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Political climate puts retiree issues front and center
Conference focuses on political action, legislative priorities
The AFT continues to add more retirees to its membership rolls. Since the last retiree conference two years ago, the union has started new retiree chapters in Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and West Virginia. There are now more than 193,000 retiree members nationwide, AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour told participants at the AFT retiree conference in Washington, D.C., immediately preceding the AFT convention.
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| AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour presents the 2004 Retiree of the Year award to Mary Ellen Riordan. Photo by Michael Campbell. |
The traditional retiree issues—healthcare, pensions, Social Security reform and prescription drugs—have become hot topics for all Americans, LaCour pointed out. “Our society is growing older, and issues that affect older Americans are becoming the dominant issues of our day,” he added.
LaCour also noted the challenges of building a union movement for the 21st century: “We need to embrace workers from all generations. It’s important for our leaders to understand that the union is just as important after people retire as it is when they are on the job. Retired members are as important to our mission as a member on the job.”
Now that the new Medicare law has been enacted, George Kourpias, president of the AFL-CIO’s Alliance for Retired Americans, cautioned the retirees to be aware of the Bush administration’s next target: Social Security. “We must work to protect and preserve the programs that generations have counted on,” he said.
At the opening session of the conference, LaCour presented the 2004 Retiree of the Year award to Mary Ellen Riordan. The award is named for the late Jeannette DiLorenzo, who served for many years as treasurer of the United Federation of Teachers in New York and as co-chair of AFT’s national retirement committee.
Riordan spent most of her 43-year teaching career in Detroit and served as president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers for 21 years. She also was a longtime vice president of the AFT. “Mary Ellen is truly a legend in the AFT and the labor movement in Michigan,” noted LaCour.
Kikta: 'Get out and vote'
Raymond Kikta is looking ahead to a very busy fall. Like many union activists, he will be on the frontlines urging fellow union members to get involved in the 2004 presidential elections. Kikta, a retired social studies teacher and member of the Cleveland Teachers Union retiree chapter in Ohio, has been thinking a lot about the upcoming election—especially when it comes to healthcare and school funding.
“The number of uninsured is a disgrace, and the increase in costs for prescription drugs is outrageous,” says Kikta. “Healthcare costs will be a key issue in the election.”
As for school funding, the retiree is upset that “leadership in the House and Senate have done nothing” to devise a plan to adequately fund education. “We are constantly shortchanging our kids by cutting here and cutting there,” he says.
Kikta, who retired in 1997 after teaching for 38 years, has always participated in the work of his union but admits to having been less engaged during presidential elections. Not this time around, however. Kikta is getting actively involved in his union’s political activities.
It’s important that everybody focus on issues like healthcare, pensions and Social Security this fall because “everyone wants to retire someday,” says Kikta. The real question is: “Can they afford it?”
When the union begins its voter registration drive in September, Kikta will be on board and hopes to get a lot of other retirees to join him. The chapter wants to use this opportunity not only to register voters but also to build its membership, which now stands at 880 but has the potential to increase to 2,700. The chapter wants to reach out to all of those people, says Kikta.
“Whatever message we have, they are going to get it,” he adds. Of course, the primary emphasis “will be to get out the vote and educate our members on the issues.”
