Union and City - Pension Tug of War

A Battle that Never Ends...

Today is D-Day...Decision Day--hopefully--a compromise and a decision will be decided upon on this long-drawn out union negotiation with the city's desire to move all of the Lake Worth employees to a 30 year retirement plan. Many of our employees were hired under the old plan. Employees have held their own saying you hired us under certain conditions that we accepted and if we voluntarily switch, we will lose a lot of retirement dollars.

So many costs are rising and the city's infrastructure is crumbling at their feet. They are looking for savings in anyway they can get it thus a new employee contract is strongly being pushed. The City is saying that they no longer can afford the old plan and have been holding up the 4% raise to all employees since October 1 (the money is in the budget) until a final contract is signed. Although employees don't begrudge management getting their raises, it is something they grumble about as they themselves haven't received one in many years.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the employees will be the ones giving up something--possibly it will be either the 4% raise after not having one in nearly 8 years or the old retirement plan. If the employees elect to stay with the old plan, the question then is, will the city employees ever expect a raise again? Will all of this be the final nail in their coffin? Will it all turn out fairly?

I can't see where a compromise will make anyone happy, least of all the employees. In the meantime, they are doing their jobs with a shortage of staff and working their butts off. But in a tug of war, it is the guy with the most strength who prevails. The city is the guy who signs the check.

The meeting will be held at the City Hall conference room, today at 9am.

The Problem
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