The book under review, written from a labor organizer's informed perspective, is seen by the book reviewer—himself a longtime labor militant-- as an essential resource for workers navigating their retirement and pension options.
A new front in the battle over retirement security for California’s public employees opened June 4 with the release of the language for a proposed ballot initiative that would virtually outlaw traditional defined-benefit pension plans for future state and municipal workers. The so-called “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” would effectively shift all new public employees from the various defined-benefit plans currently in place to 401(k) plans, beginning in 2019.
Can privately invested pension funds be disconnected from destructive financial patterns and deployed in socially positive ways? Can neoliberal capitalism be forced to provide decent pensions to all workers? Can a predatory private financial system be reformed?
The loss of pensions at Boeing marks a major setback for unions, as employers typically follow the example of other employers at the bargaining table in terms of what constitutes a reasonable demand. Since the financial crash, unions have given up pensions for new hires at large, profitable, industry trendsetters such as General Electric, Verizon, Honeywell and now, Boeing.
Spread the word