Retirees, federal workers to Paulsen: ‘Shutdown has to stop’

October 16, 2013 by
AFGE members Vicky Sirovy, Gary Schabert (middle) and Jared Thyen ask U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen to end the federal government shutdown.

AFGE members Vicky Sirovy, Gary Schabert (middle) and Jared Thyen ask U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen to end the federal government shutdown.

Leaders in the U.S. Senate today unveiled a bipartisan agreement to end the partial government shutdown and extend the nation’s borrowing authority, but doubts remain as to whether the compromise will pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

As the spotlight shifted to the House, federal employees, union leaders and retirees paid a visit to Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen’s Eden Prairie offices this morning, urging the 3rd District Republican to stand behind public statements that he would vote for a “clean” bill to fully fund the government were it to reach the House floor.

Paulsen took heat for that very statement earlier this month, when Tea Party activists demanded he get on board with House Republicans’ plot to use the shutdown as leverage in an ill-fated attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act.

Now Tea Party Republicans are looking to exact steep cuts from Social Security and Medicare as ransom for extending the nation’s borrowing authority before tomorrow’s deadline. Retirees like Ilo Madden of St. Louis Park are hoping Paulsen won’t play along.

“Social Security and Medicare are my main sources of survival,” Madden said at a press availability following the meeting with Paulsen’s staff. “I wonder why the officials who we gave our faith and trust to in the form of a vote are doing this to us.”

[Click here to e-mail to Rep. Paulsen and ask him to support a clean bill to end the government shutdown.]

The delegation of about 15 people reflected the wide-ranging effects of the shutdown, now in its third week. Gary Schabert, a retired veteran from St. Paul, said he participated out of concern for his daughter, who is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in two weeks.

“This is for her, to make sure she has what she needs when she needs it,” Schabert said.

Other members of the delegation told Paulsen that the Tea Party’s political grandstanding in Washington was coming at the expense of federal employees and the citizens they serve, including veterans.

Jared Thyen, a Bloomington resident who works in the Minneapolis Veterans Hospital, said many of his colleagues at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System – the people who process claims and determine benefits – are working without pay.

“Morale at my office is extremely low,” said Thyen, 32, a chief steward of Local 1969 of the American Federation of Government Employees. “People are not able to pay their bills, like child (care). People my age and younger cannot pay their student loans. The bills keep coming.

“This shutdown has to stop.”

Federal employees are still reeling from three years of frozen pay and cuts to retirement benefits. Many workers have been furloughed up to six days per year as a result of sequestration cuts. According to AFGE, federal employees’ pay freezes and retirement cuts have contributed $105 billion in deficit reduction already.

“We have to put a stop to this,” Local 1969 President Vicky Sirovy said.

Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation Bill McCarthy urges Paulsen to support a "clean" bill to fund the federal government and end the 16-day shutdown.

Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation Bill McCarthy urges Paulsen to support a “clean” bill to fund the federal government and end the 16-day shutdown.

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Letters to the editor: DFL caucuses, HHS budget, communism

April 26, 2013 by

DFL-logo-RGBEmphasizing the ‘L’ in ‘DFL’

Joan and I attended the city precinct caucus on April 16, 2013, at the Highland High School. We are new members of the Highland community after living on the East Side for over 50 years. It was a great experience meeting people who we have known ourselves in our new community. We easily got elected to the city convention, and I look forward to our political life in the Highland community.

I was so pleased to hear the encouragement of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation and, particularly, President Bobby Kasper to attend the caucus and get involved in our community. In our democracy we have the great opportunity to have a say about important issues that affect us. We all know we have the opportunity to vote, but get frustrated because it appears that the public officials we elect fail to represent us. Public officials who are wanting to run for re-election or aspiring political persons who are seeking their first political office do remember the issues and values of delegates who can and do provide the votes they will need for future endorsements.

Many of us have dreamed for years to have a Labor political party. If we all attended the DFL caucuses, we could easily put labor into the DFL party.

– Wayne Wittman, Machinists Local Lodge 459

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Don’t gut Health & Human Services

During the last three to four years, major cuts were made to the Health and Human Services budget. There were over $60 million in cuts made to the mental health system – a fragile and underfunded system. I can’t understand why the Democrats in the Legislature would propose cutting over $150 million from Health and Human Services. This funding takes care of children and adults with mental illnesses, people with other disabilities and older adults. It funds mental health centers and providers, hospitals and nursing homes.

I urge our legislators to revisit this decision. It will have a negative impact on our community.

– Shelley Burns

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Why resurrect fight over communism?

The March issue of The Advocate contained an article from the archives with the heading: “75 Years Ago: Fighting Communism.” Why the resurrection of this piece? Presently, one wonders if these early communists were not correct in their belief that capitalism is inherently unjust, unstable and unsustainable. Were they also correct to suggest that workers not soldier up their children for so many cruel and unjust wars?

Yet the modern Advocate appears to have echoed the old declaration: “Compromise with communists would be suicidal.” Should “pleas for tolerance, unity and harmony” continue to be ignored in favor of “a pragmatic approach?”

Pardon me, but the historic accommodation between labor and capital has brought us now to what state of affairs?

– Peter Molenaar, Teamsters 970

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Eliot Seide: Minnesota’s moment to rebuild the middle class

March 4, 2013 by
Eliot Seide

Eliot Seide

Minnesota is poised to do great things this year, the first time in 22 years that Democrats control the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature. This is Minnesota’s moment to fix the budget, raise fair revenue, and build an economy that grows good jobs and the middle class.

Union members campaigned hard to win this trifecta. But we can’t bet on getting what workers need unless we make our voices heard. Our state Capitol is filled with a crop of new legislators who we need to meet. We need to make sure they understand that Minnesota is at its best when the middle class is strong. That’s why we need a budget focused on improving the lives of middle-class families with investments in education, a strong economy, and a fair tax system.

Gov. Dayton’s “Budget for a Better Minnesota” is a good start. It raises more than $2 billion in new revenue to begin restoring $5 billion of cuts made during the last four years. His budget is honest, responsible, and fair. He’s honest about what he wants to buy with his budget, and he’s courageous about how he wants to pay for it. No more kicking the deficit down the road. No more gimmicks and games that pass the buck to future generations.

Here’s how Gov. Dayton’s budget helps the middle class:

• Property tax relief. The governor’s budget provides a property tax rebate of up to $500 for homeowners. Add on new investments in Local Government Aid ($80 million) and County Program Aid ($40 million), and it will greatly reduce the property tax burden on middle-class families.

• Build a strong economy. The governor’s budget will strengthen our state’s economy by building and maintaining roads, bridges and public transit. Those infrastructure projects will create good jobs and bring new businesses here.

• Reinvest in education. The governor’s budget delivers a significant increase in direct student aid for higher education and makes needed investments in the MnSCU system and the University of Minnesota ($80 million each) to train our workforce for the jobs of the future. His budget also provides quality early learning scholarships for 10,000 children, optional all-day kindergarten for 46,000 kids, and increases K-12 funding by $52 per student.

• Create a fair tax system. Minnesota’s tax system is rigged to favor rich individuals and big corporations, while shifting their burden onto the middle class. No more! The governor’s budget asks the richest 2 percent to pay their fair share. His budget also closes corporate tax loopholes and lowers the state sales tax rate 20 percent, while extending the sales tax to high-priced clothing items over $100.

The governor’s budget is the first word – but not the final word. The governor knows none of us is as smart as all of us. We all need to work together to make the budget better and to move the state forward.

Budgets are not just balance sheets. They’re about our values. As Minnesotans, we expect fairness, responsibility and honesty.  We expect a growing economy and a prosperous middle class. It’s time to show Minnesota what real progress looks like – when everyone pays their fair share.

– Eliot Seide is executive director of AFSCME Council 5, a union of 43,000 Minnesota workers.

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Working America members target John Kline for blocking middle-class tax cuts

September 20, 2012 by

Working America member and 2nd District resident Mike Adair shows off the check mocking John Kline’s support for millionaire tax cuts.

BURNSVILLE – If millionaires don’t get a tax cut, then no one gets a tax cut.

That’s 2nd District Congressman John Kline’s stance, and it was the target of workers protesting outside Kline’s Burnsville offices Sept. 12 during a national day of action for tax fairness sponsored by Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate.

“John Kline voted against extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the 98 percent of Americans in the middle and working classes because those tax breaks for the richest 2 percent would have ended. He would not agree to that,” said Chase Brandau, a Minnesota organizer for Working America.

To drive the message home, Working America member Mike Adair, one of Kline’s constituents, delivered a three-foot-long check from Kline payable to “Millionaires.” The amount payable – $160,000 – represents the average annual tax cut people making over $1 million will receive if Kline’s efforts to extend the Bush tax cuts are successful, according to the National Economic Council.

“We’re here to deliver this check to Rep. Kline as a symbol of what he’s given (to millionaires) at the expense of working people in his district,” Brandau said.

Working America members from the 2nd District said tax fairness and a balanced budget are among their top concerns in this election year.

Ending the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2 percent would raise nearly $1 trillion in revenues over 10 years, helping to balance the federal budget. Extending the tax cuts for 25 million working Americans, meanwhile, would ensure consumers have the spending money necessary to keep the fragile economic recovery on track.

“Money at the top stays at the top,” said Adair, a small business owner and graduate student who lives in Eagan. “You can’t create jobs when money stagnates at the top.”

Elizabeth Huffman of Cottage Grove said she usually tunes out politics, but got involved in the Working America protest because she is fed up with politicians who attack the middle class.

“I’m tired of seeing the top 2 percent making all the rules. I would have loved to have heard John Kline’s justification for all of this,” Huffman said. “Enough is enough. Seeing what’s happening in this country, it’s ridiculous.”

Working America members said Kline’s refusal to take a balanced approach to budget and tax policy not only protects millionaires at the expense of working families, but it also puts funding for Medicare and education – programs that protect the middle class – at risk.

“Money is being wasted in contributing it to millionaires and being denied to people in the middle and lower income groups, where it would actually do the most good,” said Paul Hoffinger of Eagan. “It’s part of the reason we’re experiencing a recession.”

Workers staged similar protests in more than 30 cities across the U.S.

Working America has organized more than 3 million members, workers without the benefit of a union on the job, to fight for a just economy. For more information on the organization, go to www.workingamerica.org.

Working America members protest outside John Kline’s Burnsville offices.

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