Average after-tax income

A good place to start

This article is as good a place as any to start the discussion regarding the recent attack on public employees.

JANUARY 24, 2011

Government Employees Are Not "Over-Compensated"
The War on Public Workers
by STEVE BREYMAN

Government worker bashing is nearing a crescendo as we stare into the abyss of American public finances. There’s nary a mayor, governor or president who hasn’t found his or her work force an irresistible target of criticism for "greedy unions," "extravagant benefits," "unaffordable pensions," and "shared sacrifice."

Why is this?

Are teachers, fire fighters, snowplow drivers, and environmental regulators really that well paid?

Do FBI agents, state troopers, and local cops really have "overly generous" health benefits? Do health care aides, prison guards, and those who protect our drinking water really have platinum-plated pensions?

To answer these questions we must do some comparisons and some contextualizing. There are countless tendentious manipulations of the private vs. public sector compensation data by corporate-backed think tankers out there. That’s what they get paid to do. Simply looking at public vs. private pay averages is deceptive.

Governments do not have many minimum-wage jobs, whereas the private sector offers at least 10 million of them. Government work forces tend to be older and better educated, and thus better paid.

The vast capital gains of America’s billionaires do not count as wages or benefits; this makes private sector compensation appear lower than it actually is.

The private sector generates temporary jobs that tend to be lower paid, part-time and without benefits (80 percent of the jobs created by the private sector in November are temporary). Governments generally produce positions that tend to be more secure, full time and with good benefits.

One study of federal government vs. private compensation for nearly 600 comparable positions found that civil servants make 20 percent more on average. But again, averages are often deceptive. Another study, which adjusted for the variables of age and education, found that pay for local and state jobs is about 7 percent lower than in the private sector. Government pay scales often are higher for lower skill jobs, but lower for higher skill jobs. Look at the pay for physicians, IT types, engineers, lawyers and other professionals in the public sector. It can be half or less of what one finds in the private sector.

This partly explains the "revolving door" of non-career government executives spending years in the private sector to make up for a comparably meager public paycheck.

But the ultimate test is individual. Do it yourself: go to http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ or http://www.cs.state.ny.us/ to see what the job most like yours pays.

As to public vs. private sector health benefits, the data are even trickier. There are no large, nationally representative databases. There’s no doubt that most small businesses do not offer health benefits as generous as those found in government, if any at all. But if you compare public employee benefits to those for staff at large corporations (500 or more employees), the benefits are nearly identical.

A fair comparison? You decide.

What about pensions? The fundamental issue is the difference between defined-benefit plans (prevalent in government jobs) and defined-contribution plans (e.g., a 401k, the standard in most of the private sector). The former promise a certain monthly pension check, the latter leave you at the mercy of Wall Street. Defined-benefit plans clearly cost employers more than defined-contribution plans. That explains why 85 percent of private-sector workers do not have them.

At the same time, about 30 percent of state and local workers do not receive Social Security retirement benefits. They see their defined-benefit plans as making up for that.

Is a guaranteed pension really too generous? Or should one’s old age security not be left to a rigged casino?
 
Today’s claims over what are fair or affordable public employee compensation packages must be seen in political-economic context. We’re in the midst of another jobless recovery. Despite record corporate profits, "American" companies are not hiring in America. Instead, they created 1.4 million jobs overseas last year. Gone are the days of life-long employment at a single firm with good pay, adequate benefits and a guaranteed pension. Welcome to the era of temporary, deskilled, part-time jobs with few benefits and a lousy pension. We’ve witnessed the deliberate restructuring of America’s private sector work force; government employees are next.

People are worried about holding onto jobs they hate. Almost every state’s budget is in crisis. The federal government is set to raise the debt ceiling again. Tax burdens grow much more often than they shrink even with cynical gimmicks like Obama’s one-year cut in the payroll tax that funds Social Security. We’re encouraged by much of the corporate media to resent the benefits of civil servants rather than the bonuses paid at Goldman Sachs. Decades of redistributive policies–forcing income from the bottom upwards–have fewer Americans eating more of the pie than ever before.

Elite interests allied with Andrew Cuomo set up The Committee to Save New York to press hard for givebacks, cuts, and other "reforms." Even with their strong unions, it will be very difficult for public sector employees to resist the current onslaught.

Let’s be clear now: beating up middle-class public servants will not slow the growing economic inequality underlying many of our present problems. Governments under the sway of powerful lobbies have avoided progressive taxes on all the income of their millionaires and billionaires for far too long. This is fair? "Shared sacrifice" begins when those at the top no longer pay lower tax rates than their secretaries.

STEVE BREYMAN is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Robinson Supports Firefighters Pension

Local 341's endorsed candidate, Laurie Robinson (running for City Council At-Large-Five) was recently misquoted regarding her views on firefighter pensions in a local daily newspaper. To be clear, Laurie favors the current state controlled system because it is more stable and less susceptible to local politics. We thought it was important for you to hear her answer to our question during her screening with HPFFA Local 341. The question we asked was “Do you support local control of the pension or should it remain under state and firefighter control?” Click here for a video except of her screening interview.

Breaking News - It's All My Fault

I have a copy of a recent Letter to the Editor on my desk at the office and framed copy of the same letter in my home office. It is a litany of complaints about me and my leadership style. It is, for the most part, the illogical ramblings of a misanthrope. It summarizes some of the complaints I have heard that I am solely responsible for. To the best of my recollection these include: the nationwide increase in insurance premiums, the current collective bargaining agreement, the apathy of our membership, age discrimination, sex discrimination and the Great Recession. I’ve tried to explain all of this to my wife in a manner which advances the premise that a man with that much authority should get out of having to take out the trash, but so far she’s not buying it.

Member Tip: Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the existence of rights on a page somewhere means that you’ll always be able to count on those protections.  Rights that aren’t exercised can in fact disappear over time; you can lose what you don’t protect.

So you need to know where your rights come from, and how to use your union to protect them.  In practical terms, this means that when your employer breaks the rules, you need to make sure that your union knows about it.  A steward’s job is to be the “eyes and ears” of the union, but a steward can’t be everywhere at once, and that’s why individual members have the responsibility to alert the steward if they see a problem.  That way, the union/employer structures that are in place can be used to prevent changes for the worse in the day-to-day conditions of the workplace.

-- Adapted from The Union Members Complete Guide, by Michael Mauer

The Darkness

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness. Justice William Douglas

Building Trades Legislative Conference Opening Prayer

Brother Mike Cunningham of the Texas Building & Construction Trades Council offered a highly relevant excerpt from yesterday's opening prayer at the national Building & Construction Trades Department legislative conference. It's well worth the read:

Building Trades Legislative Conference:

Opening Prayer: April 4, 2011

Father Cletus Kiley

O God, your prophet Isaiah spoke your Word: "For Zion's sake I will not be silent,For Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet……"Like Isaiah this morning we must say we will not be silent.

We will not be quiet. Something has gone awry in this land. And guided by you, we must speak. We must act.

There was a time in this country when a man who worked hard could count on a fair day's pay. But not today!

There was a time in this country when, after a lifetime of hard work, a man could look forward to retirement. But not today!

There was a time in this country when we respected the women and men who worked in our schools, protected our cities, made our levels of government work. But not today!

Today somebody has changed the rules. And we will not be silent about it!

First came the Wall Street Gamblers who crippled our economy, gave themselves obscene bonuses and began the great Lie that those to blame were Labor unions and the Middle Class! This a Lie and we will not be silent about it!

When they couldn't fool us on that one, they blamed the immigrants, and pitted working people against each other trying to wreak havoc on a level playing field for workers.

When we saw that for what it is, they demonized our public sector unions. And we can only wonder, aren't our unions next?

Today they balance their budgets on the backs of the working class. Tax breaks go to the ultra wealthy. General Electric doesn't even pay a dime. They say our unions have too much voice in political life, but pretend that we don't see the hand of the Koch brothers and other billionaires underwriting their efforts.

O yes, Lord, something has gone terribly awry in the American House! But today we will not be silent about it!...

Sent from Jeff's iPhone

Fallen FF Memorial

My speech at the 2011 Houston Fallen Firefighter Memorial

To the families of our fallen, honored guests and friends… welcome and thank you for joining us today to be a part of our ceremony.

 I was once told by a priest that he learned everything he needed to know about public speaking from his father by the time he was ten years old. “My father wanted all us kids to be brief and be gone,” he said. So I’m taking that advice to heart today.  I will be brief and be gone and be followed by Fire Chief Terry Garrison.

As president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association I have the honor of speaking on behalf of nearly four thousand professional firefighters in the city of Houston.  That is a daunting task under the best circumstances.

Recent events have made that daunting task a difficult one, but don’t misunderstand me, I still regard it as an honor. 

It would be easy to focus on the challenges we face today and ignore everything else, but occasions like this one remind us we cannot do that. Houston’s firefighters face both a hostile political and a tough economic environment. It would be easy, as I said, but as I often tell my three kids easy is almost never synonymous with right.

And so for today we set aside those challenges before us for the righteous path of paying homage to our fallen brothers and sister. We do so not because it is our duty, we do so with honor.

As many of you know, I recently attended the Harvard Trade Union Program. There were students from various Labor organizations from all over the US, Canada, the UK, Japan and Australia.

One of my classmates was a scrappy Australian fellow named Chris Christodoulou. Between classes and in the evening Chris went about asking everyone in class to read a group of statements and choose the one that best described them. Well, Chris didn’t reveal why he was asking the questions until later. It turns out he is a poet and he had written a poem which corresponded with each of the statements we were to choose from. We were all given a copy of our selection.

There was only one other firefighter in class, Eddie Boles from the Uniformed Fire Officers of New York. Without knowing what the other had done, he and I both chose the following statement: “At least once a year I take time out to honor workers killed at work”. I think that selection by both of us speaks volumes about Labor leaders in the fire service.

You see, I believe our union is the foundation on which our brotherhood is built. More than a labor organization focused on wages and benefits, it is the repository of our organizational values. It is the place where beliefs like:

·        an injury to one is an injury to us all, AND

·        we leave no one behind, AND

·        we will never forget

 are born, breed and reinforced.

We have made a commitment and it will forever be honored. We will never forget.

You, the family members and friends, of our sister and brothers listed on this wall have given so much. You should know that we appreciate the sacrifice that your loved ones made and recognize the toll that it takes on you even today.  Thank you so much for all that you do and all that you’ve done to help us remember and honor our fallen comrades and thank you for coming out and sharing your time and memories with us. Thank you.

The Price of Silence in the Face of Injustice

First they came for the Communists,

  and I didn’t speak up,

    because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

  and I didn’t speak up,

    because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,

  and I didn’t speak up,

    because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,

  and by that time there was no one

    left to speak up for me.

This version of a well known poem by Rev. Martin Niemoller (taken from TIME Magazine, Aug 28, 1989) is one of many slightly different versions. The author of the poem is often not mentioned, but I think it is important to note the words come from a man who declared that he “would rather burn his church to the ground, than to preach the Nazi trinity of ‘race, blood, and soil.’”
Niemoller’s position in the church and influential friends protected him until 1937. Eventually, he was arrested for sedition. He was found guilty, but initially only given only a suspended sentence. He was almost immediately re-arrested on Hitler’s direct orders. From then until the end of World War II, he was held at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps where he narrowly escaped execution.

Jeff Caynon's HTUP Graduation Remarks

I am proud to offer a few words on behalf of the sisters and brothers of this, the one hundredth session of the Harvard Trade Union Program. Our class is most unique. We are a collection of leaders representing five nations including the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia and the United States.
We speak Spanish, French, Japanese and at least three different versions of English. As diverse as we are in nationality, we are equally so in race and gender. Despite our cultural differences we are unified in our pursuit of a better life for people who work and a better world for us all.
We, like our forbearers in the Labor movement, seek to better ourselves, our members and our world. When asked, “What does labor want?” American Federation of Labor founder Samuel Gompers famously said, “We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.” Gompers’ dream is still our dream today.
Massachusetts, it seems, is a good place for dreamers. I had the opportunity during my stay here to visit the library of a man celebrated for his dreams…  John F. Kennedy. I find it interesting that we started this session of the Trade Union Program on the week of the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s renowned “City on the Hill” speech.
At the time, President-elect Kennedy was set to leave his beloved home state of Massachusetts for the Oval office.
In his address he said, “For those to whom much is given, much is required… the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us–recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities…”
And so it is for us, the members of the Trade Union Program’s one hundredth class, at what may be the most pivotal time in the history of the Labor Movement we are presented with a challenge of epic proportions.
We have lived and worked together these past six weeks under the weight of that responsibility. We have shared our personal and professional stories of success and failure. We have studied and read together. We have broken bread and on rare occasion even raised a glass together. We have become friends, forged bonds and built solidarity which will extend beyond our time at Harvard.
Our instructors have given us foundation, framework and the tools necessary to go home to tackle the difficult task of elevating the material and moral condition of working people the world over.  
It is therefore apropos that I speak now for the class and offer our most sincere thank you to all of the instructors.
We want you to know that aside from merely a message to provide working people with access to a better life, you have inspired in us a dream. That dream has become our mandate.
It is to do better what unions have always done… build stronger, safer communities and as a consequence build a stronger, safer and more democratic world.

Fwd: Schaitberger on the Ed Show Vows to Fight the Battle

Fighting Back Against Unfair Political Attacks On radio and television, General President Harold Schaitberger has discussed the IAFF's new "Fighting Back" campaign to defend fire fighters and paramedics against politically-motivated attacks by public officials who are blaming fire fighters' wages, pensions and benefits for budget shortfalls. "This is an attack to try to take out America's Labor Movement," President Schaitberger said last week on Ed Schultz's nationally syndicated radio show. "All this is about trying to undermine the pensions, retirements and benefits that fire fighters have earned." Listen to the interview here.  Last night, Schaitberger appeared on Schultz's television show on MSNBC to reiterate the message that the assaults across the country on fire fighters' retirement benefits are driven by opportunists who want to use the recession as an excuse to skewer fire fighters' pensions with little regard for the truth. "Attacks on fire fighters' pensions are unwarranted and unfounded," he said. "It's a myth that so many of our pension plans are in drastic condition. The fact of the matter is that over 80 percent of public pension plans are 80 percent funded or better." Watch the Ed Show interview here. The IAFF launched its campaign earlier this month with a full-page ad in USA Today, followed by an ad in Politico to warn against Newt Gingrich's scheme to allow states to file for bankruptcy. These ads are available to IAFF affiliates to print as posters or for other uses in their own communities. In addition, a viral video produced by the IAFF has been viewed more than 60,000 times, and was featured on a Jacksonville, Florida news broadcast. This video is available for all IAFF affiliates to use in their local media markets. Some IAFF members have asked why the IAFF hasn't appeared on television networks like Fox News. The IAFF has reached out to political commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and other Fox journalists, but they have not expressed any interest in discussing this pension issue. In support of the IAFF, members are sending emails to political commentators like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. If you'd like to see the IAFF on these shows (see below), we encourage you to send emails as well.   Glenn Beck Sean Hannity Rush Limbaugh Bill O'Reilly Fox News Watch America's Newsroom "We need to make sure that the public has the facts," says Schaitberger. "We're going to fight the battle."   Click here to unsubscribe

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What Kind Of A World Do You Want To Live In?

A reoccurring conversation throughout the Harvard Trade Union Program has been about our desire to develop a theme around which the engines of the labor movement may be reignited. Last night I think I stumbled across that theme.

Every day we hear our political leaders say we have to cut spending to pay down the deficit. I think there is an argument that not only do we need to avoid cuts but, cutting in this economy is actually the wrong thing to do. Cuts most affect the people who need public services the most. Cutting spending has a disproportionate affect on the very old, very young and disadvantaged Americans. They would be subject to the foibles of the market.

I was in a conversation last night with the staff member of a conservative Congressman. He seemed apprehensive about funding two much needed firefighter staffing bills. I explained the importance of the bills to the smaller communities they would help and then I asked a simple question.

When people call for help and there is no one to come, what then? When all of the cuts are done and the public sector is gone, what do you think that world looks like? What kind of a world do you want to live in? That sounds like a dangerous world to me. It is a world without quality EMS and fire services. It is a world with inadequate police protection. It is a world without quality public education. It is a world without a social safety net. It is a Darwinian world where life is, in the words of Thomas Hobbes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. That is nightmare not the American Dream.

Prof. Noam Chomsky

Freedom is not free

We have had some profound discussions during the Harvard Trade Union Program. One recurring discussion has to do with the funding for public services. Somewhere along the way a narrative has been created to sell two ideas:

1.       Public services are free.

2.       Public services don’t work.

Do you think these statements are true? I don’t! In fact I know they aren’t true. I know, just like you do, that the government provides optimum fire protection, emergency medical services, police protection, libraries, parks, clean drinking water, highways and the finest military on earth.

So why do you think this narrative has been allowed to run?

Abundant snow and information

Well it’s official; this is the worst snow that anyone has seen at Harvard in five years. My classmates in the Trade Union Program attribute it to Fate’s effort to give us the truest appreciation of life in the land of the Nor’easter.

It is set to snow this week too; information which tends to run counter to what the locals describe as the “January thaw”. Since it has snowed at least once a week since we started, it seems only right.

We are half way through now with three more weeks to go. At times the flow of information has been akin to trying to drink water from a fire hose.  The oft told joke here is that the program coordinator ran into a former student from five years ago in the airport and he told her, “I’m just about finished with the reading from class.”

Snowman Cambridge Mass

Harvard Trade Union Program Week 1

10 -14 Jan 2011 Opening Week

A 05:00 wake up to be at the airport for a 07:30 flight which was, naturally, overbooked but (despite the counter clerk’s siren song offering money, lunch and future discount travel) I made it aboard for a slightly late departure.

My single serve friend (that’s the person you sit next to a on a plane, train or bus who you will never see again in your life thus “single serve” friend) was the mother of a Marine and the soon to be mother-in-law to a Navy helicopter pilot. She was going to New Hampshire for a funeral. We chatted and napped and read politely the entire uneventful flight.

When I got to Boston I took a cab to Cambridge (which in Houston terms is down the street). There was a kind of mad dash to get settled in before things kicked off the following day. I was signed in, got an apartment and an id card before walking around a bit in hopes of getting the lay of the land... Suffice it to say there’s more walking around in my future.

The class is made up of Labor leaders from Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and across the U.S. We have class daily. An assembly of  instructors from Harvard, MIT, and other Ivy League schools teach us various classes every day. There is an incredible amout of reading material. So far it's a thrilling experiance.