Michael Mulgrew’s monumental healthcare mess: The indictment that must send him home packing

As the UFT election begins full swing, and the city workers and retirees reel from Mulgrew's healthcare mess, the MLC sues City for the ill-fated deals Mulgrew committed them to. We must vote him out!

In 2014, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), struck an ill-fated labor deal with then-Mayor Bill de Blasio that has since proven deeply flawed. At the time, the agreement secured long-delayed, retroactive wage increases for teachers for mediocre, sub-inflation raises without adding health insurance premiums—a politically convenient win.

But buried in the fine print was a promise to find $1.3 billion in healthcare savings, a move that has set off a decade of erosion in the quality and affordability of healthcare for both retirees and active city workers. All the while, Mulgrew agreed to dip into the Healthcare Stabilization Fund, a fund designed to offset rising healthcare costs, for 1 billion dollars to pay for these wage increases.

As recently reported by The City, the fallout from this deal has been growing. In 2018, the Mulgrew and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) committed to 600 million dollars a year in perpetuity. The cost-cutting plan relied heavily on transitioning retirees from traditional Medicare to a privatized Medicare Advantage plan, intended to save the city $600 million annually.

Latest headline that underscores Mulgrew’s monumental mess.

Retirees strongly opposed this shift, citing narrower networks, increased pre-authorizations, and reduced flexibility in choosing providers. After multiple lawsuits and mounting public backlash, the courts intervened to halt the plan, reaffirming retirees’ rights to the Medicare benefits they were promised.

Under the leadership of Marianne Pizzitola, NYC retirees sued and won.

But retirees weren’t the only ones affected.

To plug the budget gap left by blocked retiree cost-shifting and to meet the original savings commitment, the city has imposed cost-saving measures on active city employees instead.

This has meant rising co-pays, reduced plan options, and a quiet deterioration in health plan quality. Urgent care and emergency room copays tripled. Essential services—like physical therapy, mental health visits, and certain diagnostic procedures—now often come with out-of-pocket costs that didn’t exist a decade ago.

For many active city workers, especially those with chronic health needs or family coverage, these “copay creep” increases are both financially and medically burdensome. The copays amount to “back-door premiums” on city workers and retirees. In an uncertain economy of skyrocketing costs, these copays flat out hurt us all — hard.

What’s worse is that these changes have unfolded with little transparency. Most city workers had no say in the 2014 agreement, and few understood that their future healthcare would be held hostage to a fiscal bargain made behind closed doors.

In 2018, Mulgrew also failed to share with UFT members the side agreement, Appendix B, that outlined his deals.

The fallout from his decisions were significant. In 2024, an opposition caucus slate, opposing the Medicare Advantage shift, won the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter election with 63% of the vote, unseating Mulgrew’s allies. Facing mounting pressure, Mulgrew withdrew support for the Medicare Advantage plan and exited ongoing healthcare negotiations for in-service and pre-Medicare retirees.

Mulgrew’s deals may have temporarily balanced the city’s books, but it did so by shifting long-term costs onto the shoulders of the very members he was elected to protect.

The consequences are now clear: retirees were nearly forced into a less protective healthcare plan, and active workers are quietly paying more for less care. Retirees are still not out of woods since the matter is still before the courts. In-service members may see tiered hospital copays in the thousands of dollars. The healthcare security that public service once promised is being eroded, and it began with a deal made over a decade ago.

Our union leaders must do better. Financial discipline is necessary, but not at the expense of transparency, trust, and the basic health protections owed to public workers. The legacy of the 2014 agreement is a stark reminder that short-term gains can lead to long-term harm—and it’s the rank-and-file, everyday workers, who bear the costs.

This entire Mulgrew fiasco is rooted inarguably in the worst labor deal in New York City labor history.

Now, the MLC is on the hook for billions dollars, our healthcare stabilization fund is entirely bankrupt and a single arbitrator may decide the collective healthcare futures of thousands of city workers, retirees and our families. They’re left to pick up the pieces of Mulgrew’s mess by filling their most recent lawsuit.

Furthermore, millions of dollars have been transferred to our UFT Welfare Fund from the depleted Healthcare Stabilization Fund. And, yet, the Welfare Fund sits on nearly a billion dollars in reserve while UFT members continue to pay out of pocket for out of control dental and prescription bills. All while the UFT Welfare Fund managers fail to give us an itemized financial report and the board of trustees, led by Mulgrew, fails to publish and share minutes to Welfare Fund meetings with us.

Vote Him Out. Vote for A Better Contract.

Beginning May 1st until May 28th, we get to vote for new union leadership.

Every UFT member must cast a vote to indict Mulgrew for his labor “crimes” against our collective rights, welfare and futures. He failed to represent us, then, and continues to represent us inadequately, now.

With resolute resolve, we must vote for A Better Contract slate. ABC is committed to representing all UFT members with a members-first approach. We are a member-led, grassroots movement of UFT members organizing and mobilizing to build union power and increase members’ voices.

We are committed to fighting for a better labor contract with the City of New York and a better social contract with our union leadership.

Our focus is simple. Better pay that outpaces the cost of living. Protect and improve our healthcare, pensions and benefits. Improve our working conditions so we are respected as professionals. And a union that answers to its members.

Vote ABC. Period. Full stop. Selah.

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“We Can’t Afford Mulgrew Anymore” — ABC Video Goes Viral

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