From the Blog

• Jan 15 Register Now for Dynamic Legislative Conference Want to raise your voice for workers? Come to Washington, DC, and do just that.
• Dec 21 Wall Street Journal Duo: You’re Not Working Hard Enough Right-wing bloggers Biggs and Richwine ignore data that show lay-offs cut public services.
• Nov 30 We Won in San Diego AFSCME-endorsed mayoral candidate Bob Filner prevailed over Carl DeMaio, an anti-worker city councilman.
• Sep 27 AFSCME’s ‘Pat Quinn Truth Squad’ Is on the March in Illinois Union spreads message that governor’s proposed budget cuts will devastate critical services.
• Sep 26 The Referees Are Fighting for All of Us Billionaire team owners are trying to take the professional NFL officials’ pensions away.
• Aug 29 Warren to Christie: Not So Fast Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren calls out Gov. Chris Christie on his RNC keynote speech.
• Aug 29 They Said What?! Remarks from anti-worker governors at the Republican National Convention had us scratching our heads.
• Aug 14 Risk Is Its Own Reward. If You’re a Corporation When financial risks turn sour, the titans of finance are quick to point a finger.
• Jul 20 Jon Stewart Speaks Out for Public Sector Unions Daily Show host thinks we should look closely at LIBOR scandal when discussing economic woes.
• Jul 11 Protestors Denounce Outrageous RI ‘Pension Insecurity’ Plan Retirees demonstrate against sweeping changes to state’s public pension system that jeopardize workers’ retirement security.
• May 14 Twitter Regulates JP Morgan Politicians, pundits and tweeters call for heavier regulation in wake of $2 billion in losses.
• May 04 Public Pension Opponents Argue from Both Sides to Distort Truth Dean Baker contends that politicians are “using heaping doses of the politics of envy" to divide workers.
• Apr 19 ‘BigWhine’ Should Stop Making Myth About Workers’ Compensation Despite repeated efforts to confuse the issue, the facts show public workers are not overpaid.
• Apr 12 Louisiana Gov. Jindal Takes Aim at State Constitution Governor could violate state Constitution to impose changes to workers’ pensions, law firm concludes.
• Mar 16 Scaled Back Tier 6 Plan Rammed Through N.Y. Legislature Open government gave way to backroom deals in the middle of the night.
• Mar 13 Report: NY Governor’s Plan Cuts Retirement Security 40 Percent Study by independent organization confirms benefit cut.
• Feb 22 DiNapoli: ‘Stop Twisting the Facts’ on Public Pensions New York State Controller warns lawmakers 401(k)-style plans provide inadequate retirement security.
• Jan 20 Policy Experts: Public Pensions Should Be Strengthened, Not Eliminated Panel addresses efforts to diminish retirement security for working, middle-class Americans.
• Jan 18 AFSCME to Wall Street: End Dimon’s Lucrative Double Duty CEO and chairman has unyielding power over JPMorgan – and unfathomable compensation.
• Jan 17 Fear of Inadequate Retirement Savings Forcing More Older Americans to Keep Working Shift from secure employee pension plans to riskier 401(k) plans is largely to blame.
• Jan 13 Killing Pensions to Benefit the 1 Percent Wall Street Journal continues its push to gut the retirement security of American workers.
• Nov 14 Rhode Island Public Employees Call on Legislature to Keep the Promise Over 5,000 union members and supporters rally at the statehouse to oppose pension overhaul plan.
• Sep 15 Rhode Island Public Workers Win Key Pension Ruling Judge rules R.I. public employees should have their day in court in pension battle.
• Jun 30 Telling the Truth about Public Pension Systems Pension experts rebut the myth that public pensions are unsustainable.
• May 16 State Revenues Are Coming Back. Walker Says, ‘So What?’ Despite revenue collections beating expectations, right-wing governors move ahead with plans to slash public services.
• Apr 26 Telling the Whole Story About Public Employee Pension Funds Pew Center on the States portrays the public pension system as "broken," but the facts don't back that up.
• Mar 14 Maryland AFSCME Members to Rally in Annapolis Today Protest targets proposed budget cuts to public services and education, changes to retirement security and health care benefits.
• Mar 11 Republicans Take Aim at Social Security Republican legislators in both the U.S. House and Senate have now started moving toward cutting Social Security.
• Mar 09 Origins of the So-Called Pension Crisis Noted economist Dean Baker has written what could be best described as the definitive explanation of the state of public sector pension plans.
• Feb 09 O'Reilly Spreads Lies About Public Employee Pensions FACT: The average annual pension of an AFSCME retiree is $19,000. As Pres. Gerald W. McEntee wrote in USA Today, the real problems facing cities and states were caused by Wall Street, not public workers.
• Jan 26 California’s State Treasurer: States Should Not Consider Bankruptcy Some conservative governors and state legislators and their right-wing allies are floating a dangerous suggestion that threatens the retirement security of public sector workers: Have states declare bankruptcy to get out of their pension obligations.
• Jan 25 Rhetoric v. Reality: A Viewer’s Guide to Rep. Paul Ryan’s State of the Union Response Americans United for Change has put together this handy guide for watching tonight's Republican response to Pres. Barack Obama's State of the Union Address tonight [...]
• Jan 19 AFSCME Members to Maryland Lawmakers: ‘Enough is Enough!’ Approximately 150 members of AFSCME Maryland met with their state representatives in Annapolis on Jan. 12 – the first day of the legislative session – to send a clear message that the state’s budget should not be balanced on their backs.
• Jan 18 Battling the Lies Against Public Employees AFSCME International Sec.-Treas. Lee Saunders recently took AFSCME’s “Stop the Lies” campaign to a nationwide radio audience.
• Dec 23 Report from the Public Pension Leadership Meeting AFSCME activists, local leaders and retirees met with key experts and allies to develop strategies and tools to defend our modest pensions against this unprecedented assault.
• Dec 02 Stop Believing the Myths About 401(k) Plans The former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote a column this week calling public employee pensions “grotesque shadows of their initial good intention” and pushing private savings plans as the future of retirement.
• Oct 06 Social Security Sense and Nonsense In a new paper and podcast I’ve tried to correct some of the misinformation that critics of Social Security have been spreading about the program. Here are the facts. Social Security is a well-run, fiscally responsible program.
• Oct 01 Could Simpson or Boehner Pass the Social Security Test? AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee has a great idea for a reality television show. He suggested it as part of a conference call Thursday sponsored by the Strengthen Social Security coalition [...]
• Sep 29 Wake Up, Washington! Securing Retirement Americans should be able to enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of work. AFSCME is participating in “Wake Up, Washington!” Month to encourage Americans across the country to tell lawmakers to keep their hands off Social Security [...]
• Sep 28 America's Failed 401(k) Experiment While the unfunded pension liabilities in many public retirement funds have received an inordinate amount of attention, the larger retirement deficit of most Americans is not generating the level of concern that it deserves.
• Sep 24 The GOP’s Bizarre and Cynical “Pledge to America” One can only marvel at the extreme cynicism evident in the Republican Party's bizarre 21-page "Pledge to America." The document is only the tip of the iceberg and masks the real agenda of Republican leaders.
• Aug 25 New Jersey's Pension Fraud Hurts Investors, Taxpayers and Retirees Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission did something it has never done before. It charged the state of New Jersey with fraudulently misleading investors about the health of the state's pension plan
• Aug 13 Celebrate 75 Years of Social Security This year, over 53 million Americans will receive a benefit they earned and count on from Social Security. For an economy that has failed many, Social Security provides certainty in an uncertain time.
• Jul 29 Keep Your Hands Off Social Security! Years after George W. Bush’s failed attempts to privatize Social Security, his cohorts are renewing calls for privatization. This time they’re using deficit reduction as an excuse.
• Dec 03 Wall Street By the Numbers Across the country this holiday season, Main Street is being starved while Ebenezer Scrooge and his Wall Street friends are feasting.
• Oct 28 Mutual Funds and Overpaid CEOs CNBC's "Street Signs" host Erin Burnett says the numbers take her breath away: mutual funds consistently vote in favor of management proposals that increase executive pay and against shareholder efforts to bring compensation in line with performance.
• Sep 21 Fed's Say on Pay CEO pay reform remains a key element of the federal government’s financial reform agenda. The Federal Reserve recently announced that the agency will police banks’ pay policies to ensure they do not encourage excessive risk taking.
• Jul 13 Public Pensions Support Vital Services, Stimulate the Economy Public pensions offer good value for taxpayers. In addition to providing modest but secure retirements for public employees — emergency responders, firefighters, health care workers, teachers, police officers and more.
• Jun 17 Union Retirees: Big Role in Bringing Change This is the year for passing real health care reform and to begin rebuilding the nation’s middle class by passing laws that give workers a free choice to join a union. And union retirees, will play a big role in bringing about change.
• Jan 30 Shame on You, Wall Street It’s no mystery. The economy is ailing, working families are fighting hard to make ends meet and this week alone, American companies reported as many as 65,000 job cuts.
• Jan 27 AFSCME Pension Plan Calls for Corporate Accountability In the wake of our current financial crisis, the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan has announced its 2009 shareholder program with an emphasis on reasonable executive pay and more director accountability.
• Nov 20 Public Employee Pensions Are Not the Problem
• Oct 17 John McCain: Risky on Social Security
• Sep 25 Give Us a Bailout That Helps Everyone
• Sep 23 Fundamentally Wrong
• Aug 25 Social Security Gets Clean Bill of Health from CBO
• Jul 09 McCain’s Ignorance About Social Security Is the Real “Disgrace”
• Apr 11 Shareholder Say on Executive Pay
• Apr 03 Social Security, Still Healthy After All These Years
• Mar 20 McCain Puts Retirement at Risk
• Feb 07 Benton, AR Local 2957 Beats City Hall Again
• Jan 28 The Fight for Investor Rights is Also Our Fight
• Aug 08 What’s Wrong with America?
• Jan 29 Corporate America: Do The Right Thing