Endangered Species: Workers with Pensions

A Nearly Extinct Animal

Employees with pensions are not quite dinosaurs yet, we are probably more in the category of the spotted owl. Our rapidly diminishing group now consists almost entirely of unionized public sector employees, working people who earned all kinds of benefits for simply doing their jobs over a long period of time and then, obligingly, getting old.

I think of my pension as an inheritance of sorts, a kind of consolation prize when friends talk about their windfalls from dead relatives. It may not be much, but it arrives each month without any effort on my part allowing me to sit and my computer and feel like a paid writer.

Sunday, I was chatting with a realtor at a Berkeley street fair who appeared to be around my age. Her reaction to my obvious delight at being retired was one I have encountered often. It involves an enthusiastic proclamation of job love coupled with a desire to work until reaching death's door. I have no reason not to believe her. I know Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court feels this way as well. Republicans and some Democrats have even kicked around raising the retirement age so folks can enjoy their jobs well into their dotage. 

But many working-class folks have stressful, demeaning jobs that, as the body ages, wring the very life and spirit from them. It is not a blessing to be forced to perform this type of work until 70 years of age. Part of the conundrum professors and doctors, lawyers and CEOs face is that the simple fact of admitting that work is a moderately unpleasant chore for the majority of workers underlines a hard truth of capitalism:  in order for some people to excel at fulfilling and meaningful work, many others have to service them and their needs. They used to need to make the goods as well but this is less of an issue now that the manufacturing industry is drying up.

I am extremely grateful that I snagged one of the last working-class gems of a bygone era but also very depressed that the welfare of the generations behind me will be left up to chance. Those with prudent and frugal relatives or prominent families may have something to fall back on. But regular working people's options are being sharply reigned in by feeding frenzy of plutocratic capitalism. 

Eroding Teacher Seniority Will Bust Unions

Same Stuff, Different Day

The right-wing debate against public employees has shifted and now it is teachers that are being targeted on all levels. From the privatization of education through charter schools, to misguided movies like "Waiting for Superman." Educators have become the new enemy, responsible for everything from the massive disobedience and lack of discipline of students to the failure of the public education system in this country.

In poor and working class communities the problems of poverty, parental neglect (often due to financial necessity), and the lack of motivation of the students themselves are some of the reasons for this systemic breakdown. But as with other union targets before them, all logic is being tossed aside, replaced with the easy out of a new dog to kick.

Even Obama who is now waxing populist in deference to the Occupy Movement, has raised  and praised the idea of "replacement teachers" as a cure-all for the ills of the education system. This is presented as a simple formula in which the "best" teachers will be rewarded while those who no longer have "passion" and have outlived their usefulness, will be let go. Ending teacher tenure is their new rallying cry.

In reality, terminating the seniority system will destroy the teacher's unions and erode job security, benefits and pensions for the whole profession. It serves as a crack in a door that was previously shut tight, a perfect way to break in and destroy a highly organized, predominantly female, group of professionals. Doing away with seniority means that all ongoing employment decisions will be subjective and open to the ebbs and flows of bias and personal prejudice. Older people will be discarded for their "lack of energy." Teachers who take too much initiative will be replaced for their lack of obsequious and deferential behavior. Unpopular minority group status (LGBTs, blacks, latinos, etc.) will be used as factors in decision making. The list goes on and on but the end result is that people will lose their livelihoods at the whim of those in power.

The teachers who survive this reorganization will be young and full of vigor. But the burn-out rate is high in teaching and, given four or five years in the classrooms, especially those of inner city schools, even the hardiest young, bright-eyed idealist will lose some of her enthusiasm and spark. And so teaching will become a stint kind of job, much like service in the military.

Indiana is now poised to join Southern states in passing a "right-to-work" bill (Brave New World Speak for massive anti-union legislation), the tenured teacher is poised to be a relic of the past.

All union jobs and protections will go the way of the dinosaur if we end seniority protections for some workers. We must stand with our educators in ensuring that they don't have an ax hanging over their heads as they try to perform an already difficult job.