"Correcting" Tier 6: How to Change Teacher Pension Laws
After July first, nineteen hundred forty, membership in any pension or retirement system of the state or of a civil division thereof shall be a contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired. (New. Adopted by Constitutional Convention of 1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938.)
As a union rep I raced from school to school as schools opened in September and met with new teachers: sign a dues checkoff card, aka, join the union, the health plan options and the pension, including the TDA, (tax deferred annuity).
As time passed the Teachers Retirement System and the UFT improved services to members.
See descriptions from the TRS website here and here and on the UFT website here
The union old timers warned me; never give advice on romance or finance.
The union has a PM staff, teachers who work after school answering pension questions as well as a Member Assistance Program, a teacher counseling service.
A couple of years ago I received an invite to a retiree party, we were friends through his career as he moved up to high level positions in the Department of Education; a couple of hundred people in a catering hall. Bert took the microphone and thanked his parents, his spouse, his children, and me! “Peter, on my first day as a teacher you told me to put down maximum “variable” on the TDA enrollment form, a million dollars later, thanks.”
I was simply doing my job.
Over the hundred plus teacher organizations pre-UFT agreed on very little, except pensions. Public employee pensions are part of state law; however the municipality must fund the pension, an actuarial computation. Currently New York’s contribution annually is $10B, ten percent of the city’s total budget.
For decades the teacher factions battled, factions on the left. The Teacher Guild, today we’d call them democratic socialists and the Teacher Union, supporters of the International Communist movement and the High School Teachers Association, mostly male, many World War 2 and Korean War veterans.
In 1949 New York State passed the Feinberg Law, all teachers had to sign a loyalty oath attesting that they were not and had not been a member of he Communist Party, 500 teachers were accused and a few hundred fired, the Supreme Court affirmed the law. Read a more detailed description here.
The founders of the UFT, mostly members of the Teachers Guild were tough, intellectual street fighters who had been battling ideologically for decades. Max Schachtman, a leader of a Trotskyite faction of the American Communist party was a mentor of Al Shanker. Read a couple of articles about origins of the far left here. here and here
One of the UFT founders was Dave Wittes; a brilliant strategist and who led the fight to improve teacher pensions.
In 1965 the legislature passed a modest increase in pensions, with additional teacher contributions moving the pension from ¼ to 1/3 of annual salary after 35 years of service or age 65,
Mayor Wagner opposed the bill due to cost to the city and Governor Rockefeller vetoed the bill.
The 1968 teacher strike ripped the city apart, a racially divisive strike that resonated across the nation. Woody Allen’s 1973 movie Sleeper, mentions Al Shanker (Watch here)
Dave Wittes, a UFT officer saw an opportunity, Rockefeller was considering a presidential run and wanted to win back teachers, how about a significant improvement for all teachers, the NYS Constitution prohibits any “diminishment” of pensions, and, voila, Tier 1 was born.
The Shanker enemies, and there were many, passed Tier 2 and Tier 3, which only impact newly appointed teachers. Tier 4 returned many of the positive elements of Tier 1 and Governor Cuomo “gifted” Tier 6, See Tier 6 description here, with age 63 requirement for full benefits it’ll be about forty years before anyone is eligible.
State legislators elected since 2012 are in Tier 6 and with each new class of legislators more and more will be in Tier 6 with more and more legislators on the revise Tier 6 side.
Next March volunteer to go to Albany on Teacher Union Day, Is there a political club in your neighborhood? Attend the meetings; does your state legislator have an open house? Attend, ask you’re principal to invite local legislators to your school, become a citizen lobbyist.
The UFT lobbyists will do the work in Albany; we have to do the work at home,
A local Assembly member at a public meeting said he thought schools didn’t need any additional funds, I put his quote in my newsletter with his office number, he demanded I retract my quote, I said let him retract his statement and I’ll print his retraction. Other elected said I was “tough” on him, the word got around; being “in the mix” at the local level makes a difference.