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It seems that everywhere you look there is an article about public employee pensions and how the massive unfunded liability is a real problem. However when you look closer at the story you discover it isn't about pensions but just another anti-union story generated by the conservatives. I think most people are just jealous that they did not have a union and did not have collective bargaining that allowed them to get benefits. I worked for 22 years, and quite a few of those years I didn't see any raise, in fact I had a three year span when we had a net loss of 3 percent. Yes, I had health care when I was working, but now retired, I pay for it out of pocket. I also did not get any bonuses. I had a pay grade, and we always hoped that we would get some sort of promotion. In my time as a public employee I saw one promotion, and I often trained those who would be supervising me, as book knowledge doesn't cut it in engineering as much as practical knowledge of how things are done in the field.
Now we see public employee unions being portrayed as something evil. Would you work for a bunch of politicians (for the most part lacking in knowledge or ethics) without someone representing you? We unionized after years of having no security, and no recourse when some political hack would ask us to do something illegal for their friends. Most of the politicians I worked for were more beholding to their campaign contributors that to the public. In my 22 years I can count the honest people on one hand.
Yes, there are those who make big retirement checks, like one of our accounting clerks who worked for the city for almost 40 years. Then there are the directors and upper administrative staff, who got big dollars, and extra benefits while working, like being required to work only 6 hours a day and having car allowances (and getting meals paid for, having a city cell phone, and other perks thay never wanted us to know of like bonuses for getting us to work like slaves for less money).
Yes we need pension reform, but what I'm talking about is reforming the pensions of congressmen and/or state legislators, or even the governor. How about we look at the pension system for law enforcement? How about we look back at the years where the state did not pay the pension fund obligation at all?
The same way we see attacks on social security, we see attacks on public employee pensions. The same people are attacking all the safety nets that we have... take a look at this article and decide... do we really have a problem or do we have just an attack on unions?
Sure I got a pension... I paid into it for 22 years. The people running the pension fund are usually beating the market on a rate of return. Am I rich? No... I live paycheck to paycheck and I get paid once a month. My pension is taxed by the feds and state, I pay for my health insurance. Even my social security that I applied for is taxed. Am I happy I retired? Yes, I may have gone postal if I had to put up with the bullshit my co-workers are dealing with now
So the next time you read about this pension crisis, think about the spin that the right wing is putting on this issue, all in the battle to kill democracy and make the rich richer and the poor many.
Posted on Dreamwidth
Now we see public employee unions being portrayed as something evil. Would you work for a bunch of politicians (for the most part lacking in knowledge or ethics) without someone representing you? We unionized after years of having no security, and no recourse when some political hack would ask us to do something illegal for their friends. Most of the politicians I worked for were more beholding to their campaign contributors that to the public. In my 22 years I can count the honest people on one hand.
Yes, there are those who make big retirement checks, like one of our accounting clerks who worked for the city for almost 40 years. Then there are the directors and upper administrative staff, who got big dollars, and extra benefits while working, like being required to work only 6 hours a day and having car allowances (and getting meals paid for, having a city cell phone, and other perks thay never wanted us to know of like bonuses for getting us to work like slaves for less money).
Yes we need pension reform, but what I'm talking about is reforming the pensions of congressmen and/or state legislators, or even the governor. How about we look at the pension system for law enforcement? How about we look back at the years where the state did not pay the pension fund obligation at all?
The same way we see attacks on social security, we see attacks on public employee pensions. The same people are attacking all the safety nets that we have... take a look at this article and decide... do we really have a problem or do we have just an attack on unions?
Sure I got a pension... I paid into it for 22 years. The people running the pension fund are usually beating the market on a rate of return. Am I rich? No... I live paycheck to paycheck and I get paid once a month. My pension is taxed by the feds and state, I pay for my health insurance. Even my social security that I applied for is taxed. Am I happy I retired? Yes, I may have gone postal if I had to put up with the bullshit my co-workers are dealing with now
So the next time you read about this pension crisis, think about the spin that the right wing is putting on this issue, all in the battle to kill democracy and make the rich richer and the poor many.
Posted on Dreamwidth
