South Florida's senior citizens are out to prove that protesting isn't just for kids.

More than 1,000 retirees from throughout Florida will pack two dozen buses and head to Miami on Thursday to express their objections to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The more I read, the more I do support [the protests]. We care about our children and grandchildren, the kind of world they're going to live in.

Erma B. Bennett Coral Gables

While many associate the expected anti-FTAA protests with young activists who have aligned themselves to a variety of causes, from anarchy to the environment, many of Florida's older residents, particularly longtime union members, are afraid the proposed free trade pact means jobs will disappear from the United States and, along with them, the retirees' hard-earned pensions and benefits.

"The more I read, the more I do support [the protests]," said Erma B. Bennett, who lives in Coral Gables and heads a local senior citizens' organization. "We care about our children and grandchildren, the kind of world they're going to live in."

The Wellington-based Florida Alliance for Retired Americans is bringing the buses of Florida retirees to Miami early Thursday for a rally at the Biscayne Bay Marriott terrace. Afterward, the retirees will participate in an AFL-CIO event at Bayfront Park.

The retirees, most of whom are between the ages of 60 and 90, won't be taking to the streets like younger folks. After a box lunch at Bayfront Park, they will reboard the buses and head home.

"I have a bad foot, so I can't march," said Helen Sickels, who lives in The Acreage near Royal Palm Beach and is planning to attend the Marriott event with her husband, Jack Sickels. "But we need to just be there, to show what we believe in."

Bennett says she is unable to participate in the rally but will be there in spirit. Like others who oppose the free trade pact, her concerns stem from a provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement that allows corporations to sue the United States, a provision that could be part of the Americas trade pact.

"As the expression goes, it's the devil in the details that the corporations can sue the government and the taxpayer will pay the bill," she said.

Tony Fransetta, president of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, says retirees are worried that the proposed trade pact could cheat them out of their benefits. If manufacturing companies move their operations outside the country in search of cheaper labor, retired manufacturing industry workers, who make up a good chunk of the Alliance's membership, could see their pensions and health care benefits disappear, said Fransetta, 67.

"They'll be affected because as these corporations shift off seas and have no manufacturing in America, their ability to fund existing plans diminishes or sometimes goes away," he said.

Retirees also are worried that a declining employment base in the United States could deprive federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare of funds. If people lose their jobs and are not paying into the programs, those social safety nets also could come to an end, retirees believe.

"Who's going to pay Social Security if there's no jobs here in the United States?" said Charles Taylor, 65, of Tamarac, a former Ford employee who now works with the local retiree arm of the United Auto Workers Union.

But Bennett said she and other retirees are not "greedy old geezers" just out to protect their Social Security and pension money. For them, the demonstrations are about leaving a legacy.

"Our parents worked for Social Security, then they worked for Medicare and we want to pass the same programs along to our children and grandchildren," she said.

Other retirees, even those who did not toil in the manufacturing industry, are concerned about the impact the trade pact could have on the U.S. economy.

Bill Cea, a retired teacher who lives west of Boca Raton, said he doesn't want to see the FTAA deplete the country's tax base and lead to cuts in retirement benefits.

"It's a bad deal for Americans," said Cea, 64, the southern regional director for the Alliance for Retired Americans. "We're in favor of fair trade, not free trade."

For Cea, fair trade is when Americans do not lose jobs. Free trade, he said, is when multinational corporations use trade agreements to take plants and jobs out of the United States and into foreign lands.

Some of the senior citizens getting involved in the FTAA protests first met each other earlier this year during the flurry of demonstrations against the Iraq war, in places such as Lake Worth or West Palm Beach.

The latest call for civil dissent gives them a chance to be involved again.

"I guess I'm just a flag waver," said Barbara Rienecker, 74, a retired secretary from Lake Worth who remembers loving American Legion parades as a child. While it might seem that supporting veterans is far different politically than protesting the federal administration's trade policies, Rienecker doesn't see it that way.

She admits she doesn't know much about FTAA, but figures the proposed agreement is about big business.

"I'm against corporations," she says. "Look at Enron. They didn't care about their people."

Rienecker was drawn to the anti-FTAA forces by organizers she calls "such intelligent young people," and the chance to learn papier-maché art. She has been working a shift at the Lake Worth warehouse, where demonstrators are making giant puppets that will be carried through Miami's streets.

The older demonstrators say they bring experience and wisdom to the FTAA debate. Many say they also have been doing their homework on the issue.

"The younger people are too busy making a living to really know what's going on," Helen Sickels said. "It's us older people who have to stick our noses out to protect us all."

Staff Writers Diane C. Lade and Patty Pensa contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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