In troubled times, it pays to work union

Dec. 2008 - "Working union" has never been so important as in these unsettling financial times.

Americans who depend solely on their 401(k), IRA, or other individual defined contribution retirement systems can get left high and dry with no guarantees. Many such folks face a nasty set of choices in order to rebuild from recent financial losses, including delay retirement or go back to work after they have already retired.

By contrast, Montana public employees and teachers can breathe far more easily. That's because the public retirement systems MEA-MFT helped create in Montana provide financial certainty. "What is promised today will be delivered tomorrow," said MEA-MFT Executive Director Erik Burke. "If it weren't for MEA-MFT, this wouldn't be true."

In 1994, MEA-MFT led the charge to amend Montana's state constitution to assure that the pension security of public employees would be protected. The additional constitutional language guarantees that during hard times, public pension system assets would not be borrowed or appropriated to other interests.

It also guarantees that the state must fund its retirement obligations. The state may not gamble with people's retirement security-even when times are tough. It's right in the constitution.

In terms of health insurance, MEA-MFT's local unions, along with unions throughout the country, have fought for years to protect health benefits at a time when the rest of the country decided such benefits were extraneous.

"It is well documented that union employees are much more likely to have access to health benefits packages," Burke said.

"The rest of the nation is only now realizing how important these union protections are to individual and collective economic well-being. As union members, we need to let other folks know that these protections are possible."