Last month, Council 400 introduced its Five Pillars of Retirement Security project, covering state pensions, retiree healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and long-term care.

The purpose of this project is to help organize retirees around the issues affecting their retirement security and ensure that CSEA members have a voice when decisions about these programs are being made.

The second pillar of this program is the State Employees Retirement System (SERS). For retired Connecticut state employees, a pension means knowing that a reliable check will arrive every month for the rest of their lives. It means being able to plan for retirement without having to worry that a bad year on Wall Street will suddenly wipe out the money they depend on to pay their bills.

That retirement security is one of the most important benefits state employees have achieved through collective bargaining. It is also one of the reasons CSEA retirees remain active in our union long after their working years are over.

SERS provides defined-benefit pensions, with benefits calculated using factors including years of service, earnings and retirement age. Depending on the employee's pension tier, benefits also include provisions for cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).

A defined-benefit pension provides a predictable monthly retirement benefit for life. The State is responsible for funding the promised benefits and bears the primary investment and longevity risks associated with the pension fund.

That is fundamentally different from a defined-contribution retirement plan, such as a 401(k), where retirement income depends on how much money has accumulated in an individual account, how investments perform and how long that money needs to last. In those plans, workers carry much more of the financial risk themselves. For someone retiring at 60 who may live another 25 or 30 years, that difference can have an enormous impact on their financial security.

Every worker deserves to be able to retire after a career of work with the confidence that they can support themselves. This confidence is derived from a promise etched from decades of collective bargaining and the combined strength of state employees and retirees represented through the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC).

The State and SEBAC have also negotiated agreements addressing the long-term funding of SERS. Connecticut spent decades accumulating pension obligations that were not adequately funded, and those obligations must continue to be addressed. SEBAC negotiated a funding schedule intended to meet those obligations over time while allowing the State to maintain essential public services.

That balance matters. Connecticut needs to fund the pensions workers have earned while also investing in the schools, roads, healthcare, public safety and other services our communities need today. Additional payments toward legacy pension debt reduce future liabilities, but they also use money that could otherwise address current needs.

Protecting retirement security and maintaining strong public services are responsibilities that Connecticut must manage together.

As pension and healthcare negotiations continue, Council 400 wants to hear directly from retirees about their priorities and concerns. Members have already provided valuable information through a survey in 2025, and this next round of outreach will build on those responses.

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey by scanning the QR code or looking for an email from Council 400 in your inbox. Your answers will help guide the work ahead and identify the issues members want their union to focus on.

Retirement does not mean retiring from the union. The same collective strength that helped generations of state employees earn secure pensions remains important to protecting those benefits for today's retirees and the workers who will retire after them.