The NYC Retirees Partner with the International Organization of Maritime Masters, Mates & Pilots and Bring the Dorothy Day Staten Island Ferry to 5th Avenue
Retirees to be accompanied by the Dorothy Day Guild and Dorothy’s Granddaughter, Martha Hennessey in Support
Editor’s note: We previously covered the organization’s rally in front of the Mayor’s residence on his birthday, marking his official ‘retirement’ and entry into Medicare health insurance programs.
New York, NY. The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees has partnered for the second year in a row with the International Organization of Maritime Masters, Mates and Pilots union of dedicated workers who pilot the Staten Island ferries here in NYC.
In 2024, our inaugural partnership, we designed the Dorothy Day Staten Island Ferry as our float. Dorothy was an American peace activist and Catholic Worker Journalist who supported American workers. The Dorothy Day Guild will be marching with us once again along with Dorothy’s granddaughter, Martha Hennessey.
In April 2023, the New York City Department of Transportation unveiled the 4500 passenger Dorothy Day Ferry that would travel from Staten Island to lower Manhattan.
In honor of partnering with the Maritime Masters Mates and Pilots and the work NYC Retirees were doing advocating for retired workers Medicare, we designed our float after the Dorothy Day Ferry and partnered with the union to celebrate Labor Day together in solidarity. “We are blessed in many ways to have so many unions supporting us today, and thankful for the International Masters, Mates and Pilots to once again honor the legacy of Dorothy Day and the partnership in labor both organizations have created in protecting our earned Medicare benefits,” said Marianne Pizzitola, President of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees.
The union is one of many who have supported the work of our organization from the onset.
We march from W48th St between 5th and 6th Avenues at approximately 1:30 pm on September 6th.
Saturday, September 6, 2025
Parade starts at 10am, Retirees & MMP step off at 1:45pm
Float starts at W 48th St between 5th & 6th Ave & “floats” down 5th Ave to 64th St.
Banner Image: Doris Day ferry float. Image Credit – Marianne Pizzitola
Marianne Pizzitola NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees
On August 13th, 2021, a group of retirees from many different city agencies got together to form an organization to fight the impending changes to our healthcare. Two and half hours later, five people volunteered to form the Board and one became an advisor to the Board. In the next few weeks, we grew to five officers, four Trustees, five Advisors, started our Facebook group, filed for NYS incorporation, opened our PayPal fundraising account and were approved by the State to conduct business. Six weeks later we met our initial fundraising goal to pay the attorney's retainer and had filed our article 78 petition. Our Facebook page has over 18,000 members and we have an email list of almost 10,000 and both continue to grow. This is a major accomplishment! But we need to grow larger. We need to reach 250,000 retirees!