Pensions Aren’t the Problem for State Budgets
This is a crosspost by AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders from Huffington Post.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the Pravda of the 1 percent, is at it again, continuing its push to gut the retirement security of millions of middle class workers across the country while enriching the Wall Street moneymen who just three years ago took our economy over the cliff.
Virtually everyone agrees that our nation faces a retirement security crisis, but the Journal last week published a shameful op-ed calling for the elimination of pensions for nurses, firefighters, corrections officers and others who still have them. Having punched private-sector workers retirement in the gut, these folks won’t be happy until the whole concept of a secure retirement for working Americans is a thing of the past.
The typical AFSCME member — men and women who plow our streets, care for the sick, protect our children, clean our buildings and keep our communities safe — receives a pension of approximately $19,000 a year after a career of public service. The employees have earned and paid for these pensions. Employee contribution rates commonly amount to 3 percent to 10 percent of their paychecks. These contributions, combined with investment earnings, usually account for 75 percent or more of all pension benefit funding. Read the rest of this entry »
Public Employees Aiding Residents Throughout Irene
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From the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose employess are represented by AFGE, to local workers answering emergency calls, government workers have been playing a major role in the cleanup effort of Hurricane Irene. Two of those workers, one in Rutland, Vt., and one in Princeton, N.J., lost their lives while trying to help keep their communiteis safe during the storm.
State and local officials throughout the East Coast are praising public employees as they spearhead the cleanup after the massive storm and return communities to normal as soon as possible.
Caring Across Generations Campaign Kicks Off at First-Ever Care Congress
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Emmelle Israel, a fellow in the AFL-CIO Media Department, writes about the founding of the Caring Across Generations campaign.
More than 700 care workers, care recipients, community activists and union members came together yesterday in Washington, D.C., for the first-ever Care Congress. The energy in the room was electric as everyone celebrated the launch of the Caring Across Generations campaign, a national effort to reform the direct-care industry. Care workers from across the nation were joined by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Schuler and AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders. Each spoke about the importance of direct care work for the nation as a whole and even in their own lives.
Care workers look after some of the most vulnerable populations in our country: the young, people with disabilities and the elderly. But they are also part of one of our nation’s most vulnerable workforces. Care workers and domestic workers in general lack legal protection under U.S. labor law, which leads to a lack of proper training, lack of benefits, wages, that place many below the poverty line and employer harassment. Add in the fact that care workers are largely immigrants and female, and their exploitation as an “invisible, undervalued and unappreciated” workforce becomes even more prevalent. However, the care workers who spoke out at the Care Congress were determined to not remain without a voice.
Solis told the story of meeting one such worker, a nanny named Allison Julien who once told her, “Domestic workers make all work possible.” Those who attended the Care Congress and those who are part of the Caring Across Generations campaign are coming together to make sure that the work care givers do gains the respect and protection that it deserves.
Five New Members Named to Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO today elected five new members to the Executive Council. The Council also voted to add two seats to the council to promote and establishing diversity as well as giving a greater role to state and local labor leaders.
The council is meeting this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss plans for a major push in the fall elections, the union movement’s ongoing strategy to address the jobs crisis and efforts to reach out to young workers. President Obama will address the council today.
The new members of the Executive Council include: UAW President Bob King, UAW Vice President General Holiefield, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, North Carolina State AFL-CIO President James Andrews and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo.
The Council also honored two departing members—former UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and former United American Nurses President Ann Converso for their service to working people. Former UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn announced her retirement from the Council in March to become AFL-CIO organizing director. Holiefield was elected to fill that vacancy.
