WE MUST LOOK BEYOND THE MASK WORN BY POLITICIANS
By William Wallace
As a retiree, I had the opportunity to represent IBEW 1245 at the Alliance for Retired Americans Conference in Washington D.C. It consisted of four days of high energy and new discoveries. I came away with a better understanding of the attacks against unions, working people and seniors. We are in a class war and the rich claim they are winning. American labor is at a decisive crossroads in which it must decide whether it will fight or slowly die.
William Wallace of San Jose is a member of the IBEW Local 1245 Retiree Club and a former member of the union’s Advisory Council.
The conference’s objectives were to educate seniors for the continuing fight to preserve Social Security and to stop the erosion of union rights. Improving seniors’ communication skills would allow them to get the truth to the media. Facebook, twitter and letters to the editor are effective and inexpensive means to tell personal stories about important senior issues.
Current legislators and candidates are telling us Social Security is a bankrupt ponzi scheme and “they” need to fix it. What’s to fix? Social Security, in its 75-year history, has never defaulted on a benefit check, never added a penny to the deficit and at the present time is good to go for 27 years. It has been the single greatest program our government has ever administered and we should be proud of this accomplishment. We cannot allow the false rhetoric claiming Social Security is bankrupt and needs fixing. As voters we must look beyond the mask wore by politicians.
The “Super Committee” is vested to resolve the deficit problem and comments have indicated Social Security could be on the chopping block. Far from contributing to the deficit, Social Security has actually forestalled deficit problems when legislators borrowed from the Trust Fund. Today, when legislators say Social Security is part of the deficit problem, they are saying they don’t want to repay the loan.
Medicare is the world’s largest healthcare system. Each year changes are made to the health plans. Information on plan changes were mailed to you Oct 1. To insure you obtain the plan that best meets your needs go to www.mymedicarematters.org and click on “guide to plan finder” to evaluate next year’s plans. Evaluate the plans based on your drug needs and the overall costs.
Labor leaders speaking at the conference emphasized that an active labor movement over many decades brought to the worker: pensions, Social Security, healthcare, Medicare, sick leave, vacations, holidays and most importantly, protection from an arbitrary dismissal.
Over the past few decades the labor movement has been losing ground, but recently a reawakening has occurred. Seniors need to be a part of this renaissance, not spectators. We the “senior” people, have the vote to keep America normal, sane and a great place to work. To accomplish this, we have to vote for people that will help, not hinder the labor movement. To succeed in strengthening the labor movement, we must all run the race and never back off.
Public sector employees are being aggressively attacked across the country. Over 900 pieces of legislation and initiatives are directed at public employee pensions and collective bargaining. “Right to work” laws are being vigorously pursued. “Paycheck Protection” initiatives, tailored after the California version, are being voted on in other states. Wealthy conservative foundations are providing the funding for these union-busting efforts. The rich are using the money gained through tax breaks to destroy the workers ability to negotiate, not to create jobs!
Seniors have a responsibility to teach union values to younger union members and insure that future generations have that which we were given. We need to emphasize that we are in a fight and soldiers are needed to preserve the union movement. We no longer have the luxury of sitting at home and “leaving the fight to the leaders.” We need to state our convictions, stand up for what we believe in and pass on this passion to others.
If we don’t fight for our convictions, we are deferring to our grand kids the fight to preserve union benefits. This would be similar to the actions of a former president that deferred his war debt to future generations and shackled our grandchildren with an oppressive debt. So don’t defer the fight. It would be “a shame on us” if we were to empty the labor union account by doing nothing.