We are witnessing the systematic erosion of the healthcare benefits of NYC retirees and active city workers, while costs are being transferred to us — at a time that the cost of living is skyrocketing.

A recent decision made by the Mayor, The City of New York and the union leaders with the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) to impose copays on city retirees, many of whom are living on low, fixed incomes, is just one example of this attack on our healthcare and pockets.

This cost transfer to us all is the result of the 2014 and 2018 City and MLC healthcare agreements.

These are the same agreements that sought to force NYC retirees into inferior, predatory Medicare Advantage to achieve "cost savings" while threatening our Traditional Medicare.

The decision to impose these onerous copays had been halted due to a temporary injunction as a result of litigation brought by NYC retirees. However, a more recent court decision allows them to be imposed beginning January 1, 2025 — even as the court case has not been resolved, yet.

NYC's municipal retirees, who spent their careers tirelessly serving New York City, should not be burdened with additional costs that could significantly impact their quality of life.

There is a solution. We need the City and union leaders to reverse these retiree copays, now, and the City Council must pass Intro 1096 to guarantee this doesn't happen again.

The City Council has been ignoring Intro 1096 which would prevent the diminution of our benefits IN RETIREMENT. What the unions are doing is liquidating the benefits of retirees, both union and non-union, to finance their contracts.

Intro 1096 does not interfere with collective bargaining. Even the union's MLC lawyer said so but it would pressure the City to pay for the active worker healthcare, if they were paying for retirees.

The MLC leadership doesn't want to say it out loud, but if it doesn't have access to liquidate retiree benefits, they will have to PAY or give up something under these agreements. They are pitting active workers against retirees.

This should not be a zero sum, game. Lives are at stake.

We call on our elected officials and union leaders to: GET OUT OF OUR POCKETS.