Public Employee Press

Union warns members about Cuomo pension cuts
20,000 join Tier 4 plan
A union campaign helped save members from paying more and working longer for worse pensions in the governor's new Tier 6 plan.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The ink from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's pen was hardly dry on the law making new city and state employees pay more and work longer for lower retirement income when the union went into action to salvage better pensions for thousands who were still eligible.

Moments after Cuomo signed the Tier 6 law on March 16, DC 37 leaders launched a campaign to turn the legislative defeat into a victory for the thousands of members still eligible for the better Tier 4 plan.

In a rapid-fire citywide drive, the union helped over 20,000 members join Tier 4 by the March 31 deadline. City workers who enroll later will be in Tier 6 and will have to work up to 12 extra years to qualify for their pension, which will be worth about a third less than in Tier 4.

"As we did our damage assessment of the state labor movement's inability to defeat a terrible pension reduction, we did some soul-searching," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "We decided to act immediately so thousands of members who had never signed up for their pension could join the existing system before it was closed to newcomers on April 1."

That gave District Council 37 barely two weeks to convince members to enroll in Tier 4. The looming deadline set off a frenzy of activity, including the distribution of thousands of "Urgent Warning" flyers, the mass mailing of a letter from Roberts, numerous lunchtime meetings and visits by reps, robo calls, personal phone calls and website, Facebook and Twitter notices.

An organizing blitz

DC 37 proved to be very nimble as it returned to its organizing roots, Local 372 President Santos Crespo Jr. said.

"This was our fastest mobilization since the mass layoffs of the 1970s," said Dennis Deahn, director of field services of the DC 37 Health and Security Plan's Annuity, Health and Pension Unit.

"We identified our goal, came up with a plan and did what we needed to make it a success," DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido said.

Public schools, hospitals and the City University were especially targeted because large numbers of members there weren't in the pension system. In the week following Cuomo's signing, Dept. of Education Employees Local 372, Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1549 and Hospital Employees Local 420 supplemented the DC 37 drive by launching their own sign-up campaigns.

"We received tremendous cooperation from the retirement systems," said Pension Manager Deborah A. DeLauro of the Health Insurance and Pension Unit, which worked to educate members about the benefits of joining Tier 4. Local 372 Recording Secretary and Board of Education Retirement System Trustee Milagros Rodriguez worked closely with BERS Director Christine Bailey to speed the enrollment process.

"Everything went all right," said School Crossing Guard Maureen Lovell. After receiving a letter from the union, Lovell inquired about the pension at her precinct. "They all said do it," she said.

Block-long lines of applicants waited at the pension systems in the final week, and by the deadline, about 12,000 new members had enrolled in the New York City Employees Retirement System, 8,000 in BERS and 1,000 in the teachers' system.

Pension applications must be notarized, and the union dispatched staffers who are notaries to help members at the retirement systems.

"Some members felt they couldn't afford pension payments on top of their rent and other expenses," said Local 420 Metropolitan Hospital Chapter Chair Ursula Joseph, one of the coordinators of the local's citywide sign-up effort. "But I made a strong argument about why they should join - and they did."

Local 372 made robo-calls to its 25,000 school workers, and followed up with second calls to the 5,000 who hadn't enrolled in Tier 4 to explain the urgency of joining now rather than later, Crespo said.

A 24-year city worker, Clerical Associate 3 Aurelia Colon would have had paycheck deductions for her pension during her entire career if she had waited to join Tier 6. Now that she is in Tier 4, she will contribute for only 10 years.

"I guess it took a disaster to wake people up," said Local 1549 President and DC 37 President Eddie Rodriguez. "But it was great the union was able to get so many people enrolled."

Secure retirement for 20,000

Cuomo claimed Tier 6 would save $30 billion each for the city and state in the future, but so far his plan has led an additional 20,000 city workers to sign up all at once, at great cost to the city.

With more than 20,000 members safely enrolled in Tier 4 with their benefits protected by the state constitution, the union can now focus on a long-term strategy to chip away at the new plan to make it more worker-friendly, Local 1320 President James Tucciarelli, who chairs the DC 37 Pension Committee, said.