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Tuesday,
August 31,2010
The New
Class War Is The Same As The Old Class War
By Sen.
Diane Savino; a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, is chair of
the Senate Civil Service Committee.
There is a class war brewing between the haves and the
have-nots. According to a recent column in the New York Times,
the "haves" are public-sector employees who enjoy "cadillac
pensions" and the "have-nots" are those in the private sector
who don’t. In recent months, right-wing think tanks and elected
officials have been beating the drum that the decent wages and
benefits that public employees enjoy are the cause of our
economic woes. News sources frequently cite accounts of
those scamming the system by earning two pensions or skirting
overtime rules. The perception is that most public employees
retire with $100,000 pensions, Page when 1 the truth is the
average pension is $33,000 a year.
Earlier this year, Massachusetts Senator Scott
Brown railed against public workers’ “lavish pay and benefits,”
even though, when education and experience are considered, they
earn on average slightly less than their private counterparts.
The GOP’s own political platform rejects any state bailout
unless the “wages and pensions of public sector employees are
brought into line.” With a 10-percent unemployment rate and a
desperate workforce who have seen dwindling wages and benefits,
one would think that public anger would be directed at those
that caused this mess to begin with. But, in an expert sleight
of hand, Wall Street executives are enjoying millions in
bonuses, while we are being asked to direct our anger at the
“greedy” sanitation workers and cops. Public employees have
become a convenient scapegoat to those who would rather distract
from the fact that corporations are enjoying record profits yet
are not creating any new jobs. Attacks on labor are nothing new,
however: with anxiety about the recession, it is easier than
ever to direct anger against those who have struggled to
maintain some semblance of middle-class life—all at the
“taxpayer’s expense.”
Americans are suffering “pension envy.” This is
not to dismiss the challenges that states face as they struggle
to meet financial obligations in light of stark budget
shortfalls. In New York, government pension contributions have
sharply risen, and alarmists warn the system will soon go
bankrupt unless we trim benefits. The truth is, of course, New
York’s pension system is solvent and fully funded. While it’s
true that contributions have risen, it is because, for years,
city and state governments relied on high-performing pension
funds to pay for their share of contributions. In fact, in 2000,
New York’s share dropped to zero. Public employees, however,
continued to pay into the system. The greed which led to the
collapse of Wall Street also led to the diminution of those
investment returns, thus forcing higher government funding. This
is not the fault of public employees.
The reality is, good pensions and retirement
security are good for the economy. The vast majority of
public-sector retirees remain in New York. They pay taxes, buy
products and support local businesses. The retirement
systems of our state are huge investors in private companies.
Where would these private-sector jobs be without these
investments?
Ultimately, however, this is not about pensions, it is about a
concerted effort to pit working families against one another.
After all, when corporations are wringing as much productivity
as possible from their workforce while slashing pay and
benefits, public-sector workers with decent wages and retirement
security are a glaring example of what is possible when workers
organize.
There is indeed a war going on, but the real war is against
the middle class. Rather than envying public-sector benefits, we
should be demanding the same for the entire workforce.
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