Public Event
Name: Karen Rhatigan
Email: karen.rhatigan@nysut.org
Phone #: (518) 248-6786
Date: 05/06/2025
Time: 05:00 pm | Ends at: 07:00 pm
Address: Niagara Square, Intersections of Delaware Avenue, Court Street, Genesee Street, and Niagara Street in Buffalo, New York Buffalo
Number of Attendees: 250
Description: New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) is hosting a series of rallies across the state the 6th of every month fight for the New York State Tier 6 pension system. We are hoping to do a “$6.00 special” type thing to go with the 6 theme. Thank you!
Fix Tier 6 campaign: NYSUT is launching a long-term advocacy campaign to improve retirement benefits for public employees under Tier 6. It took us over a decade to reform Tier 4, we’re going to keep fighting until we reform Tier 6 and restore a secure retirement for all public employees in New York.
Fight for tier equity: We did it once and we can do it again! In the year 2000, after many years of lobbying the state, NYSUT and the other public employee unions won the battle for tier equity for Tier 4 members. Tier 4 members saw their employee contributions reduced to zero after 10 years of service and service credit calculations were adjusted benefiting employees across all public pension systems.
We’re already seeing progress: Last year, the first year under Gov. Hochul, we won the first battle in this fight. The number of years required to vest in the pension system for Tier 6 members was reduced from 10 year to five years — the same amount required for Tier 4. More than 85,000 Tier 6 members are now vested in the retirement system thanks to NYSUT’s advocacy.
This is a long-term fight: We will continue this fight until the benefits for our Tier 6 members match the benefits for our Tier 4 members.