Days of miracle and wonder

To the editor:

These are consequential times for the Municipal Labor Committee and municipal employees’ and retirees’ health benefits due to a confluence of events.

Harry Nespoli, who until his retirement Tuesday was the chair of the MLC and president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, nonetheless sued the city to dispute that the MLC owes $4 billion in pledged health savings. 

Union members also received a letter from the MLC’s executive board disclosing that two-tiered hospital coverage — higher co-pays at elite facilities — is being planned for active workers.

Nespoli has been on the wrong side of history.  He dismissed the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees as a “rump retiree group.” Renee Campion, the OLR commissioner, who, writing to him in more cordial times, brushed them off as a “small group of retirees.” He decried the “so-called retiree group” as spreading “ill-founded and misleading allegations,” falsely claiming that the Medicare Advantage plan “makes all doctors/hospitals participating in Medicare available” to retirees.

He encouraged copays and deductibles — a hardship for many — to finance active workers’ contracts, and using union dues to pay for amicus court briefs to fight retirees.

There is now an opening for new MLC leadership and needed reforms. In 2021, Nespoli claimed in a court affidavit that “The structure of the MLC, like other unions, is democratic.”

Not really. Two unions, the UFT and DC37, control the MLC, through the group’s weighted-votes system.

Unions have conveyed their negotiating power to the MLC, which has no bargaining certificate. They should stand up and take back their authority.

On May 15, the state’s highest court will hear the Adams’ administration’s appeal, after two losses, over giving retirees only one health-care choice — Medicare Advantage.

Meanwhile, ballots have been mailed out for the UFT leadership election. 

Again, consequential times.

Harry Weiner