Oct 5, 2006 2:30 PM
Retiree Howard Bloch, former head of the UFT Grievance Department, said it best: “Retirement is not what it’s cracked up to be — it’s even better.”
So welcome to all our new retirees who are discovering this “even better” state of being. You have just joined a community of more than 50,000 active, involved UFT retirees, with the emphasis on UFT.
Our president, Randi Weingarten, has reminded us often that we are not just a union but a family: “We care about each other and we stand together for things that matter. That has always been our source of strength and inspiration.”
We invite you all to stand with us in our efforts to protect the “things that matter” from the powerful forces intent today on privatizing, undermining and/or abolishing them. Some of the most important institutions and benefits we have fought for years to secure — Social Security, Medicare, pensions, etc. — are under attack.
You have retired from the classroom but not from your union. Your voice is still heard through our retirees who sit on the UFT’s Executive Board, vote in leadership elections and represent us at the monthly Delegate Assembly meetings and at state and national conventions.
Speaking at our annual retiree luncheon at the Hilton Hotel in May, Weingarten told us, “Those of us in service have made the sacrosanct promise to you that we would fight to protect teachers’ retirement, to make sure your benefits are maintained and even grow.”
That’s a considerable promise in the face of what’s happening to other retirees across the country who are losing their pensions and being squeezed by having to pay more for their health benefits even as those benefits erode.
While the vast majority of our members who are Medicare-eligible have not felt the squeeze of the Medicare Part D plan, the financial cost to those members who are seriously ill is catastrophic.
The UFT has kept its promise to us. We struggled together for years and finally won a permanent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) which provides the largest additional pension benefit for those retirees who are retired the longest and had been hit the hardest by cost-of-living increases over the years. Add to that the benefits of full Medicare Part B reimbursement and pension checkoff for COPE contributions.
UFT retirees can boast of and count on the best retiree benefit package of any public school teachers’ union in the country.
In addition, retirees have access to a full-time staff of geriatric social workers, gerontologists, case workers, health consultants and pension advisors at UFT headquarters no matter where they live in the U.S. New retirees will soon receive a handbook detailing all the union’s retiree medical, social and financial services.
Sign up for one, or even two, of the many courses, seminars and trips offered at the Si Beagle Learning Centers in each borough or at the outreach programs on Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester and Rockland County. Stay informed by checking the retiree pages of the New York Teacher for meeting dates and current information on issues important to retirees.
You can also stay informed by checking out our Web site at www.uft.org.
You don’t have to live in the metropolitan area to be an active UFT retiree. There are RTC sections in many states and in Puerto Rico and Israel. Check the New York Teacher for what’s going on in the section near you.
Get involved wherever you are. Lobby legislators, man phone banks, leaflet, rally, parade and, most important, vote for candidates who support the things that matter to retirees and working families across the country. There will be information on key races in the next issue of the New York Teacher.
And don’t forget the RTC luncheon for new retirees at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan on Nov. 15. Invitations will be going out very soon.
See you there.