With more than 300 unions in New York City, several of them are bound to be confronting problems at any given moment. At the same time, there are plenty of UFT retirees who have the time and the interest in helping fellow union members.

With this in mind, the Retired Teachers Chapter formed the Labor Solidarity Project last fall to connect retirees with opportunities to support their labor brothers and sisters.

“We have such a powerful group of people — 72,000 retirees who have incredible experience, many of them active in the world in so many ways — so why not focus one aspect of their lives for the union on helping other workers to do what we did?” said Bobby Greenberg, the chair of the Labor Solidarity Project and the treasurer of the RTC chapter.

RTC members are ready to get involved and don’t need convincing, he said. UFT retirees have long participated in labor actions across the city in an ad hoc fashion.

The new group met for the first time in December. Since then, members have participated in a number of labor actions. The first was joining the picket line at the JFK8 Amazon Fulfillment Center on Staten Island on Dec. 21 for the Amazon Labor Union Workers’ one-day strike.

On Feb. 3, 15 group members, carrying UFT RTC placards indicating their support, marched with striking Atlantic Theater workers in the Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

“You had to see the faces of these theater workers when we showed up on the picket line,” Greenberg said. “It gave them so much spirit. It’s not easy walking the line.”

In addition to boosting the strikers’ spirits, “I think it was just really energizing for us as well,” RTC Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer said.

Later that same month, UFT retirees joined a rally of NYSUT-represented music teachers fighting for a fair contract with the Manhattan School of Music administration. They also showed up at a protest against staff layoffs at the Brooklyn Museum.

Greenberg said another aspect of the group is to provide a venue for members to share their labor stories. “It’s another way of connecting our union, our workers, us and other members,” he said.

With the Trump administration attacking unionized government workers, many UFT retirees are angry and want to show their support for the labor movement, Fischer said.

“This is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “But it’s an actionable thing that makes you feel like you are fighting back.”