Public Employee Press

Leading the fight for retirement security

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The annual education conference of the DC 37 Retirees Association underscored the growing threat to retirement security in the United States.

Hundreds of retirees showed up at
DC 37 April 14 for the association’s fourth annual conference, “Leading the Way in the Fight for All Retirees.” There, sympathetic politicians and labor leaders urged the activists to fight to save the country’s medical, pension and other benefits.

“We face the greatest concerted assault on our benefits in our lifetime,” said Retirees President Stuart Leibowitz, who coordinated the event with Executive Vice President Audrey E. Iszard. “The conference provided a chance to put our country’s looming retirement crisis under a microscope and suggest how we can fight back.”

A morning panel on federal issues dealt with the attacks on Social Security, health care and Medicare.
“Do we have an emerging retirement crisis?” said panelist Bill Arone, a financial services specialist at Ernst & Young. “You bet. You will see the crisis hitting home when we find out we cannot support our lifestyle.”

As employers use 401(k) plans to shift the burden of retirement savings and investment to employees, the future looks grim for retirees. Workers simply aren’t accumulating enough savings to ensure a secure retirement, Arone said.

Congress member Anthony Weiner called the warnings about funding problems a smokescreen for the campaign to kill off Social Security, which keeps millions of seniors out of poverty and helps millions more maintain a comfortable lifestyle by providing a guaranteed income indexed to inflation.

Chuck Loveless, director of legislation at DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said the new Democratic majority in Congress has stalled the legislative assault on government programs. Steve Regenstrief, director of the AFSCME Retiree Program, stressed, however, that the Democrats must capture the White House in 2008 in order to really change the direction of the country.

Keynote speaker Linda Chavez-Thompson, the AFL-CIO’s executive vice president and a longtime AFSCME leader, described labor’s fight to change federal law to make organizing new members easier. The Employee Free Choice Act passed in the House earlier this year, but it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.

The second keynote speaker, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, spoke about the political battle to preserve affordable housing in the city. Besides Quinn and Weiner, two other possible mayoral candidates, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. and City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., appeared at the conference. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum greeted the audience.

Speakers on a panel about collective bargaining explained how local labor law and the state constitution limit the city’s ability to erode retiree health and pension benefits.

An afternoon panel focused on the city and state legislative process. Panelists Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., chair of the City Council Civil Service and Labor Committee; Leroy Comrie, deputy majority leader of the council; state Sen. Martin J. Golden; and Assembly member Rory Lancman urged retirees to press hard for legislation to expand their benefits, including cost-of-living pension improvements and the continuation of health coverage for the spouses of deceased retirees. A second afternoon panel focused on DC 37 benefits.