Texas Border Business
Texas AFT Retiree Plus, a group of public-education retirees from across Texas advocating for retired teachers and all retired school employees, held a training for member-representatives from across the state February 6 – 8 at the Houston Federation of Teachers’ office. J.J. Luna, an organizer for La Joya AFT, and Chris Ardis, retiree representative for McAllen AFT, traveled to Houston to participate in this training.
Formed in the fall of 2018, membership in Texas AFT Retiree Plus is open to all retired school employees, regardless of which union or organization they belonged to while working in the public education system. Texas AFT Retiree Plus focuses on educating its members and lobbying the Texas Legislature about protecting and improving the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) of Texas, the pension and health-care system for all public-education retirees in the state (not only teachers, as the name implies).
“Too many retirees were feeling left behind,” said Ray McMurrey, secretary-treasurer of Texas AFT. “The political system in Austin failed our retired educators. They are being asked to pay more for less on a fixed income. Our goal is to be a strategic agent for advancing the agenda for retired educators.”
Meghan Rozarie, a trainer from American Federation of Teachers’ headquarters in Washington, D.C., led the sessions in Houston, which focused on organizing to increase awareness of this relatively new organization, sharing the public-ed retiree message throughout the state and with our legislators, and formulating a call to action.
The current priorities for the group, in addition to organizing, were also discussed. They are: 1) fighting to have affordable health care for TRS retirees restored; 2) working for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which most TRS retirees have never received; and 3) fighting for Social-Security fairness through a repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset, which have unfairly punished public educators, police officers, firefighters, postal workers, air traffic controllers, federal government employees (hired before 1983) and some state, county, local, and special-district workers in 15 states, including Texas. Texas AFT Retiree Plus members are closely following H.R. 4540, the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act, by Congressman Richard Neal.
Luna attended the training in order to return to La Joya and share what he learned with La Joya AFT retirees and other public-ed retirees throughout the Valley. While he acknowledges some strides made for retirees during the 2019 Legislative Session, he insists much more needs to be done to provide public-ed retirees with the benefits promised throughout their careers.
“Retirees need to join forces to get a COLA,” Luna said. “We can’t wait 10 years for another 13th check,” which the Texas Legislature provided for retirees in late 2019.
For more information on Texas AFT Retiree Plus, visit texasaft.org/membership/retiree-membership.
