Retiree Advocate Platform 2024

The Retired Teachers Chapter election is winding down. The count is scheduled for this Friday. What I’m doing here is, with a few comments, sharing the Retiree Advocate Election platform. It was first published on the Retiree Advocate website, here. We wrote it over the fall, finalized it at the start of February. All of our 300 candidates accepted it (doesn’t mean they agree with every line, but they accepted it overall) and we published it April 10.

• We do not have a one-issue platform. That hasn’t stoped Unity from repeating that Retiree Issue has a one issue campaign – healthcare (and then Unity proceeds to avoid talking about healthcare – taking away retirees’ Medicare is a bad look). Read for yourself. Healthcare is in there. It is prominent. It is not the entire campaign.
• Unity itself never publishes a platform. They run on “trust us” – after demonstrating pretty clearly that trusting them is an iffy proposition, at best. They do some things well. And then make backroom deals that force us into new copays. I wouldn’t trust them, would you?
• I really like the point about involving retirees in chapter organizing. We have decades of experience as activists and chapter leaders. It would be smart to put that to work.
• I like the last section, the social justice section. Jobs programs. Fight racism. Shifting money from the military to local communities and to veterans benefits. Some people thought that “social justice” would sink us. But I am proud of what we stand for. Read it. In fact, Unity attacked us for being leftists – but they made stuff up. There is nothing in our platform to attack us on – unless you are opposed to raising the minimum wage.
• Last point – we decided to publish the platform, but to push individual campaign leaflets. We ended up not pushing the platform out widely. Which was too bad. Looking at this platform today, I wish we had really blasted it all over social media. It’s a good platform. Oh well.

2024 Retiree Advocate/UFT Election Platform

ORGANIZE TO PROTECT AND IMPROVE RETIREE BENEFITS

• Protect our Healthcare from being privatized – No Medicare Advantage
• Protect our Pensions

• Improve the COLA formula on our pension to match full Cost of Living
• Expand Social Security benefits and ensure that they are not diminished
• Support and organize for a NY Health Act that protects and expands health benefits for all
• Work towards a national single payer health plan

EXPAND UNION DEMOCRACY IN THE RETIRED TEACHERS CHAPTER (RTC)

• End winner-take-all chapter elections (70% of the vote should not win 100% of the 300 delegates)
• Make RTC meetings more meaningful. Give voice to a greater variety of views. Allow real debate. Allow members to raise issues
• Let the full chapter vote on major RTC issues such as changes to our healthcare

SOLIDARITY WITH WORKING EDUCATORS / STRENGTHEN WORKING EDUCATOR-RETIREE ALLIANCE

• Everyone’s Health Care Matters! Work to protect in-service health care, as we fight to preserve retiree healthcare
• Lobby the state legislature for Pension Equity – Move Tier 6 to Tier 4
• Take steps to support educators working under abusive administrators
• Involve retirees in assisting chapter leaders and organizing school chapters. Use retiree knowledge and experience to empower our working colleagues and unionize charter schools
• Keep public schools public. No charters, no vouchers, no co-locations, and no funding schemes that undermine public education.
• End Mayoral Control
• Fully fund our schools. Slash the Tweed bureaucracy. Stop wasteful spending on no-bid contracts for consultants and vendors.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE FOR ALL

• We support:
  • raising the minimum wage
  • alleviating student loans
  • universal parental leave
  • subsidized childcare
  • a massive jobs program to address racial and economic disparities
  • a progressive tax system including a stock transfer tax
• Oppose and fight racism
• Prioritize local communities, social services, and veterans’ benefits over military spending