Retirees Reach Membership Milestone; Set Political Goals

Retirees Association staff (l-r): Shalena Lindsay, Barry Roberts, James Whalen, Carolyn Surian, and Victoria Griss
Retirees Association staff (l-r): Shalena Lindsay, Barry Roberts, James Whalen, Carolyn Surian, and Victoria Griss

OCTOBER 23—The TWU Local 100 Retirees Association has reached its highest membership numbers in 25 years.

Retirees Director James Whalen, speaking Thursday at the organization's general membership meeting at Eastwood Manor in the Bronx, said the association now claims a paying membership of 8,400 transit retirees—about a third of the total number of TWU Local 100 retirees. Association members are eligible for extra benefits, including optical and dental, and also have an organization that works to advance retiree benefits around the country.

Addressing areas of concern, Whalen told the over 300 members in attendance that the controversy over the Aetna Medicare Advantage insurance coverage seems to have ebbed, with very few complaints coming in compared to the year before. He said that both he and his wife are on the Aetna plan and they have no complaints, a conclusion echoed by Retirees Executive Board Member Kevin Harrington.

He said that the Retirees Association's recent events—including a riverboat cruise and a country outing at Krucker's Catering and Picnic Grove—had been very successful. The Association sees a steady stream of retirees and Retirees in Training (members looking to retire) in their offices on the third floor of the Union Hall at 195 Montague Street in Brooklyn. They're served by the able staff of the Association, which includes Whalen, Barry Roberts, Shalena Lindsay, Carolyn Surian, and Victoria Griss.

In response to a question about the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) applied to member pensions, Whalen said that the current COLA formula, set by the State Legislature, needed to be reformed.

Retirees generally receive both Social Security income and their transit pension (either from MaBSTOA or NYCERS), but the rate of growth for Social Security payments is much higher. Transit pension COLAs are calculated via the Consumer Price Index compiled by the federal government, but New York State legislation only allows a COLA adjustment up to the first $18,000 of a member's yearly pension.

For example, for 2025, the CPI was 1.2%. That multiplied by the $18,000 cap means that your pension payments will grow by only $216 this year. Brother Whalen said he has been going up to Albany for 40 years, and that he wants to see several busloads of retirees join him in pushing a bill that would reform the COLA payment plan. He said that he's working the Local 100 Political Action Director Sharase DeBouse on the legislation. He also said that a great inequity exists in the fact that active union members received large pension refunds of approximately $8,000 after the 2005 contract was settled, leaving earlier retirees in tiers 3 and 4 out in the cold. He also said this matter has to be addressed by the Association through legislation, because the earlier retirees had also made excessive contributions to the two pension systems that should have been returned.