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Press Release

Social Security Report Delivers Reassuring News for Working Families

… Security's 80 th anniversary, working families now know there are sufficient resources to pay 100 percent of all promised benefits through 2034. But to make sure disabled workers continue to receive their full benefits, Congress needs to do its job. We know Republicans in Congress are dragging Social Security into their ploy of …
Executive Council Statement

Keeping America's Promise to Retired Coal Miners and Their Families

… mines to their owners and a new collective bargaining agreement was reached with the companies that guaranteed retirement benefits to miners and their dependents and survivors for life. The UMWA Health and Retirement Funds was born. A Consistent … a measure of comfort in their old age. The federal government has repeatedly confirmed its role in guaranteeing retirement benefits for coal miners. In 1992, Congress passed the Coal Act, which established an industry-funded mechanism to pay for … Congress amended the Coal Act to expand the financial resources available to the fund. A Devastated Industry Sheds Jobs, Benefits Today, a depression reigns in America’s coalfields. Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. Multiple companies …
Legislative Alert

Letter Supporting Health Care Priorities in the Lame Duck Session

… must be excluded. • Provide steady health care funding for 9/11 first responders and survivors. The 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act (S. 4724, H.R. 9101) must be passed before the end of the year to ensure 9/11 victims …
Legislative Alert

Letter Expressing Concerns About Nomination of Andrew Biggs to the Social Security Advisory Board

… have a consistent record of commitment to this important anti-poverty program which provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 66 million Americans. Mr. Biggs’ record, however, does not appear to demonstrate such a commitment. We urge the … income crisis? He once called it a non-issue. Does he still endorse cuts to Social Security’s modest, but essential, benefits? We find his past comments in support of raising the retirement age extremely troubling; does he stand by his past …
Executive Council Statement

On the Retirement of Robert A. Scardelletti

… in the passage of the Railroad Retirement and Survivors’ Improvement Act of 2001, which liberalized early retirement benefits for employees who reached 30 years of service so that they and their spouses could retire at age 60 with full benefits. Additionally, the law eliminated a cap on monthly retirement and disability benefits, lowered the minimum service requirement from 10 years to five years and revised the financing provisions of the …
Executive Council Statement

Principles for Social Security Reform

… and the principal insurance against family impoverishment due to death or disability. It reliably and efficiently provides benefits to the elderly, the disabled and their children, helps millions of Americans escape poverty, and gives the elderly … workers, as well as dependents and survivors, with a guaranteed monthly benefit, protected against inflation, for life. Benefits should not be subject to the whims of the market, and private accounts should never be substituted for the core defined benefits the system currently provides. The age at which workers are eligible for early or full benefits should not be …
Blog

Get to Know AFL-CIO's Affiliates: Seafarers

… other AFL unions. Reform and expansion were key among Hall's achievements, including securing the first hospital and death benefits for members, creating the Seafarers Vacation Plan and strengthening seniority provisions in hiring. In the 1950s, …
Press Release

Worker Wins Update: Broad Cooperation Key to Successful Contract Victories

… manufacturer, also won a four-year contract. The deal provides for retroactive wage increases and maintains all levels of benefits for active and retired workers without cost increases. Over the past year, about 1,000 technicians and other workers … and will allow for speedier claims processing. The new protocol will allow the Department of Justice to begin awarding benefits to survivors of fire fighters who died from a 9/11-related illness. 30,000 IAMAW Workers Ratify United Airlines … in Southern Maryland from being sold. Workers were able to demonstrate that the sale of the stores would threaten wages, benefits and the overall grocery store experience that the Giant stores provide to the local community. ThinkProgress …
Convention Resolution

Resolution 13: Retirement Income Security for All

… have any retirement savings whatsoever. The AFL-CIO will continue to press for measures that ensure adequate retirement benefits for every worker in America. Economic security in retirement must be a shared responsibility of employers, … of a disability, and to family members when a working parent dies. Our greatest concern about Social Security is that its benefits are too low. At the beginning of this year, the average retirement check was about $1,614 a month, or $19,370 … for 90% of their income. We must continue to shift the public conversation about Social Security away from how we can cut benefits to how we can expand them, as the labor movement has been instrumental in doing over the past decade. Social …
Executive Council Statement

The Future of Social Security

… long-run financial challenges. According to the Social Security actuaries, the system will be able to pay 100 percent of benefits until 2032, and after that time, even if no changes are made, tax revenue to the system will be sufficient to cover roughly 72 percent of expected benefits. Given Social Security's critical role in providing family economic security, it is important that we act soon to … increases, increased benefits for families, greater income replacement for low-income workers, as well as disability and survivor benefits--are the bricks and mortar of economic security in the United States. Displacing any part of this system to …