Page 828 - Pensions News Today

Saved. its going to be completely disconnected from any semblance of the normal mechanisms of democratic accountability. the bankruptcy court is not a democracy. it is a dictatorship by design. joining me now, lee saunders, president of the american federation of state, county and municipal employees. afscme, afl-cio union. lee, you registered your objections to the bankruptcy proceedings in court. what are your objections? >> well, first of all, we believe that the state and the city are actual...

Taking advantage, trying to gain more power and more wealth at the expense of working families. not only in detroit, across this country. but across this country. thats what weve got to get that word out. i mean, this is blatantly unfair. blatantly unfair when youre attacking pensions. when youre attacking health insurance. when youre attacking unions and attacking contracts. when, in fact, corporations in wall street are making billions and billions and billions of dollars at the expense of tho...

Saved. its going to be completely disconnected from any semblance of the normal mechanisms of democratic accountability. the bankruptcy court is not a democracy. it is a dictatorship by design. joining me now, lee saunders, president of the american federation of state, county and municipal employees. afscme, afl-cio union. lee, you registered your objections to the bankruptcy proceedings in court. what are your objections? >> well, first of all, we believe that the state and the city are actual...

Pension peril. >> reporter: many state and city workers around the country are worried what happened in detroit may happen to them. abru bankrupt city that starts cut pension benefits. >> theres a tendency to overpromise, underfund them, and when a problem comes up, the actuary says put in so much, theyre very ready to just defer that cost onto the next generation. >> reporter: some pensions have been improving, but a study found eight states have less than 60% of funds. illinois the worst at 45...

Average $19,000 a year. they gave their lives to public service in that city. working 30 and 35 years. $19,000 a year is not a lot of money. i couldnt live off of that. i dont believe you could live off of that. the banks definitely couldnt live off of that. the folks in corporations couldnt live off of that. yet we are attacking the people that serve the city well. and weve been interviewing these retirees across the city. you know what they tell us? they tell us that if their pensions are redu...

Its unconstitutional. so weve been in court. were going to remain in court. there will be hearings on this. there were hearings yesterday. and then the judge will decide sometime in october, i believe, whether we can stand our ground and say that its unconstitutional to attack the pensions in detroit. >> ive covered a number of bankruptcy disputes between labor and bankruptcy court judges in my time as a reporter, as a labor reporter, and let me give you the argument that you always hear from th...

To democratic operative mayor rahm emanuel from whom unions are more likely to accept bad news. >> theyre looking at a democratic office holder and saying i know you wouldnt be doing this to me if it wasnt absolutely necessary. >> reporter: not that that makes it any easier, and longer life spans means the problem will only get bigger. >> numbers get exponentially large and it exceeds the ability to pay. >> reporter: whatever happens in chicago and other states, theres a debate about how serious...

There will be hearings on this. there were hearings yesterday. and then the judge will decide sometime in october, i believe, whether we can stand our ground and say that its unconstitutional to attack the pensions in detroit. >> ive covered a number of bankruptcy disputes between labor and bankruptcy court judges in my time as a reporter, as a labor reporter, and let me give you the argument that you always hear from the other side. particularly from the bondholders in this case. look, any bank...

It is a dictatorship by design. joining me now, lee saunders, president of the american federation of state, county and municipal employees. afscme, afl-cio union. lee, you registered your objections to the bankruptcy proceedings in court. what are your objections? >> well, first of all, we believe that the state and the city are actually acting illegally by attacking the pensions of retirees who have worked for 30, 35, 40 years for the city of detroit. pensions are an obligation, and pensions a...

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