All this arguing back and forth about who is to blame for giving away our lifetime benefits is a waste of time.
We don’t have benefits for life, and, as explained more eloquently by Rudy Rubio, we never have had health and welfare benefits for life.
If PMA disbanded at the end of this contract, we would have our pensions because our pension is funded (the money is there to pay for it).
If PMA disbanded at the end of this contract, our health benefits would expire in 3 or 4 months because the health and welfare plan is a pay-as-you-go plan. If PMA stopped paying, the money would run out.
So what choice for President?
We can vote for a candidate who wants to spend $5,000,000 to get the benefits for life language put back in the health and welfare plan. That language, without funding, is an empty promise to both active and retired members, therefore it’s a proposal to waste $5,000,000 of our hard earned dollars.
Or we can vote for a candidate who signed the 26th amendment to the pension plan (without notification to the members). Such amendment, as has been much discussed on this site, has saved the employer over $300,000,000 in the past few years. Yes our pension plan is fully funded, and these contributions were not needed to keep the plan funded, but what happened to the money? The $300,000,000 would have made a nice down payment on funding our health and welfare plan so we could really have benefits for life. I know the money didn’t go into my last raise (If you remember - Clerk supervisors and supercargos only received a $1.00 per hour raise over the entire 3 year contract).
Brian McWilliams or Jim Spinosa. Neither one of you has earned my vote. I will continue to ponder the information and hope to make the best choice. Whichever of you wins this election, I hope you can step up to the plate and be a great President for all of us, not just your own personal special interest groups.
Nitewinner
Steve Anderson 13472
