Introduction

When the AFT changed its constitution in 1990 to make retirees members for life, the union embarked on a bold experiment whose consequences could not be fully foreseen. In 1990, there were 32,000 retirees linked only loosely to the AFT. They had no direct voting rights in the national union and little connection as retirees with senior politics and policies at the federal level.

More than seven years later, AFT retiree membership has topped 135,000, with a potential of 400,000 by the year 2010. Each of 85 chartered retiree chapters has the right to send a delegate to the AFT convention, and the union plays a much larger role in senior politics and policies in Washington.

NYSUT and the UFT have created models of successful retiree programs, and retirees affiliated with New York locals total more than 90,000. There are some 40,000 retirees in more than 40 chapters in other states, whose variety of services may not match that of AFT’s New York affiliates but whose membership satisfaction nearly does.

At the national level, the results of this bold experiment have been mixed. In 1990, when an  AFT Executive Council task force set out to reshape retiree policy and recommend lifetime membership, it had four major goals:

• To maintain the strong link with the generation that built the modern AFT

• To increase the union’s strength by adding numbers

• To tap retirees as a resource in furthering the mission of the AFT, particularly in areas such as political action and the reform of education, public service and health care

• To boost participation in AFT benefit programs.

Today, retirees represent the AFT’s third-largest constituency, yet the program has been largely invisible within the national union. At issue are fundamental questions at the core of the union’s responsibilities to its longest-standing and most loyal members, the generation of dreamers and doers that built the modern AFT.

In a time when the foundations of public education and public service are being shaken, when radical change is sweeping the health care system, retirees remain a vast and largely untapped resource in the union. Major demographic changes are underway that will reshape national priorities and change the shape of the AFT. Beginning early in the next century, some 76 million Americans, the baby boom generation, will begin to retire. As retirees, they will create unprecedented demands on our health care system and public services. As voters, they will have a powerful voice in determining local, state and national education policy. (To see graph AFT Members Retiring, click here.)

AFT retirees can be a tremendous force in shaping the views of their generation.

If invited to participate in the life of the union, retirees can be important spokespersons for AFT policy and programs among one of the fastest-growing segments of the population, one with few direct links to public education.

In May 1997, the AFT Executive Council created a special task force to review the course of the union’s retiree program to better serve retired members and strengthen support for working members and their institutions. The recommendations in this report are the result of that effort and the contributions of the AFT national retiree committee which helped spark this process.

At the urging of this task force, AFT leaders commissioned Peter Hart Research to conduct a national poll of more than 700 retired and working members over age 55; both in and out of retiree chapters. This first-ever national scientific survey forms the basis of many of the recommendations in this report.

The first message of the poll underlines AFT affiliates’ success in winning members a secure retirement. In overwhelming numbers, 84% of retiree chapter members and 82% of retirees not in chapters are satisfied with their life in retirement.

Polling results indicate clearly that AFT retirees, both in and out of chapters, look to their union for two primary services: information and advocacy. Information about retirement issues such as pensions and health care, Social Security and Medicare, and information about the union and the institutions where they once worked. Advocacy on these same issues, but, particularly for chapter members, advocacy, not just for retirees, but for union members of all ages. (To see graph Members' Reasons For Having Joined
AFT Retiree Chapter, click here. )

This poll, the recommendations of the members of the AFT national retiree committee and the experience and insight of task force members have been the key ingredients in fashioning these recommendations.

Task Force Members

Patrick L. Daly Co-Chair
Thomas Reece Co-Chair
John Cole
Jeannette DiLorenzo
Sandra Irons
Herb Magidson
Fred Nauman
George Springer
Louise Sundin
George Taylor
Pat L. Tornillo
Ann Twomey