AFSCME Opposes Mandatory Social Security

About 25 percent of state and local employees would lose benefits if forced to participate in Social Security instead of their defined-benefit pension plans, testified Joseph Rugola, International vice president and executive director of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME Local 4. At a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Social Security, Rugola said, "We think Social Security does a remarkable job of providing basic security and shielding participants from potential poverty. [But] we oppose mandatory coverage for a group of workers and retirees who have never been a part of that system." Rugola also called on Congress to lift rules for the Government Pension Offset that greatly reduces benefits received by a spouse of a Social Security-covered worker, if the spouse is part of another public plan.