Generations Must Stand United for Employee Free Choice Act
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Barbara J. Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org or call 1-888-633-4435.
Our nation’s economic crisis is affecting nearly everyone. Unless you are getting one of those big Wall Street bonuses, you are probably struggling to pay your bills, keep your home, or afford to see a doctor or fill a prescription. There is no longer any doubt that the fundamentals of our economy are broken.
One way out of this mess—and a way to help both current and future retirees—is for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Employee Free Choice Act recognizes that our middle class is in trouble because more and more, big corporations hold all the cards. As they lavish their CEOs with bonuses and golden parachutes, they slash jobs and cut all the wrong corners on customer service and safety. They break their promises to workers and retirees, leaving millions without health care and retirement plans.
Why Retirees Should Care About Employee Free Choice Act
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George J. Kourpias, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, urges union retirees to contact their lawmakers and ask them to support the Employee Free Choice Act. For more information, visit our website at www.RetiredAmericans.org or call 1-888-373-6497.
Unions built the middle class. By standing together, we fought for and won better wages, health care and pensions and safety and respect on the job.
But much of what we achieved is crumbling in today’s troubled economy. Many of us worry that our children and grandchildren will not live as well as we have. More than ever, American workers need the good wages and benefits that they can best achieve through collective bargaining.
Dockworkers Ask: Are Your Union Pension Funds Safe?
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| Too many fat cats trying to steal workers’ pensions. |
Jennifer Sargent, Northwest communications coordinator at the ILWU, sent us this from San Francisco.
In the current economic free fall, it’s wise to know where your pension funds are invested and whether they are as safe as you’d think. Union leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and other union leaders are warning unions about a scheme that cost 60,000 Dutch dockworkers more than $1.7 billion in pension funds that had nothing to do with a sinking economy—and everything to do with a corporate sleight-of-hand.
To highlight the issue, more than 100 international protesters from labor and community groups rallied Jan. 12 at San Francisco’s landmark Transamerica Pyramid building. Union leaders from the ILWU, Teamsters and the Dutch dockworkers’ union FNV slammed the alleged looting of more than 60,000 Dutch dockworkers’ pension benefits by Dutch insurance giant Aegon, the parent company of Transamerica. The big corporation recently launched a plan to collect a huge hunk of cash from U.S. taxpayers under the bailout program but suddenly dropped the scheme last month.
Survey: Public Supports Guaranteed Pensions
Nearly nine out of 10 Americans believe that everyone should have access to a defined-benefit pension plan. Most also support creative government policies that would help make this dream a reality. These are some of the findings of a recent national public opinion survey of more than 800 Americans undertaken for the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS). On a conference call announcing the survey results, NIRS Executive Director Beth Almeida said she hopes that the survey can serve as an opinion benchmark for policymakers as they attempt to improve the fading retirement prospects of millions of people.
According to the survey, 85 percent of the public view retirement security as a shared responsibility between individuals, employers and the government. People believe the three-legged retirement stool of the past, consisting of Social Security, pension plans and private savings, is still the best approach to meeting retirement needs in the 21st century.
Corporate Greed Behind Opposition to Employee Free Choice
Pundits, journalists and even economists have strained to find the reasons for our nation’s economic meltdown, stumbling over tortured concepts like “structured investment vehicles” and “collateralized debt.”
The underlying problem is much simpler. In fact, it can be described in six words: The corporate search for cheap labor.
While some people may have overextended themselves by taking out loans on their homes or piling up credit card debt for non-essentials, millions of Americans had no choice but to survive through debt. They needed to pay for health care, college tuition and car repairs. Why? Because even working two or three jobs, they aren’t paid sufficiently to support their families. Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren repeatedly has discussed how the majority of personal bankruptcies happen after a medical crisis or job loss, rather than because of too many 124-inch flat screen TV sets.
