DMAL Retiree Chapter Charter is Presented!

At the 2014 APWU National Convention held in Chicago, IL, the Denver Metro Area Local Retiree Chapter was presented with its official Charter.  DMAL Human Relations Director Phil Desautels is presented with the certificate by APWU Retiree Director Judy Beard and a fellow retiree. 

                                         July 16, 2014

YOUR RETIREE CHAPTER NEEDS YOU!!

We are under attack.  We may not have to worry about our jobs but what about Social Security, your pension and Medicare.  What about your children and grandchildren’s future?

We are in a unique situation as we are no longer under the Hatch Act.  We, as retirees, have regained our voice and now is the time to use it.  Help us get the word out please.  At our next meeting on August 23, 2014 at 10:00 am, we will be getting organized for the next election.  We will need walkers, phone bankers, writers etc.

We can no longer stand idly by and watch big money control our lives and our politics.  Please come to our next meeting and help with our effort to bring democracy and equality back to the USA and save the middle class.  In the meantime, I challenge you to spend 2 hours to help a candidate with our views.  They will be grateful and you will have made a difference in our world.

                                                                       Yours in Solidarity,

                                                                       Marty Wisniewski, Legislative Director

                                                                       DMAL Retiree Chapter

MW/jd

opeiu #30

afl-cio

ARE YOU TOO OLD TO FIGHT????

by Paul J. Mendrick, President DMAL Retiree Chapter                        

Workers have been taking it on the chin for the past 40 years.  Wages are stagnant and profits are up.  CEO pay is 367 times greater than worker pay.  Whereas 40 years ago, it was only 35 times greater.  With the inception of the Wal-Mart business model, we find our great nation in a race to the bottom.  If that were not enough, add in the so called Trade Treaties – NAFTA – CAFTA and you will soon understand that workers in the USA have been beat on to the point that there isn’t much more to give.

So the question becomes; who will be the next group of people to be attacked?  The answer is simple: THE SENIORS – THE CURRENT AND FUTURE RETIREES of this country.

Who will fight for the retirees?  Unions have their hands full just treading water – trying to keep the status quo.  Are they equipped to put the retiree’s needs on the same priority as the needs of their current workers? Retirees cannot take the chance that we will become irrelevant.  If we chose to become lesser in our society – shame on us.

There are many effective senior organizations that work diligently on insuring that the rights and dignity of senior citizens are maintained. Some of those organizations are:  AARP, NARFE and CARA.  Our union – the APWU has an outstanding National Retiree Organization but like every National Organization, it can only be strong if there are local organizations supporting their efforts.  For that reason, we have begun the process of forming our own chapter   We have had preliminary meetings and have adopted a governing document.  We recognize that together we are stronger and that when we have a common goal, we can make our unified voices heard.

We are in the building stages - there is a lot of work to be done, so it will take a while to get organized.  We are committed to forming an active, vibrant organization that will fight to insure that seniors and retirees aren’t the next group to be attacked.

The Denver Metro APWU Retiree’s Chapter will have meetings, we will develop a working relationship with APWU Locals and other retiree organizations, to make our voice  stronger and louder to insure that retirees are not the next to be attacked.

If you’re looking for a good fight contact Paul J. Mendrick at pauljmendrick@msn.com.  We will be looking forward to building a strong retiree’s organization that includes advocacy, education and socialization.

PJM/jd

opeiu #30

afl-cio

Retirees Targeted for Austerity

By Scott Morrow, Retiree Chapter Chairperson

Since the Reagan Administration, workers have been targeted for austerity.  Under that President’s all-out war on workers, starting with his broken promises to PATCO, wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years.  Unions have been decimated with trickledown or voodoo economics to the point that union membership fell from 24.1% of the U.S. work force in 1979 to 13.9% in 1998.  This decline has continued to today with the Bureau of Labor.  Statistics reporting only 11.3% of Americans enjoy a Union at work as of January 23^rd.

Most of these Union jobs were in the public sector while in private industries we have dropped to less than seven percent of jobs being Union!  You should all be aware that many states have passed legislation to ban public workers from being able to have a Union shop, thereby reducing how many workers can enjoy Union representation at work even more.

In addition to keeping workers in low paying dictatorial jobs, this trend reduces the Union’s role in getting out the vote and lobbying for worker friendly legislation.  For APWU workers, our Union has done an amazing job of keeping your pay and benefits above inflation so that you are one of the few making a livable wage; but what about when you retire?  Will your annuity and/or social security keep up with inflation?

In 1983, several laws were passed raising taxes, raising the retirement age, taxing retirement income and most notoriously, the windfall elimination provision that adversely affects most of our Postal Retirees to this day.

Sadly, with the current CPI-W (Consumer Price Index for Urban Workers) formula, most retired workers’ income rarely keeps up with inflation.  CPI-W is used to calculate COLA’s for both Social Security and Federal Retirement Systems.  Here is a breakdown of how this is calculated;

Housing: 41.4%, Food and Beverage: 17.4%, Transport: 17.0%, Medical Care: 6.9%, Other: 6.9%, Apparel: 6.0%, Entertainment: 4.4%.

A typical breakdown of what retired workers spend their retirement checks on would have medical care at the top with food and “other” (like heating bills) closely behind.  Many retired workers are not in the market for housing as they have paid off their home or may live in low-income housing units.  As you can see, their COLA is based on the stuff they no longer spend for because they no longer work, and “shorts” the spending areas they rely on to survive.  The CPI-W calculates retirees’ COLAs on an upside down or backwards basis instead of an actual spending basis.

That is NOT all!  There are numerous plans in Congress to reduce social security

payments, increase Medicare premiums and deductibles, raise the eligibility ages for retirement and social security, just to name a few.  Those of you who are retired know this, while those of you getting close to retirement may not.  These austerity measures affect all of us…our parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, even our children.

The most disturbing issue right now on the table with Congress and the President is called “chained CPI”.  The chained CPI is usually 0.25 to 0.30 percentage points lower each year, on average, than the standard CPI measurements, and almost completely eliminates medical cost inflation. 

Let’s sum up here;

• unions are decimated
• workers haven’t had a raise in over 30 years
• the retirement age needs to be raised
• retirees haven’t kept up with inflation for the past 30 years
• now we are going to reduce COLA’s even further for retirees while we increase their medical costs?

Hope you can recognize the warning signs.  Get active NOW!

SM/jd  opeiu #30  afl-cio