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To the editor:
Balancing a budget on the back of retired labor is a despicable act. Current efforts by city municipal unions and city government to force 250,000 retired municipal workers into the Aetna Medicare Advantage plan after promising them lifetime coverage in the plan of their choice is wrong. The fact is the expected coverage was bargained for during the work-life of these employees. They accepted lighter compensation in some areas, to pay for delayed benefits later. Now, the powers-that-be are leaving them high and dry when they are most vulnerable, and they have nobody left to bargain for them, or to speak up for them. This dastardly act applies to future retirees as well, who expected the same benefits.
Is this what the elderly will come to expect in America? We have already been warned about the impending collapse of Social Security and Medicare. In New York State, will pensions be the next to go? Then what? Union de-certifications a la Wisconsin’s Scott Walker? What exactly is going on here?
I know there are a lot of employees, in this state and the rest of the country, who don’t have such a “sweet” deal. So what do we accomplish by blasting apart the last shining beacon in America, the municipal labor unions? Is this called Making America Great Again? It’s surprising that this latest volley was perpetrated by the very forces the working people have historically looked to for help, the unions and the Democratic Party. Shame, shame, shame.
Robert Moffit
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Joel Frank
* Re: TRS-TDA Fixed Return Fund:
Returns for the Fixed Return Fund are set by New York State Law. Currently, members affiliated with the United Federation of Teachers are credited with 7% annually on
TDA investments in the Fund. Non-UFT members are credited with 8.25%.
The City paid these account holders about $2.1 billion in interest for the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2022.
How dare the City tell us it cannot afford to keep its retirees on the traditional Medicare program!
Thursday, April 20, 2023 Report this
Admin
Someone should inform our mayor - "the swagger man with no plan" that his main responsibility is to the LEGAL citizens of this city not the ILLEGAL ones who don't pay any TAXES! I find it unconscionable that he is willing to apportion billions of taxpayer dollars for these illegals. He has the audacity to then say there is no money to fund the retiree healthcare system - that it will go broke unless these cuts are made. We earned that support and were promised it in our contracts. I am totally disgusted with his administration and the one in Washingtoon DC.
Stop laughing everything off like a goofball and fix this mess of a city!
Thursday, April 20, 2023 Report this
Pageready
The most vulnerable group, the retirees with limited income and who are the sickest, due to age related illnesses, now has the burden of worry with less health coverage. This will be a life and death situation for retirees. How dare the unions and city government renege on the promises of life coverage. We accepted less compensation, less benefits for years for this promise. As a retiree who has worked 36 years with city, I am owed something more, but not more worry,stress, extra expense and confusion. Lord have Mercy on the older workers and retirees. Please help us.
Thursday, April 27, 2023 Report this