There was something special this year about the union’s celebration honoring the record-breaking crowd of 1,390 new retirees who filled the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton Hotel on Nov. 25. While the luncheon paid tribute to the retirees’ years of dedicated service to the children of New York City, it also closed the door on a decade of disrespect and inaugurated a new optimism about the years ahead.

Acknowledging the grueling Bloomberg era that marked the last years of their careers — “when you weren’t respected, when you were demeaned in public by an administration that blamed the problem with education on you” — UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the retirees, “You are some of the bravest people I have ever met.”

At a morning reception for new retirees who had served as chapter leaders, there was plenty of talk about those final years. Erin McLoughlin of P9 in Queens, a District 75 teacher for 30 years, said she was grateful for the union support she got as chapter leader over the past 10 years “when the problems started piling up a lot faster than ever before.”

Ellen Diamond-Jones of PS 54 in Richmond Hill, who was a chapter leader for 13 of the 29 years of her teaching career, said the lack of respect for teachers “stemmed from academy principals,” a reference to the Leadership Academy that Bloomberg created to quickly train individuals with limited classroom experience to serve as principals in many of the small schools he was creating.

Her respect for Chancellor Carmen Fariña’s years “in the trenches” makes her optimistic, Diamond-Jones said.

An ESL teacher at CS 44 in Tremont for 26 years and a chapter leader for nine, Milton Bonella remembered, “I really liked teaching until an academy principal arrived and was disrespectful to the staff.”

Jacqueline Endelson of PS 132 in Washington Heights said she considered her 37 years, 17 of them in the library, “a good run” until 2009, when the principal closed the library. Becoming a well-trained chapter leader, she said, was “the only thing that kept my head above water.”

Retirees cheered when Mulgrew assured them that they would get the retroactive lump-sum payments that they were anticipating. The delay occurred when the settlement fund set up in the contract to fund the retroactive pay for eligible retirees fell short when more members than expected retired at the end of the school year, he explained.

“You will be made whole,” he said. “I absolutely refused to settle for 76 cents

on the dollar. You worked 10 years under Bloomberg and deserve every penny you earned.”

Like the other speakers, Mulgrew called on the retirees to stay active in the face of nationwide campaigns against teachers and unions. He lauded them for their political savvy and ability to walk into a room and organize it, and he urged them to use those skills in the “fight for the soul of public education.”

NYSUT President Karen Magee characterized the retirees as “the daytime army, the feet on the ground.” She asked them to remain part of a strong coalition in support of public schools and to stay focused on the battle to protect due-process rights for teachers.

“It’s not really about tenure but about bargaining rights and all the things we have fought so hard for,” Magee said of the lawsuit seeking to deny due-process rights to New York State teachers.

Retired Teachers Chapter Leader Tom Murphy reminded retirees that as UFT members they are part of a wider labor movement. He called on them to remain socially conscious and to continue “to do good in the world.”