Only very rich individuals and big businesses gain from pitting worker against worker. A diversion tactic such interests have recently employed is to blame unions for the state deficits we are experiencing. A prime example of this twisted logic is the rhetoric of Justin Ruhge (“Public employee benefits are breaking taxpayers,” March 31). He claims public employees are breaking taxpayers because their incomes and benefits generally exceed those paid by the private sector for similar responsibilities.
His claim is statistically false. This year, Jeffrey H. Keefe, an associate professor of labor at Rutgers University, found “On average, full-time state and local employees are under-compensated by 3.7 percent, in comparison to otherwise similar private-sector workers. The public employee compensation penalty is smaller for local government employees (1.8 percent) than state government workers (7.6 percent).”
Ruhge asserts no one can control our powerful state unions. If that were the case, why did state employee unions recently go to the bargaining table and negotiate agreements that double worker benefit contributions to 10 percent of salary?
It is a frequent but false claim pension costs will bankrupt state government. In fact, according to research by SEIU Local 721, the entire cost of pensions for California state workers in 2011 will be $3.5 billion, barely 4 percent of an $85 billion budget. Add the obligations of California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the total isn’t even 6 percent of the budget. If we paid nothing whatsoever into public employee pensions and totally eliminated them, we would not come close to solving the budget deficit.
What created California’s deficit, and a drop in 2007 in the pension fund, was the greed of banks and investors (wealthy individuals and corporations), whom taxpayers have been bailing out ever since. Have we punished those who sank our financial boat? No, we grant such culprit huge companies as General Electric huge tax breaks. Banker misconduct is the reason for millions of foreclosures and the erosion of California’s tax base. But instead of calls for punitive actions against those bankers and their institutions, we hear a clamor to abolish state civil service unions. That’s a big disconnect, a “deficit” in understanding and honesty.
Here are some facts, as provided by SEIU Local 721, about the retirement benefits of California’s civil servants, which Ruhge ignored:
• Eighty percent of such public employees as nurses, school administrators and staff, college professors, and child-protection workers who retire receive less than $2,500 a month in retirement benefits.
• Nearly 80 cents of every dollar in benefits comes from workers’ contributions and investment earnings—not from taxpayer contributions.
• California pays less as a percentage of the state payroll today for pensions than it did in 1980.
• Unlike workers in the private sector, many public employees do not receive Social Security, making their pensions their sole source of retirement income beyond savings.
• For 70 years, public pensions have been the path to dignified retirement for those who devote their lives to public service.
Ruhge suggests we break the chain of benefits by eliminating all civil service unions. He fails to recognize suppressing wages and benefits for union workers would lead to the suppression in wages and benefits for non-union workers. There would be no minimum wage had unions not fought for it relentlessly.
Ruhge admonishes us to blame workers who have negotiated in good faith with their employers, but not the banks and corporations who avoid paying a fair share of the bill. That is because banks and corporations face no pressure to negotiate as do unions.
Are the police, fire fighters, and teachers guilty of greed and manipulation? Should we abolish their unions and take away their bargaining rights? No! We should create more unions for every profession until the day every worker can engage in collective bargaining. We all deserve a seat at the table when our salaries and benefits are on the line.
Gale McNeeley is a performer, theater instructor, and author of political satire. He lives in Santa Maria. Send comments via the opinion editor at econnolly@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 7-14, 2011.