEALTHCARE AND DEMAND TRANSPARENCY

Editor’s note: This is the second such protest in the last few weeks.  Due to the upcoming election and the change of leadership, the retirees are organizing now to push for their healthcare bill, Intro 1096, which will guarantee that they can keep their healthcare plan choices as available in 2021.  They are also standing in solidarity with all other union members, as the Municipal Labor Committee just voted to pass this new healthcare plan, which will affect all city workers both active and retired, and they once again left the membership out of the negotiation process.  With the decision handed down from the courts that the City didn’t guarantee healthcare for retirees in writing, the fight may need to be started again at the court level.  They are hoping to avoid such an expensive method.  

 At DC37 HEADQUATERS 125 Barclay St/West at the MLC Meeting, Tuesday, September 30 2025, 9:00 AM

Active union workers, retiree organizations, and advocacy organizations stand in solidarity protesting against the City and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) negotiating Citywide healthcare in darkness. Healthcare is a mandatory subject of bargaining, and yet workers were not included in the process. Workers and retirees have demanded transparency in the plan, the provider networks, prior authorizations, and financial end including what happens if the plan doesn’t save $1 billion as the MLC promised.  The Medicare Retirees have been fighting for the last four years on this very issue.  NYC Retirees demanded to see the contract and were denied by OLR Commissioner Renee Campion.

The City and the MLC have once again negotiated a health plan change in the dark. Union members weren’t permitted to see the contract; union leaders only for one day.  The 100 person UFT Health Committee voted on the plan without seeing the contract. “How do you support a plan for 750,000 people when you never studied the contract FIRST?” asked Marianne Pizzitola, of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, “This is the same negligent decision the MLC made over Medicare Advantage. The devil is always in the details, and there is no transparency.”

“City Hall is taking a huge risk with our health care, claiming that this new plan will deliver $1 billion in savings with no proof, ignoring serious allegations against UnitedHealthcare, and compromising our rights by switching to a self-insured plan,” said Hands Off NY Care Board Member Wanda Williams. “If the MLC votes to approve of this rushed contract tomorrow, they will have betrayed the hundreds of thousands of municipal workers who have dedicated their lives to public service and deserve the health care they current rely on. We demand City Hall bring the workers and retirees into the fold and show us the details of this plan.”

“Our union has been increasingly operating as a sole proprietor, excluding the membership from participating and voting on mandatory subjects of bargaining and pressuring its elected delegates to keep quiet about what is discussed in meetings, an unfathomable practice in a public employee union,” stated Migdalia Acevedo, NYC Health & Hospitals Chapter 3 President and Local 375 Executive Board Member.  “Members have been urging their elected representatives to vote this United Health Care health plan proposal down and open up the process to its membership.  To continue to ignore the rank and file would be a terrible betrayal of the members trust and a failure of the duty to fairly represent,” said Acevedo.

Below is the Mayor’s response to the MLC’s positive vote for this new health plan:

MAYOR ADAMS’ STATEMENT ON MUNICIPAL LABOR COMMITTEE APPROVAL OF PROPOSED NEW HEALTH PLAN

NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today issued the following statement in response to the Municipal Labor Committee’s (MLC) approval of the proposed new health plan to be offered by EmblemHealth and United Healthcare:

“From day one, we have focused on making New York City safer and more affordable for working-class New Yorkers. Today, I applaud the Municipal Labor Committee for approving the proposed new health plan for city employees, pre-Medicare retirees, and their dependents, which will help deliver on this mission.

“This plan would provide over 10,000 additional health care providers in the downstate New York Area over 20,000 more mental health providers in New York state, and — for the first time —  a broad national network of over 1.6 million providers outside the downstate New York area, allowing tens of thousands of retired city employees to receive care where they live without the costly out-of-network charges often incurred under the current plan. We can achieve this expansion of coverage without increasing costs for employees, and while simultaneously providing savings of up to $1 billion annually compared to the current plan. City employees dedicate their lives to making our city a better place and looking out for their fellow New Yorkers. They deserve the absolute best health care and benefits we have to offer, and, with this plan, we are giving them exactly that.

“This plan also builds on our administration and the MLC’s collaboration to provide high-quality, premium-free health care coverage while protecting taxpayer dollars. Our efforts will allow city employees to continue to receive health insurance at no premium cost to them, a benefit few other employers offer. Further, we’re proud to have successfully negotiated contracts with unions representing over 98.5 percent of our city’s workforce, and 100 percent of the city’s uniformed workforce. The MLC’s approval of the proposed health plan is yet another step toward ensuring all city workers are compensated fairly and receive the health care they deserve, in a safer, more affordable city.

“I want to thank Commissioner Campion and our union partners for coming together to tackle this dynamic issue, which only our administration was willing to take on. We are proud to enter the next phase in the process to deliver better quality health care to 750,000 employees, retirees, and their dependents as the contract for the new plan will now undergo the public comment process beginning tomorrow, October 1.”

Banner Image: LED truck at the event.  Image Credit – Marianne Pizzitola of NYC OPSR

Advertisement