PeterWK's Periodical

Bricklayers' Pension Fund Marks 40th Anniversary, Two Billion Dollars in Benefits Paid

Impressive.  Founded in 1865 the BAC is North American’s oldest continuous union, and covers 90,000 skilled mason, brick, and plaster, etc. workers.  The more that you know… labor edition.

————————————————

Peckham workers protest golf fundraiser

Rockin’ the boat at the bosses golf outing. While workers are pumping out military garments and getting paid minimum wage or less, management gets to golf. The rich folk and the bosses didn’t look to happy to see us. The struggle continues. -PeterWK

Peter Klein, 25, East Lansing, Volunteer at the Lansing Workers’ Center.

LANSING — The United Peckham Workers Association picketed the annual Peckham Inc. golf outing at Eagle Eye Golf course this morning.

“We just wanted to come out here and expose their (Peckham Inc.) hypocracy, that they are actually exploiters of the disabled and refugees,” said Mike Kolhoff, 53, an organizer and volunteer at the Lansing Workers’ Center, a community group that advocates for individual workers and groups of workers.

Kolhoff is an organizer for United Peckham, an independent union formed in March.

Brian Owens, 51, of Lansing. United Peckham Employees Association.

Lansing-based Peckham provides job training for people with disabilities who work in manufacturing, warehousing, office cleaning, information technology and other fields. The company is a major supplier of garments for the U.S. Army and other branches of the military.

Peckham officials could not be immediately reached for comment about the protest at the golf course.

About 200 clients have signed union pledge cards since the organizing drive began in March, Kolhoff said. The union has not been certified as a bargaining agent for the workers. He and other union supporters said the layoffs began in April and now number 200 or more.

The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, Kolhoff said.

“People are being bullied and taken advantage of,” said Brian Owens, 51, who was laid off by Peckham in the beginning of May.

Owens went on to say that the severely disabled make less than minimum wage and workers that don’t speak English are paid minimum wage.

The Detroit News: Teachers decry changes to pension, retirement health care plans

Lansing — Steve Goff has taught high school history in a rural Midland County school district for 18 years since spending 10 years in the U.S. Army.

To make up for those lost years in his teaching career, Goff bought 10 years of credit in the public school employee pension system with plans of retiring in summer 2014 at age 54.

But Goff said he might have to work another six years at the Meridian School District if state lawmakers approve legislation overhauling the retirement system and requiring school and community college employees to be 60 to qualify for retiree health care. The father of five said the legislation disrupts his and his wife’s retirement plans.

“It fundamentally alters our plans, our hopes and our dreams,” Goff said during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday that drew dozens of public school and community college educators and retirees who decried sweeping changes to their pension and retirement health care plans as unfair.

Facing a $45.2 billion unfunded liability in the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System, GOP lawmakers are hoping to fast-track the bill this spring to Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk to relieve rising retirement costs for school districts and community colleges.

The legislation is a priority for Snyder and GOP legislative leaders, the governor’s spokeswoman Geralyn Lasher said. Senate Bill 1040 would impose higher pension contributions on most employees hired before 2010. Critics say the bill upends retirement plans for employees in their late 40s and 50s whose combined years of service and age would have to equal 85 for them to qualify for health insurance.

“I’m potentially three years from retirement and now I’m looking at another 14,” said Terri List, an English teacher in Saginaw Township Community Schools who also bought several years of credit to speed up her retirement. “I understand times are tough and we all need to tighten our belts a bit, but we don’t need to use the tourniquet.”

The bill also would require retirees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums — mirroring new co-pays the Legislature imposed on public sector employees last year. Under the bill, most educators, administrators and support staff hired between 1990 and 2010 would see their pension contribution rise to 8 percent of annual salary, up from between 3 percent and 6.4 percent, depending on when they were hired and their salary.

About 30,000 employees hired before 1990 who contribute nothing to their pension would have to begin paying 5 percent per year into MPSERS. The bill allows employees to opt out of the higher payments by accepting a lower pension calculation, moving to a 401(k)-style retirement plan for their remaining years of service or freezing their pension.

Gary Olson, former director of the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency, questioned the constitutionality of changing pension contribution rates for existing employees. When the lawmakers overhauled the retirement system for state employees in 1997, the Attorney General’s Office said they could not alter promised pension benefits for existing employees, Olson said.

Olson, a consultant, was hired by a coalition of employee labor unions to study the legislation.

Mary Reynolds, finance director of Farmington Public Schools, said the bill is a welcome financial relief for cash-strapped school districts. Her district faces a $3.5 million increase in pension and retirement contributions for employees next school year.

The Senate Appropriations retirement subcommittee has scheduled a second hearing April 18 on the bill. State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who sponsored the bill, said he expects the Senate will pass a version of the bill by the end of the month.

clivengood@detnews.com

(517) 371-3660

Detroit News Staff Writer Karen Bouffard contributed.