Where Do the Candidates Stand? (Internal Links)
A Quick Look at Seven Candidates' Positions on Retirement Security, Health Care and Protecting Public Services
By Gonzalo Baeza
Editor's Note: AFSCME's Presidential Search Committee is reaching out to candidates on both sides of the aisle to determine who will fight for working families. Recently, candidates were invited to complete a detailed questionnaire on issues that matter to AFSCME members. Only the candidates featured in this article responded to our questions.
Year after year and policy after policy, the Bush administration has abandoned the middle class, cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and neglected the funding of vital public services.
It's time for a change! We must roll back the damage, take back this country, and put it in the hands of America's working families - the industrious men and women who make it work every single day. That is why this union is looking for a Presidential candidate with a bold vision, a real plan and the ability to win on Election Day. Top on our list? Someone who will reform health care, safeguard our retirement security and support a vibrant public sector. Here's where AFSCME stands on these key issues.
Retirement Security
For over 70 years, Social Security has provided guaranteed retirement benefits. Today, more than 175 million workers contribute to the system and 47 million receive payments. In spite of the program's success, Pres. George W. Bush and the privatization zealots in his administration claim Social Security is in crisis. They want to privatize it into a program forcing workers to divert part of their hard-earned dollars to private accounts that would invest them in the risky stock market.
At the same time, private companies are eliminating pensions altogether and governments are moving away from traditional defined benefit plans and toward defined contribution plans. Unlike defined benefit plans, which provide employees with a guaranteed pension paid from money that has been set aside for that purpose by the employer, the payment from defined contribution plans depends on how much was put into the fund and how these contributions were invested. In other words, a defined contribution plan is risky, especially if invested funds do poorly.
What's more, public employee pensions are being raided across the country to balance budgets and pay for all kinds of politically expedient initiatives and pork barrel projects. To ensure pensions are fully funded, public employees have made concessions at the bargain-ing table. This situation must stop. A deal is a deal and public employees - just like every other worker - deserve a dignified retirement.
We oppose any measure that cuts or takes away guaranteed pension benefits.
Health Care
Skyrocketing health care costs threaten to destroy the economic security of many working families. The strain is felt on state and local budgets, and public employees are increasingly being forced to sacrifice wage increases to maintain their health benefits. Unless we make affordable health care available to all, including the 47 million Americans without health insurance, coverage costs will remain at the center of our contract battles and eat away our economic gains. To take health insurance off the bargaining table and fix a broken system, AFSCME is leading the fight for comprehensive national health care reform.
Protecting Public Services
From privatization and budget cuts to negative stereotyping of public employees, there is an all-out attack on the public sector.
From one fiscal crisis to the other, politicians scapegoat public employees by dis-missing the importance of public services, and the dedicated men and women who provide them. Public employee unions are vilified as self-interested organizations that put their members' needs above the public good. AFSCME is com-mitted to educating people about the key role of the public sector and the vital services that make America happen.
One of the main threats faced by the public sector is privatization. Even though its stated goal is to reduce costs and improve services, we often end up paying more for less. Privatization can also lead to layoffs, threatening AFSCME members' job security, pay, benefits and career opportunities. Contracting out also means we often end up paying more for less accountability and lower-quality services. Private companies are not subject to the same scrutiny as government entities operating in an open arena.
AFSCME is fighting to stop privatization. We support cost-effective, high-quality public services, and speak out to ensure state and local governments have an adequate and stable revenue stream to fund them.
A Question Heard Across the Nation
AFSCME member Shirley Brown.
Photo: Marc PoKempner
"What will you do to restore the rights of workers, like myself, who want to form a union?" Shirley Brown, a housekeeper at Resurrection Health Care's Westlake Hospital in Illinois, raised this question during the recent nationally televised AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum at Soldier Field Stadium in Chicago. For nearly five years, Resurrection workers have fought for a voice at their workplace with AFSCME Council 31. Brown's question prompted the candidates to voice their support for workers' right to organize, and the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow workers to join unions without employee interference.
Download a printable PDF including a chart of the candidates' positions on the issues that matter to AFSCME members.
