Retiree News | December 2025

Workers are being crushed by the soaring costs of basics—housing, healthcare, child care, college, even the cost of keeping up with credit cards or medical bills. This survey will help us identify the most urgent affordability issues and shape the resources we build to help members get the relief they need. Please fill out this confidential AFT Debt Survey and share it with other members.

 

Amy Pacholk, a New York State Public Employees Federation leader and nurse practitioner, spoke on Capitol Hill Dec. 17 in support of the Loan Equity for Advanced Professionals Act, a new AFT-endorsed bill aimed at stopping this administration’s proposal to deprofessionalize advanced degrees like nursing, education, social work and more. Pacholk explained why the proposal is disrespectful to those who serve our communities and puts even greater financial burdens on these workers, saying, “This decision by the Department of Education defers the American dream and makes the affordability crisis worse and the healthcare crisis worse.” Tell Congress to restore the professional designation to these degrees.

 

In this week’s final report of the year, AFT President Randi Weingarten doesn’t sugarcoat it: The scourge of gun violence continues to break our hearts, and working families continue to feel the economic pinch. We need leaders who will lower costs—not give tax cuts to billionaires. But there is hope! We are growing stronger every day.

 

For a long time, Target was everyone’s darling, and its diversity, equity and inclusion programs won customer loyalty, especially among Black and Latino shoppers. But shortly after President Trump took office in January 2025, Target abandoned those policies. Customers are not having it, and as the holiday season is upon us, the AFT has joined a renewed Target boycott that is gaining momentum.