{"id":216099,"date":"2025-09-10T17:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216099\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T17:56:19","slug":"nyc-stiffing-9-11-widows-and-orphans-of-critical-medical-payments-unions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216099\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC stiffing 9\/11 widows and orphans of critical medical payments: unions"},"content":{"rendered":"

For nearly a year, the city has failed to provide funds for critical medical payments to widows and children of first responders<\/a> who died on 9\/11 and other city employees killed in the line of duty, the Daily News has learned.<\/p>\n

Since November, the city\u2019s Office of Labor Relations hasn\u2019t made the $850,000 in quarterly payments that go to widows and children<\/a> of fallen employees through the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund. The money goes to the city\u2019s unions, which use the money to offset prescription drug, eye, and dental exam costs for families of city employees who died on the job.<\/p>\n

The payments stopped after the Fund\u2019s balance dropped to zero last yea<\/a>r, and the Office of Labor Relations scrambled to bargain with vendors and restructure its debts.<\/p>\n

Municipal unions are picking up the tab to make sure that the widows and children aren\u2019t out of pocket, said Vincent Vallelong, the president of the NYPD\u2019s Sergeants Benevolent Association<\/a>. The union is currently supporting 165 widows and families of sergeants who have died in the line of duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no choice but to pay,\u201d Vallelong said. \u201cBut this money is earmarked for (widows and families). It should be put aside and never be a contention of any bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are approaching the anniversary of Sept. 11 and everyone is screaming \u2018Never forget!’\u201d Vallelong said. \u201cThe city talks about how the first responders who died on 9\/11 are heroes, but at the same time they\u2019re giving the widows and children of these people a big zero in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SBASBA President Vinny Vallelong speaks during a protest of Mayor Eric Adams outside the Apollo Theatre before Adams delivers his State of the City Address on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The city has provided the money from the\u00a0Office of Labor Relations<\/a> Health Insurance Stabilization Fund since 2001. For more than two decades, the\u00a0office hasn\u2019t missed any of its quarterly payments, but in July 2024 the agency announced it won\u2019t pay out anything from the fund until it can \u201ccollectively bargain\u201d the debts it currently owes.<\/p>\n

In October, The News reported that the Stabilization Fund wasn\u2019t making its quarterly payments to the unions. When the story broke, the city made a payment in November, but hadn\u2019t made another one since, said Vallelong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m disgusted. They\u2019re now a year behind in making these payments,\u201d he said about the city\u2019s failure to make good on its promises. \u201cWe treat (9\/11 widows and families) like royalty and the city should be treating them the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city has a different take on the situation.<\/p>\n

In a Sept. 9 letter from OLR Commissioner Renee Campion to union officials, Campion they said the city would continue to make payments through the 3rd quarter of 2025,\u00a0 but going forward it will be up to the unions to make sure the fund is solvent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear that this benefit has never been funded by the City, and the agreement is clear that it is not the City\u2019s responsibility,\u201d Campion wrote.<\/p>\n

An email to the City Hall about the payments was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

The city lost 343 FDNY members, 23 police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers during the terror attacks on Sept. 11. Their deaths were all considered line of duty deaths. The missing payments also affect families of cops and FDNY members who have died responding to crimes and fighting blazes.<\/p>\n

City unions continue to demand the city makes good on its commitments, but so far they haven\u2019t gotten a response, union heads said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city needs to honor its obligation to the families of our fallen heroes, and we are going to continue pressing until it does so,\u201d Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry said. \u201cNo matter what, the PBA is never going to allow our line-of-duty families to be deprived of the benefits they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter to Campion sent last fall, Harry Nespoli, the chairperson of the Municipal Labor Committee<\/a>, which represents the city\u2019s unions, said these families should be given the highest priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWidows and orphans had their lives turned upside down by the death of their family member in the service of us all,\u201d Nespoli wrote. \u201cThis contribution, while not bringing them back, in some small way helps compensate them for that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Police Officer Anthony Mosomillo, left, and his widow, Margaret Mosomillo, at the funeral for her husband in 1998. (NYPD; Mike Albans \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Margaret Mosomillo, the widow of\u00a0Police Officer Anthony Mosomillo<\/a>, who was shot and killed while trying to arrest an ex-con in 1998, used these funds just this week, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just went to the dentist to get a cleaning yesterday,\u201d she said. \u201cI get eye exams yearly, so this personally affects me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosomillo found it disturbing that these payments are being used as a bargaining chip as the agency tries to right its fiscal ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are they withholding these payments, but the city is still paying for migrants?\u201d she asked. \u201cI feel that the city is using us as a pawn. They\u2019re playing games and we\u2019re being victimized all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 56 years old, what\u2019s going to happen when I\u2019m older and I\u2019m on more than one medication?\u201d she asked. \u201cCops, firefighters and EMTs make sure others are being taken care of every day. Why can\u2019t they take care of us?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For nearly a year, the city has failed to provide funds for critical medical payments to widows and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5295,728,405,403,5294,5296,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,79466,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-216099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-county","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-september-11","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115181295073670334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}