DC 37 Retirees: AFSCME’s Takeover is a ‘Scam’ to Kill Opposition to Medicare Advantage
“AFSCME Administrator Go Home”: Suspended DC 37 Retirees Association officer Neal Frumkin addresses members on Barclay Street this week. Photo/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
After 15 months in receivership, members of the District Council 37 Retirees Association still have no idea this week when they’ll ever regain control of their organization once again following a rare in-person general meeting held at the union’s headquarters on Thursday.
Members headed into that general meeting—reportedly the first in two months—demanding AFSCME “Go Home” and learning when that might actually happen. What they got, instead, was a lot of “obfuscation” and talk from Administrator Ann Widger about the need to “build up the infrastructure of the organization.”
“It was not clear when the receivership will end. And the conditions under which the receivership will end are unclear,” former District 37 Retirees Association officer Neal Frumkin said after Thursday’s meeting.
AFSCME suspended all of the DC 37 Retiree Association’s officers and locked them out of their Maiden Lane offices on Feb. 22, 2024 after union President Lee Saunders said the organization’s finances constituted an “emergency” situation.
Former DC 37 President Ed Hysyk denounces AFSCME’s takeover as a “scam” to stifle dissent.
DC 37 Retirees Association members never bought that pretense, however, and insist the takeover was really an effort to shut down opposition to DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido’s campaign to push every municipal retiree in the City of New York into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan.
Members that Work-Bites spoke to concede Covid-19 hit the Retirees Association hard—and there were issues with the group’s finances that ultimately led to the IRS revoking its tax exempt status. But the IRS restored that status back on Feb. 13, and as John Hardisty, former DC 37 Retirees Association treasurer said on Thursday, “[AFSCME] did not find one nickel out of place.”
Former DC 37 Retirees Association President Ed Hysyk called the AFSCME takeover nothing but a “scam” and said the only reason for it 15 months ago was to “prevent us from helping to fund the cost of the lawsuits against DC 37 and the City of New York When it comes to our healthcare.”
The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees has racked up 11 court victories thus far, preventing the Medicare Advantage push from succeeding. The DC 37 Retirees Association had been financially and vocally supportive of that fight prior to AFSFME’s takeover.
The New York State Court of Appeals heard final arguments in the so-called “nuclear option” case between the City of New York and municipal retirees fighting the Medicare Advantage push on May 15. That pending decision will go a long way in deterring whether or not Mayor Eric Adams’ administration—with Garrido’s help—will be able to force 250,000 municipal retirees into Medicare Advantage.
“The administratorship should end. It should never should have started,” Hysyk said outside DC 37’s Barclay Street headquarters on Thursday. “We were never in financial difficulty. And this has nothing to do with the fact that we temporarily lost our IRS non-profit status—it has to do with healthcare. The day the healthcare situation is resolved—that will be day the administratorship will end.”
Former DC 37 Retirees Association Treasurer John Hardisty says AFCME auditors didn’t find “one nickel out of place.”
At one point during Thursday’s general meeting, vocal Medicare Advantage opponent Aurea Mangual reportedly expressed support for Intro. 1096—the bill still languishing in the City Council aimed at protecting retirees’ Medicare benefits because Speaker Adrienne Adams opposes it. Widger, however, moved on without responding to Mangual.
Widger did, however, tell members that she plans on relocating the DC 37 Retirees Association offices from their present location on Maiden Lane to the union’s headquarters on Barclay Street. That move, Widger said, might be completed by summer’s end. She also informed members about her plans to form three new committees, craft a new constitution for the organization, and hire staff.
Meanwhile, according to Frumkin, Garrido spoke for about half the meeting—during which time he talked about the “crisis in healthcare” and “the changes that are in the offerings for active and Pre-Medicare retirees.”
“We were functioning very well until Covid hit us,” Frumkin told Work-Bites following Thursday’s membership meeting. “When we moved to Maiden Lane we had a skeleton staff. We weren’t able to provide the services. We went down to about two or three people—we used to have about nine people in the office previously. Yes, it has to be redone—but we were capable of doing it. We don’t need AFSCME to teach us how to do it.”
The next DC 37 Retirees Association general membership will reportedly be held in June—virtually.