After a $53M Victory, the Fight to Protect NYC Retirees is Just Beginning…
New York City Council Member Chris Marte [center] stands with municipal retirees on the steps of City Hall on Wednesday. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
New York City Council Member Chris Marte will reintroduce legislation next week, that if passed, will make it impossible for anyone to try and claw back the health benefits retired municipal workers were promised when they went to work for the City.
For decades, the “golden promise” New York City made to municipal workers meant that after retiring they would enjoy worry-free healthcare through traditional Medicare with a Medigap plan covered by NYC.
It’s the reason why generations of New Yorkers were told by their parents to go and get a “good city job”—and why so many of them stayed on to help the City of New York navigate through some of the most violent and tumultuous upheavals in its history—and why so many retirees are now battling profound threats to their health and well-being.
Marianne Pizzitola, president of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees says new legislation is needed to protect retiree healthcare.
Over the last five years, however, the heads of the largest public sector unions in the city have teamed up with successive mayoral administrations in attempt to shatter the “golden promise” and push New York City retirees the unions no longer represent into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.
Retired trade unionists organized as the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees [NYCOPSR] and other groups pushed back hard, and ultimately forced one-and-done former Mayor Eric Adams to abruptly abandoned the Medicare Advantage push last year in a cynical attempt to win re-election.
But the threat to the “golden promise,” and the Medicare and Medigap benefits retired New York City workers earned after decades on the job in many cases, has outlived the Adams era.
“We’re about a month away from the 25th anniversary of 9/11—and here we are still fighting for the healthcare rights of elderly, disabled first responders and other City workers,” former FDNY firefighter Jake Gardener, co-lead attorney for NYCOPSR along with Steve Cohen, said at City Hall on Aug. 5.
Jake Gardener, co-lead attorney for the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, talks about the need to protect those who have given some much to New York City.
Council Member Marte joined New York City retirees and their attorneys on the steps of City Hall Wednesday to celebrate a $53 million settlement with the City of New York that will recoup the copays municipal retirees were charged back in 2022—and to press the fight for new legislation further codifying the “golden promise” made to them.
“You were given a promise, a contract—and now the City is trying to undo that,” Council Member Marte said. “So, whatever we have to do—whether in the City Council, in the courtroom, or on the streets—we’re going to fight until we win.”
Council Member Marte introduced Intro. 1096 back in 2024. It was the predecessor to the retiree bill he plans on introducing next week. But despite helping to force Eric Adams to abandon the Medicare Advantage push last year, New York City municipal retirees have so far been able to overcome the scorched earth campaign District Council 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido has led against Intro. 1096 and any successor bill.
According to Garrido, enacting legislation protecting the healthcare New York City retirees earned on the job would infringe on the collective bargaining rights of the union he’s headed since 2014—and he’s openly threatened to go after any elected official who crosses him.
“You will win,” former City Council Member Robert Holden told Chris Marte this week, “if you just hold the line.”
United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew reversed course on the Medicare Advantage push after Medicare Advantage foes won election and took control of the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter in 2024.
Nevertheless, like Garrdio, the UFT under Mulgrew’s leadership, also insists that Intro. 1096 would undermine collective bargaining and “give an elected body the ability to strip healthcare from all workers, retired and active.”
“The UFT opposes the bill and any actions that seek to weaken the Taylor Law and the protections it provides to current and retired workers,” a union spokesperson told Work-Bites back in March.
That’s why NYCOPSR President Marianne Pizzitola on Wednesday declared that the fight to protect retiree healthcare is not over.
“It is just beginning,” Pizzitola said, “because the former mayor reimplemented those copays in 2025. While we celebrate this victory today for 2022, we know that the City Council and the Mayor’s Office must agree to bring our legislation that Council Member Marte has been working with us the last several years.”
Current New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, however, is on record saying that while he agrees with the “spirit” of Intro. 1096, he doesn’t think it’s necessary.
“He’s incorrect,” New York City municipal retiree Roberta Gonzalez told Work-Bites on Wednesday. “I think he needs to meet with Marianne and I think he needs to listen to what she has to say—and to understand the predicament not having legislation puts us in at present and in the future.”
Work-Bites made repeated attempts to reach both District Council 37 and the Mayor’s Office for comment on this story—but those efforts have been ignored.
“When he was running for office Eric Adams said that a promise was made to us to have traditional Medicare plus a Medigap plan—and as soon as he got elected he forgot what he said and wanted to push us into Medicare Advantage,” retired City attorney Ellen Rieser told Work-Bites this week. “So, I don’t trust any mayor at this point—but I do trust legislation. I look forward to the bill being introduced in City Council.”
According to Council Member Marte, the people at the top of New York City’s public sector unions are simply not listening to rank and file members or retirees.
“What we have to do is continue [to educate] to make sure everyone understands what’s happening because there is a lot of misinformation being spread,” Council Member Marte said on Wednesday. “There is a lot of solitary between rank and file members and retirees. They tried to divide us, saying, ‘Well, if we give retirees what they want it’s going to come at the cost and expense of current members.’ We think that’s misinformation.”
Garrido has also vowed to kill another piece of legislation from Marte aimed at finally ending the institutionalize wage that and round-the-clock shifts New York City home care workers continue to be subjected to.
Like the retiree bill, Garrido argues that passing Intro. 303—the No More 24 bill—would infringe on collective bargaining rights. He also has suggested his members want to work 24-hour shift while only being paid for 13 hours.
And despite City Council Speaker Julie Menin pledging back in March to bring Intro. 303 to the City Council floor for a democratic vote, it remains in limbo after Garrido successfully managed to insert a carve out into it exempting union workers in a way that No More 24 advocates insist guts the bill.
“The only way to protect [retirees]—to prevent the Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations or municipal labor union leadership from passing more costs onto us—is to pass a bill and say, ‘no, you can’t do this,’” Pizzitola added on Wednesday.