With threats to workers’ rights on the rise, UFT President Michael Mulgrew minced no words when he asked 850 new retirees at the union’s annual New Retiree Luncheon held in their honor to consider the future: “Will this retirement luncheon still be here 10 years from now?”

He warned the retirees that deep-pocketed forces are trying to strip public-sector workers of the pensions, health benefits and workplace rights they have fought for and won as union members.

Mulgrew called on the retirees, gathered on Nov. 21 in the ballroom of the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan, “to have each other’s backs” and “to fight back on the issues that affect us.”

It was through union solidarity and activism, he noted, that the proposal for a state constitutional convention was soundly defeated in November.

“Go on a great vacation. You’ve earned it,” he encouraged the retirees. But then, he said, “Remember all the challenges that got you to retirement and be ready to stand by your fellow UFT members in our school system.”

Mulgrew said UFT retirees have the strongest retiree chapter of any union in the nation. He assured those gathered, “If you can put up with 25 years in New York City public schools, you don’t back down or curl up.”

A whoop and a holler went up when Gerri Herskowitz, the director of UFT retiree programs, asked how attendees liked retirement. Maggie Guignard, who worked for 26 years as a special education teacher at PS 751 in the East Village, said of her retirement benefits, “I’m like, ‘Wow! It’s all been worth it.’”

At a morning event honoring new retired chapter leaders, several worried about the future and whether young teachers appreciate the value of the union.

Stuart Rothstein, a social studies teacher for 47 years and a chapter leader for 30 — at Thomas Jefferson HS and later at Midwood HS, both in Brooklyn — remembered the strike of 1975, when the UFT lost dues checkoff but 94 percent of members paid their dues out of pocket. “Most new teachers don’t realize what unions have won for us,” he said.

Reading specialist Diane Grant, a 30-year veteran of the Division of Non-Public Schools, said she was grateful for the UFT’s ongoing efforts to give educators a stronger voice through school-based options and consultation committees and “for the union’s never being satisfied with the status quo.”

“The consultation committee empowered me and helped resolve matters far more effectively,” said Grant, who served for 10 years as the leader of her chapter.

Md Sayem Hossain, a student at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics HS who is president of his school’s model United Nations, delivered a speech by John F. Kennedy. Hossain, whose parents were in the audience, came here from Bangladesh. Before speaking, he thanked the retired educators “for all you have done.”

Tina Puccio, the director of the UFT Member Assistance Program, invited new retirees to share their classroom expertise by becoming mentors to new teachers in the union’s Partners Through Experience support program.

Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy called on the newest members of the chapter to become activists in the union’s “daytime army.”

“You did not leave your social conscience on a hook with your keys when you left the school,” he said.

See more photos of the luncheon in the gallery »