You've earned your retirement
by Pat Daley

If the end of this school year spells retirement, have we got a deal for you! Your AFT membership has secured you life-long membership as an AFT retiree. While there are definite benefits attached to being a lifelong national AFT member, you can get even more out of your membership through local retiree chapter involvement. How? First of all, find out if your local already has a retiree chapter or a specific retirement program. If not, why not start a retiree chapter? The national AFT offices will assist you; there's even a booklet written just for that purpose ("Organizing AFT Retirees; A Guide for AFT State Federations, Locals and Retiree Members").

Once you're hooked up with a retiree chapter, you'll find you're in good company, with some 80 existing chapters and more than 150,000 retirees, who are working on such issues as prescription drug costs, the strengthening Social Security and Medicare, long-term care, and laws in each of their states that affect a long, healthy and productive retirement. In Florida, for instance, AFT retirees from the United Federation of Teachers, the New York State United Teachers and Florida Education Association/United flooded the state capitol building in Tallahassee recently to lobby Florida legislators for pension improvements and a state patients' bill of rights.

In addition to being involved with a local AFT retiree chapter, the National Council of Senior Citizens and the AFL-CIO also have retiree membership opportunities. The adage that there's strength in numbers still applies as you make the transition into a more comfortable but no less active time of your life. For more information, call the AFT retiree program director, Frank Stella, at 202/879-4526.

Pat Daly, a former AFT vice president, chairs the AFT executive council's standing committee on retirement. He is also co-chair of the retiree chapter of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers.