I am a public employee and a union member.
Each and every raise I've gotten over the past 10 years has been more than eaten up by the rise in my health insurance premiums. I'm taking home less money than I was 10 years ago.
Now my new republican governor and legislature are insisting that in my next(no raise) contract, I should pay more of my stagnant salary into the state pension fund.
Yeah so times are hard and the state has a deficit that it needs to work down, but being Republicans, of course, tax increases are off the table.
But what really has me worried is... (below the fold)
I read now that the republicans in Washington are writing up legislation that would allow cash strapped states to declare bankruptcy, which would void all the public employee union contracts and allow the state to keep all that pension money to pay off all of it's other creditors first.
When I took this job, I knew that I could have made more money in the private sector with my skill set, but I traded that in for the job security and the benefit package that goes with public service.
I've worked here 22 years now and I'm 3 years from being eligible for full retirement benefits according to the state's formula. But all I think about is how the hell am I going to afford to pay my health insurance premiums for the 5 years after retirement I have to wait before I can go on Medicare. And what about my wife's health insurance since she's 7 years younger than I am? How do I fill that gap?
And to top that all off Obama and the Republicans have just taken the first step toward defunding Social Security with that stupid payroll tax "Holiday". You are a fool if you think the Republicans are EVER going to let your FICA deductions go back up. Especially in an election year.