I have been a member of AFSCME for about 30 years, and during that time, I've been one of those evil union "thugs" or activists...you know the type...we protect other workers, we speak to power, we try to get the other side to understand our side...and we figure out what's most important to our members. Yes, our local members. I was elected at my workplace to represent workers' best interests, I served on negotiating committees, steward committees, some committees for parties! We believed that one of the largest tools management used against us was that all the dues were spent on the few bad pennies...so we made sure that our members had an annual picnic, easter egg hunt(done with help from management) and a holiday money order for groceries...or whatever...and we made sure we were there when there was trouble.
See, I worked at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois--male maximum security prison. During the time I worked, there were 3 employees that were murdered, 1 employee raped and countless others that were hurt. It does take a certain type of person to work corrections, and some of my ramblings would be specific to corrections, but I knew that no matter what, my Union would protect me. And I would support AFSCME. As I said, I was an activist and I knew that I was a "big fish in a little pond" because of that, not that management held that against me, but I never allowed it to go to my head. I had transferred to one of the youth facilities in 2001--wanted a change of pace, but it was still covered by AFSCME. I thought that I could just quietly wait for retirement, but no...again, I became involved in the local union.
We had negotiated early retirement for Corrections, among others due to the higher rate of emotional/health/famial problems that come with that type of career. AFSCME did the surveys, they protected the members, they set up the Personal Support Program and negotiated with the state about an Employee Assistance Program...which was turned over to AFSCME, basically because the State couldn't fund their program...Again AFSCME took care of its members. I retired, at age 50, in 2007 and within a month was involved with AFSCME Retirees.
I worked hard for 28 years. I gave up pay raises, language, etc. for my pension. I paid up to 9% of my salary(along with the 7% or so for social security) for my pension. And now? I'm told that I'M THE PROBLEM. My state senator(that was appointed by republicant party) Ron Sandick has said that he feels the pensions can be broken, his quote was, " When I meet retired police and firefighters, I thank them for their service, but tell them I shouldn't have to pay to keep them on the dole."! This from a man whose salary is the highest salary in the nation for legislatures! Seems pretty ironic that one of the few things that we rank #1 in is legislature's salaries...our pensions are under the mean.
State retirees average pension is $24,000, university retirees make about $28,000--and these figures include those "6 figure pension benefits" that the Chicago Tribune likes to scream about...but they don't worry about my members....I am now the President of the AFSCME Retiree Sub Chapter for DuPage County, where some of my members have a pension of less than $700 to live on--and a couple of them who make under $1000 a month are not coordinated with Social Security which means they not only pay for their bills, they pay for their Medicare. That's it....$12,000 a year or less...for 30+ years of service. And the Chamber of Commerce wants to cut that???? Where do they think 80 year old people are gonna go? Yes, I'm young enough to find another job(if someone will hire me since I'm over 50), but I already have members that live at places like Old Country Buffet from morning to night because that way they can make sure they get at least 2 or 3 meals on their ticket--what a sad way to live...and a shameful way to force people to live.
