Public Employee Press

Public workers are not the culprits

By DENIS HUGHES

BLAMING NEW YORK'S fiscal ills on public employees is like believing that Spot found little Bobby's homework edible. Where does responsibility and accountability truly lie?

Attacks on public-sector workers have become pervasive. Critics rant that public-employee pensions have caused irreparable harm to our city and state economies, while accusing public servants of not "sacrificing enough" to help restore fiscal stability.

The fact is, reckless mortgage practices combined with too little transparency and oversight in critical sectors of our economy caused this historic downturn - certainly not working men and women. Rampant greed created the problems our economy faces today and led to the financial ruin of many in the private sector as their hard-earned pensions vanished and their 401(k)s plummeted in value.

Now the critics have set their sights on the few remaining workers who do have decent benefits. This race-to-thebottom mentality is wrongheaded, shortsighted and bad economic policy.

Instead of trying to destroy the remaining sector of our economy that provides decent benefits and pitting sectors of the American workforce against one another, we need to find ways to restore retirement security to private-sector workers.

Government employees, like everyone else, are outraged at the occasional story of a public pensioner who abused the system to get an exorbitant pension. However, the reality is that the vast majority of public retirees get by on pensions of less than $20,000 per year, a modest benefit that meets only their basic needs. Calls for lesser benefits are disingenuous.

In effect, pensions are deferred wages. Workers contribute part of their salaries to fund their pensions.

There is a myth that public employees have not made the same sacrifices as other members of the workforce. Unfortunately, public employees, like all New Yorkers, have seen their transit fares rise, have been forced to pay higher college tuitions, and have had their assets significantly devalued.

The many deaths of Firefighters, Police and EMS workers on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the continuing deaths of these heroic first-responders in the years since then, should provide something to think about for those who feel public employees haven't sacrificed enough.



Denis Hughes is president of the 2.5 million-member New York State AFL-CIO.