WASHINGTON – Deborah Hartman of Amherst will attend Thursday’s State of the Union address as a bit of a celebration. She will be looking down at a president and a senator who helped make sure she and thousands of other former food service employees get a solid pension.
Meantime, Anna Corbett of Dansville will be looking down at President Biden in hopes that he can do something to free her husband from captivity in Afghanistan.
The two women from Western New York will be among the hundreds of people invited by lawmakers to watch in person during one of Washington’s most storied, if often tedious, rituals. They both said they are very pleased to be there, for very different reasons.
Hartman said she’s looking forward to thanking Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who sponsored legislation that will preserve Hartman’s pension and that of other retirees from Tops Markets.
“I’m so proud to be representing my (union) local to thank Mr. Schumer for the bill, I can’t even put it into words,” she said.
Meanwhile, Corbett will be at the 9 p.m. speech as a guest of Rep. Claudia Tenney, the Republican whose district includes Livingston County. Corbett said her appearance at the speech is yet another step in her fight to bring her husband, Ryan Corbett, back home.
“It’s a statement to the entire government and to the White House that Ryan actually matters,” she said.
A winning fight
Hartman’s trip to Washington marks the culmination of a long battle.
Her union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, knew for years that the Tops’ workers’ pension was in long-term danger. Like many other multiemployer pension plans, it lost a huge amount of money during the 2008 financial crisis, meaning it was on target to be insolvent later in this decade, and pensions would have to be cut. The threat hung over retirees from Sahlen’s and other local food companies that took part in multiemployer…
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