Polls Turn Against Public Employee Unions

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For starts: I've been a union member for two years now. I am in a technical trade. Am I a FAN of civil service? No. No more than I am a fan of any other faction of the American workforce.
Are there union members who take advantage of their positions? Sure. Are there incompetent persons in positions they are not suited for? Yes. Are there civil servants I don't think deserve the benefits they are entitled to? Absolutely! BUT … NO MORE SO THAN IN ANY OTHER FACTION OF THE WORKFORCE.
Please bear in mind that the people who are reaching retirement age now began their public service careers back when nobody really wanted a government job. Despite the economic environment of the 1970's civil positions were considered dead end jobs with poor pay and benefits. But, somebody had to fix our streetlights, patch our potholes, mow and rake our parks, deliver our water and electricity, put out our flaming homes, attempt to catch criminals and, oh yes, educate our children.
Now that the American economy has been trashed by wild Wall Street speculation, irresponsible banking practices, ridiculous lending practices, and "hands-off-the-wheel" government deregulation - we want to hold those "lucky" few responsible for picking the "wrong" field of endeavor.
Doesn't sound right to me.
I have a better idea.
Let's hold the folks who created this economic mess responsible. Let's not scapegoat some folks who were just doing their jobs. Why are we picking on our public servants? Why aren't we demanding that politicians clean up their act? Why don't we insist bankers and "investment" houses are held civilly and criminally responsible for their actions? Why don't we insist on controlling runaway military and "public-safety" spending? And by the way, I'm sort of old and insolvent myself, so I can sympathize with anybody down on their luck right now. But I'm not going to blame someone else for my problems ...
particularly when they are just doing their jobs.

Bob in L.A. of CA 2:13AM June 07, 2011

I'm so sick and tired of all the anti-union sentiment out there. So many people are being brainwashed into jumping on the public sector union and pension misinformation bandwagons.
I'm a proud member of the IBEW and I work for a local government entity in California. I was an IBEW member in the private sector before that. My employer has more than 11,000 employees, most of whom are represented by one of many union locals, but many are unrepresented.
Although California is considered a "forced unionism" state as opposed to a "right to work" state, no one in my bargaining unit was forced to join a union or to pay any money to a union as a condition of employment. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that collective bargaining agreements may not require workers to join unions. Approximately 5% of my bargaining unit do not belong to the union or pay any kind of money, yet by law, they are required to be represented by the union the same as a dues-paying union member. Is that fair?
Regarding pensions, my employer offers the same modest pension benefits to all employees, represented by a union or not. That's right, MODEST not EXTRAVAGANT, unlike what many right-wing politicians and journalists want you to believe. In addition, all employees contribute to the pension fund through automatic payroll deductions in amounts determined by the employees’ retirement system, unlike what many right-wing politicians and journalists would also have you believe. The formula is 2% at 55 and ½, which means at age 55 and ½, a prospective retiree is eligible to receive 2% of his last 3 years annual salary average for every year of service. Police and firefighters are eligible for 3% at 50. A vast majority of public sector retirees are not receiving gold-plated retirement packages, again unlike what many right-wing politicians and journalists want you to believe.
Furthermore, the notion that all public employee pension funds are unfunded and are only digging a deeper hole, which is causing a larger strain on already tight budgets is not entirely true. The most recent actuarial information for our pension fund, dated 6/30/10, shows that it is 88% funded, and it is agreed upon by many financial experts that pension funds only need to be funded at 80%. Many public pension funds are robust and well funded in light of these tough economic times, but that is not what right-wing politicians and journalists want the taxpayers to believe.
Public employee unions and pensions are not the problem. The problem lies with the elected officials who don’t know how to run a government within its means. Anyone who thinks that attacking those unions and freezing or cutting those pensions is going to be the saving grace for budget deficits is hugely mistaken. It will only be a drop in the bucket and then what?

David Snider of CA 6:25PM February 25, 2011

F Unions

Wil of FL 8:40PM May 23, 2010

You talk about dribble, you seem to have enough to go around.
This isn't anti police, education or infastructure. What it is ,is people are tired of bailouts, don't you get it? I'm tired of bailouts, I'm tired of the goverment taking my money for my future ( that I've worked for) and giving away. This is about bailing out union pension funds for votes. Wake up and quit your party line dribble. Are you happy with all the bailouts? May-be you're a union member.Are you?
Why don't the union members look at who did what with their money, may-be they asked for to much. I've worked around many union shops and businesses, they are very costly. Because their union bosses peed away their money or over promised don't expect me and my family to bail them out!!

Hunter of WI 7:13PM May 22, 2010

Trying to suck up to your boss only further erodes your low credibility. This is just more hokey anti-police, anti-education, and anti-infrastructure sentiment to scrap the country further. Repeating nutty ideas like this only further proves this writer lacks any common sense or integrity.

Carlos of AL 5:53PM May 22, 2010

Once again - sustaining a government we cannot afford. The demise of democracy is when the public understands it has the keps to the purse. When 47% of individuals do not pay any income tax and the public service union members make up apporx 13% of the labor force, we're already outvoted.
So how do we get the American public to recognize we're slowly destroying the nation our fathers have built and leaving nothing but stagnation for our future generations.
The demise of democracy is at hand.

One of our Founding Fathers of CA 8:50AM May 22, 2010

Here's the problem: Financially illiterate and/or criminally cynical union bosses have corrupted every unionized public sector worker in America - INCLUDING THE COPS. Big deal, then non-cop new hires retire at age 60 with 2% per year pensions - i.e., 60% of their final salary. That is still TWICE as good as what you get under social security.
Here's the solution: Give everyone, including the cops and firefighters, social security and medicate just like the rest of us. If you want to provide some premium to the cops and firefighters, give them a 401K plan with 100% matching (capped at 12% of salary, still TWICE as good as a premium private plan) by the public employer.
Public employee unions - and unions in general - ARE DESTROYING AMERICA. At the local level they run every city council member and county supervisor. Public employees, when you add up the value of all their compensation including current and future benefits, make TWICE to FOUR TIMES as much as taxpayers doing work requiring similar skills.
It is obscene. Obama and his union puppetmasters are evil.

Outraged Taxpayer of CA 1:23PM May 21, 2010

Quoting ..."According to the San Jose, Calif., Mercury News, the city council unanimously approved a citizen-proposed measure that would “make all new hires except police officers eligible to retire at age 60 with 2 percent of their highest salary multiplied by the number of years of service. Current employees who get 2.7 percent at age 55 would remain unaffected.”"
This change, ...only applying to NEW employees isn't enough, as the savings won't materialize for 20-30 years until they begin to retire.
In Private Sector pension plans, the plan sponsor can't reduce benefits already accrued for PAST years of service, but can (and ROUTINELY DOES) reduce benefit formulas for FUTURE years of service (for CURRENT, not just NEW employees) when circumstances demand.
The first step in getting oneself out of a deep hole is to STOP Digging. CURRENT public sector pension formulas are excessive and reduction for FUTURE years of service for CURRENT (yes CURRENT) employees are an absolute must and NOW !

Tough Love of CA 9:48AM May 21, 2010

Scumbag leeches. Try earning a real living, worthless POS troglodytes! Fire all these ignorant, equal-opportunity crap bags now! Save the working man a few bucks.

Arlen Specter of PA 1:22AM May 21, 2010

I'm 56 yrs old non union, I've been unemployed for almost a year, my company is looking up ( we have some small jobs ).I'm back to work. In the mean time the taxes we've paid have bailed out the UAW, Greece, banks, Wall Street, stupid people who took out home loans they knew they couldn't pay for, Fannie and Freddie the list keeps on getting longer. In the mean time I'm trying to save for my old age. Now we have more pension funds going bankrupt that want more of my money to cover their butts. I'm sorry, not my problem!! Contribute to your own pension and or watch whos doing what with your money, again not my problem, don't pass your problem on to my back.
With all the goverment pension funds along with everything else the goverment is doing going bankrupt, why does so many people keep putting more faith into the goverment and beleive they can do the right thing??
Why now does the SEIU want to tap into peoples 401ks to cover their bankrupt pension plan? This idea IS out there and backed by the democrats. It's all for votes. Union votes, and get more people dependant on the goverment..
Union or non union, people need to and should take more control of their own lives and not depend on someone else or the goverment to BAIL them out.
Let me say this to all you UNION people, EVERYONE has the right to work. EVERYONE has a family and not everyone needs or wants someone else to takecare of them. I and many people can do fine without having to pick up yours and the goverments slack... I sure I've peed of many, SO BE IT!!!

Hunter of WI 9:19PM May 20, 2010