There is life after retirement from public employment.  As a public employee retiree, you have an abundance of experience, skills, and abilities which you can choose to use to better your own life and the lives of others.  Joining the PEF Retirees will give you an opportunity to use your skills to enrich your life. 

      The best way retirees can get and keep the benefits they need is by organizing.  In order to be effective as an organization we need every retiree’s active participation and assistance. Our ability to provide retirees with the quality of living they deserve depends directly on the volume of our membership.

      The PEF Retirees are a group of public employee retirees, who like you, dedicated their lives to public service.  Many of our members were active PEF members.  We are an organization of retiree activists concerned about a variety of retiree issues ranging from the well-being of our retiree colleagues to the protection of our pension benefits and health care coverage. The PEF Retirees actively lobby for enhancements to our pension system, protection for our health care benefits, reductions in our tax liabilities, and improvements to all aspects of our lives through the legislative process.

      Our Retiree group is represented on the Public Employees Federation Statewide Political Action Committee, and has a vote on the PEF Executive Board. We are also affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers(AFT) and the Service Employees International Union(SEIU) for leadership on the national level. Through the AFT, we are affiliated with the AFL-CIO and its retiree organization, the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) which also gives us a voice in Washington.

      Active membership in the PEF Retirees entitles you to all of the retiree benefits available through the PEF Membership Benefits program as well as the Retiree Dental and Vision programs which are available through the PEF Retirees office. These benefit programs include: 

                        *  Dental/Vision Program           

                        *  Legal Service Plan        

                        *  Defensive Driving Program

                        *  Amusement Park discounts

                        *  Car rental discounts

                        *  Home and automobile insurance

                        *  Travel rebate thru PEF Travel

                        *  Movie tickets

                        *  Ski tickets

      We are continually working to improve our benefit programs but you must be a member of the PEF Retirees to take advantage of any of our benefits.

      The political effectiveness of retirees is potentially enormous because legislators know that mature citizens (and their families) vote.  By concentrating our demands through a strong retiree organization, we can achieve our legislative goals. 

      Members of the PEF Retirees continually talk to their members of the New York State Assembly and Senate on behalf of your retiree issues.  We are also part of a coalition of 27 public employee retiree organizations who represent state, county, and municipal public employee retirees.  We make common cause with local and state senior citizen organizations. 

      Your membership will also provide you with information of interest to you through the “Retirees in Action” page of the Communicator, and through PEF Retiree chapter meetings held in your area.  For reference, Chapter Presidents are located in the organization section of the Retiree homepage.