Public Employee Press

Big turnout at retirees' educational conference

The retirement security of tens of millions of Americans will be destroyed if right-wingers succeed in undermining public employee unions and slashing funding for government services.

At the DC 37 Retirees Association's eighth annual education conference on April 16, some 250 veteran activists learned how a coalition of conservative politicians, "deficit hawks" and Tea Party supporters have joined forces to gut Social Security and Medicare.

The theme of the conference, coordinated by Retirees President Stuart Leibowitz and Executive Vice President Audrey Iszard, was "Wisconsin: Can it Happen Here?"

Lee Saunders, secretary-treasurer of DC 37's parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees told participants the assaults on collective bargaining in Wisconsin and other states threaten the future of DC 37 and AFSCME - and the American dream itself.

While the attacks are not as intense in New York as in Wisconsin and other states where governors are trying to strip public employees' collective bargaining rights, speakers warned that public workers and retirees here face a similar campaign to weaken their workplace protections, benefits and pensions.

"We worked 20, 25 and 30 years for the public and saved for our old age," Leibowitz said. "We didn't want to depend on our kids to support us and be absurdly penalized for doing what we were supposed to do."

AFSCME Legislation Director Chuck Loveless blasted the Republican plan to defund Medicaid and privatize Medicare, sticking Americans now under 55 with an additional $7,000 annual cost for Medicare coverage.

Loveless appeared on a panel on federal issues with Congress members Yvette D. Clark and Jerrold Nadler and Suleika Cabrera Drinane, who heads the Institute for the Puerto Rican/ Hispanic Elderly.

On a panel about state and local issues, James Parrott, chief economist of the Fiscal Policy Institute, said public employee unions and government are being scrapegoated for an economic crisis caused by Wall Street. The other panelists included State Sen. Diane Savino, City Council member Charles Baron and Richard Steier, editor of the Chief-Leader, the civil service newspaper.

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts urged the activists to get involved in the union's fightback campaign. She said the union's June 14 protest would send a powerful message that working families won't take the vicious assault on their wages, pensions and benefits lying down.