An Open Letter to Retirees: Why We Should Support Zohran for Mayor

Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani addresses supporters at Bryant Park on June 14.

Editor’s Note: The following is a response to Marianne Pizzitola’s open letter to mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani which was published here on Oct. 27

The article “An Open Letter to Zohran Mamdani: Why Are You Ignoring NYC Retirees?,” written by Marianne Pizzitola and published in the October 27 issue of Work-Bites, is a distorted publicity attempt to help elect disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo. A governor, let’s remember, who gave the working people of New York State diminished pensions, illegally withheld court-ordered public education funds for our children, wallowed in pay-to-play scandals galore, covered up untold thousands of nursing home deaths during covid, and resigned in a cloud of sexual harassment scandals brought by thirteen separate women in public service. 

Ms. Pizzitola contends that Zohran Mamdani will threaten retiree healthcare. Yet Work-Bites knows that Mamdani is opposed to forcing retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan and is opposed to any privatization of traditional Medicare. After all, Work-Bites published the first article telling us just that. 

In the November 24, 2024, issue of Work-Bites, Joe Maniscalco wrote, “Mamdani was the first candidate to speak on the record and say he was opposed to putting retirees into a Medicare Advantage Plan.” This was when Mamdani wasn’t even polling 1 percent and was just beginning his transformative campaign to make New York an affordable, welcoming place for all working people. (Meanwhile, Andrew Cuomo was living in Westchester County and spending taxpayer money on lawsuits to steamroll and silence the victims of his sexual predation.) 

Maniscalco quotes Mamdani as saying, “I am firmly opposed to privatization and Mayor Adams’ reckless attempts to strip municipal retirees from the Traditional Medicare they were promised and earned”  and  “Forcing retirees into a profit seeking Medicare Advantage Plan is irresponsible and wrong.” Since then, Work-Bites has published at least two other articles where Mamdani says similar things. Nothing has changed since then and nothing will change when he is elected mayor. 

Marianne Pizzitola knows this. Zohran’s support of retirees is clear. Why else would City Councilmember Chris Marte, the author of Intro 1096, have endorsed Mamdani and be actively campaigning for him? 

We will work with the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees (NYCOPSR) on the issues we agree on. Marianne Pizzitola’s work in galvanizing retirees in support of her lawsuits against Medicare Advantage has been instrumental to our movement to protect retiree healthcare. But Pizzitola and NYCOPSR comprise only one of many panels in the retiree quilt. Ms. Pizzitola has many followers, but she does not own any claim to the leadership of a labor movement or the representation of all retirees. 

Slandering Zohran Mamdani with unattributed quotes claimed to be from his followers is a pathetic move, and especially galling since Ms. Pizzitola does absolutely nothing to disavow the racist, Islamophobic comments that some of her followers post about Mamdani on her social media platforms. Ms. Pizzitola's grandiose claims of representing 250,000, or 400,000 – or whatever number of retirees she claims today – are absurd. 

It was the patchwork of retiree labor groups working together, each doing its part, that achieved the successes we’ve had against Medicare Advantage. No matter what the Court of Appeals may have ruled, or what future courts may decide, we, all of us, have made it politically untenable for any NYC municipal union or any future mayor to consider Medicare Advantage. So let’s cut the self-serving crap and support a candidate – our future mayor, Zohran Mamdani – who supports working people, respects organized labor, and values our communities. 

We the undersigned support Zohran not only because of his position on Medicare Advantage. We support him because we agree with his vision to make our city a more affordable place for all New Yorkers. We support his positions calling for free child care and free buses, for freezing rent for 2 million working-class New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, and for his resistance to the billionaire class and the growing authoritarian state. Cuomo’s time is done. Zohran’s time is now.

Ray Markey, Labor for Traditional Medicare; President (ret.), New York Public Library Guild, Local 1930; VP DC 37 (ret.), AFSCME  
Bennett Fischer, Chapter Leader, UFT Retired Teachers Chapter
Gloria Brandman, Secretary, UFT Retired Teachers Chapter
Amy Wenger, National Nurses United (ret.); UFT Retired Chapter; Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC)
Martha Bordman, Delegate, UFT Retired Teachers Chapter; Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC)
Greg Heires, Former President, Metro Labor Communications Council; Former Senior Associate Editor, Public Employee Press, DC 37, AFSCME
Gary Goff, Former Vice President, Local 2627, DC 37, AFSCME
Kate Connors, Delegate, UFT

Sarah Shapiro, Delegate, UFT Retirees Chapter; Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC)
Steven B. Auerbach, MD, MPH, FAAP, Capt/06, Senior Medical Epidemiologist, US Public Health Service (ret.)
Bill Henning, Former Vice President, CWA, Local 1180
Julie Schwartzberg, Executive Vice President (ret.), Health Services Employees, Local 768, DC 37, AFSCME

Mike Stein, Former Secretary-Treasurer, Local 2507, DC 37, AFSCME
Len Polletta, Labor for Traditional Medicare; Former Chair, NYS Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board; Assistant General Counsel, DC 37, AFSCME
Martha Cameron, Retiree, Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC)