It’s Time to Stop Charging UFT Retirees — Sign the Petition and Help Us Reach 5,000 Signatures By Next Week
Over 2600 have signed the petition already. Let's hit 5k by next week. Sign and share this petition with your colleagues, friends and family. Let's do this!
After decades of service in New York City classrooms, UFT retirees are being forced to pay monthly premiums for prescription drug coverage—at the very moment in life when fixed incomes and rising medical needs collide.
That’s why we’re organizing now.
🎯 Our goal: 5,000 petition signatures by the end of next week.
Every name matters. Every share counts.
👉 SIGN THE PETITION NOW: https://stopchargingretirees.org
✊ We Are Demanding Change — Not Making Polite Requests
This campaign is about UFT retirees and a policy that has quietly but dramatically raised healthcare costs for them over time:
💊 $180 per person per month for prescription drug coverage for UFT retirees
💑 $360 per month for couples
📈 Premiums have increased by roughly 50% in just two years
💵 A $900 annual refund for members (not spouses) still leaves retirees paying:
$1,260 per year (individuals)
$3,420 per year (couples)
That is not “premium-free healthcare,” no matter how often leadership says it is.
UFT retirees earned these benefits through years — often decades — of service. They should not be balancing medication costs against groceries, rent, or utilities.
Many major unions subsidize this premium cost through their welfare funds. Presently, the UFT Welfare Fund is sitting on over 1 billion dollars in reserve. In fact, the current size of the Welfare Fund nest egg is the result of bulk transfers of tax-payer monies from the City’s now insolvent Healthcare Stabilization Fund.
💬 UFT Retirees Are Speaking Out
Across the city, retirees are sharing their stories — stories of anxiety, anger, and betrayal, but also of solidarity and resolve.
📢 Read their testimonials here:
https://stopchargingretirees.org/Testimonials
These are not isolated complaints. They are a pattern — and they demand a response.
📰 This Fight Is Happening Right Now
From organizing efforts to public pressure campaigns, retirees and allies are pushing back and demanding accountability.
🗞 Follow the latest updates here: https://stopchargingretirees.org/News
🚀 Help Us Reach 5,000 Signatures by the End of the Week
We are close — but we need a strong final push towards our first goal. Then, we push for 10k.
Here’s how you can help today:
✅ Sign the petition:
👉 https://stopchargingretirees.org
✅ Share the petition everywhere
Facebook • X / Twitter • Instagram • BlueSky • Email • Group chats
📣 Share this link: https://stopchargingretirees.org
Tag fellow retirees. Tag active members. Tag anyone who believes retirees should not be nickel-and-dimed for healthcare they were promised.
💥 Why This Matters
UFT retirees kept New York City running — through overcrowded classrooms, budget cuts, crises, and pandemics. Forcing them to absorb ever-increasing healthcare premiums after retirement is wrong, unnecessary, and avoidable.
If we show up together, loudly and visibly, we can force this issue into the open — and force change.
✊ Sign. Share. Help us hit 5,000 now.
Related:
Explosive Audit Urges Dissolving Insolvent City Employee Health Fund
This article by Claudia Irizarry Aponte was originally published on DEC 30, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT by THE CITY.
“The Fund Is About to Dry Up”: Why NYS and Feds Must Audit the UFT Welfare Fund
When Geoffrey Sorkin, Executive Director of the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund, gave sworn testimony before the New York City Council civil service and labor committee in 2021, his warning was unmistakable.
The Audit the MLC Doesn’t Want You to See
The Municipal Labor Committee’s (MLC) reaction to The City’s reporting on Comptroller Brad Lander’s audit of the NYC Health Care Stabilization Fund has been swift — and deeply troubling. Rather than engaging with the substance of the audit or explaining why the full report remains unpublished,
THANK YOU for this urgently needed petition. It's empowering to see so many actives signing on! They are not only seeing how immoral our current UFT [Unity] Leadership has been towards retirees-- but the writing on the wall.. These leaders have shockingly taken the 'chew-and-spit-them-out' mindset.... the 'steal-while-you-can-from-retirees' so we can fund easy agreements with insurance profiteers and opportunistic bureaucrats -while we shrewdly pander to actives.
2026 is the year to set unionism straight! .. to raise, not harm, the standards of healthcare! Anyone who sees where this is going will enthusiastically sign on. Healthcare is a human right and #WeAreUnion !