JUNE 5, 2009:NWLP
6/2/09
10:18 AM
Page 11
Pension plan losses are all Wall Street’s fault
To The Editor:
I received a letter from my trust of-
fice about how I am going to be facing
a reduction of pension benefits. I be-
long to a union that has Taft-Hartley
laws that apply to it. My union has al-
ways followed these laws, as well as
the burdensome laws that former
President Bush applied to the union
that make them account for every
penny they spend. I have wondered
why it is that Wall Street can follow
Arther Anderson accounting rules, but
my union has a complete and different
set of rules and laws it must follow.
There is no doubt in my mind that
if Wall Street would have had the
same laws applied to it as my union
does and made to follow them, that it
wouldn’t be where it is today.
When you look at all the laws that
apply to my union’s pension plan and
the way that my union followed all
those laws, it will become clear that
the reason my pension plan lost its
value is not its fault, but is Wall
Street’s fault.
I find it appalling the bailout
money that Wall Street received was-
n’t used to fix pension and 401(k)
plans that they broke, but, instead, was
used as a source for multi-million dol-
lar bonuses and wages, as well as an
expense account that enabled them to
take vacations that cost more than
what a lot of people make in a year.
Then, when Wall Street was con-
fronted with how they spent the
money, they said, “we aren’t going to
tell you how we spent the money and
you can’t make us.”
I think that the money Wall Street
received should be used to fix all the
damage to the pension and 401(k)
plans that they caused. The bail-out
money was not meant to be a billion-
dollar vacation and bonus fund for
those who mismanaged our pension
plans. The money was meant as a way
to fix the things that Wall Street broke.
When a person drives down the
road and hits a car, and it is their fault,
they are required by law to fix it. The
same logic should apply to Wall
Street. When Wall Street breaks a pen-
sion plan, it should be required to fix
it. They shouldn’t be allowed to take
our tax dollars and go on a vacation
with it and give themselves bonuses
that are far above the wages of mid-
dle-class America. I think Wall Street
should be held to the same standard
that the rest of us are held to and that
means that they should fix the things
they break.
When my union meets with the
contractors at the bargaining table,
they should be concerned with bar-
gaining about things that apply to a
living wages and benefits, not about
how they are going to repair the dam-
age that Wall Street has caused to our
pension plan.
I find it appalling that Wall Street
receives elaborate bonuses and goes
on elaborate vacations while I have to
take a decrease in my standard of liv-
ing because of the mistakes that they
have made. Especially when I think of
the billions of dollars they have re-
ceived. In the interest of fairness and
the true American way, I want Wall
Street to fix the damage they have
caused. I know they can because they
have the bailout money to do it with.
Jeff Lyles
Plumbers and Fitters 290
Tualatin
The erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance
When Chrysler filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy on April 30, the com-
pany granted the United Auto Workers
union a 55 percent stake in the re-
structured firm. As a result, the Volun-
tary Employee Benefit Association
(VEBA), the union’s health care trust
established by the Big Three au-
tomakers in 2007, will own most of
Chrysler's assets.
But as Ken Terry of BNET Health-
care explains, the arrangement repre-
Retirement security
less likely for
women than men
A report issued by the National In-
stitute on Retirement Security last
month examined the greater chal-
lenges women face in preparing for
their retirement. The major contribut-
ing factors to the disparities are
women’s lower wages and longer life
expectancies.
The report claims that because of a
longer life expectancy, a woman with
an annual income of $50,000 would
need to save $1,000 more toward re-
tirement every year than her male
counterpart to have an equal retire-
ment experience. However, as of
2007, women earned about 76 cents
for every $1 earned by men, which
makes saving money more difficult
for many women. Women also have
limited access to retirement plans
through their employers; men are
nearly twice as likely as women to
have retirement accounts. The report
urges women to have a combination
of traditional pensions, supplemental
401(k)-type savings and Social Secu-
rity to reduce their risk in retirement.
JUNE 5, 2009
sents “another blow to the tottering
system of employer-based insurance.”
The union “will accept this equity in
lieu of $5 billion in cash, or about half
the amount that Chrysler promised to
invest in the VEBA,” Terry writes. “If
the ailing automaker gets dismem-
bered in bankruptcy proceedings, or
fails to recover in coming years, its re-
tirees could lose all or part of their
health care benefits.”
Nationally, the percentage of
Americans under the age of 65 with
employer-sponsored insurance de-
clined to less than 63 percent in 2007,
from more than 67 percent in 1999,
and employers are now reporting that
they plan to shift more health costs to
employees.
According to a new survey of busi-
nesses, one-fifth of the companies
said they planned to add or switch to a
high-deductible or ‘consumer-direct-
ed’ health plan with a health savings
account, perhaps doubling the per-
centage of employers who offer such
plans.
As the Wall Street Journal’s health
blog observes, “A big reason is that
employers say the recession isn’t just
crimping business; it’s also expected
to drive up their health care costs.
Those surveyed said they expect their
health benefit costs to spike an aver-
age 7.4 percent this year (compared to
the 6 percent increase employers orig-
inally forecast).”
Employers have shed 5.1 million
jobs in the last 15 months, and ap-
proximately 2.4 million workers have
lost the health coverage their jobs pro-
vided since the start of the recession.
In fact, a new analysis of data from
the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bu-
reau of Labor statistics by the Center
for American Progress concludes that
the worst losses have been in the first
three months of 2009, when more
than 1 million workers lost health cov-
erage. In March alone, more than
320,000 Americans lost their em-
ployer-provided health insurance,
“which amounts to approximately
10,680 workers a day.”
Manufacturing, construction, and
professional and business services ac-
counted for three-quarters of total jobs
lost, while employees in the durable
goods manufacturing sector bore the
greatest burden of the losses in cover-
age with approximately 733,600
workers becoming uninsured since
December 2007, the report concluded.
Still, estimates of the rise in the
number of uninsured do not reflect the
full extent of health coverage loss due
to lost employment. As the report ex-
plains, the numbers represent a “con-
servative estimate of the number af-
fected, since it leaves out spouses and
children who may have also lost cov-
erage as a result of a spouse or parent
losing their jobs.”
From The Progress Report
The daily newsletter of the Center
for American Progress
Open
Forum
U.S. Merchant
mariners veterans
without benefits
To The Editor:
John Masarik is a retired 33-year
member of Bakery Confectionery To-
bacco Workers and Grain Millers Lo-
cal 114. He is 82 years old.
From 1945 to 1955, John proudly
served this nation in the U.S. Mer-
chant Marines, participating in one of
the last Atlantic convoys during the
hostilities of World War II. The ships
that John and his peers served on were
prime targets of the enemies and
many merchant mariners did not sur-
vive the war.
Although John proudly served this
nation, it was not until 1988 that he
and his fellow merchant mariners
were finally recognized as veterans.
But they are Veterans without bene-
fits.
Senate Bill S. 663 would finally
provide benefits and a “thank you” to
the merchant mariners for their brave
service.
On behalf of Local 114, I urge our
U.S. senators and congressmen and
women from Oregon and Washington
to support this bill.
Terry Lansing
Financial Secretary
Bakers Local 114
Portland
Trio of unionists confirmed for Administration posts
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three
former union leaders — with the Air
Line Pilots (ALPA), Flight Atten-
dants-Communications Workers of
America (AFA-CWA) and Seafarers
(SIU) — won U.S. Senate confirma-
tion for top posts in the Obama Ad-
ministration. All three were approved
by voice vote.
Capt. Randy Babbitt, a 25-year vet-
eran of commercial airlines and a for-
mer two-term ALPA president, will
steer the Federal Aviation Administra-
tion (FAA).
Under the Bush Administration, the
FAA broke off bargaining with the Na-
tional Air Traffic Controllers Associa-
tion over a new contract in 2006 and
imposed a set of harsh new working
conditions and pay cuts. The Obama
Administration has begun a mediation
process to reach an agreement.
“It is time for a restoration of fair-
ness to FAA labor relations and the
opening of the door of collaboration
and mutual respect,” Babbitt said.
Linda Puchala, former AFA-CWA
president, was confirmed for a seat on
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
the National Mediation Board (NMB).
She currently serves as a senior media-
tor with the NMB and was AFA-CWA
president from 1979 to 1986.
The three-member NMB is the
federal agency charged with oversee-
ing collective bargaining and repre-
sentation under the Railway Labor
Act, which was enacted to protect
workers’ rights to organize unions and
engage in free and fair collective bar-
gaining in the aviation and rail indus-
tries.
Seth Harris, a former SIU field rep-
resentative, was confirmed as deputy
secretary at the Labor Department. He
is currently the director of labor and
employment law programs at New
York Law School and, during the Clin-
ton Administration, served as acting
assistant secretary of labor for policy.
At his May 7 confirmation hearing,
Harris pledged to renew the Labor
Department’s commitment to strategic
planning and accountability. He also
said the Labor Department “must wel-
come working people” into its deci-
sion making processes and he hopes
to build “constructive, problem-solv-
ing relationships” with the unions that
represent the department’s employees.
Transit Union says
CherryLift strike
appears imminent
SALEM — CherryLift employees
who provide elderly and disabled trans-
portation services in the Salem Area
Mass Transit District voted May 29 to
strike. Employees of Oregon Housing
and Associates Services who work un-
der contract with the Transit District
could walk off the job anytime, said Jon
Hunt, president of Amalgamated Tran-
sit Union Local 757.
Employees have been working un-
der an extended contract since June 30,
2008. They voted to strike when OHAS
stopped bargaining and notified the
union that it was imposing its last offer.
A one day CherryLift strike on July
7, 2006 shut down nearly all elderly
and disabled transportation service in
the Salem area.
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