nwr writes:
In most of the cases that I am aware of, the teachers union negotiated retirement benefits. They would have preferred a pay increase. They settled for retirement benefits, as a kind of delayed payment for their services.
If taxes are going up now to pay teachers retirement benefits, then blame the politicians. If the politicians had taken the money that they had saved by paying lower salary, and put that into an investment account, there would be no problem paying those retirement benefits.
The parallel scenario on the corporate side is even more despicable.
As a United Auto Workers member in the 1970s, I watched my union accept pension funding in lieu of pay increases.
The contributions required to fund those pensions were determined by law; however, in response to corporate lobbying, "temporary" shortfalls were allowed by Congressional action.
As a consequence, conservatives were able to point at fictitious labor costs based on theoretical pension contributions that the automakers were not, in fact, making.
Fast forward a few decades, and corporations throughout the U.S. are allowed, in bankruptcy court, simply to sever their pension agreements (and labor contracts in toto) or, alternatively, to abandon them to the federal insurance program.
Adding insult to injury, conservatives rail against government bailouts of the auto industry (caused primarily by mismanagement, e.g., failing to produce cars people actually wanted) because they did not
hurt workers enough in pay and pension terms.
Conservatives blame worker interest-protecting unions for the noncompetitive nature of U.S. industries. In truth, the unions for the most part failed miserably to even enforce corporate contractual obligations.
Now we have most working people relying on 401(k)s and Social Security, the former woefully inadequate and the latter under assault by conservatives. Teachers and government workers, among the last few to enjoy traditional pensions, are demonized as thugs and leeches. Meanwhile, Romney stuffs his tax-protected IRA (enacted to encourage the working/middle classes to save for retirement) with more than $100,000,000.
I progress through my seventh decade at a loss to understand why we aren't all taking to the streets.
Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.
"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."