Anger brews over government workers' benefits

Source: Associated Press

When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.

"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.

She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways. For some everyday Americans, it's a case of pension envy.

* * *

At its heart, the issue is this: Some public workers get a sweet deal compared to other workers. And it's taxpayers who pay for it.


Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_17563539?source=rss

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Here is an article that I've seen spammed across newspapers nationwide and on Yahoo's front page as news. Is this really news or another corporate sponsored media attempt to manipulate us into blaming workers, liberals, unions, and the Democrats while giving corporations, Republicans, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a free pass?

1. We are once again being trained by the corporate media to ignore CEO's who receive millions of dollars of compensation as they run the companies into bankruptcy or ship jobs overseas.
2. We are being trained to ignore groups like Freedom Watch or the Koch brothers who funnel millions of dollars to defeating Democrats in order to advance a right wing agenda.
3. We are being trained to give Republicans a free pass as they blatantly advance the interests of corporate America to weaken worker and environmental protections, while blaming Democrats, unions, workers, and liberals for all that ails America.

In other words, rather than uplifting us all, we are being trained by the corporate media to insist that our brothers are even more miserable than we are so that we can find unity in our common poverty. All the while, we ignore our corporate masters who pulling the strings. Heck, we may even be trained to admire the wanton efforts by Republicans to sell us out as a sign of strong leadership.

It's been proven that public workers there make, on average, 4.8% less than private-sector counterparts, and they've shown repeated willingness to cut their longterm benefits, which has been repeatedly shown across the country.

Rather than try and band together with others like herself to improve their own positions (in a union, more or less), she and so many others like her have been convinced that they should try and tear down everyone else.

The polling has been quite clear .... a clear majority of Americans disapprove of actions like those that Walker and his allies are attempting to institute ...

Using the lowest paid 'public worker' as a whipping boy for the rich is not a very popular belief, but you can be sure they will hammer away at those greedy trash collectors feeding at the public trough (instead of picking up the slop) ..... You know this is a planted topic intended to deceive the listener - pure and simple ...

:nuke:

...they choose to tear others down.

"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well"


Okay, then, why don't you have a pension as good as the public employee? Why aren't you fighting for an improvement in your benefits rather than a decrease in theirs?

believe this lady is too lazy to earn better wages and benefits. I'm almost embarrassed for her after making a fool of herself in national news.

The super rich have found a way to manipulate the masses into despising each other while THEY continue to commit their crimes. It is a diversion technique. They have middle class worker pinned against middle class worker when clearly we are all on the same side. There is more of US than THEM. These people should be demanding that their corps raise their standards to the Union's bar. Look at us all, fighting for the lowest wages.....Just like they want us to.

ALWAYS used. The good thing is that it's working less and less. 3 out of 5 SUPPORT worker's rights and that 60% is just as angry about it as the 40% that oppose.

such idiocy on the part of the irrational.
put the blame where it belongs - on the exploiters.
not on those who have fought the exploiters & gained some measure of justice.

might as well hate a doctor for going through the grind of all that study & then earning a six figure income.
or a farmer for working his ass off & making a good living from his labors.

:eyes:

paying jobs. That is what they were intended to do. Lure people who are valuable and would not otherwise apply to work in schools, libraries, local government etc.

It would go a far way toward advancing their agenda if they would just put their own pensions on the table. At least it wouldn't be so hyper hypocritical.

Most of them support the public employees and are bringing up many of the same points that people here bring up.

It gives me hope

Should be changed to mean "Associated (repuke) Propaganda". Another Murdoch propaganda outlet. The day is fast approaching when all "mainstream media will be nothing more than part of the right (reich) wing propaganda machine. Shit, we're almost there now.

in the old days, such scum would have been tarred & feathered & shipped out of town in a cattle car.

The premise is Bullshit.
This kind of article is designed to divide workers and pit them against each other.
The reality is that most private sector workers want those benefits at their own jobs.
Eliminating government worker benefits will definitely not achieve that goal.

Talk about polluted air in a workplace, ... whew!

Fucking hell people are idiots.

Pathetic.

their govt. :eyes:

We are entering the Misinformation Age rather quickly... :eyes:

I asked him whether he would like to face a classroom of 35 kids five days a week for 25-35 years. His grown kids are into every possible kind of trouble, so I asked him whether he would want to have to teach a class with his own kids in it. He sort of just looked shocked.

People should be asking why their employers drive Mercedes while the employees have no pension plan. That is the question that must be asked.

You really can't invest in a 401(K) unless you are making enough to put food on your table and a roof over your head. Unfortunately many working Americans don't make enough to save a meaningful amount for retirement.

If they're so well-paying and anyone can do them, people must be stampeddling to apply.

like free health care and so forth.

the feds pay 30% of the total premium or more and that's without dental or vision.

and State of California workers have to kick in for their health benefits too.

Were salaries higher in Calif. for similar workers? What about other benefits?

When you focus only on certain benefits, you're only looking at part of the picture.

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Either you misread my post, or you are replying to someone else entirely.

Wouldn't this so called private sector worker be making the argument for joining a union. The worker carps about public sector union workers having better benefits and making more. Wouldn't the logical conclusion be that unions do a good job of looking out for their members and getting them the most possible for their labor. Therefore rather than bring the 'union worker' down to her level wouldn't it make more sense for the worker to try and unionize her workplace to get the 'better benefits and wages' that unions, through collective bargaining, can bring her?

but like many private sector workers she's too ignorant to know it.

eating caviar for dinner every night. :sarcasm:

I saw signs at the Awake the State rally last night that made my teeth itch. Rather than ask why their own benefits suck while their company's owner is rolling in it, they want to tear down someone else.

The wealthy are laughing their asses off watching the rest of us claw each other's eyes out.

--and public workers agree to keep their mitts off of her 401k.