News from AFT Retirees Archive

The 2026 annual report of the Social Security trustees released this month shows a worsening outlook for the program’s finances, driven in part by Trump administration policies, says the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Without action to shore up Social Security in the coming years, the program will be forced to make deep across-the-board cuts in benefits for retirees, people with disabilities, survivors whose family member has died, and people with low incomes.  

 

Beatrice “Bea” Lumpkin, a lifelong champion of workers' rights whose activism spanned nearly nine decades, died in Chicago on June 14 at the age of 107. Her lifelong fight for workers' rights began as a teenager in a New York City laundry. At just 19, she was hired by the newly formed CIO to organize her fellow workers—a role that launched an extraordinary 88-year career in the labor movement.

 

 

 

Medical bills, student loans and credit cards are pushing too many working families to the brink. That’s why the AFT is hosting free Affordability Clinics as part of our Fight for Affordability campaign. Learn how to reduce, dispute and manage your debt—and understand your rights. Register for an upcoming clinic.

 

AFT members won contracts, back pay and millions in owed wages recently—while President Donald Trump blocked housing help, and the U.S. Supreme Court ended protections for thousands of legal immigrant workers. In her weekly message, AFT President Randi Weingarten breaks down the victories worth celebrating and the fights still ahead: for a living wage, public schools over private school vouchers, and a smarter balance between technology and learning in our classrooms. To hear more from Weingarten, subscribe to My Take on Substack.

 

 

In this AFT Voices post, Kati Bassler shares how her local took on a hospital that raised mammogram rates after buying the area's only mammography center—and then ran breast cancer ads. The local organized its members and shamed the hospital publicly. The result: a negotiated insurance carve-out for affordable screenings. That foot in the door led to ongoing dialogue with hospital leadership and a foundation for tackling new fights.