Educators of NYC

🔥 UFT Retirees DESERVE Better. 🔥

After decades in NYC classrooms, UFT retirees are now forced to pay up to $180/mo just for prescription coverage — $360 for couples — on fixed incomes.

***That’s not premium-free healthcare.***

What’s more frustrating? Other retirees from major unions are paying $0 — as the UFT Welfare Fund now sits on over $1 billion in reserves.

It’s a burden on those facing this affordability crisis . It’s unfair. And it must end. 💥 

✊ Over 2,600 have signed. Let’s get to 5,000 this week and show that retirees aren’t alone.

👉 Sign + Share: https://stopchargingretirees.org

📢 Retirees earned these benefits through decades of service — no one should have to choose between medication and groceries. Let’s turn up the pressure and demand accountability NOW.

💪

https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/its-time-to-stop-charging-uft-retirees-110

It’s Time to Stop Charging UFT Retirees — Sign the Petition and Help Us Reach 5,000 Signatures By Next Week Over 2600 have signed the petition already. Let's hit 5k by next week. Sign and share this petition with your colleagues, friends and family. Let's do this!

THE UFT RETIREMENT PENALTY HURTS RETIREES IN THE MIDST OF AFFORDABILITY CRISIS – LET’S STOP IT NOW! 😡

👉 Retirees spent decades serving us — teachers, paras, public servants — yet now they’re being charged MORE for the health care they were promised after retirement.

Some retirees are now paying hundreds of dollars a month just to keep basic prescription coverage — and that number keeps going up! Many are on fixed incomes, struggling just to survive. 

💥 THIS IS WRONG.
When someone dedicates a lifetime of service to our communities, the last thing they should worry about is going broke over health care costs. This isn’t just unfair — it’s unconscionable.

❤️ If you agree that retirees deserve dignity, respect, and affordable health care — SIGN THIS PETITION.

👇👇👇

➡️ https://stopchargingretirees.org/

📣 SHARE this post with everyone you know — friends, family, coworkers, neighbors!
Let’s make sure our leaders hear this loud and clear:

🛑 No more charging retirees for benefits they earned.

✍️ Sign the petition. Share it. Make your voice heard!

👉 https://stopchargingretirees.org

https://stopchargingretirees.org/

Stop Charging Retirees A petition site demanding that the UFT use its reserves to provide premium-free prescription insurance for retirees.

A worthy cause. Please donate to Class Size Matters!

2025: A watershed year for Class Size Matters. Will you support our work to ensure more progress in 2026? Dear all: This has been a watershed year for class size in NYC public schools. Nearly 750 schools lowered class size this fall to far ...

🚨 NYC EDUCATORS, WORKERS AND RETIREES THIS MATTERS TO YOU 🚨

The Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) leadership is actively blocking full public access to a Comptroller audit of the NYC Health Care Stabilization Fund — a fund supposed to protect your healthcare benefits. Instead of answering questions, MLC bosses circulated memos calling the audit a “breach of trust” and tried to kill transparency altogether.

🔍 Why this is a crisis:

📌 The Stabilization Fund was created to stabilize healthcare costs for city workers and retirees — NOT to be raided for wages, repurposed, or used to cover budget holes.

📌 MLC leaders are more focused on vilifying oversight than explaining why the audit hasn’t been released.

📌 Rank-and-file members and retirees have been shut out of the conversation — with no meeting minutes, financial transparency, or accountability.

🗣️ This is about REAL CONSEQUENCES
Your access to care, your out-of-pocket costs, and your financial security after decades of service are on the line.

👉 Call to Action:
Demand the full audit be released. Demand real oversight. Demand accountability from the MLC.

Share this post. Tag your union reps & elected officials.

Let’s make sure our healthcare future isn’t decided in secret.

Let them know:

💬 “If decisions about our healthcare are made without transparency, they are not made in our interest.”

https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/the-audit-the-mlc-doesnt-want-you

The Audit the MLC Doesn’t Want You to See The MLC bosses’ war on Transparency and Accountability puts city workers and retirees at risk

🚨 We were misled. 🚨

Educators were told the Stabilization Fund was “about to dry up.” That claim was used to justify major concessions— while NYC Healthcare Stabilization Fund dollars were diverted to pay for wages and seed bulk transfers to City welfare funds, even as members paid more out of pocket for healthcare, dental, and prescriptions.

All while benefit payments remained flat and members were told they must make sacrifices with higher copays, diminished benefits— and even an attempt to force our retirees into an inferior Medicare Advantage plan to save money.

This investigation shows how those choices were made without full transparency, without meaningful independent oversight, without informed member consent, without the rank and file workers and retirees sitting at the table.

👉 Read. Share. Demand answers and accountability.

🔗 https://thewire.educators.nyc/p/the-fund-is-about-to-dry-up-why-nys

If our money was used to plug budget holes, transfer taxpayer dollars while members absorbed the costs and reserves stockpiled, we deserve the full truth and a seat at the table.

It’s time to open the books.

Our union.

“The Fund Is About to Dry Up”: Why NYS and Feds Must Audit the UFT Welfare Fund Millions taken from the Stabilization Fund for wages & given to the city unions’ welfare funds.The UFT now sits on a billion dollar nest egg while members pay more out of pocket for stagnant benefits.

https://www.amny.com/new-york/nyc-workers-sue-self-funded-health-plan/

NYC workers, retirees sue to block City’s shift to self-funded health plan | amNewYork A coalition of NYC workers, retirees, and an advocacy organization is suing to block a sweeping health-benefits restructuring that would reshape coverage for

Active city workers file Article 78 to seek a halt to newly proposed NYCEPPO healthcare plan.

The case centers around whether Admin code 12-126 allows for a self-funded plan.

A TRO is sought.

iapps.courts.state.ny.us

📣 UFT fam — tomorrow, Thursday, October 23, is a BIG day for union power, learning, and connection.

Here’s the lineup you don’t want to miss 👇

🕖 7 PM — ABC-UFT Mass Meeting

➡️ The heart of our organizing for a better contract and a more transparent, member-driven union. Come see what real solidarity looks like in action.

🔗 RSVP, now: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/k1LDpxK-SMeYjbfGMx52Dw #/registration

🕑 Early Afternoon 4:30 PM session— David Kazansky’s Financial Wellness Workshop

💰 Financial wellness for educators — smart strategies for managing your money and planning ahead in uncertain times.

David is a former TRS trustee and veteran NYC educator.

To RSVP, contact David Kaznsky: [email protected]

🕟 4:30 PM — Para & Chapter Leader Town Hall

✊ A focused conversation on the “Respect Check” campaign and how paras and leaders are organizing for equity and fair pay.

🔗 To RSVP, go to : https://web.cvent.com/event/5cfb8eaa-4615-4b44-904b-8eb94c01ae9d/summary

Each of these builds on the next — from organizing together, to building individual strength, to collective advocacy.

Don’t just scroll past — show up, plug in, and power up. 💪✊

Don’t Miss Tomorrow’s Big Three: ABC-UFT Mass Meeting, Kazansky Workshop & Para/CL Town Hall Three virtual events on October 23 — the ABC-UFT Mass Meeting, David Kazansky’s early-afternoon workshop, and a Para Respect Town Hall — offer UFT members a full day of organizing & learning.

🚨 NYC educators, retirees, and families—your health plan just changed, MAJORLY.

UnitedHealthcare’s UMR is now the gatekeeper for nearly all care approvals. AI-driven denials and “clean claim” clauses could be the new norm. The just-released contract was redacted—but we read between the lines.

This isn’t just a policy shift—it’s a power grab.

The paid operatives working for Mulgrew’s patronage machine LIED to us.

They framed it as if we have nothing to worry about especially if we live in the Downstate 13 area, Emblem would shield us from UHC’s DENY AND DELAY DENIAL MACHINE. It’s simply NOT TRUE.

Read our breakdown here:

Behind the Gates: How UMR Takes Over Utilization Management In Our Health Plan — and Why the AI & 'Clean Claim' Clauses Should Sound Alarms We've read the fine print. And we're right. The contract says: ”Emblem will utilize UMR systems and follow UMR protocols for the provision of UM services.” We unpack what it means for denials & claims

🚨 EXPOSED: The $100 MILLION SECRET They Don’t Want UFT Members to Know About the New Healthcare Plan! 🚨

Union members: you deserve to know what’s really going on with the NYCEPPO plan.

👇 What’s at stake:

• Under the proposed deal, unions are being asked to give YOUR welfare fund prescription data to Emblem & UnitedHealthcare (UHC). 
• They claim this is about “better care coordination” and saving $100 million — but the fine print says: no data = no savings. 
• Once UHC has your prescription history, they can run it through AI systems (like nH Predict) to flag, deny, or restrict coverage — often before you even need treatment. 
• Many “savings” = many denied treatments, fewer choices, and risk to your privacy. This isn’t just insurance talk; it’s your health. 
———

👉 What needs to happen:

1. Tell delegates to vote NO unless the contract includes strong safeguards: blind-sharing, privacy protections, transparent AI and appeals practices. 
2. Demand to see the contract details—especially the clauses about data sharing, AI, pre-authorizations, and denials. 
3. Spread the word—share this post so every union member, teacher, educator, and NYC worker knows what’s going on. Because once this data is out, it’s nearly impossible to take back.

🔒 Our health. Our privacy. Our voice.

Reject the plan unless there are real protections. It’s not “just data.” It’s about whether your access to care depends on how much a company can predict you’ll cost them.

👉 Share if you agree: we must say NO unless we see the guarantees.

The $100 Million Secret: How The Deal to Hand Over UFT Members’ Prescription Data Could Fuel UHC’s Denials Delegates must reject the NYCEPPO plan, if our prescription data is being used against us. Show us the contract if it’s as good as promised.Show us the AI safeguards and processes for claims & denials

🚨 URGENT: Is NYCEPPO Selling Our Healthcare to Algorithms? 🚨

📢 Educators, families, and working people — this upcoming vote on September 29th could change everything. The newly proposed NYCEPPO healthcare plan may allow UnitedHealthcare to use AI to deny or delay care — and there are signs our union leadership hasn’t put ANY protections in place to stop this. 

Here’s what we found:
• UHC already has a very high denial rate — and AI denials have already cost patients needed care, rehab, even recovery. 
• But in this plan, no transparency: We don’t know how the AI will make decisions, what criteria it’ll use, what data will feed it. 
• No accountability. No guarantee there’ll be human oversight. No timeline for fast appeals. 

⸻

We demand better. ‼️

We must insist on:

✅ Human oversight for any denial involving AI
✅ Full transparency in how the system works
✅ A robust appeals process that’s quick, fair, and independent
✅ Medical standards that aren’t overridden by secret algorithms

⸻

🗳 What you can do:
1. Tell your UFT delegates to VOTE NO unless ironclad protections are in the contract. 
2. Ask your union leadership: “What safeguards are being built in?”
3. Share this with your coworkers, friends, and family — so everyone knows what’s at stake.

⸻

This is about more than policy. It’s about our health, dignity, and being able to trust that care comes from doctors — not cost-cutting machines.

👉 Are you with us? Share this if you believe in human-first healthcare. 👥

AI Denials in The Newly Proposed NYCEPPO Healthcare Plan Is our union leadership (the UFT and MLC) ready to handle AI-based healthcare denials? Have they put protections in place for members in this new plan? What proof do we have that they can?

The Healthcare Stabilization Fund (HSF) is now bankrupt. As a result, the City and MLC are unable to pay for PICA drugs and medical obligations to 9/11 widows and orphans. The HSF was originally designed to stem and stabilize rising healthcare costs for workers.

Now … They are deadlocked in arbitration over the life and death PICA drug payments. With no clear path.

So let’s get this straight … the City and MLC now want to run a self funded behemoth covering over a million city employees, pre-Medicare retiremees and families — managing our new healthcare plan with no joint experience in doing so?

We cannot trust the City and MLC to run a self-funded healthcare plan when they’ve bankrupted the HSF and have no history of running such a system.

What they did:

😮 A billion dollars raided in 2014 to pay for retro raises

😮 Hundreds of millions transferred into union welfare funds with no/little accountability of these taxpayer dollars and whether it goes to benefits of city workers and their families

😮 Tens of millions were shifted into the UFT’s Welfare Fund from the 2014 and 2018 healthcare agreements, where the bulk of the money, nearly a billion dollars now sits in reserve— even as members face higher copays, more out of pocket expenses and limited welfare fund benefits.

The City and union leadership cannot protect the most vulnerable victims of the worst terrorist attack in our city’s history, why should we believe they will protect us?

Why the hell would city workers, retirees and taxpayers trust these reckless “bad actors” with our healthcare moving forward?

A self-funded plan means that every unexpected spike in costs, every bad year of claims, every legal liability, every miscalculation — will land directly on our shoulders and New York City taxpayers.

When the money runs short, and it will, the City will not dig deeper. They will slash. They will deny. They will use it as a bargaining chip for more contractual givebacks. They will push costs back onto us.

Just some of the bountiful receipts...