In reaction to one of my columns on the union’s endorsement procedure, I received a message from Ed Beller, a retiree colleague who has a different view on the politics of endorsement. It set me to thinking about the positive nature of internal union...

The Retired Teachers Chapter has expanded from the handful of visionary retirees it was in the 1960s to a staggering membership approaching 70,000 activists who can tap into nearly six decades of achievement as our source of strength. 


When teachers went on strike in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky and North Carolina in the Teacher Spring of 2018, it was not just for themselves — although their pay, pensions and health insurance have been diminishing for the last decade...

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) recently asked me to fill its held position on the Senior Council of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Since the Council’s purpose is to offer advice on strategic issues and policies important to...

Union democracy is an essential characteristic of the American labor movement. New England town hall meetings based on Athenian democracy allow every citizen to gather and voice their concerns and then vote. Many unions operate on that simple and...

Each year my colleagues and I go on the road for Annual Meetings, mostly from January through March, with our far-flung retirees across the country and in Puerto Rico.

New blood is important to any organization or institution so that it continues to maintain its mission and prepare for a dynamic future. With that in mind, the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter Executive Committee, at my request, recently authorized the...

This year is an off, off year for elections and that means we have a political breather. But it is not a time to be idle.

Midterm elections used to be mostly unremarkable events that revolved around local issues for the most part. Rarely did these contests rise to a national level. A truism has been that the political party of the incumbent president tended to lose...