Jun 17, 2008 4:01 PM
Politics was the topic of the day at the 45th annual RTC Luncheon at the Hilton New York on June 3 as speaker after speaker reminded the 375 retirees in attendance of the critical issues that are at stake for them and for all Americans.
UFT President Randi Weingarten spoke of the importance of political action and union muscle to force Mayor Michael Bloomberg to restore the $450 million for schools he cut from the city budget. Citing 60 events last month — all part of the Keep the Promises campaign to restore the cuts — she thanked the retirees for being part of that effort.
“God bless you for being there, for packing the City Council chambers [on the day Joel Klein testified on the schools budget,]” she said.
Weingarten took her warnings to the national level, calling the Bush administration and John McCain’s plans for health care, Social Security, means-testing and subsidizing Medicare Advantage plans just “ways of taking money from people who work, who really need it.”
RTC Vice Chair John Soldini, a former UFT vice president and the NYSUT Retiree of the Year Award winner for 2008, charged the Bush administration with “waging war on the American people.”
“Every social program that makes us comfortable and secure would be destroyed by this administration,” he warned, adding, “If McCain is elected, attacks against these programs will continue. Together, and only together, we can give America another chance.”
Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Pappas cited the genius of the UFT founders for keeping retirees an integral part of the union as “a power base, a political power base, the smartest people in the union.”
He, too, attacked McCain as “standing for everything we are diametrically opposed to, ready to kill and savage the entitlements we have worked so hard for over the years.”
Pappas warned, “Don’t mess with my pension or Social Security and God help you if you come after my health benefits.”
On a lighter note, he reminded retirees that “today is a celebration of the union that improved our professional lives and still protects us, and of the retiree chapter, 52,000 strong from the East Coast to the West Coast and in between.”
Concerned about the truth of calling the celebration the “45th luncheon” since the union only dates from 1960, Pappas concluded that pehaps a dozen retirees back then had gathered at Katz’s Deli for a few hot dogs and got the ball rolling.
At an RTC luncheon you become a part of living history for the day. You meet people like Emilie and Paul McSloy, part of the UFT nucleus at Franklin Lane HS from the earliest days and foot soldiers on the first picket line and all the ones to follow. Honored for 50 years in the union, Emilie explained, “First Paul and I joined the Teachers Guild and then we joined each other.”
Queenie Wooten proudly remembered that Albert Shanker appointed her one of the union’s first delegates. And Marjorie Banks, winner of the Fanny Simon Award for outstanding achievement in human rights, reminisced about her walk with Shanker across the bridge on the way back from the 1968 picket lines.
In accepting the Pearl Berger Award for outstanding political and legislative activity, Barry Smith spoke of the dreams that motivated the union’s founders but said the real heroes are “the rank and file, the activists who take the dreams and make them real, the backbone of the union.”
Smith continued, “They walk the walk on the picket lines for fair wages and the right to organize; [they are] on the phone banks, at marches and rallies with parents for proper funding for schools and for smaller classes. Many of you here right now are the heroes.”
NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi applauded retirees for “your willingness to march, phone and fight for the issues we stand for,” and for the activism “that helped us push back on the Bloomberg move on tenure.” He asked for retiree help “in the fight in front of us to stop attempts to cap property taxes, a move that will destroy education as we know it.”
Weingarten, in her remarks, assured NYSUT, “We will be with you.” She also reassured retirees, “We stand on the shoulders of our retirees and we promise to use every bit of our power to ensure that you remain safe in your retirement.”
Other award winners included: Mickey Abend, who received the Sylvia Levinson Award; Seena Parker, the Edith Potter-Anne Reel Award; and Jack MacFadden, the Pearl Berger Award.
NYSUT Community Service Awards went to Christine Alexio, Josie Beckwith, Barbara Dzubak, Honey Federman, Sheila Feivelson, Diana Manzo, William Perry, Sonia Rieber, Sylvia Singer, Harvey Weber, Thelma Werner and Helen Whitaker.
The 60-Year-Member Award winners were Minna Charles, Martha Dyner, Phyllis Schneider and Sante Venanzini.
Lenore Abramowitz, Patricia Amodio, Molly Arbeitman, Jeanne Arnowich, Eli Blitman, Eugene Blum, Joseph Brain, Anne Caldwell, Ruth Casden, Anne Diamond, Harriet Eisenberg, Arthur Feinberg, Solomon Feingold, Joseph Fromer, Leonard Gappelberg, Seymour Goldberg, Muriel Hendricks, Leopold Hoenig, Cynthia Jacobs, Herbert Jurist, Claire Lawrence, Gertrude Lehrman, Hortense Lieberman, Emilie McSloy, Paul McSloy, Sidney Moskowitz, Sylvia Posner, Frances Protter, Mary Rayburn, Irving Saltzman, Dominick Santopietro, Alfred Secondi, Michael Silvergleid, Herman Smith, David Spiwak, Jennie Stanger, Michael Symons, Frances Turner, Ray Warsh and Harvey Weber were honored with 50-Year-Member Awards.
Molly and Fran have been chatting on the phone every Monday for the past two years despite the fact that they have never met. That is until they met by happenstance at the annual RTC Luncheon.
There was Fran Leichter, who became a case manager for UFT retiree social services after her retirement in 2002 from IS 143 in Manhattan, seated at table 7 right across from Molly (Fay) Arbeitman, a 1981 retiree from JHS 62 in Brooklyn who was honored at the luncheon for her 50-year membership in the union. They smiled pleasantly at each other and at the others at the table and began their salads.
It almost didn’t happen and nobody quite knows how it did, but suddenly they put two and two together and came up with the surprise revelation.
As a case manager, Leichter keeps in touch regularly with several retirees at their request — a friendly call checking on how they’re doing and feeling. Fran spoke of the relationship she develops with the retirees she calls, especially Molly who, she said, “is always upbeat and interesting.” Fran also got to meet the family. Molly’s daughter and granddaughter were there to see Molly honored.
Now there will be a new dimension to their Monday talks.
— Dorothy Callaci