One of the greatest benefits of UFT membership is having a guaranteed retirement allowance when you retire. But for members who joined the retirement system after April 1, 2012, their defined-benefit pension is not equivalent to what more veteran members enjoy.

How did this happen? Because public employee pension benefits are not a subject of collective bargaining, it took state legislation to create Tier 6. In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007–08, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a bunch of affluent New Yorkers got together with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to craft a plan to reduce New York State’s funding obligations for all city and state pensions.​ Because the state constitution says the pension benefits of current employees cannot be diminished or impaired, they went after the pensions of future employees.

In April 2012, in a sneak attack on labor unions and public sector workers, Cuomo forced through pension legislation — packaged as a new tier — that reduced pension benefits for state and city employees hired after that date while requiring higher contributions from those same employees.​ That’s how Tier 6 came to be.

Many things about Tier 6 need to be improved to make it comparable to Tier 4 (hardly any city employees are in Tier 5). Since we are not allowed to negotiate pensions, we must persuade state lawmakers in Albany to fix Tier 6. It won’t get done in one legislative session. We are in a long game. It will take many legislative sessions to make all the necessary improvements, but the fight is on. Remember, it took 29 years and more than 90 reforms to make Tier 4 what it is today.

We have already made some progress. All Tier 6 members are now considered vested in the pension system after they have completed five years of service, down from the previous 10.

But we have a lot more to do — from major changes, such as lowering the retirement age to 55, to smaller yet significant changes, such as improving how final average salary is calculated. That’s why the UFT, in partnership with NYSUT, has launched a campaign to fix Tier 6.

It’s absurd that Tier 6 members have to wait until they are 63 years old to retire with an unreduced pension. If the average educator begins their teaching career at age 25, when they have 20 years under their belt, they are still almost 20 years away from an unreduced retirement benefit. Given the intensity of our jobs and our dedication to our students, forcing us to stay in the classroom for nearly 40 years to retire with dignity is unfair.

Inequities exist in the details of the two tiers, too. When a Tier 6 member approaches retirement, the size of their pension allowance will be based on the average of the five highest-paid consecutive years of employment, while for Tier 4 members, it is the highest-paid three consecutive years. Same job, same dedication and responsibility, and yet one worker is left with a lower pension allowance for the rest of their life. It doesn’t make sense.

But you know what else it took to make Tier 4 what it is today? Unity and activism.

For decades, members from Tiers 1, 2 and 3 joined with their newer colleagues in Tier 4 to advocate, donate to COPE and lobby for improvements to Tier 4. Now the nearly 56,000 UFT members in Tier 6 need the same show of solidarity from our approximately 54,000 Tier 4 members.

Fixing Tier 6 is about fairness. It’s unfair that some UFT members must work longer and contribute more to earn a smaller pension. This inequity should anger all UFT members.

Fixing Tier 6 is about keeping talented educators in the classroom and recruiting new educators into the profession. Putting newer members into a lesser pension tier undervalues our profession. Our work is important, and our pensions should reflect that importance.

Fixing Tier 6 is ultimately about unity: When we stand together in solidarity, we have power. This is a moment for all city and state workers to come together and show we have power in numbers, and our priorities need to be addressed.