No More Concessions

Jul 18, 2011

Michigan Governor Snyder says he wants state workers to give up concessions of up to $6000 per employee. To put it more accurately, he wants more concessions on top of previous concessions.

Here is a partial list.

Since 1991, the pay of state workers has been going down, indexed for inflation.

On top of unpaid furlough days in 2004 and 2009, state employees were forced to “work for free” a number of hours each month for three years. They were “promised” they would be paid back at retirement–a promise no one believes.

In 1997, Michigan became the first state to end defined benefit pensions for new hires. This adds up to billions lost to workers since 1997.

Since 2007 workers have been paying $1000 more a year for health insurance and recent new hires pay two or three times this amount.

This is outrageous! The state is not broke. The state gave billions away to corporations.

And now the state legislature is debating a series of bills that–if passed–would eliminate retiree healthcare for anyone hired after March 31, 1997. In order to give more money to the corporations!

Guaranteed healthcare would be “replaced” with a woefully underfunded sham called a Health Savings Account.

It’s for these reasons and more that the Coalition of State Employee Unions are rallying on Monday, July 25^th, at noon at Cadillac Place in Detroit (3040 W. Grand Blvd.) to send a message that workers have sacrificed enough already!