Defending Public Pensions

Speaking at the AFSCME Public Pension Leadership Meeting, AFL-CIO Pres. Richard L. Trumka said, “The answer isn’t to knock down public employees by demanding pay cuts and givebacks, but to lift up all workers.”

peaking at the AFSCME Public Pension Leadership Meeting, AFL-CIO Pres. Richard L. Trumka said, “The answer isn’t to knock down public employees by demanding pay cuts and givebacks, but to lift up all workers. (Photo credit: Luis Gómez)

A Secure Retirement 

By Lisa Kelly Leigh

It's a myth that "rich" public employee pensions are bankrupting cities and states. Yet, right-wing conservatives are happy to keep pushing the lie on the airwaves, in print and on the Internet. For Wall Street and its ideological allies, the distortion is a handy smokescreen obscuring the fact that their actions - not the actions of hard-working public employees - put the nation's economy into such a sorry state.

The result: Lawmakers are presenting proposals that would gut the retirement security of tens of thousands of workers - most of whom will return that money to the economy during their senior years.

Last December, more than 200 of the union's leaders and activists gathered in Washington, DC, for the AFSCME Public Pension Leadership Meeting. Their goal: learning the ins and outs of public employee pensions, forming strategies designed to protect them and creating a plan for replacing myths with the truth.

The Truth

Here it is: Employee contributions and investment returns fund the overwhelming majority of the cost of pensions. Taxpayers shouldered only 14.3 percent of all pension funding in the 11-year period ending in 2007.

Here's more: Public employees - most of whom earn, on average, $45,000 per year - pay a significant portion of the costs of their pensions in return for modest benefits. In fact, the average newly retired public employee receives a pension of just $19,000 per year - a little more than $400 over the current federal poverty guidelines for a family of three.

The real problem is that politicians who run state and local governments have often failed to faithfully contribute to their employees' plans, while public workers have contributed year in and year out.

Here's another fact pointing to why the pensions of public employees need to be protected: One in every four public service workers is not covered by Social Security. When these workers retire, they don't receive the program's benefits. As a result, their pensions - and any personal savings they've accumulated - are their only source of retirement income.

Pres. Gerald W. McEntee explained another reason AFSCME members should be concerned about the myths surrounding public employee pensions: "The more momentum anti-worker politicians gain, the more their ideas take hold," he said, "the more is at risk for all working families."

Meeting participants discussed ways to protect public pensions and protect the retirement security of all working Americans, including taking the facts to the media and forming coalitions with outside groups.

Explained Sherryl Gordon, executive director of New Jersey Council 1 and an Inter-national vice president, "We have addressed this problem by building broad coalitions with other organizations, with all of us understanding that we can aggressively fight together on these issues and still maintain our ability to individually advocate for our members."

"The way to really beat back attacks on pensions is to start early and have a strong, proactive media presence," added Scott Wasserman of Colorado WINS, an affiliate of AFSCME, SEIU and AFT. "We were able to get a sense of what Coloradans thought about pensions, understand what would resonate with the public and make sure our voice was heard in the media," he told the group.