President Obama has sold out unions’ pensions when he signed a must pass omnibus bill, which has the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The bill strikes down an enshrined American ideal that money earned for a pension can’t be pulled out from under our feet like a rug once we retire. That promise, once codified in law, was upended by the passage of this reform act.
This act will effect some 400,000 participants by cutting benefits for some retirees now, some up to 60 percent. This is the central state pension funds, which is predicted to be insolvent in 10 years and this fund is the canary in the mineshaft as similar multiemployer pension funds are now at risk.
If these funds go bust, mortgages won’t be paid, prescriptions won’t be filled, utility bills and groceries will be a regular hardship. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell hates unions so there will be no hope there, and Hillary Clinton is no fan of unions either. This just leaves Bernie Sanders and no one is talking about this, which could affect millions of retirees.
This could take down the multiemployer arms of the pension benefit guaranty corporation, the federal government, which is the pension insurance program and that fund is also in trouble. So, does this mean people on pensions will lose all their supportive means? This very well could be and they should hope their children have a good job and room for their parents to move in. If their children are living in their parents’ home, then the whole family is in for a life in the streets. Is this the way we are going to reward our workers?
Last year, Sanders introduced legislation to repeal the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, along with Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. They brought forth the Keep Our Pension Promises Act of 2015, which would prohibit trustees of multiemployer pension plans from reducing retirees’ monthly benefits.
It is anti-worker legislation like this that makes voting so very important.
The survival of American democracy requires the existence of a flourishing union work force. In a survey, 68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions. So, as an old sheet metal organizer, I say we need to go all out in organizing while the soldering iron is hot, to use a sheet metal workers tool. We should organize all workers no matter where or what kind of work they do. All workers have the right to belong to a union and all should support each other. If you, in your work place, do not know how to form a union, then do what Napoleon’s military adopted adage, ‘Jump into the battle and then figure it out.’ One of the best ways to organize is worker to worker and plan it out over a meal or coffee and talk to other union workers to see what would work best for you and also what unions are winning at this time. Just go for it. When things are in disarray, like the shit show in Washington, D.C., they might not even know what you are doing until it is too late for them to push back aga...
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