After ‘six years of purgatory,’ retirees celebrate pension fix with Smith

March 24, 2021 by

Sen. Tina Smith met with Central States pensioners at the St. Paul Labor Center in March 2018 to discuss the Butch Lewis Act, which she fought to include in the latest round of COVID relief. (file photo)

The $1,400 stimulus checks made headlines, but the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, signed into law by President Joe Biden March 11, also includes $86 billion to stabilize distressed multiemployer pension funds over the next three decades.

The emergency funds will protect pension benefits earned by 1.5 million active and retired workers nationwide, including about 22,000 Minnesota retirees who paid into the Central States Pension Fund.

It’s a historic win for local retirees and their grassroots fight for pension relief, and for Sen. Tina Smith, who has championed the issue from her seat on the committee overseeing pension law since taking office three years ago.

During a Zoom call to celebrate the victory March 19, Teamster retiree Dennis Kooren, who lives in the Fargo-Moorhead area, told Smith it felt like he and other Central States pensioners had been through “six years of purgatory,” waiting to see if their earned benefits would be stripped or saved.

“This is bittersweet,” Kooren said. “We’ve been fighting so hard for so long, it’s hard to believe we even won.”

After the Great Recession, trustees for the troubled fund warned that, without federal relief, it would run out of money around 2025. Instead, Congress passed a law in 2014, authored by former Minnesota Rep. John Kline, allowing multiemployer pension funds to seek authorization to cut retirees’ benefits.

But retired Teamsters in Minnesota and across the Midwest pushed back hard against the proposed cuts.

Steve Baribeau, a Teamster retiree and co-chair of the Twin Cities-based group Save Our Pensions MN, remembered a hearing on the University of Minnesota campus, where people using “wheelchairs, walkers and canes” crowded into an auditorium to plead with a Treasury representative not to approve Central States’ proposed cuts.

“It was clear they could not go back to work, and they needed their pensions,” said Baribeau, who himself faced a 47% reduction in benefits under the proposal.

After the Treasury Department rejected Central States’ rescue plan, retirees in every corner of the state began organizing, mobilizing and lobbying in support of the Butch Lewis Act, named in memory of a Teamster from Ohio who led the fight to protect pension benefits.

Smith has often said a 2018 meeting with retirees in Duluth, during her first weekend as a U.S. Senator, stuck with her, guiding her work on the issue. In her call with pensioners, Smith recalled a conversation with one woman in Duluth who said she had no backup savings.

“She said, ‘Senator, I saved, and I did everything right. But it’s hard for me to work right now. And I don’t have a Plan B. My Plan B is living under a bridge if I lose my pension.’”

As negotiations played out over the latest round of COVID-19 relief, Smith fought for inclusion of the Butch Lewis Act. The measure provides funds to prevent benefit cuts, but also to stabilize multiemployer pension funds that are struggling financially, keeping intact the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as a backstop for benefits.

Additionally, the Butch Lewis Act restores benefits to tens of thousands of retirees and workers whose pensions have been cut since Kline’s 2014 law took effect.

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President Trump is taking aim at Social Security

September 29, 2020 by

By Buddy Robinson, special to The Union Advocate

You wouldn’t know it from watching the news, but Social Security’s future is on the ballot in 2020. If President Trump is re-elected, it’s clear that he will try to greatly weaken and even eliminate Social Security. That’s despite his repeated – but hollow – claims to protect it.

This should not come as a surprise. When he first ran for president, as a Reform Party candidate in 2000, Trump said he wanted to privatize Social Security, calling it a “Ponzi scheme.” He wanted to eliminate guaranteed benefits and have people gamble on the stock market instead. He also promoted raising the age requirement for full benefits up to 70.

After starting to serve as president in 2017, Trump’s budget proposals each year have sought large cuts in funding for Social Security disability. His latest one, for fiscal year 2021, seeks to cut $75 billion over 10 years from programs that benefit people with disabilities (over half of whom are 55 or older). This includes $10 billion in Social Security Disability cuts, plus plans to reduce the number of people enrolled by about 5 percent. That would be accomplished with harsher work rules that determine who can qualify. Another cut is to lower the initial retroactive benefit that people get when they first go on Social Security Disability. It currently is 12 months retroactive, but Trump wants to reduce it to six months.

His budgets have also included cuts for Social Security’s administrative expenses. That translates into fewer offices, shorter hours, fewer staff and longer times to process applications to get on Social Security, or even to get answers to simple questions.

Don’t be fooled by Trump’s focus on Social Security just for people with disabilities. People on regular retirement Social Security better worry, too. Trump’s 2021 budget proposal talks about a need to “reduce the rate of increase” in Social Security payments. That sounds like code words for reducing the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, increasing the age to start getting benefits, reducing the initial benefit formula – or maybe all of the above.

When you think about the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic effect on families and workers, the importance of Social Security becomes all the more apparent. The recession that accompanies our pandemic in the U.S., worsened by Trump’s botched response, will depress future Social Security benefits for an estimated 4 million Americans who become eligible in 2022, because of the severe drop in average wages nationally. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, their benefits will be about $1,428 per year lower than if the pandemic had never happened.

Trump has done something with Social Security in light of the pandemic: He is allowing businesses to forego collecting their employees’ Social Security payroll taxes from September through December. After that, those missing taxes would have to be collected and paid. Not surprisingly, few businesses are choosing to follow this option. To get a four-month vacation from the payroll taxes, only to have to pay them back, doesn’t make any sense.

Trump has said that, if re-elected, he will consider doing away with the payroll tax altogether. If that were to occur, and no other revenue source were found to replace it, then we already know the result. Social Security’s chief actuary has testified that if this happens, all Social Security disability benefits will cease in mid-2021, and all Social Security retirement benefits will cease in mid-2023.

What was he thinking? Despite his coyness, we can see what Trump really wants: his long-held dream of destroying the current Social Security system and turning it into a privatized gamble. Andrew Biggs, who helped write President George W. Bush’s ill-fated privatization proposal, explained recently that Trump’s ideas can lead to changing Social Security into two parts: a small, income-tax-funded benefit for only the poorest, and private investment accounts for everyone else. So, Trump really looks at the pandemic as a way to further his goal of wrecking and privatizing Social Security. We all need to be seriously concerned – and vote accordingly this November.

– Buddy Robinson is former staff director of the Minnesota Citizens Federation Northeast. In recent years, he has worked with the Minnesota State Council of Retirees, AFL-CIO, on Social Security and other issues.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pandemic likely to alter unions’ political push, but how? 

May 7, 2020 by

By Bill Moore, Special to The Union Advocate 

COVID-19 is disrupting life as we know it and may do so for a while yet. But Minnesota labor leaders are determined that it will not stop efforts to inform and mobilize union voters for the 2020 election.  

The Minnesota Labor 2020 campaign is alive and well – and ready to adapt to challenges and changing circumstances. 

“Our work this election year is incredibly important,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Kera Peterson said. “We have to engage as many union members as possible as voters and volunteers, not only to elect a president who respects and stands up for working families, but to assure worker-friendly majorities in both the Minnesota Senate and the U.S. Senate.”

Work to assure a complete count for the U.S. census is also important, Peterson added: “We need to be doing that now, and also working to make sure union members and retirees are registered to vote.” 

Minnesota AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Brad Lehto reported that officers, leaders and political organizers from affiliated unions and labor councils around the state already have formulated a Labor 2020 plan. Now, they are working on contingency plans.  

“If things get better,” Lehto said, “we’ll keep moving ahead with the current plan. If things get worse we’ll have options.”  

Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Director Jessica Looman shares Lehto’s determination.  

“During this time of uncertainty, the AFL-CIO is working to adapt their voter education and mobilization plans to address many different contingencies,” she said. “The Minnesota Building Trades will also work to ensure that our members’ voices are heard in 2020.” 

Texting could be key 

As an example of adjustments that may need to be made, Lehto pointed to worksite conversations. They won’t be possible if worksites are shuttered.  

“Our whole worksite program would have to change,” he said. “One option we’re exploring is peer-to-peer texting, where worksite leaders could communicate via text messages with co-workers who are working from home or laid off.”  

The Service Employees (SEIU) developed and implemented this in the last election cycle and it worked well, Lehto added, joking, “We’re all going to become experts in tech.” 

Jamie Gulley, President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and the SEIU Minnesota State Council said, “This pandemic has made clear how important it is to have elected officials who care about working people.  

“We know there may be challenges in our usual election plans that focus on person-to-person conversations with possible social distancing still in effect. Luckily, we have experience with texting, online ads, phone calling and relational organizing tools that will help make sure we do everything possible to elect candidates who support working people. 

“No matter what tools we end up using, we are going to have tens of thousands of conversations about electing candidates who see this pandemic not as a chance to divide us and give more to the rich, but as a sign we need to pass laws that put Minnesotans’ health before corporate profits, and to support our Unions for All agenda to make sure every Minnesotan – no matter our job, race, zip code or gender – can live a safe and healthy life.” 

Getting social – at a distance 

Another route Minnesota Labor 2020 planners are exploring to reach union members with relevant information in pandemic times is digital communications and paid media.  

Already in the works are some 15-, 30- and 60-second videos of union members from various unions saying why unions matter to them personally, and how working people need each other and won’t buy attempts to divide us by race, ethnicity or other differences. 

Door-knocking, too, is a traditional election year tactic that wouldn’t work if COVID-19 exposure testing and contact tracing don’t reach necessary levels and stay-at-home policies persist into the fall. Volunteers likely will be reluctant to risk exposure to the virus, and people won’t want to open their door to a stranger.  

Phoning is an option, but has proved less effective in recent years, and traditional phone banks often involve bringing volunteers together in close quarters.   

“If phoners are unable to social-distance, virtual phone banking is a way around that,” Lehto said. “Volunteers can access a list on their home computer or, if they find that difficult, they can get a paper list to phone from home.” 

Regardless of how it gets done, the Labor 2020’s work is critical, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy said. 

“While this pandemic may change the methods used to communicate with union members about the election, it underscores why the 2020 election is so important,” he said. “We need to elect leaders who will join with us to make sure no worker is left behind, and we emerge from this crisis stronger than before.” 

Retirees get early start 

Members of at least one Minnesota labor organization are on the phones already. The Minnesota State Retiree Council has launched an effort to make sure retired union members are registered to vote. “Comparing union lists with state voting records finds 6,000 Minnesota union retirees not registered to vote,” State Retiree President Ken McInnis reported.  

Retiree Council Election Work Coordinator Carol Freeman and other volunteers have asked for clearance from Minnesota AFL-CIO affiliated unions to call their retired members who aren’t registered to vote.  

Meanwhile, they’re calling everyone on retiree council mailing and email lists to learn how retirees are staying informed. If they’re not already subscribed to the Retiree Bulletin, Election Work Co-Coordinator Martha Johnson signs them up and also points them to the Retiree Council website, http://www.mnretired.org, and Facebook page, facebook.com/mnaflcioretired. 

Another retiree initiative is advocating for Vote-by-Mail legislation.  

The State Retiree Council passed a resolution urging the State of Minnesota to send a voter registration form, together with an application for an absentee ballot, to every unregistered Minnesotan who is eligible to vote, including pre-paid postage for return. The Minnesota AFL-CIO Executive Board adopted the resolution.  

“Given the current majority in the Minnesota Senate, I can’t imagine the measure will pass the Legislature,” McInnis admitted. “But if legislators really believe that voting is what democracy looks like, they’ll support it.” 

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Retiree Council president: ‘You can’t just ride off into the sunset’

October 4, 2018 by

Ken McInnis

Ken McInnis has been going to union meetings since he was 5 years old. He helped organize a union when he was 15.

It’s no surprise, then, that his union activism has extended into retirement.

A former diesel mechanic and longtime member of Machinists Local Lodge 737, McInnis became president of the Minnesota State Retiree Council last month, when Bill Moore resigned after seven years in the position.

“My dad was a pulp and paper worker, and my mother used to send me with him to his union meetings when I was 5, 6 and 7 years old,” McInnis said. “When I was 15, I was working at a SuperValu store in Eau Claire, and we were lucky enough to organize a union.”

For McInnis, who now lives in Ham Lake, it was the start of a lifetime of support for the labor movement and progressive causes. In between jobs as a mechanic, he worked over 12 years as a business representative for Machinists District Lodge 77. He’s run for state and federal office, held several positions in the DFL Party and served alongside Paul Wellstone in Minnesota’s delegation to the Democratic National Committee.

His latest challenge? Providing direction for the Retiree Council, which provides Minnesota’s union retirees and their organizations with a voice in the state’s labor movement – and an opportunity to remain active in advocating for public policy and political representation that advances their interests.

UA: You took office at the start of a pivotal campaign season. Has it been a baptism by fire?

KM: It’s more work, obviously, in an election year, but it’s work I’m familiar with. I previously ran for state House and state Senate as a labor-endorsed DFLer here in Ham Lake. It’s a district that had about a 37 percent DFL index. I got 39 percent of the vote, so I figure I did alright.

So the election work is not a trial by fire. We’ve also got a lot of programs that we’re working with here, and we’re working to see that retirees have their say.

But for me, I’ve done this stuff for 40 years. It’s nothing new, just a different venue.

UA: What’s driven that interest in organizing and campaign work over four decades and counting?

KM: The old adage is, ‘The world is run by those that come to the meeting.’ I’ve always gone to the meetings.

Looking at the importance of the issues that are before us right now, those issues haven’t really changed a whole lot since I got involved back in 1973. We’re still fighting ‘right to work for less.’ We’re still fighting to make sure Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are going to be there for future retirees, like my three granddaughters. Those are the issues that drive me.

UA: You’re a self-starter when it comes to politics. How do you hope to inspire a similar interest among other retirees?

KM: I’ve always said if I’m lucky enough to engender an interest by one person per year, I’ll feel lucky. But it’s also about walking the walk. If I’m not going to do the work, other retirees are going to look at me and say, ‘He wants us to do it, but he won’t do it himself.’

UA: Where do you hope to see the Retiree Council go as an organization during your time in the president’s office?

KM: Right now we’re keyed in on making sure we win on Nov. 6. That’s the most important thing because if we don’t win, workers in general are going to lose their ability to better their lot.

Beyond that, my plan is to work on organizing the retiree networks out there. Not every union has a retiree chapter. Many have chapters that are more of a social club than an advocacy group. Hopefully we can engage some of them – and we have been – to participate in the council and in the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

It’s important for retirees to understand that you can’t just walk off into the sunset and think that everything’s going to be covered. Greedy people out there – including the party that controls Congress and the President himself – are trying to take everything away from us that they can, like pensions, Medicare, Social Security, our rights.

I’m issuing a call for retirees or organizations that have retirees to get active and put together a retiree organization if they don’t already have one. Join us; join our work. If everybody does a little bit, then a whole lot will get done.

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Retirees plan action-oriented conference to build power, resist attacks

April 25, 2017 by

The Minnesota State Retiree Council and allied organizations will hold a conference May 6 entitled “Family Security and Retiree Power in a Time of Crisis,” from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Minnesota Nurses Association, 345 Randolph Ave., St. Paul.

Organizers plan an “action-oriented discussion about resisting attacks on affordable health care, our pensions and social safety net, and how we can organize for power to make them better.”

Robert Roach Jr., president of the Alliance for Retired Americans and former general secretary-treasurer of the Machinists union, will speak at the conference. [Read an interview with Roach about the ARA’s work and his participation in the May 6 conference here.]

The event includes lunch. Register at aflcio.mn/retirees17 or by calling 651-227-7647, ext. 121.

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‘We are being distracted by a showman who throws these tweets out’

April 20, 2017 by

Robert Roach Jr.’s career as a labor leader began shortly after he went to work for Trans World Airlines in 1975, when he joined a fight to improve the conditions of new employees at the now-defunct airline. He hasn’t stopped fighting since.

After rising through the ranks of the International Association of Machinists, Roach retired as the union’s general secretary‐treasurer in July 2015. Now he’s president of the 3 million-member Alliance for Retired Americans, which works to mobilize retired union members, seniors and activists into a nationwide grassroots movement.

Roach will travel to St. Paul May 6 for a conference planned by local retirees fighting back against attacks on health care, pensions and the social safety net. Click here for registration information.

We reached out to Roach for a preview of what conference-goers can expect from his keynote speech, and to learn more about the issues retirees are organizing around nationally. His answers have been edited for length.

UA: You’re continuing your work as a labor leader in retirement. Isn’t that the opposite of how retirement is supposed to work?

RR: “In the Machinists union we have a rule – a good rule – that we retire at age 65 from executive office. It allows new people and new ideas to come up through the ranks. But it doesn’t mean that we’re off going fishing. I think those of us who’ve had the opportunity to serve and were able to retire should certainly stay involved.”

UA: You accepted an invitation to address a conference in St. Paul entitled “Family Security and Retiree Power in a Time of Crisis.” Do you agree we’re in a time of crisis?

RR: “Absolutely. I’m 66 years old, and this is as bad as I’ve seen it. The reforms they talk about – and ‘reform’ actually is code for taking something from somebody – are a vicious attack on senior citizens, which translates into an attack on the whole family structure. People now are either having to move in with mom or dad because they can’t get decent jobs, or they have to take mom or dad home because they’ve lost some of their benefits or don’t have the proper health care. People can’t move up.”

UA: How are retirees joining the resistance?

RR: “We want to talk about unity. As Secretary Clinton, a good friend of mine, said, we are stronger together. We must come together and align ourselves with like-minded people to ensure that we have strength.

“But I am very concerned. In all this talk about Russia, a lot of things are not being looked at. You turn on some of these cable-news channels, and it’s 24 hours of Russia, Russia, Russia – which is a very important issue. But what about Planned Parenthood? What about Medicaid? What about protection for senior citizens? What about protections for working men and women?

“When I was in elementary school, I used to have to get under my desk because the Russians were coming and they were going to drop a bomb on us or something. It was a drill. Let me tell you something, the Russians have been coming for 60 years.”

UA: How do we organize like-minded people when the opponent is as good at driving a wedge between us as this president has proven to be?

RR: “It all starts locally, with sitting down and talking with people, educating them and asking them, how is this affecting you? We have to take those issues that are important to working families and make people aware of what’s at stake. Because we are being distracted by a showman who throws these tweets out, and we spend hours and hours talking about a tweet. But it distracts us from the real issues.”

UA: Many of the issues ARA organizes around – trade, for example – go beyond what might be considered “senior issues.” What’s the connection?

RR: “All these things that affect working people, at the end of the day, affect seniors. We’re all a family. If there are no new people coming into a retirement program, that jeopardizes existing seniors. When employers subcontract work out or ship it to Mexico, it affects seniors who are already retired. And ultimately, if we fight for them, they will fight for us.”

UA: What would you say to young workers who might scoff at the notion they’re ever going to see Social Security or pension benefits?

RR: “That’s a myth. This is more of the propaganda they’ve put together to keep people from fighting for a defined-benefit pension plan. They’ll tell you a 401(k) is going to make you a millionaire. At one point in time, I sat where they sit. Now I’m fortunate enough to have had a pension I could retire from. And I was in the thick of the fights during the airline bankruptcy. There are people in Minnesota today at those airports, whether they realize it or not, who continue to enjoy a defined-benefit pension because we, as a union, fought for them. But if there is no fight, you will not have a benefit.”

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Retiree council plans annual fundraising bash

March 8, 2017 by

Gopher Retiree Sept-Oct 2012.pubGood times will roll at the Minnesota State Retiree Council’s fundraiser April 29, and people of any age are welcome to join in the fun.

The 14th Annual State Retiree Council Fun(d)raiser will extend from 3 to 7 p.m. at a new venue, the St. Paul Labor Center, 353 W. 7th St., near the Smith Avenue intersection. Parking is available in two lots north of the building.

Admission and parking are free, and the event will feature free food, music, hourly raffles for valuable prizes and a silent auction. Funds raised will help the state council inform retired workers about issues that affect them and organize action by retirees to assure a secure and dignified retirement for all.

“With mounting threats to pensions and our Social Safety Net, organizing the growing ranks of retirees and our families is more necessary than ever,” organizers said in a press release announcing the event.

A drawing for major cash prizes will conclude the event. Winners need not be present. Three tickets cost $5 and can be purchased from retiree council board members or by calling the council office: 651-227-7647, ext. 121.

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Retirees push lawmakers to stay vigilant for lame-duck attack on pension rights

December 5, 2016 by
Sen. Al Franken and U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan got an earful from retirees after a forum on threats to retirement security in St. Paul Dec. 5.

Sen. Al Franken and U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan got an earful from retirees after a forum on threats to retirement security in St. Paul Dec. 3.

 

Two years ago, Congress opened the door for troubled pension funds to cut retirees’ benefits, after Rep. John Kline slipped the provision into a must-pass bill keeping the federal government open.

Now, with Congress poised to pass a similar stopgap bill, Kline is back with another “pension reform” bill, and it’s just as bad as the 2014 measure – maybe even worse. But this time around, the element of surprise won’t be on Kline’s side.

A forum Saturday morning on Kline’s proposal drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 200 retirees to the Macalester College chapel in St. Paul. It was the first in a series of public events to keep pension reform off the lame-duck agenda.

Retirees packed the chapel at Macalester College to learn more about potential legislation weakening defined-benefit pensions.

Retirees packed the chapel at Macalester College to learn more about potential legislation weakening defined-benefit pensions.

“We will be listened to,” retired truck driver Bob McNattin, a leader of Save Our Pensions-MN, told the assembled retirees. “They cannot treat us this way.”

[McNattin’s group will take its message directly to Kline this Saturday with a 10 a.m. demonstration outside the congressman’s Burnsville office, at 350 W. Burnsville Pkwy.]

While the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 dealt a blow to the rights of retirees in critically underfunded multiemployer plans, Kline’s latest proposal, known in Washington as the “composite bill,” has a much broader reach.

It would allow healthy pension plans to split in two, with a “legacy plan” following the defined-benefit model and a “composite plan” that, pension attorney Ann Curry Thompson told forum-goers, more closely resembles a 401(k). The composite plan would base retirees’ benefits on the performance of its investments and, critically, receive no backing from the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.

Allowing employers and pension administrators to divert money from defined-benefit plans and into composite plans would almost certainly increase the number of federally insured funds facing critical shortfalls – and make more retirees vulnerable to benefit cuts made legal by Kline’s 2014 reform bill, Curry Thompson warned.

Bill Moore, president of the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, said the prevailing attitude in Congress regarding pension reform – that the only solution is to cut benefits earned by working people – is dangerously skewed in employers’ favor.

“A pension is not a legacy,” Moore said. “It is not a gift from our employers… It’s deferred compensation.” Despite retirees’ advancing age, Moore added, “one thing we don’t forget is the hours and days and number of years that we put in to earn our pensions.”

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan checked a fact with pension attorney Ann Curry Thompson while addressing retirees Dec. 3.

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan checked a fact with pension attorney Ann Curry Thompson while addressing retirees Dec. 3.

At least three members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation haven’t forgotten either. U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken – all DFLers – spoke at the forum Saturday in opposition to Kline’s composite bill.

“Promises made should be kept,” Klobuchar said.

Lawmakers also pledged to remain vigilant for any attempt to sneak the composite bill through the lame-duck Congress.

A day before the forum, Franken sent a letter to leaders of both parties in the House and Senate urging that any pension legislation “be carefully considered and debated openly and honestly, not enacted at the last minute with little debate, few hearings and no opportunity to offer amendments.”

Franken also offered a potential tool for the Pensions Benefit Guarantee Corporation to help struggling pensions, like the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund, meet their obligations: closing a tax loophole on carried interest – a provision of the tax code exploited only by “the top one-tenth of the 1 percent,” Franken said.

Regardless of how it happens, Curry Thompson said, Congress can’t afford to let pension funds leave retirees high and dry. The economic fallout of pension failure makes retirees “too big to fail.”

“As politically unpopular as it is, what is really needed is a … public solution,” Curry Thompson said, noting that pensioners spend money, pay taxes and contribute to economic growth. “I’ll call it what it is. You need a bailout.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Bill Moore: Finding motivation for Labor 2016

August 18, 2016 by

web.postalservice-billI’m not much into political candidates. Maybe it’s because I was born in Chicago, where the party was the important thing. I was living in Illinois the first year I could vote. I just pulled the lever at the top for the Democratic ticket.

In 1967 and early ’68, I volunteered for Gene McCarthy’s presidential campaign, organizing precinct caucus turnout in Dubuque. I liked McCarthy, and when Hubert Humphrey temporized on the war and McCarthy withheld his half-hearted endorsement ‘til just a week before the election, I was bitter and voted for the Socialist Worker candidate. A year or so later, a friend ran for County Attorney in Dubuque and I worked for his election, not just because he’d been a McCarthy activist, but because I knew him and his family and liked them a lot.

Since then, I’ve worked on many campaigns, but, with the exception of Paul Wellstone, haven’t felt much of a personal connection with candidates.  It’s their records I’ve cared about – that they’ve worked for peace and justice and taken practical, positive action on labor issues. A good friend has berated me for years, saying that’s pretty abstract and not enough for most people. Personalities are important in politics, he insists. Most people vote, not for platforms or policies, but for other people they like and feel good about.

He’s probably right. But what happens when none of the candidates are particularly likeable and the airwaves and mailboxes are crammed with repulsively negative political advertising? Will voters, then, give greater weight to their own values and issues and base their choice more on parties’ and candidates’ records than on personalities? Or will they just tune out and stay home?

We’ll find out soon enough. But I don’t think, as trade unionists – even retired and tired ones – that we want simply to wait in front of our TVs for the outcome.

The Minnesota Labor 2016 program aims specifically to get labor voters talking about what’s important to them, and thinking about what party and which candidates are most likely to address their concerns in a constructive way. Hopefully, this approach will encourage union households to stay engaged and turn out for working family candidates on Election Day.

But that won’t happen unless each of us turns out, in the coming weeks, to make phone calls, write postcards and visit union households (hips and knees permitting). There are tens of thousands of people to communicate with, one-on-one. And it’s our challenge – and privilege – to reach as many as we possibly can.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

I’ve taped this message to the bathroom mirror: “November 8th is coming – What will I do today to turn out the labor vote?”

– Bill Moore is president of the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO. He originally wrote this column for the council’s newsletter, the Retiree Bulletin. You can help turn out the labor vote in 2016 at an upcoming Labor 2016 Day of Action.

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Retirees using education to debunk Social Security, Medicare myths

May 11, 2016 by
The Retiree Council's Tom Beer distributed information during a presentation on Social Security in Fridley, hosted by Congressman Keith Ellison's office.

The Retiree Council’s Tom Beer distributed information during a presentation on Social Security in Fridley, hosted by Congressman Keith Ellison’s office.

Looking to combat popular myths and widespread misinformation surrounding Social Security and Medicare, the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, is bringing a presentation on the federal safety-net programs to churches, union halls and civic centers across the state this election year.

Tom Beer, president of the retiree council in Minneapolis, said the presentations are designed to generate discussion about the value of Social Security and Medicare and to “give people a sense of optimism that these programs, which are so essential, can be improved and protected and maintained.”

Beer gave the presentation at a senior citizen forum Monday at the Fridley Community Center. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison’s office hosted the forum, although the congressman was too sick to attend.

The program debunked several myths: that the Social Security Trust fund is going broke, that Congress is using it as a checkbook and that privatizing Medicare would cut costs and improve service.

The facts, Beer said, are that Social Security is fully funded for the next 15 years, and turning Medicare into a voucher system would “only make it less available, more costly and less likely to solve our general health care and medical delivery problems.”

To extend the solvency of Social Security without cutting benefits, retirees advocate for “scrapping” the payroll-tax cap that shields income earned above a designated amount – currently $118,500 – from Social Security deductions.

“Then you’ve got a system that is not only fully funded into the foreseeable future, but you could improve benefits,” Beer said.

The Retiree Council’s presentation can run 15, 30 or 60 minutes, depending on audience preference. To arrange a presentation for your group, contact the council at 651-227-7647 or 1-800-652-9004.

Learn more about the retiree council, an umbrella organization of union retiree clubs and local unions with retirees, at www.mnaflcio.org/state-retiree-council.

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