Does the recent Supreme Court decision in the Janus case affect retirees? No and yes.
No: The decision does not directly or immediately affect retirees because the UFT Retired Teachers Chapter is not part of the collective bargaining unit. The court decision concerned itself with those active members known as agency fee payers, saying that such members no longer can be charged for expenses involved in negotiating a contract or for administering the union.
Retirees freely and voluntarily join the RTC and pay .004 percent of their pension to maintain that membership. The RTC boasts 92 percent of its members are UFT retirees. We voluntarily join for a variety of reasons, including the desire to continue to be part of a great labor organization that secured our professional and economic security. Some of us also join to participate in programs such as the Supplemental Health Insurance Plan (SHIP), which is offered only to union members.
So the immediate answer is that there are no direct benefit changes for retirees related to the Janus decision.
Yes: The RTC, while not a part of the collective bargaining unit, is associated with it. For example, the UFT collective bargaining unit has lobbied the New York State Legislature on our behalf over the course of our careers to win defined benefit pensions and cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). It expended in-service energies, time and resources to defeat the 2017 New York State constitutional convention ballot initiative that could have modified or eliminated Article V, which says: “No public employee pension shall be diminished or impaired.” Where would we be if that pension protection had been lost, opening the possibility of retroactive reductions now still forbidden?
One of our most vulnerable benefits is health care coverage. The only guarantee we have that our coverage will continue is the power of a strong union to negotiate that benefit, which is done through the NYC Municipal Labor Council. All the city’s public employee unions negotiate through the MLC as contracts expire and are renewed. Once the MLC reaches a collective deal, each union then applies those benefits in its own contract negotiations.
A top, perennial bargaining demand of the city is to charge premiums for health coverage that currently is premium-free, though certain drug costs are borne by union members. Since the city labor movement is strong, the city’s bargaining demand has been successfully beaten back. So, health benefits for in-service members, as well as retirees, depend on the united power of the MLC and the UFT.
What does all this have to do with Janus? When Wisconsin implemented right-to-work legislation against its public employees, 40 percent of union members stopped paying dues. How can any union with such diminished resources fight ongoing battles to protect and advance the economic security and well-being of its members and its retirees?
The question of holding a constitutional convention and the protection of bargained health coverage are only two of the most glaring examples of what could be lost if the UFT collective bargaining unit goes belly up.
There are other imponderables that also could be affected by a depleted UFT with diminished resources and power. The UFT has an array of services for retirees. Pension consultants are available to advise when a problem arises or when a fiduciary decision has to be made. Health consultants help retirees navigate the medical and pharmaceutical world. The social services staff assists retirees with a whole host of issues from hospital stays to counseling.
The RTC leadership charts political and organizational action to lobby public officials on behalf of our retiree members and to help elect candidates who are union-friendly. Retirees, as the UFT’s daytime union, help hold officials’ feet to the fire in coordination with our in-service colleagues’ political campaigns. Diminished union resources would mean diminished protections and, consequently, diminished benefits.
The UFT had very few agency fee payers prior to the Supreme Court decision. Now, it’s in the best interest of retirees to see that those people become members. The deep pockets that financed the Janus case are now financing a nationwide anti-union campaign to convince union members to drop out of their unions and pocket their union dues. It’s in retirees’ self-interest as well as selfless-interest to convince them to stay — and to convince nonmembers to join.
We face the dangers of the ripple effect of the Janus decision. Only with a strong UFT will a strong Retired Teachers Chapter survive and prosper.