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Members help low wage workers organize

Local 1000 members advanced our fight to grow the middle class and protect all workers from the race to the bottom by participating in a global wave of strikes and protests on May 15 in 150 cities across the US and 33 additional countries on six continents.”As someone who cares about where our economy is headed and what kind jobs are being created in my neighborhood–this is my fight,” said Beth Snyder, a steward at the Department of State Hospitals who attended actions in Sacramento.

Members voted to ensure retirement security and affordable health care
Theresa Taylor, the Local 1000-endorsed candidate, has won a seat on the CalPERS Board of Administration, earning 55 percent of the votes counted — a nearly 20-point margin over the next opponent.

A Local 1000 member leader testifies about the retirement problems her family is facing even though they have a secure retirement through CalPERS.

Theresa Taylor, a longtime Local 1000 activist who was elected to the CalPERS board last year, told the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board of her family’s struggles because her husband became disabled.

Local 1000’s work to provide retirement security for all Californians continued on April 27 as the California Secure Choice Board met to discuss the best options to help millions of private sector workers save for retirement.

“It is an incredibly complex job to create a savings system for workers, but it is extremely rewarding to know that our state is showing leadership in helping millions of workers gain retirement security,” Walker said.

A coalition of anti-union, anti-public employee groups, including the National Right to Work Committee, launched their latest attack against public employee pensions and the hard-earned retirement security of state workers.

Their misleading campaign, called the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” would undermine collective bargaining and require voter approval for changes to pensions and other retirement benefits, including medical insurance. The initiative will soon move into the signature-gathering phase and will appear on the ballot next year.

A new ballot initiative filed last week to appear on the 2016 ballot, would bypass the collective bargaining table and effectively freeze retirement benefits for Local 1000-represented employees at the current contract level, requiring voter approval for any enhancement of those benefits.

Any alterations in cost of living adjustments, pension calculations, changes in vesting or lowering the age of retirement eligibility would all be subject to a statewide vote—even if they are successfully bargained in a contract.

According to a report released this week by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), the pension-gutting ballot measure proposed by former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and former San Diego City Councilman Carl DeMaio is so drastic and recklessly conceived that it could lead to radical and unforeseen negative consequences.

The deadly 2016 pension-gutting ballot initiative designed to bypass collective bargaining and threaten the retirement security of all public employees has passed another milestone, receiving a official title and summary from California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Titled the “Public Employees. Pension and Retiree Healthcare Benefits. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.” the ballot measure “eliminates constitutional protections for vested pension and retiree healthcare benefits for current public employees.”