Retirement Security: Blog
50 Years Later, Still Fighting for Equality
March 2, 2012
Dr. L. Toni Lewis, geriatrician and Healthcare Chair of SEIU, recently wrote an op-ed on the fight for income equality and retirement security among the African American community. We wanted to share the beginning of it with you here, and encourage you click through to read the entire piece at The Root.
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Retirement Security Crisis Must Be Addressed for Minority Workers
February 22, 2012
Dr. L. Toni Lewis, geriatrician and Healthcare Chair of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), issued the following statement today in response to the University of California Berkeley Labor Center's new report "Black and Latino Retirement (In)Security" revealing minority workers are more likely to live in poverty as retirees.
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The Golden Years: One Step Forward or Several Steps Back?
February 21, 2012
While African American workers finally saw a drop in the unemployment rate last month, many still have a reason to be concerned about their economic future -- including the possibility of retiring in poverty after a lifetime of work.
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Workers Putting In More, Earning Less from Risky Retirement Plans
February 16, 2012
New reports show that while workers put more money into their 401(k)s last year, many people didn't reap the anticipated rewards.
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The Retirement Security Crisis in Black America
February 7, 2012
As we reflect on the historical contributions of African Americans during Black History Month, we also acknowledge that many of our Civil Rights leaders are now facing another struggle for economic equality as retirees.
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SEIU: Traditional Pensions, Not Cuts, Help States Save Money
February 1, 2012
Eileen Kirlin, Executive Vice President of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union, issued the following statement in response to new findings released today by the Center for American Progress that reveal modest reforms to traditional defined-benefit pension systems, rather than complete overhauls, are the most cost effective option for taxpayers.
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California State Workers Want to Retire With Dignity
October 27, 2011
On Wednesday, the California State-Assembly Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions met at the City of Carson council chambers to discuss public pensions in advance of Governor Jerry Brown's proposal for reform. As a member of Californians for Retirement Security, Jesus E. Hernandez urged the Committee to remember workers like him when considering pension fixes and reforms.
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The Retirement Security Challenge in the New Age of Insecure Retirement
October 12, 2011
If California is any example for the rest of the country, a secure retirement is becoming much harder to attain for the average American. As corporations and government move more economic risk onto the backs of American families, middle class and low-income workers are struggling to keep afloat leading up to and during retirement.
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Another Reason for our Stalled Economy: Retirement Insecurity
September 30, 2011
Could the private sector's lack of pensions be hurting the economy? A lack of secure retirement means many Americans aren't spending their money, and others are forced to rely on taxpayer-funded services just to survive.
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California to Invest $800 Million in Infrastructure Through Public Pension Funds
September 13, 2011
SEIU has long called for public infrastructure investments that could help create jobs and stimulate local economies, including using public pension assets to fund such projects. Now California, home of the nation's largest public pension fund, is seeking greater opportunities to spur economic growth by doing just that.
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Asking the Right Questions About Pension Reform
September 6, 2011
An article last week in the Sacramento News & Review takes a closer look at public pension woes in California and begs the question -- rather than choosing between a secure retirement for public workers or a fiscally sound state budget, shouldn't we be finding a way to accomplish both?
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Want to Boost the Economy? Don't Cut Pensions
July 22, 2011
If it were up to them, Republican lawmakers would have you believe that public pensions are bringing the country down, framing public employees as greedy Americans who retire into wealth on the backs of taxpayers. We've already addressed how these ideas are flat out wrong. Now recent reports argue an additional case for how public pensions benefit the country - by supporting not just retirees, but entire communities as well.
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Defending Public Pensions
July 6, 2011
If we don't start having serious, honest conversations about our retirement security systems, we could put future retirees at risk and left wondering why we ever attacked a retirement system that has adequately served millions of Americans for decades. So says a recent column featured at ABC News written by Earl Pomeroy, a former U.S. Representative from North Dakota, and Cathie G. Eitelberg, a Senior Vice President at The Segal Company and an expert in public pension design and finance.
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Speaking Out: The Good News About Public Pensions
June 23, 2011
Last week the Manteca Bulletin published a letter to the editor by California resident Kathy Souza, entitled "The good news about public pensions." That title may strike some readers by surprise, especially after hearing lawmakers rail against public pensions for months. But Kathy's letter not only highlights the growing recovery that public pensions have made nationwide, it also squashes the arguments being made that public employees would be better off with risky private-sector style retirement plans.
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The High Cost of Killing Public Pensions
June 13, 2011
The city of San Diego may want to get a head start on hiring this year. They may have trouble finding applicants after a new measure that Republican and business interests plan to place on next June's ballot, which seeks to get rid of the current traditional pension plans for new employees and stick them with a risky 401(k) style plan with no guarantee of an adequate retirement.
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Viewpoints: Pension 'reformers' distort facts on benefits
June 6, 2011
Martha Penry, a special education teacher's assistant in the Twin Rivers school district of Sacramento, California, recently had a column featured in The Sacramento Bee that addresses retirement security for public employees in California. Martha explains how proposals to overhaul California's public pension system will not fix the state's current budget shortfall, and may actually make fiscal problems worse.
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The Myth of the "Generous" Public Pension System
May 25, 2011
Can we put a moratorium on the use of the phrase "generous public pensions"? Lawmakers are using the phrase at every turn, implying that America's public employees are retiring in riches and burdening the economy. The former nurses, school employees, college professors and child protection workers who are currently averaging less than $23,000 a year in benefits would probably beg to differ.
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Banks, corporations and lawmakers' message to the middle class: 'Sacrifice your retirement security to clean up our mess'
May 6, 2011
As many states rush to balance their budgets and cut spending, some lawmakers have misdiagnosed the problem entirely. Instead of closing the tax loopholes that let profitable corporations and banks avoid paying their fair share, they'd rather place the blame for the budget crisis squarely on the middle class. As a result, public workers are now struggling to maintain their voice on the job and hold on to a secure retirement.
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