CTA/NEA-Retired members are kicking their union organizing into high gear!

As We Can’t Wait locals took actions and went on strike over the past months to push for improved teaching and learning conditions, retired members joined in the art builds, walked picket lines, marched and rallied with colleagues and offered support wherever they were needed.

In the quest to gather signatures to get the Prop. 55 permanent extension on the November ballot, retired members partnered with locals to fan out to school sites, especially sites with few signatures. They spoke to educators at staff meetings, in lunchrooms and lounges. They held social events to encourage fellow retiree members to sign petitions as well.

Now, they’re planning get-out-the-vote activities for both the June Primary and November General Election.

Members supported Apple Valley educators in their fight for a fair contract.

“During the United Educators San Francisco strike buildup, retired members did support work and walked picket lines,” says CTA/NEA-Retired President Dana Dillon. “We picketed with Twin Rivers United Educators on a daily basis and helped at Natomas Teachers Association with whatever they needed. Our retired secretary-treasurer is former president of West Sacramento Teachers Association, and he worked with them. Our members were working with United Teachers Los Angeles.”

With 36 chapters and about 22,000 members, CTA/NEA-Retired is a powerful component in our union’s arsenal of solidarity and collective action. Dillon notes that multiple standing committees are working regularly for the first time this year, such as

• POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT, which coordinates CTA/NEA-Retired’s efforts with CTA active locals, as well as CTA statewide activities; the committee works closely with CTA political organizers in each region;
• MEMBERSHIP, which focuses on growing membership and member involvement;
• SCHOLARSHIP, which works on fundraising for the two CTA scholarships it oversees — the Gloria Pedretti Credential Candidate Scholarship and the Sharilynn Gardella Russo Memorial Scholarship (see cta.org/awards).

“We urge our chapters to reach out to active chapters,” Dillon says. “We really want to cultivate those relationships and be seen as a partner, not as a separate organization.”

Dillon, who is in the second year of her first term as president, is running again this spring. “I haven’t finished what I want to accomplish!” Our union fights to ensure that every educator has dignity in retirement.

The continued organizing by CTA/NEA-Retired members shows that dignity and solidarity go hand-in-hand and are critical to the future of our union and public education.

Top photo caption: CTA/NEA-Retired members at the No Kings protest in March in LA. 

Chico in Action

Deborah Burfeind, fourth from left and flanked by her husband Jim Burfeind and CTA/NEA-Retired President Dana Dillon, accepted the CTA Chapter in Politics Award on behalf of her chapter in 2025.

CTA/NEA-Retired Chico has forged a strong working relationship with Chico Unified Teachers Association (CUTA) over the past few years. The retired chapter in Butte, Glenn and Plumas counties has about 50 active members, according to President Deborah Burfeind.

In 2022 and 2024, when extremists tried to win a majority on the Chico Unified school board, CUTA asked CTA/NEA-Retired Chico for help. Retired members wrote hand-written postcards — 3,000 of them in 2024 — sent letters to local papers, put up yard signs, canvassed and distributed fliers for endorsed candidates, resulting in two of them winning in 2022 and all three candidates (endorsed by CUTA and Oroville Elementary Teachers Association) winning in 2024.

For the 2024 election, the retired chapter recruited a union president nearing retirement to run for school board, and CUTA invited several members to a CTA political organizing workshop. CUTA is requesting similar help in 2026 campaigns.

In Spring 2025, CTA/NEA-Retired Chico sent a carload of members to the May 17 “Fight for Schools” action in Sacramento. That fall, CTA staff asked for the chapter’s assistance in signature-gathering for the Prop. 55 permanent extension, including reaching out to several locals.

“We delivered petition supplies to the Butte County Teachers Association and the Butte College Teachers Association, located union leaders and motivated the importance of signature collection,” said Burfeind.

For their work on the 2024 school board campaign, CTA/NEA-Retired Chico was honored with the CTA Chapter-in-Politics Award — the first time that a retired chapter has won the statewide award.