Still, Brian McGuire, Tennessee legislative director for AARP, the organization representing retirees, said frustration with both parties was at "a breaking point."

The nine-member pension board is dominated by locally influential people who represent the county's workers and retirees, and they can easily outvote the two trustees who represent the county.

And Kenneth Van Deventer, a Morristown, N.J., lawyer who represents retirees of the American Can Company, said, "The issue is still in its infancy as far as the legal side is concerned."

This figure represents active employees, retirees, beneficiaries and deferred members.

The United Mine Workers of America, which represents Patriot's classified workers and retirees, has indicated that it will fight to preserve those promised benefits.

OMERS represents 947 employers and almost 420,000 members, retirees and survivors, including firefighters, police, emergency services staff, Children's Aid Society workers, school board staff (non-teaching), and transit and hydro workers.

But critics, including groups representing retirees, say the changes would do little to encourage employers to make more generous pension contributions and would mainly benefit highly paid employees who can afford to contribute to tax-deferred retirement saving plans.

But groups representing retirees said the move would make it too easy for employers to ignore the needs of low-paid workers.

In Albany, Joseph E. McDermott, president of the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 250,000 public employees and retirees in the state, said he shared Governor Cuomo's concerns.

WITH 35 million members more than one-tenth the population of the United States - AARP, the organization representing retirees, has long been the 800-pound gorilla in the Medicare prescription drug debate.