Alliance Awards Labor College Grad for Research on Women and Retirement

by James Parks, Jun 27, 2008

Pamela Fero and one of her sons.

When the graduates walk across the stage tomorrow to receive their degrees from the National Labor College (NLC), Pamela Fero, a member of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association from Lauderhill, Fla., will be proudly among them.

Fero is this year’s recipient of the Alliance for Retired Americans’ Bert and Annabel Seidman Prize for her research paper, “Winning the Game: What Unions Can Do to Help Women Plan For Retirement.”  

The award will be presented tomorrow at NLC’s 10th annual commencement. This weekend, the college will celebrate a decade of providing education for union members. Some 76 students will receive Bachelor of Arts degrees and another 14 will be awarded master’s degrees through the NLC’s partnership programs with the University of Baltimore and the American University. Former presidential candidate John Edwards will deliver the commencement address.

She says her experience at the Labor College has been very fulfilling. 

I’m happy I finally finished something I started so long ago. Getting my degree makes me feel that after I stop being a controller, I can still progress. 

Each graduating student is required to complete a research paper. Fero says she got the idea for her paper when she met with her financial adviser to plan for her retirement. At age 40, she says she found out she can’t afford to retire when she planned to do so. 

Fero surveyed 185 working women and found many of them, like her, are not as prepared or knowledgeable about retirement planning as they could be. Many were unaware of resources offered through their unions. Her paper also shows many women place the welfare of others over their own and often are forced to choose between meeting immediate needs over long-term planning.   

Fero recommends that unions help improve women’s knowledge and planning for retirement by encouraging early savings, providing education on retirement and helping with fiscal planning. Additionally, she calls for unions that already provide such services to make them more readily available and better publicized.  

She says more union members should take advantage of the NLC’s program. She says if she can complete a degree while juggling a tough job as an air traffic controller and caring for seven children ranging in age from 24 to five years old, anyone can do it. 

The Seidman award is named after Bert and Annabel Seidman. Bert Seidman directed the AFL-CIO Social Security Department for 33 years and Annabel Seidman founded the National Nursing Home Information Service and was its director for 25 years.  

Established as a training center by the AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills, the NLC, located in Silver Spring, Md., is now the nation’s only accredited higher education institution devoted exclusively to educating union leaders, members and activists. The NLC became a degree-granting college in 1997. 

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