SEIU’s Latest Lie
SEIU’s pension plan: critically underfunded and in the red zone
Click here or on the image below to read the full notice.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
You’ve probably heard SEIU’s latest lie. Maybe you saw it in a piece of SEIU junk mail or were interrupted by an unwelcome phone call to your home.
This time, they’re attacking the NUHW contract my co-workers and I settled a month ago at the San Francisco Nursing Center — a contract that workers bargained ourselves, and that we ratified by a vote of 27 to 3.
Here’s the truth about our contract:
- We won raises of 3 to 4.5 percent over the next year.
- We protected our 100% employer-paid healthcare coverage.
- Our agreement put us in control of our retirement by getting us out of SEIU’s critically-underfunded pension plan
Here’s what you should know about the SEIU-controlled pension plan we voted to get rid of:
Under our old contract with SEIU, our employer agreed to contribute 15 cents hourly for each worker to a pension plan administered by SEIU. But SEIU officials never enforced the terms of our contract, so our employer never contributed a cent to the SEIU-controlled pension plan.
On top of that, SEIU’s pension plan is severely underfunded and in “critical status.” According to the federal government, if a plan is in critical status, it has “funding or liquidity problems or both” and “adjustable benefits may be reduced and no lump sum distributions can be made.”
Click here to see for yourself: SEIU’s pension plan for workers is in “critical status” and in “the red zone.”
We couldn’t count on SEIU’s pension plan because SEIU has left it weak and financially unstable, even though the pension plan that covers SEIU bureaucrats like Dave Regan, who makes $300,000 a year, is stable and fully funded.
Even without these problems, SEIU’s pension plan was worth barely enough for a tank of gas a month. I’m 51 years old, and I’ve been working for SFNC for 9 years. According to SEIU’s own calculations in a letter sent to me last year, by the time I retired at age 65 with 23 years of employment at SFNC, I would have received a total of $42.50 per month from SEIU’s pension plan.
That’s not good enough.
When we bargained our contract with NUHW, we voted to switch to a 401(k) because staying in SEIU’s broke pension plan was a risk to our families’ futures. We’re glad we settled a new contract that won us raises, protected our health benefits and put our retirement on a stable footing again.
There’s a reason thousands of healthcare workers are voting to leave SEIU and to join NUHW. In NUHW, we make our own decisions and we know what’s best for ourselves and our families.
At San Francisco Nursing Center, we’re proud to be united in NUHW.
In unity and strength,
Marilyn Aquino, Certified Nursing Assistant, San Francisco Nursing Center
National Union of Healthcare Workers