The Ideological Assault on Pensions

    There is an ideological drum beat underway that, to me, mirrors the relentless mantra we have endured about so-called "free trade" for the past three decades. This one goes like this: pensions are a thing of the past, and certainly no one should expect to get a real pension anymore--"real" being, in my humble opinion, a defined-benefit pension.

    In the same way that we have been told that the global economy has arrived and so, good folks, everyone has to embrace so-called "free trade" and get with the program, there is a persistent hum that companies are no longer capable of providing pensions for its workers, and certainly don't have any moral obligation to do so.

    Into this noise wades Roger Lowenstein in today's Sunday New York Times Magazine with a piece headlined, "We Regret To Inform You That You No Longer Have A Pension." (registration required) There are two themes to this piece. The first I have no particular quibble with: the factual recounting of the looming financial crisis facing private and public pensions (which I've talked about here many times, as well as over at TomPaine.com).

     The second theme is what isn't said: that the coming collapse of the private pension system has as a root cause the abdication of the corporate sector from any responsibility to people who toil for their companies. Lowenstein sets this up by painting the picture of the more "mobile" worker--a worker who does not stay at one company for an entire lifetime--as an inevitable economic developmental.

    In fact, the more "mobile" worker is an integral part of the stripping away of job security, which is not an economic fact, like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, but a consequence of the rules that have been set up. And our economy is now run on a set of rules that puts less and less responsibility on companies for the welfare of workers and more of the onus on workers--whether we're talking about pensions or health care. Ummmm...and there is very little focus in the piece on the vast riches being pulled down by executives, which come at the expense of part of the ability to fund rank-and-file workers' pensions.

    I'd also point out that Lowenstein makes no reference to the crisis in health care. The huge liabilities faced by companies because of our idiotic health care system adds significant financial pressures that cascades over to the willingness to fund pensions. It's not a one-to-one equation but an important factor.

Comments

[Bill Pearson]

Exceptional take on what has been the systematic dismantling of almost all of the entire collective process in this country. From it's earliest beginnings rooted in the 30's, this country began a journey where the growing middle class was emdedded in workers having good jobs with decent pay and benefits.

Much of that success was and is attributed to organized labor. Their efforts to force employers to be responsible corporate citizens was the reason workers wanted to be union or at least have their employers offer comparable employment packages.

So what happened? Is it because we became too political? Is it because we became business unionists? Is it because we tried to build fences around members and assumed we could insolate them? Probably all of the above, but it is yesterdays news.

Here is the real tragedy: They did it all without hardly a whimper from institutionalized labor. They were able to create buy-in from the masses while the leadership was busy trying to protect themselves from losing their own good deal. They thought their "partners" would never do it to THEM. Fools.

In the UFCW alone there are hundreds of retired union leaders drawing over $100,000 a year in pension benefits. How the hell do you fix that as members are beaten into submission every day they work? How do you overturn a structure that is imploding and members are paying more?

It's time in this country for a movement to emerge and challenge the bullshit sandwich working Americans are being force fed. It is time for anger and a volatile and energized rebirth; one where the basis has nothing to do with dues and everything to do with what is right and wrong. It's root has to be all about social and economic justice, and if the boys at the top can't divorce themselves from their own gluttonous ways, they need to get out of the way. More bandaids just won't get it done.

Start with health care; start with pensions; start with high gas prices; start with crappy wage jobs; start with bastard CEO's who are making hundreds of millions of dollars...but start somewhere. What the hell will it take for someone to put these issues front and center and go after the scumbags with baseball bats?

Thanks for continuing to put it out there JT, i'm just not convinced the union leadership is willing to put it all on the line and fight to the death...even though everyday we are slowly being marginalized, one worker at a time.

[Guillermo Perez]

Where's the AFL-CIO or CtW on this issue? This sounds like an ideal opportunity to demonstrate which of the two federations is most serious about addressing the needs of working people.

[Matt Noyes]

While the union officialdom may still be collaborating in the spirit of "jointness", there is movement among the rank-and-file.

In the previous (and ongoing) big episode of pension busting, the Teamsters leadership's concessions provoked a large and widespread response from rank-and-file members and local officials.

See for example the websites of the Central Pa Teamsters Reform Committee -- "As anyone involved with our pension fund knows, answers are VERY hard to come by. This is the way we (CPTRC) got started." http://www.saveourpension.org/newhomens.html -- and No Pension Freeze, the site of the The Central States Pension Improvement Committee "a group made up of rank and file Teamsters, both current and retired, who are concerned about recent actions by the Central States Pension Fund that jeopardize our retirement."

Delphi and the UAW leadership, may also face organized resistance, if Future of the Union is any indication. See the announcements for Delphi Rank-and-File meetings in Indiana and Michigan.

[John Taylor]

This is good stuff. That's what we need in the UAW a No Pension Freeze movement. Can't help, but thinking our asses really are next.