Over the past several months, CSEA activists and staff have worked hard to get our members to Never Quit our union.
Through weeklong blitzes in each region, the blitz teams have visited thousands of our brothers and sisters at their homes and work sites, dropped off thousands of pieces of literature at many homes, spoke with our members about their workplace and community concerns and got thousands of people to sign Never Quit cards pledging that they would Never Quit our union.
While visiting member homes, CSEA activists also carried CSEA Retiree membership applications to present to
members who had recently retired or are retiring soon.
But our work is far from done, and we need you to stand with us in our fight.
Because of recent — and ongoing — court cases and strong efforts by anti-union Right-to-Work groups, we are facing the fight of our lives, and it affects all of us.
Your working brothers and sisters are facing challenges to their collective bargaining rights, benefits and retirement security, just to name a few issues.
Even though you are retired, these challenges can affect you, too. While New York state continues to have one of the most stable, best funded state pension funds in the country, there are many misguided political and corporate leaders who believe that your pensions and health benefits are too generous.
CSEA has successfully fought back changes to retiree benefits in several school districts, and we are facing similar fights with the state through an ongoing class action lawsuit, and we recently filed a lawsuit against New York State Thruway Authority on behalf of retirees who now find themselves paying for health care that they were promised to have covered.
As this edition went to press, the U.S. Supreme Court denied rehearing of the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which posed a potential threat to our membership. Although this is better than the alternative, we fully expect an almost identical attack against us once a ninth justice is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Let’s stand alongside our brothers and sisters in organizing and educating, because we know that we can stay strong if we ‘Never Quit.’
“As a retiree, I was happy to
volunteer to meet with fellow members
to talk about the good things CSEA
does. I enjoyed hearing what members
want from the union. I was pleasantly
surprised to learn how many of our
members were aware of the Friedrichs
case, and it’s implications on the
future of unions in general, and of
CSEA in particular. We had some good
discussions on how we all need to be
strong together to move forward. With no exceptions,
everyone I met with promised to Never Quit.”— Lori Nilsson, Syracuse Area Retiree Local, on joining in efforts for the union’s recent Syracuse blitz, during which she and other CSEA activists and staff reached out to thousands of union members to urge them to Never Quit in our efforts to build a stronger union.
