New retiree groups to be powerful voice
In May, I accompanied PEF President Roger Benson to a NYS AFL-CIO meeting where he was appointed to an ad hoc committee of the NY State Alliance for Retired Americans.
This state alliance will be part of an arm of the national AFL-CIO to be known as Alliance of Retired Americans (ARA).
The ARA will replace the National Council of Senior Citizens.
The May meeting began this initiative to organize all union retirees into one national organization to be a powerful voice for all retirees on issues at both the state and federal levels. I thank President Benson for including the PEF Retirees in this historic meeting.
I also attended a ceremony in May where the state Alliance of Retiree Organizations, led by its president, Ed Curran, presented a plaque to Gov. George Pataki in recognition of his signing the COLA legislation in 2000.
We receive many letters at our PEF Retirees office, so don’t get discouraged if we can’t answer your letter immediately.
Most of these letters contain questions or complaints that require research before we can reply.
Please keep the letters coming, because they are very informative and they help to direct our efforts to the issues that will be of the greatest benefit to all of you.
Many of the letters complain about the pension COLA enacted in 2000. They say the COLA is too small and the waiting period is too long (you must be retired and wait five years if you are age 55). They also think the $18,000 cap is too low and 50 percent of the Consumer Price Index (which measures changes in the cost of living) is insufficient.
We agree with these complaints and are aggressively pursuing improvements with other retiree groups. It probably won’t happen this year, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen next year.