PSC Urges City Council to Oppose Shifting Retiree Healthcare to Medicare Advantage
Offers Alternative Plan to Protect Health Insurance of 250,000 Municipal Retirees
President James Davis, Barbara Caress, a healthcare policy expert from the Zicklin School at Baruch College, and Jennifer Gaboury, chair of the PSC chapter at Hunter College, were among many more New Yorkers who testified against changing City Administrative Code 12-126 at a City Council hearing this Monday. The code change would clear the way for the City to privatize the health insurance of its 250,000 municipal retirees. It would also put health insurance benefits for active CUNY employees at risk.
“We talk about tearing off the Band-Aid to deal with healthcare savings, but the proposed change just applies a different Band-Aid while inflicting new wounds,” testified President Davis.
Read testimony from President Davis, Caress, and other PSC members. Watch the PSC testimony here at the 5:48:15 timestamp. Click here for the PSC’s Alternative Plan to give the city time and a process to develop a sustainable solution to the City’s rising healthcare costs. Read “A better way for retiree health care,” an op-ed by Caress and PSC President Emerita Barbara Bowen.
A Solidarity with Striking Nurses
Join Us on the Picket Line 10:30 AM Thursday!
PSC members stand in solidarity with the 7,000 striking nurses at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Montefiore Medical Center represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). Striking for patient safety is a bold act of caring, exactly what we would expect from the workers on the front lines of the COVID pandemic. NYSNA members dedicate their professional lives to the health of New Yorkers. Like all workers, they deserve fair pay and better working conditions. The hospitals should accede now to the nurses’ demands for raises and strong enforcement mechanisms that will ensure safe staffing ratios.
Until an agreement is reached, New Yorkers can join NYSNA on their picket lines daily between 7am-7pm through Saturday, January 14. We’re organizing a contingent of PSC members to walk the picket line 10:30 AM TOMORROW, Thursday, January 12 at Mount Sinai Hospital (1 Gustave L. Levy Place, Madison Ave & 99th St.).
Click here to tell us you’ll be there.
Reminder: PSC Chapter Elections
Declaration of Candidacy Forms Due Friday, January 13
Fourteen PSC chapters are scheduled to hold elections in the Spring of 2023. They will elect chapter officers, delegates and alternates to the PSC Delegate Assembly, along with representatives to the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund Advisory Council. To vote in the Spring 2023 PSC elections, you must have signed a PSC membership card before December 3, 2022. To run for chapter office, you must have been a PSC member of the appropriate chapter for at least one year at the time of nomination. The deadline for filing the Candidate Declaration Form is this Friday, January 13 and should be submitted to [email protected]. Click here for the list of chapters that will hold elections, the election rules and other deadlines.
PSC Members: Support CUNY Rising Alliance!
With support from the AFT’s new Powerful Partnership Institute, the CUNY Rising Alliance is launching a CUNY Rising Alliance Liaison Program!
The aim is to identify one PSC member and one student from each of the 24 CUNY campuses who will work closely with CRA, engage with their communities, and passionately fight for public higher education and the City University of New York.
If you or someone you know might be interested, CRA is currently accepting applications for the 2023 Spring Semester (Jan 25 – May 23). Deadline to apply is January 24, 2023. (The application may remain available after the deadline, and will be reviewed on a rolling basis for vacant positions). There is a small stipend associated with this initiative.
Please APPLY HERE.
Published: January 11, 2023 | Last Modified: January 19, 2023
