Health-care justice

To the editor:

Mayor Adams has restored budget cuts that would have privatized nearly 2,400 job training positions represented by DC37. The union, headed by Henry Garrido, had filed a lawsuit last month to block the move.

The mayor explained his decision, exuding compassion and open mindedness: “When I sat down, I spoke with Henry, and he explained the history of the program, how it came about, how we were targeting low-income New Yorkers.” 

He also offered that “You can’t be entrenched in decisions. When people come and convince and give a good case for something, you have to be flexible enough to say ‘let me look at it.’ ”

These are noble sentiments, but unfortunately the mayor hasn’t applied them to our most vulnerable population — retirees fighting to preserve their health care benefits. For much of the past three years, the New York City Organization of Civil Service Retirees has sought a dialogue with the mayor and the heads of the Municipal Labor Committee, requested hearings and called for blue-ribbon panels to explore cost cutting measures as an alternative to privatized Medicare Advantage.

The answer has been an unwillingness.

Perhaps the mayor has made the cynical political calculus that as a reelection campaign approaches, placating a large union trumps protecting retirees, many of who live outside New York City.

But we are resilient and Adams has been on the losing end of our ligation to date, despite the City’s limitless funds to pay attorneys and appeal. As Martin is Luther King Jr. observed, "We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Harry Weiner