Public Employee Press

Retirees conference
Seniors fight back against benefit cuts

Hundreds of senior activists heard a call to stand up to the nationwide conservative assault on government services, entitlements and public employee benefits April 24 at the DC 37 Retirees Association’s annual conference, which was coordinated by Executive Vice President Audrey Iszard.

“As public employees, all of our benefits derive in one way or another from the legislative process,” said Retirees Association President Stuart Leibowitz. “So, it’s incumbent upon us to be active in politics and our communities.”

Speakers and guests included four members of Congress, Anthony Weiner, Yvette D. Clarke, Jerrold L. Nadler and Nydia Velasquez; four Albany legislators, Sens. Diane J. Savino and Martin Golden and Assembly members Felix W. Ortiz and Vanessa L. Gibson; and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts warned that public employee benefits are on the chopping block and appealed for retirees to redouble their effort to preserve the gains unions have won over decades.

“Join the fight,” she said. “If they take down the benefits of active employees, you are going down too.”

Union leaders and public policy experts participated in panels on federal, state and local issues. William Lucy, secretary-treasurer of DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, gave a keynote speech that praised the key role of retirees in the nationwide fight to preserve such federal programs as Social Security and Medicare and urged the conferees to support the Obama administration’s $30 billion jobs creation bill.

Panelist Faye Moore, president of SSEU Local 371, criticized the drumbeat emanating from City Hall and right-wingers about the so-called public pension crisis. Unions must correct the false impression that retirees receive bloated pensions, she said, noting that most get by with modest payments.

The panel on federal issues raised the alarm about the presidential commission addressing the federal deficit and the long-term health of Social Security and Medicare. Charles Loveless, AFSCME’s legislative director, noted that the panel’s co-chair, former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, supports Social Security privatization and has referred to seniors as “greedy geezers.” Panelist Bill Arnone, an independent financial consultant, said he fears the deficit panel will recommend raising the Social Security retirement age and cutting the annual cost-of-living increases.

“We have got to have jobs in this country,” Lucy said, two weeks before the government announced that unemployment rate had crept back up to 9.9 percent after remaining at 9.7 percent the three preceding months. “The jobs bill may not be perfect but we have to help.”