Page 2 - Retiree News Winter 2024

CSEA President Mary E. Sullivan:
Get involved to protect your retirement security
CSEA Family,
As we
welcome
.2024,
we have much
work to do
to ensure our
union and the
labor movement
remains strong. This year, CSEA will continue our efforts to build our union by recruiting new members, retaining our public workforce and growing our retiree membership.
Retirees like you are a great example to current workers of how unions have positively affected working people. Your public jobs may not have made you wealthy, but you are able to live more securely because you retired with
guaranteed pensions. You are able to sustain a dignified retirement
so that you can focus more on spending time with your loved ones or pursuing personal interests over worrying about finances.
Thanks to our great friend
and supporter, New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York’s pension system remains one of the most stable, well-funded public retirement systems in the nation. Because of his careful oversight of investment and dedication to working people, retirees are secure.
Despite Comptroller DiNapoli’s steadfast stewardship of our pension system, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you never take your retirement security for granted.
Our union has fought hard to ensure our pensions are secure and that our retirement benefits remain strong.
Corporate CEOs would jump at the chance to gut Social Security and our pensions for their own personal profit. They would not hesitate to try to line their own pockets at the expense of retirees. Our union will fight for members’ retirement security in every way possible. We also need member involvement to keep our opponents from attacking the retirement benefits we have earned, so we encourage Retiree members to
get involved and help us keep
our retirements secure and union strong.
To do this, we need more retirees to join our union’s Retiree
Division and get involved. As
CSEA Retiree members, chances are that you know someone who
is eligible to join, including your spouse or domestic partner, a former co-worker or a friend.
Urge them to complete a CSEA Retiree Membership application. Membership dues are $36 per year, and many retirees are eligible to pay them through pension deduction.
In solidarity,
Mary E. Sullivan, President
Retiree Executive Committee Chair Bernadette Giambra:
HWorking hard to keep our union strong
ello! Hello! to continue their role in our CSEA have many benefits that will help Happy family is to recruit them before save you money and protect you New Year they retire. and your family. More so, should
union’s Member Solutions Center at CSEA Headquarters at (800) 342- 4146.
Throughout the year, CSEA Retirees will take advantage of every opportunity to grow our union and communicate with members because it is important that we stay strong. Our opponents want to gut our pensions and benefits, as well as outright take them away from future retirees. We must let them know that we are watching and willing to take action to keep our retirements secure.
Have a wonderful and safe winter, and I hope I see many of you this year!
In Solidarity,
Bernie
Bernadette Giambra, Chair
CSEA Retiree Executive Committee
to all of you!
CSEA Retirees
had a busy and
successful 2023;
our year was
full of meetings,
conferences and
activities to keep our union strong.
Our Retiree Executive Committee is starting the year by getting straight to work, as we are also going to have an active 2024.
As we have been discussing in previous editions, we are hard at work growing our Retiree union. We are attending meetings and conferences across the state to reach out to working members
who are planning to retire soon so that we can have them sign a CSEA Retiree membership application. The best way to get these members
2
You can help with the recruitment effort. Does your spouse or domestic partner stay home from your union meeting
or pay a “guest” rate to attend? Have them join our retiree union and bring them along for the information and fun! Do you keep in touch with former co-workers who didn’t join the CSEA Retirees? Ask them to join you for a meeting and sign an application. Do you know someone from your neighborhood who is eligible to join? Tell them about our retiree union and give them a membership application.
As you know, there are many reasons to join the CSEA Retirees. Local meetings provide a chance to get important information and reconnect with co-workers and members who live near you. We
you need help, our union is there for members, no matter what. You can get all of this for $36 per year, and many people are eligible to pay by pension deduction.
We are also working hard on finding ways to communicate more effectively with members. We
know that many of you primarily use your mobile devices, as well
as email. Some Retiree Local presidents have been recently trained in the Action Network email system available to us through our union. This is a cost-effective, fast and reliable way to tell members about meetings, new benefits and other important information. If
you have an email address, or
have recently changed any of your contact information, please be sure to let our union know by calling our
CSEA RETIREE NEWS