UFT Mulgrew’s Unity Caucus vows to protect our Welfare Fund from themselves?
The Big Lies keep mounting up as Unity seeks to cover up their misuse of our UFT Welfare Fund for their patronage machine. It's time to start asking more tough questions.
Hiding behind anonymous internet posts, Mulgrew’s bureaucratic, administrative Unity caucus is hoping that they can deflect serious questions as to how they are mismanaging our UFT Fund by painting concerned hard-working, everyday dues-paying members and whistle blowers as “out to destroy it”.
Here’s the bottom line: They need their patronage machine-powered Welfare Fund to continue to hoard hundreds of millions of dollars while under-serving members with reduced benefits. But why?
That’s just one question that we need to start asking among the slew of swirling member-driven questions and the deluge of damning revelations surrounding it lately.
Below you’ll find three new Orwellian Big Lies originating from the Imperial Palace at 52 Broadway about their quixotic campaign to protect us all from imaginary windmill dragons endangering the Welfare Fund — even as our families’ healthcare and dental bills become insurmountable:
Here are some facts that dispel these 3 latest Big Lies.
Fact-checking Big Lie #1 - The Welfare Fund has grown almost exponentially since 2014 to the tune of 800 million dollars while our dental benefits have eroded. That’s the same year, Mulgrew raided the joint healthcare stabilization fund held by the City and city unions for an additional 1 billion dollars to pay for retroactive raises.
Both the 2014 and 2018 citywide labor healthcare cost savings agreements also transferred lump sums of millions of dollars from the Healthcare Stabilization Fund (HSF) to the individual union welfare funds. This doesn’t even include hundreds of thousands more transferred from the public treasury to the UFT Welfare fund in our UFT 2018 contract.
It’s important to note that the HSF, funded by the public treasury, was designed to protect the healthcare of all city workers and retirees to offset any inflationary insurance hikes to our GHI -CBP benefits.
Even as this bulk transfer of millions of public taxpayer dollars flooded our union welfare fund over the last decade, the gap between investments and actual benefits provided to members for such things as prescriptions, dental and vision has widened immensely, while dental reimbursements and services have diminished along with rising costs. And even when we account for inflation, the gaps are astounding.
Many dentists simply won’t take our dental insurance anymore. The dental reimbursement schedule has not been updated in 8 years. We’ve all felt the financial pain of the dental bills we’re being saddled with as a result.
The data doesn’t lie as to who is endangering our benefits in the Welfare Fund. Mulgrew’s Unity administrative caucus does.
The two charts above are from Ronnie Almonte’s timely analysis regarding this growing crisis, here and here.
Fact-checking Big Lie #2 - UFT Unity blames rank and file members for their own shortcomings and bad agreements made behind closed doors with the City.
The truth is: THEY ALREADY AGREED TO CONSOLIDATING, OR MERGING, THE CITY UNIONS’ WELFARE FUNDS AS A HEALTHCARE “COST SAVINGS” OPTION AT THE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TABLE, WITH THE CITY.
AND THAT THE ARBITRATOR MAY CHOOSE CONSOLIDATION TODAY AS AN OPTION FOR COST SAVINGS.
And it’s all in writing.
In the 2014 citywide healthcare agreement, item 3 tells us that they agreed to discussing the option of consolidating the welfare funds.
In 2018, Mulgrew agreed, without our consent, to 600 million dollars in cost savings to the city in PERPETUITY. Moreover, the consolidation of the welfare funds was one of several agreed upon options on a menu of healthcare cost savings. Among these choices — Medicare Advantage, Centers of Excellence, audits and more.
These cost savings options are available to the arbitrator on the all-powerful healthcare tripartite committee at any time.
Simply put, this big lie is classic projection and deflection by Team Unity.
Our members were sold out in these two healthcare agreements while Mulgrew and his loyalists point fingers at those exposing their misdeeds and fiduciary malfeasance.
**Another dirty secret is that healthcare premiums for all city workers is also on the table because of their healthcare agreements without our members’ consent.
Fact-checking Big Lie #3 - The UFT delegate assembly consisting of all chapter leaders and delegates in our union is the highest decision-making body. The DA decided twice already to support the New York Health Act.
It’s the mandate and will of this union. Not the random opinions of those on Mulgrew’s and Barr’s enemies’ lists. Unless active members, retirees, chapter leaders and delegates are their dangerous enemies?
Mulgrew and his patronage machine have chosen to obstruct this binding decision with no data or evidence other than their playbook fear mongering.
They’ve provided no data or evidence that coverage will be diminished other than from a right wing think tank that they linked to on our UFT website. In actuality, under the NYHA proposal there will be no premiums, no cops, nor limited networks, and dental, prescriptions and vision would be included with our healthcare coverage.
Other sister unions such as SEIU, NYSNA and PSC have shown support for NYHA.
Are there legitimate questions about the present version of NYHA? Certainly. We have to ensure our retirees living out of state are fully covered, for example.
Yet, we already voted on supporting a path to it. Twice. But that doesn’t matter because Unity believes democracy should only be performative and that ‘King Mulgrew’ has the final word.
Follow the money?
They protest so much that at this point it just may be reasonable to ask:
So, what are they hiding?
Why do they gaslight and paint legitimate criticisms or suggestions to improve the Welfare Fund as some conspiratorial attempt to destroy our Welfare Fund?
Why are they hoarding millions while our benefits diminish?
Could it be that more money in our union’s coffers is needed to pay for the hemorrhaging of millions required to pay back the financing loans union leadership took out on our union property at 50 Broadway?
In 2002, the UFT entered a real estate deal to lease 52 Broadway and purchase 50 Broadway — a 37-story, 352,000-square-foot office and retail building.
In 2011, The UFT secured a $54.5 million in debt financing for this building.
Yet again, in 2017, they borrowed an additional 62 million dollars from Cushman and Wakefield. (This is the realtor, by the way, under federal investigation for possibly colluding with Mayor Adams’ ally and real estate chief, Jesse Hamilton)
Last spring, UFT CEO, David Hickey, gave a much-awaited general financial report to the executive board. He admitted that the union is struggling to lease space at this building since the pandemic lockdowns. He also alluded that the lenders will be collecting soon.
He and leadership also promised that the financial report would be shared on our union website and yet still nothing has been published as of this date.
Maybe it’s time to demand a forensic audit of the Welfare Fund, also? When will members at the very least get an itemized budget report of the Welfare Fund?
Maybe the two Welfare Fund internal comptrollers that we have on staff that make nearly $400k combined can share a comprehensive report or two?
Good oral health saves lives and money. It’s not a zero sum game.
Michael Mulgrew and his personal friend, UFT Welfare Fund director, Geof Sorkin, have told us that we need this large reserve of money for prescriptions. They’ve shared the outrageous claim that the UFT Welfare Fund doesn’t deny any prescriptions while the rest of us guffaw out loud.
They’ve pitted our oral health against the medications we and our families need. Making this a zero sum game as if one is greater or more important than another. So, what happens when you have an oral health issue but can’t afford to have it looked at? What good does this do if we can get the medication but not the dentist, oral surgeon or oral specialist to prescribe it?
Are they not aware how important oral health is to our general health in general? Do they realize that ultimately having access to good, affordable oral health saves lives and money?
Good dental/oral health serves as a window or gateway to the rest of the body. There is a growing body of research supporting the link between oral-systemic issues. Underlying conditions such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, lupus, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV and heart disease can often be detected first in the mouth by a dentist or oral health professional. Harmful bacteria originating in the mouth can enter the bloodstream, leading to severe consequences. Thus, we should not have to think twice about visiting a dentist beyond just our yearly checkups. It may literally mean catching a serious and potentially life-threatening condition before it's too late or one that requires costlier prescriptions and care.
Cigna Health shares:
Just as mental illness has shown to increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease, poor oral health can exacerbate those and other conditions, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. In addition to improving overall health, obtaining routine preventive dental care can also reduce overall health care costs. A recent Cigna study found that on average, those who receive consistent preventive dental care can reduce their total medical costs by 4.4% per year. For those with diabetes, the savings was even higher – an average of 12.25% per year.
How much could we be saving on prescriptions and healthcare costs, if it was complemented with a robust dental/oral care benefit?
Don’t think the pressure that the rank and file has placed on this issue hasn’t made a difference. We have.
Last month, Mulgrew announced that the Welfare Fund will be shopping around for an improved dental plan with an RFP. The details are murky.
Little birdies have told me that they have co-opted this issue for their 2025 caucus election platform.
It’s not enough. Unity’s reactionary pandering cannot conceal the reckless years of neglect, mismanagement and erosion of our benefits, deteriorating working conditions, pay that lags behind the costs of living while ignoring member voice.
It’s time to vote them out. We need a better, stronger contract with the City of New York and to repair the broken social contract between rank and file members, like you and I, with the union leadership at 52 Broadway.
Thank you for this comprehensive and detailed report! Boy do we need answers.
Why won’t the Welfare Find publish the actuarial studies so that the membership and an independent actuarial firm can analyze the actuarial soundness of Mulgrew’s position?
Why is that so hard for Mulgrew to do? Isn’t he for transparency?