Whereas, all retirees who were CFT members in good standing when they retired are AFT members for life, and

Whereas, benefits provided by the state of California and by local school and college districts can change after someone retires and retirees need to be informed of these changes, and

Whereas, retired member activists have had their talents enriched by decades of effective dedicated service and productive labor activism, and

Whereas, retired members are often a readily available, invaluable resource to local unions for their institutional memory, their understanding of issues affecting the working conditions of bargaining unit members, their organizational experience and expertise, and

Whereas, retired members are well situated to assist their parent locals with membership recruitment, bargaining and strike support, other organizing activities and political action, and

Whereas, locals already have the contact information for active members at the time of their retirement, and

Whereas, the development and maintenance of retiree contact lists greatly facilitates the creation and chartering of new retiree chapters which is a goal of both the AFT and CFT, and

Whereas, the interests of local union members, retiree chapters, and their communities are best served when they work together to realize and demonstrate solidarity;

Therefore, be it resolved, that all CFT locals should maintain a list of their retirees, along with their contact information using the AFT Connect database; and

Be it further resolved, that this list should be updated each year as a new group of members retire; and

Be it further resolved, that this list should be forwarded to CFT leadership each July; and

Be it finally resolved, that the locals should contact each retiree at least once each year (probably by email) to keep contact information up to date and to maintain the link between the local and its retirees.

• Passed as Resolution 13 by CFT Virtual Convention on March 27, 2021
• Submitted by the Retirement Policy Committee