Hi everyone,
This is a great way to discover the budget issues facing the legislature right now. The Sacramento Bee has an interactive budget menu that allows you to make the cuts.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/02/04/3377894/erase-californias-budget-deficit.html
Here's an update on Governor Brown and his reaction to the proposed budget.
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/06/jerry-brown-says-hell-move-hea.html
Summer is almost here!
Enjoy!
Ray Gaer
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Public Pension Update
Hello Everyone,
It has been a busy and fruitful week for ABCFT. There are teachers that are being moved throughout the district and that is being done in consultation with the teachers union and everyone should know soon about there assignment for next year. . I would just like to say that your negotiating team, executive board and president have worked hard to keep all teachers employed regardless of status and we have done our best to keep our focus on what is best for kids and teachers, both of which are the backbone of ABC.
After one day of negotiation we were able to forge a Tentative Agreement with the School District on calendar and compensation. All unit members will be voting to ratify this TA Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.
Below is some information I received from Jim Araby who is the California Federation of Teachers Statewide Political Field Director. Jim has started working with the C.U.P.S.S. union coalition to give us guidance on how to create a powerful political arm that we can use to continue to influence who is on the ABCUSD School Board. We will see more of Jim in the future. Anyway, he sent some information on pensions that is reader friendly and will help you articulate what you need to say to those friends, family, or strangers who have a strong opinion about YOUR pension. Enjoy!
In solidarity,
Ray Gaer
It has been a busy and fruitful week for ABCFT. There are teachers that are being moved throughout the district and that is being done in consultation with the teachers union and everyone should know soon about there assignment for next year. . I would just like to say that your negotiating team, executive board and president have worked hard to keep all teachers employed regardless of status and we have done our best to keep our focus on what is best for kids and teachers, both of which are the backbone of ABC.
After one day of negotiation we were able to forge a Tentative Agreement with the School District on calendar and compensation. All unit members will be voting to ratify this TA Monday,Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.
Below is some information I received from Jim Araby who is the California Federation of Teachers Statewide Political Field Director. Jim has started working with the C.U.P.S.S. union coalition to give us guidance on how to create a powerful political arm that we can use to continue to influence who is on the ABCUSD School Board. We will see more of Jim in the future. Anyway, he sent some information on pensions that is reader friendly and will help you articulate what you need to say to those friends, family, or strangers who have a strong opinion about YOUR pension. Enjoy!
In solidarity,
Ray Gaer
A new report suggests government union benefits won't be bankrupting states, after all
____________________________________________________________________
Talking Points
June 2011
The notion that all public workers are collecting fat pensions is simply not true
• Headlines that public servants enjoy lavish, taxpayer-funded pensions are misleading and wrong. Those who teach our children, protect our families and help keep your cities and state clean and safe live on modest, and often meager, wages and pensions.
• The average public pension in California is $26,000 a year. Three-quarters of CalPERS retirees collect yearly pensions of $36,000 or less. California retired teachers, who do not collect Social Security, earn an average $3,300-a-month after an average 27 years in the classroom.
• The headline-grabbing pensions topping $100,000, sensationalized by pension busters, amount to less than 2 percent of public pensions.
Politically motivated and ill-considered proposals to gut public pensions will not fix local and state budgets, and instead will likely cost taxpayers more
• Public employee pensions amount to just three percent of California’s budget. Overhauling California’s public pension system will not make a dent in the state’s current budget shortfall. Not by any calculation. Not now and not anytime soon.
• Independent analyses of some of the growing number of politically motivated pension busting proposals find they likely will create additional demand on government-provided social services and carry unknown costs in the short-run.
Ballot Box Proposals to Gut Pensions Will not Prevent Pink Slips
• Claims that pensions are bankrupting state government and that pension plans are poorly run and headed for Armageddon are flat wrong. The state pays less as a percentage of payroll for pensions today than it did in 1980.
• The California State Teachers’ Retirement System posted a solid 12.2 percent return at the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year and earned 12.7 percent in calendar year 2010. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010, the California Public Employees' Retirement System earned a 13.3 percent return.
Public employees have been willing participants in helping fix California’s budget woes
• Public Employees unequivocally support fair efforts to clamp down on fraud and abuse.
• Overall, California public employees’ contributions to their pensions have climbed from 5 percent to 7 to up to 11 percent.
• Formulas for calculating pensions have been reduced and stringent new rules are being established to eliminate abuses like spiking. In all, such changes – made through collective bargaining – have reduced state pension costs by $570 million over the past two years.
• According to data kept by CalPERS, in nearly 180 California cities, counties and local districts, firefighters, police, teachers and other public employees have agreed to increase employee pension contributions and lower public costs.
• CalSTRS employer, employee and state contribution rates are set by the Legislature and have been stable for employees and employers for the past 25 years. The State reduced their payment to CalSTRS from 4.607 percent to 2.017 percent at the turn of the century, which has saved the state more than $3 billion over the past decade
• Meanwhile, these same public employees have been victim to a ruthless public relations campaign attacking them at the same time they are strapped by furloughs, docked pay and pink slips. They dedicate their careers to serving the public for pay that pales in comparison to what we might earn in the private sector. They volunteer and contribute in their communities even after they retire.
Out-of-state billionaires and right-wing extremists with Tea Party ties are driving this assault on California’s middle class
• Decisions concerning retirement security for California’s public employees should be made at the bargaining table when applicable. The answer is not allowing out-of-state billionaires to swoop in and change California’s constitution to force public workers into risky 401k retirement plans like those that have left private sector workers fearing for their families’ futures.
• bankrollers - are behind efforts to scapegoat public employees in California and across the nation.
Public retirement benefits boost our economy and create jobs
• Our pensions and pension fund investments create jobs and bring into our local communities billions of dollars that are vital to the economy.
• A study commissioned by CalSTRS found that benefits paid to retired educators amount to an economic engine across California, especially in rural counties that have suffered dramatically from the collapsed economy. The California State University, Sacramento, study concluded that the California economy gained $6.71 for every single dollar invested in pensions by employers and taxpayers.
• CalPERS recently reported that its $17 billion in investments reflect nearly 1 million jobs. Its $1 billion California Initiative Program alone has investments in 117 California companies employing 17,000 workers statewide, most in low- and middle-income areas.
Related Reading:
Los Angeles Times' Steve Lopez: In Costa Mesa, is it really cost-cutting or just politics?
Salinas Californian: Average Monterey County pensioners may not warrant the headlines
San Francisco Chronicle: Bargaining, not balloting, to fix Oakland pensions
Voice of San Diego: The 401(k)'s Sticker Shock
Capitol Weekly: Opinion: Time for the pension-reform boogeymen to face the facts
CRS' Martha Penry in Sacramento Bee Viewpoints: Pension 'reformers' distort facts on benefits
Steve Maviglio in California Majority Report: Pension "Reformers" Confess: It's All About Politics, Attacking Unions
SF Chronicle: CalPERS bouncing back after torrential years
Prop Zero: Are state workers overpaid?
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/prop-zero/Are-State-Workers-Overpaid-108744854.htmlSunday, June 5, 2011
A President Says Goodbye
Last Thursday was the ceremony for the changing of the guard for ABCFT. When one set of hardworking union activists were able to look back on a job well done and another set of union activists started their own journey of being the new guardians. The retirements of Laura Rico and Steve Harris are and will be monumental in ABCFT history.
I won't kid you, seeing Laura Rico ride into the sunset has been bitter sweet to watch, but if you look into her face now that she is not the acting president you can see the relief in her face. She is walking away with the satisfaction of knowing that this union is in good hands and that she has made ABC a better place. If you look at Steve Harris today you can see that same satisfied look on his face. Both Laura and Steve gave heartfelt well wishing and thanked everyone for the honor of holding their many different positions in ABCFT over the years. Both Laura and Steve have both been "doing the right thing" for others for a long time. Laura and Steve, we thank you for all you have done!
Here's what I will be doing this week in ABC:
Sometime this week I would like to send out an email to everyone thanking them for giving me both the honor and privilege to "do the right thing" as President for ABCFT. For now I will just say thank you from the bottom of my heart and get right back to the business of the union. The clock is ticking as we move toward vacation and there are a massive amount of issues that need to be addressed.
In solidarity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
I won't kid you, seeing Laura Rico ride into the sunset has been bitter sweet to watch, but if you look into her face now that she is not the acting president you can see the relief in her face. She is walking away with the satisfaction of knowing that this union is in good hands and that she has made ABC a better place. If you look at Steve Harris today you can see that same satisfied look on his face. Both Laura and Steve gave heartfelt well wishing and thanked everyone for the honor of holding their many different positions in ABCFT over the years. Both Laura and Steve have both been "doing the right thing" for others for a long time. Laura and Steve, we thank you for all you have done!
Here's what I will be doing this week in ABC:
Sometime this week I would like to send out an email to everyone thanking them for giving me both the honor and privilege to "do the right thing" as President for ABCFT. For now I will just say thank you from the bottom of my heart and get right back to the business of the union. The clock is ticking as we move toward vacation and there are a massive amount of issues that need to be addressed.
- This Monday I will have a lunch time discussion with Fedde Middle School and I will set plans for another meeting later in the week.
- Tuesday their will be a ABCUSD School Board meeting and Laura Rico will give her final employee report and introduce me as ABCFT President.
- Tuesday the ABCFT negotiating team will be at the table to discuss calendar and other issues.
- Wednesday the C.U.P.S.S (Coalition United for Public Schools and Services) will meet to discuss ABC employee issues.
- Thursday there will be a general meeting to discuss budget issues and a possible tentative agreement on calendar depending on Tuesdays negotiations.
- Thursday the new ABCFT Eboard will convene for the first time.
- Friday I will be meeting with Ross Middle School teachers during lunch to follow-up on my earlier visit.
- We will work on getting out any negotiating information out to all unit members ASAP.
In solidarity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
Saturday, June 4, 2011
A teacher is a teacher is a teacher
Ray has given a timeline of how negotations are progressing but just to recap; we will use the results of our recent calendar survey when we go to the table on June 7. We will have a general meeting on June 9 to give an update on these negotiations as well as to talk about what our "A-" budget plan looks like.
Thank you to all of those who gave us such valuable input on the calendar survey and to those who completed the Rutgers survey too.
With the unsettled budget situations these past couple of years and with negotations having to take place after the May revise we will once again be in a bit of a time crunch in terms of needing to vote on and ratify a contract before we end our school year.
We are committed to giving you as much information as possible throughout this accelerated process. Please write or call with any specific questions, talk to your reps, read the flyers, and attend the general meeting we have scheduled for this coming Thursday at Artesia High School.
But the real purpose of this message is to offer some thoughts on truth in labeling and one of the most difficult effects of the recent budget statewide budget crisis.
I am talking about the plight of our teachers who are on temporary contracts.
Notice that I did not call them "temps"
These are not temps, they are teachers.
These are not temps, they are our colleagues.
These are not temps, these are professionals.
A teacher is a teacher is a teacher.
Our mission, rightfully, has been to protect and preserve the jobs of every permanent employee and in this accomplishment we should be justfiably proud.
Neighboring districts such as Long Beach laid off almost 800 employees while we have not lost one permanent employee.
But I am not satisfied with the status quo and I am cognizant of the value that teachers who are on temporary contract offer our district and our students.
I teach down the hallway from Steve. He is a great math teacher. He has two young children. He is a friend. I look forward to working alongside him for years. He is so much more than a temp. And I am willing to fight to keep valued colleagues like these at all of our sites.
Our position is a difficult one. We may not represent teachers on temporary contract in regard to their status but we are listening to the teachers who work with teachers on temporary contract and are painfully aware of how much teachers on temporary contract add to the culture of their respective sites. We have heard this loud and clear from a number of you and we will definitely take these issues into consideration as we negotiate in the future.
In Solidarity,
Ruben Mancillas
Thank you to all of those who gave us such valuable input on the calendar survey and to those who completed the Rutgers survey too.
With the unsettled budget situations these past couple of years and with negotations having to take place after the May revise we will once again be in a bit of a time crunch in terms of needing to vote on and ratify a contract before we end our school year.
We are committed to giving you as much information as possible throughout this accelerated process. Please write or call with any specific questions, talk to your reps, read the flyers, and attend the general meeting we have scheduled for this coming Thursday at Artesia High School.
But the real purpose of this message is to offer some thoughts on truth in labeling and one of the most difficult effects of the recent budget statewide budget crisis.
I am talking about the plight of our teachers who are on temporary contracts.
Notice that I did not call them "temps"
These are not temps, they are teachers.
These are not temps, they are our colleagues.
These are not temps, these are professionals.
A teacher is a teacher is a teacher.
Our mission, rightfully, has been to protect and preserve the jobs of every permanent employee and in this accomplishment we should be justfiably proud.
Neighboring districts such as Long Beach laid off almost 800 employees while we have not lost one permanent employee.
But I am not satisfied with the status quo and I am cognizant of the value that teachers who are on temporary contract offer our district and our students.
I teach down the hallway from Steve. He is a great math teacher. He has two young children. He is a friend. I look forward to working alongside him for years. He is so much more than a temp. And I am willing to fight to keep valued colleagues like these at all of our sites.
Our position is a difficult one. We may not represent teachers on temporary contract in regard to their status but we are listening to the teachers who work with teachers on temporary contract and are painfully aware of how much teachers on temporary contract add to the culture of their respective sites. We have heard this loud and clear from a number of you and we will definitely take these issues into consideration as we negotiate in the future.
In Solidarity,
Ruben Mancillas
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