Print
AFL-CIO Creates Organization to Promote Senior Issues
Following is a series of questions and answers about the Alliance to help union officers and activists learn more about the new organization:
Q. What is the Alliance for Retired Americans?
A. It is a new AFL-CIO organization of retirees to provide retirees with a voice in creating an America that protects the health and economic well-being of seniors, rewards work, strengthens families and builds thriving communities. Like the AFL-CIO, the Alliance is committed to bringing social and economic justice to American workplaces and society.
It will represent retirees on the state, local and national levels of government and also be an organization in which members can be actively involved.
Q. Many union members had been members of the National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSC). What is the relationship of the Alliance to that organization?
A. The Alliance will build on the successes and strengths of NCSC, which ceased operations as a membership organization in 2000. NCSC, which was created 40 years ago, led the campaign to establish Medicare and fought to strengthen Social Security.
Members of NCSC are charter members of the Alliance. NCSC lifetime or multi-year members will be able to apply that membership to the Alliance through their NCSC membership term. NCSC members will retain membership in the Alliance through 2001 at no additional cost.
Q. What are the objectives of the Alliance?
A. Its mission statement says "a primary objective is to enroll and mobilize retired union members and other senior and community activists into a nationwide grassroots movement advocating a progressive political and social agenda--one that respects work and strengthens families." The long-term goal of the Alliance is to become a leading voice for older Americans.
Q. How will the Alliance accomplish these objectives?
A.
- By building a strong organization of seniors with more resources, clear objectives and a structure compatible with the labor movement and community-based groups at all levels.
- By creating programs and structures to facilitate retired workers and older persons' lifelong participation in their unions and in their community, political and civic organizations.
- By encouraging all segments of the senior population to act together on legislative, political and policy issues of importance to retirees and their families to achieve maximum influence on federal, state and local governments and on private organizations that affect their interests.
Q. How will union retirees find out about the Alliance?
A. Alliance president George J. Kourpias (retired president of the Machinists' Union and former president of NCSC) recently sent a letter to union retirees, along with their Alliance membership card. Some 160,00 AFT retirees also got an enthusiastic letter of support from president Sandra Feldman. Other union retirees received a similar message from their national presidents. As more unions sign onto the Alliance, retirees from those unions will be receiving a similar mailing.
Retirees who receive the mailing will learn that their union is providing free membership in the Alliance. The union will continue to pay their national dues and the national dues of future retirees. National dues are $2 per member, per year, with a cap of $100,000 in 2001. The cap will be adjusted annually. The AFT also helped fund the mailing to AFT retired members.
In addition to announcing the launch of the Alliance and telling the union retirees about their membership, the letter asks recipients to take action in two ways: first, by sending President George W. Bush a message about the right prescription drug coverage for seniors, and second, by identifying themselves as activists who want to get more involved with the senior movement.
Q. Can retirees who are not union members join the Alliance?
A. The Alliance is an inclusive organization that welcomes all seniors. Seniors who are not union retirees or members of the former National Council of Senior Citizens, or whose union is not currently participating in the program by paying their dues can join the Alliance for just $10 a year.
Membership information is available online at: www.retiredamericans.org.
Q. How can retirees get actively involved in the Alliance?
A. Members can take part in grassroots activities in their area through Alliance chapters and other Alliance-affiliated local groups, including state and local labor councils.
Q. Why create a new national organization?
A. Americans are living longer today than ever before. On average, women will live until age 84 and men until 80.8 (1997 figures). Living longer can be a wonderful thing, if one has good health and is able to maintain a decent quality of life. The Alliance is committed to do all it can to make sure that is the case for all of its members.
There are more than 2.5 million retired union members. That is an impressive number, which is even more impressive when you count spouses, not to mention the additional 3 million union members, the beginning of the baby boom, who will retire in the next 10 years.
Q. How can union officers and activists promote the Alliance?
A. They can tell their retirees and members about the Alliance, the retirees' mailing and urge their retirees to follow through with the Alliance's action requests. Also, they can let the membership know that when they retire, they will automatically become members of both the AFT and the Alliance for Retired Americans once they are reported as retired members to the AFT.
Q. What is the Alliance's top legislative priority in this session of Congress?
A. The Alliance's top legislative commitment is to advocate for prescription drugs for seniors. Specifically, in the 107th Congress, the Alliance will fight for:
- Universal coverage for all who qualify for Medicare benefits;
- A comprehensive benefit to include the most current and effective treatments and quality controls;
- Voluntary enrollment so that those who already have superior drug benefits can remain in their employer's plan while assuring enrollment later for persons facing erosion or loss of current drug benefits;
- Affordable premiums and co-pays and protection from high out-of-pocket expenses;
- No means-testing; however, low-income persons should have all costs covered;
- Dollar coverage high enough to protect the out-of-pocket costs of average to higher pharmaceutical users and a reasonable cap on costs for those with catastrophic bills;
- Provisions requiring (or incentives encouraging) employers to maintain and expand the level or coverage of current, employer-provided retiree prescription drug benefits; and
- Some system of control of pharmaceutical prices for all consumers.
Q. What are the Alliance's other legislative priorities?
A. On the national level:
- Win universal health care for all Americans;
- Protect and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid;
- Open up job opportunities for people older than 50;
- Improve Older American Act programs and financing;
- Clean up political campaign financing;
- Gain rights for patients in HMOs; and
- Fight for workers' rights.
On the state level:
- Expand local programs that help people with disabilities stay in their own homes
- Protect the rights of nursing home patients;
- Protect "lifetime" utility rates for older Americans;
- Make tax policies fairer for older people; and
- Expand state-level health benefits.
Q. What is the structure of the national organization?
A. The national organization, based in Washington, DC, is headed by its president, George J. Kourpias, the former president of the Machinists and former president of NCSC. The Alliance is governed by a national executive board that includes representatives of participating unions and community-based groups. The 12-member national executive committee includes AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy. On May 1, the Alliance hired Ed Coyle as its executive director. Coyle has a long history of work with progressive organizations and campaigns. Until taking this job, he was the national director of Radio Fair America, which monitors and reports on talk radio concerning national politics and public policy.
The group's leaders will be holding four regional meetings in the upcoming months and a series of in-depth meetings with former NCSC chapters, community groups and local unions, culminating in a founding meeting in Washington, D.C., in 2002.
Q. How can I find additional information on the Alliance?
A. Visit the Alliance website at www.retiredamericans.org or call the Alliance at 888/373-6497.
