Detroit pensioners protesting giveaway of their personal savings
Michigan's Emergency Manager Law has led to the destruction of life for long-term Detroiters.[
1] What the subprime mortgage crisis couldn't erase these days of feudalism are taking care of the rest. City of Detroit retirees are being told by their representatives that they have negotiated the best deal possible. What these representatives haven't said is that
its their job to negotiate such a deal, even if it means recommending pensioners
give up their rights to file legal protest. If the greater mass of votes coming back says the retirees are in favor of gagging those that say NO - then that's what is going to happen.
Can you imagine working on a deal that you really don't want to participate in? One that your legacy as a representative will tarnish your reputation. Emergency Management is like holding out an ice cream cone that's got strawberry ice cream and being told to choose it, even though you are allergic to strawberries. There's no alternative choice altered through these dictates. The retirees are going to hurt like it or not. But there is hope and it happened in reverse already - so a double reverse could bring back the question of justice.
This is what happens when the mainstream media chooses or is TOLD not to reveal the story in full depth. Some people are going to get hurt in the process and it will certainly include the innocent dragged down by insufficient reporting.
Our elders aren't the ones that should be saddled with "earning back their ability to self-govern". Mayor Duggan doesn't seem to understand what its like to chose between medication and paying the overdue water bill in order to have something to wash down pills with. Water shutoffs are mechanical without consideration of ability to pay for the household in question. There really aren't any questions with shutoffs. The house is put on a list and the contractor comes out to shut down service.
Residents aren’t the only ones with delinquent accounts. Darryl Latimer, the department’s deputy director, told me that the State of Michigan holds its biggest bill: $5 million for water at state fairgrounds. (The state disputes the bill, arguing that it’s not responsible for the costs of infrastructure leaks.) --- Going Without Water in Detroit, New York Times
Retirees can request their ballot be voided and a replacement ballot faxed to them to be returned by Friday July 11. That's only a few days for those that have misgivings about sending in a yes vote. Neither Mainstream press, nor the retiree representatives are going to give the instructions. However there were directions sent on how to change a No vote to Yes previously...
FAXING the response back is the only method for speedy change.
"I've never seen anything like it in my life," said McClellan, who worked 24 years in the city's human services and health departments. "I think this is coercion, intimidation. This is fear-mongering."
Boards of both pension systems sent letters to their members last month reminding those who mailed in ballots early that they can resubmit them before the deadline if their minds have changed. While allowed under the bankruptcy process, it still doesn't sit well with McClellan.
"The letter said if you want to change your vote, then you can change your vote pretty much from a 'no' to a 'yes,'" she said. --- Creditors Face Deadline For Bankruptcy Plan Vote, Associated Press
Why is voting NO so important? It places the burden upon the bankruptcy judge to uphold the law. Last week there was a very interesting precedent setting Supreme Court case in Illinois.
The Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday that healthcare for retired state workers is a constitutionally protected pension benefit, a ruling with implications for pension reform legislation passed by the state legislature earlier this year.
The 6-to-1 decision allows the continuation of class-action challenges to a 2012 Illinois law that gave the state the right to impose healthcare insurance premiums on its retired workers. The challenge to the state effort to change healthcare benefits centered on a constitutional provision that membership in any public sector pension or retirement system "shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired."
"Health care benefits are not referred to in the pension clause, but neither is there any limitation imposed concerning them," the high court said. "It is a well settled principle that pension rights should be liberally construed in favor of the rights of the pensioner." --- Illinois high court rules constitution protects health benefits, Reuters
Detroit's pensioners deserve to know they should not vote away their rights. By voting NO it requires the law to be served in court. Something the mainstream media, nor their retirement system representatives, nor lawmakers are revealing very well at all.