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AFSCME Comment Letter to DOL on Lifetime Income Illustration in Pension Benefit Statements (PDF)

"We believe it is essential for plan participants to understand the approximate level of lifetime income that would be provided in retirement based on their current account balance. It is also important that this information on a mandatory basis. AFSCME does not believe it is appropriate for benefit statements to anticipate future contributions to one's plan."

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Statement by AFSCME President on State Court's Ruling that Detroit Bankruptcy is Illegal

"There is too much at stake to play political games with the hard earned retirement security of Detroit's public workers. These retirees worked hard and played by the rules. The average general city employee pension is less than $18,000 per year[.]"  MORE >>

AFSCME Preparing to Respond to Pressure for Pension Accrual Reductions

"Lee Saunders, the newly elected president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees [AFSCME], said Thursday that one of his top priorities is to encourage a discussion about 'the pension issue' unions are battling. Mr. Saunders and other labor officials are at odds with many GOP lawmakers -- and some Democrats -- who want to balance state budgets by cutting union members' pension benefits. A discussion of this 'tough issue' could help AFSCME counter the cuts and educate the public, Mr. Saunders said."  MORE >>

AFSCME Plan Files 21 Shareholder Proposals

The plan proposals are designed to protect and enhance the economic value of its long-term investments. They would require greater director accountability, independent corporate board leadership and greater transparency in the companies in which the plan invests.

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Arbitrator Rules for Iowa State Employees on Health Care

"An arbitrator empowered to determine a contract impasse between the State of Iowa and its 19,000 state and judicial branch employees ... accepted the union's health insurance proposal requiring the overwhelming majority of the state and judicial branch employees to pay a $20 monthly healthcare premium.... The health insurance issue was a major sticking point in reaching a new two-year collective bargaining pact, with Governor Branstad's negotiators unsuccessfully seeking a 10 percent employee premium payment for AFSCME members in 2016 and 15 percent in 2017."

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District Court Rejects Union's Challenge to CalPERS Amendment Increasing Retirement Age

"The case goes back to the Golden State's budget crisis in 2013, when lawmakers passed a law that raised the retirement age to 62 for its state workers' pension plan CalPERS... The union said the change violated the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution by retroactively impairing the union's contract rights and sued CalPERS, Gov. Jerry Brown and other state administrators. In her ruling for summary judgment in favor of the state, U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman found the change to the contract was legal." [Local 101 AFSCME v. Brown, No. 14-5640 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 16, 2017)]  MORE >>

For Younger Workers, Creeping Doubts About Retirement

"Many employers would like us to believe that pensions are for a bygone generation. They say young people crave the flexibility of a 401(k), taking it with them as they move from job to job. In fact, the opposite is true. Only 17 percent of workers under 40 say they like their company's 401(k) plan, according to a 2011 survey ... And in a 2013 study ... 95 percent of millennials agreed the retirement system needs repair, with 84 percent in support of a new pension system."

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Rhode Island, Unions Reach New Deal to Settle Pension Suit

"A version of the state's final offer circulating among state employees showed the new settlement would largely mirror the one that was rejected last year ... The board of AFSCME Council 94, the largest state employee union, voted unanimously Tuesday to endorse the proposed settlement... Council 94 President J. Michael Downey confirmed that the proposal would alter the retirement age and COLA provisions of the failed 2014 settlement."

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Chicago Unions Plan to File Lawsuit Challenging Pension Reform Law

"Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME 31, which represents thousands of city employees, said a coalition of labor groups was preparing a lawsuit to challenge the city's pension reform plan.... 'The problem in the retirement systems is not the cost of the benefit. The problem is the city's failure over decades to pay a responsible actuarially-based share of the contributions,' he said."  MORE >>

Illinois Union Leaders Bash Pension Reform Proposal

"AFSCME's [Anders] Lindall said the cuts to the COLA would reduce the total value of a typical retiree's pension payments by some 30 percent over 25 years of retirement. Union leaders had questions about some aspects of the deal, including a provision to prohibit collective bargaining on most 'pension matters.'"  MORE >>

Detroit Bankruptcy Case Heads to Wednesday Hearing on Challenges

"Concerned that retirement benefits will be slashed, Detroit retirees, workers and pension funds have filed three lawsuits ... 'Not once, did [Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's] representatives sit down and seek to negotiate a solution with our union,' Steven Kreisberg, national director for collective bargaining for AFSCME, [said]. 'Our members and our retirees were never given the opportunity to address the serious issues of the type of cutback that the emergency manager is seeking[.]'"  MORE >>

California Interpreters Push State for More Trained Healthcare Interpreters

"During the next five years, with the implementation of health care reform, more than 3 million Californians will require language assistance in health care. By state and federal law, these Californians must have access to translating services. And yet, the state does not yet have a clear plan for how a rapidly growing number of patients will access the care to which they are entitled and need."

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In Little Rock, Protecting Retirement Security through a Pension

"At a time when many American workers are headed toward retirement insecurity because of a right-wing attack on traditional pensions, the city of Little Rock, Ark., is trying to do right by its public service workers.... Under the proposed system -- which would go into effect next January for current and future employees -- workers will make a contribution to their retirement fund of 4.5 percent of their pay, up from the current 3.5 percent. The city would contribute 9 percent, up from 7 percent.... [T]he consultant said this will actually be cheaper for the city than requiring employees [to] join the state's [defined contribution] retirement system."

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Video: National Public Pension Coalition's Briefing on America's Public Pension Systems

"The NPCC is comprised of the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), the National Education Association and the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS). The Coalition engages in state-based activities in support of public employee defined benefit pension systems."  MORE >>

Florida's Pension System: A 'Ticking Time Bomb' As New Governor Says, or Rock Solid?

'Florida is not California. Florida is not Illinois,' said Doug Martin, legislative director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union. 'Florida has one of the best retirement systems in the country.'

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Pension Funds Playing Politics

Excerpt: In the wake of the shareholder revolt at Disney, some of the big institutional investors are feeling their oats. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and other union pension funds sponsored almost half the shareholder proposals on proxy statements during this annual meeting cycle.

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New Book, 'Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation,' Exposes Power of Unions

"The inability of politicians to restrain their spending of taxpayer dollars is the direct result of the forceful application of political power. And, in California, there are no greater political influences than the public employee unions. Between the most powerful unions -- reflected in the alphabet soup of acronyms CTA, SEIU, CCPOA & AFSCME -- they are able to force the legislators whom they placed into power (many union leaders themselves) to maintain a high level of government largess. Even liberal Democratic leader Bill Lockyer, now state Treasurer, publicly scolded a legislative committee saying they were incapable of reforms because of who put them in power. It is in this context that Steven Greenhut has just released his book, aptly titled Plunder! How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation. Readers who have high blood pressure are advised to take a double dose of medication before opening this book. For the vast majority of ordinary citizens who toil in the private sector, this book will produce more than outrage -- it is likely to spur many to take up the cause of stopping these corrupting influences on our systems of governance."  MORE >>