Posts tagged Social Security
Op-ed: The Delphi bailout Congress shouldn’t pay
July 24, 2026 // Some media reports claim that 20,000 former Delphi employees lost their pensions, but the PBGC confirms that 14,300 of the plan’s approximately 20,000 participants have received every dollar of the pension benefits they earned. Only about 5,700 experienced any reduction, either because their benefits exceeded the $54,000 statutory insurance limit, or because they earned early-retiree benefits the PBGC does not insure. Most of those reductions were modest. About 60% of affected participants lost less than one-fifth of their promised pension,
Commentary: Australia’s Not-So-Super Retirement System
July 23, 2026 // In Australia the accountability problem is exacerbated by unions’ sway over a particular type of super fund. Known as industry super funds, these were originally set up by employers and unions to steward the savings of workers in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2025, ISFs controlled more than 40% of Australian superannuation assets. Under Australian law, employers and unions appoint directors to ISF trustee boards under what is called the equal representation model. Union leaders say this ensures that workers have some indirect influence over decisions made by ISF boards and managers. That claim is difficult to square with trends in union membership. The proportion of Australian employees who belong to unions fell from 51% in 1976 to 13.1% in 2024. Unions long ago lost the authority to serve as legitimate proxies for Australian workers.
NYC hotel maids now make more than rookie cops, firefighters, teachers — as union averts strike following new salary agreement
May 27, 2026 // Hotel maids in NYC already out-earn rookie cops, firefighters and even teachers with master’s degrees — and they just got a raise. The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing 22,000 city hotel workers, ratified the new contract Thursday that will bring housekeepers to $77,113 on July 1 with $110,000 in salary alone in the sixth year. The agreement made last weekend with the hotel owners averted a strike that was already throwing a wrench into the city’s America 250 celebrations and the FIFA World Cup as visitors said they were afraid to make reservations if a strike was at hand.
Disregard for students showcased in Sheridan teacher strike
May 27, 2026 // The Sheridan teachers did have a legal right to strike, but not a morally justifiable one. They seriously disrupted the lives of innocent schoolchildren and their parents, holding them hostage to the union’s demands. When a grocery union strikes, customers can do business elsewhere. However, teachers are government employees within a school district that has a monopoly on publicly-funded education. And unlike private sector employers, Colorado school boards can refuse to allow a union. In 2012, a new Republican majority on the Douglas County School Board decertified its teacher union when the collective-bargaining agreement expired. (A new Democrat majority on the DougCo school board will likely welcome the union back with open arms.)
Testimony by Rachel Greszler on the Positive Impact of Seniors in Today’s Economy
December 11, 2025 // Demographic Shifts Mean That Older Americans Are Increasingly Vital Contributors to the American Economy The combination of declining fertility rates, the aging of the baby boomer population, and increased life expectancies means that older Americans are a rapidly growing share of the population. Beginning in 2034, there will be more seniors than children in America for the first time in U.S. history
Social Security Union warns of collapse due to government shutdown
October 24, 2025 // The union that represents Social Security employees in Maine is warning of the impacts as the government shutdown continues. The American Federation of Government Employees says the Social Security Administration is on the verge of collapse as workers are continuing to work without pay. The AFGE argues that employees should be allowed to work from home during the shutdown due to the costs of traveling to the office.
UFCW Hit with Class Action Over Data Breach
October 2, 2025 // In the complaint, plaintiff GeriSue Hancock said the breach affected about 55,747 people and was detected by the union on Dec. 11, after “certain data may have been accessed or acquired” the day prior. According to the filing, UFCW Local 7R began notifying affected individuals this week — more than nine months later — allegedly hindering victims’ ability to mitigate identity-theft risks. Hancock, suing on behalf of a putative class, claimed the Denver-based local, which represents roughly 23,000 workers across supermarkets, packing houses and food processing plants, among others in Colorado and Wyoming, stored unencrypted, unredacted PII and failed to implement basic safeguards. The suit cited alleged deficiencies including inadequate employee training, lack of phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication, insufficient logging and monitoring, and retention of sensitive data longer than necessary.
Labor Day 2025: More protests than parades and picnics
August 20, 2025 // But the biggest blowout, organizers hope, is going to be on Labor Day itself. Local events can be found at MayDayStrong.org. There is also a toolkit for event hosts and organizers to coordinate their actions. The organizers hope to exceed the estimated five million people who hit the streets on No Kings Day back in April. The key demands at all the protests will be: “stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration, protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people,” plus “fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.” Marchers will also demand the Trump regime “stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities and invest in people, not wars.”
Protests Go Beyond Immigration to Include Array of Left-Wing Causes
June 15, 2025 // “In this moment we must all stand together,” said Becky Pringle, the head of the National Education Association, the largest individual union in the country and one of the groups that sprang into action as the protests emerged in Los Angeles. Local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Communist Party offshoot of the Workers World Party, have also played a leading role, working with local leftist groups to post information about new demonstrations from California to Maine.
Opinion — Medicaid Is A Slush Fund For Labor And The Left
June 10, 2025 // Stripped of this Medicaid-funded, taxpayer-underwritten war chest and forced to support their failed candidates and causes solely through voluntary donations from people who actually agree with them, unions and their pet politicians would face an even bleaker future than the one already confronting them. The law has always intended for Medicaid payments to be made directly and in full to Medicaid providers, but government unions have figured out a way to use it as a slush fund for Left-wing politics. President Trump has the ability to end this scheme by implementing a rule change to uphold the integrity of federal Medicaid laws and stop the diversion of Medicaid funds to unions.