00:00 - The following program

00:02 - is sponsored in part by

00:03 - customer's bank.

00:13 - Christ in hand president of the pa association of

00:17 - retired state employees

00:19 - tell us about the jobs your membership held

00:22 - before they retired.

00:26 - Yes hi thank you for having me today and i just wanted to say yes

00:31 - we have a wide variety of members

00:34 - and all of our members were

00:36 - retired state employees

00:38 - that include some of the members that were professors

00:41 - and teachers and

00:44 - everything that this dated from auditors to

00:48 - forest.

00:50 - Managers and.

00:52 - Maintenance supervisors we ran the gamut.

00:56 - Chris in your group went on a mission to help a specific class

01:01 - of employees kind of a

01:02 - a subset

01:04 - of your group

01:05 - what did they have in common.

01:09 - They all retired before the year two thousand and one.

01:12 - So many of these members are.

01:16 - In the older

01:17 - generation of our demographic and they have been retired the longest and have gone

01:23 - the longest without any kind of cost of living increase.

01:28 - So this group that retired

01:30 - in two thousand and one

01:32 - why have they been treated differently

01:35 - than other members of your association.

01:40 - These

01:40 - people retired under a contract before what they call act nine happened

01:45 - act nine

01:47 - refers to an act where the

01:50 - the

01:50 - current state employees in two thousand and two

01:53 - went from a two percent

01:55 - and.

01:57 - Match two at two point five and so there was

02:00 - an increase in the amount of contributions

02:04 - and that that both at.

02:06 - The state and the.

02:08 - An

02:09 - employee could make so before this

02:12 - it was only a two percent so they didn't have as much in their retirement fund as

02:17 - people post two thousand and two

02:19 - why Kristin was this group excluded from enjoying the same benefits as other members.

02:27 - It was just a timing thing it was that's when the

02:29 - act passed so they had to make a cut and say okay

02:32 - people that are here from now on will have a two point five percent.

02:37 - And now that the new state budget is in place

02:40 - it has good news for the state workers we're talking about today and

02:45 - tell us to summarize what happened.

02:48 - Well.

02:50 - Thanks to some very diligent representatives and senators and

02:54 - definitely senator ferry and

02:56 - senate and representative.

02:58 - Allegory

02:59 - they pushed hard to try and get this attached to the state budget this year

03:04 - along with an act that helped support

03:07 - our police officer hers

03:09 - are firefighters and other

03:11 - public employees.

03:13 - Now

03:14 - let's talk more about the cola or the cost of

03:16 - living adjustments that they were pushing for

03:19 - and eventually got now again this class of employees

03:23 - they retired before July second

03:26 - two thousand and one

03:27 - and a

03:28 - about well about how big a cola or cost of living adjustment

03:32 - they're going to receive under the new state budget.

03:36 - Depending on when they retired whether it's two thousand and one

03:41 - they if they retired in two thousand and one

03:42 - then they would get a fifteen percent increase.

03:46 - The longer you've been retired the

03:48 - higher the increase it goes all the way back to nineteen eighty two

03:52 - and that would be a twenty four point five percent increase so a fifteen percent

03:57 - increase on a twenty thousand dollar a year pension

04:00 - i would

04:01 - end up being around three hundred dollars a month added to their

04:05 - their monthly income which is huge for this group.

04:09 - Of Christian as you are waging this campaign on behalf of this

04:13 - subset of employees

04:15 - you had proposed for paying

04:18 - the

04:18 - for the new cola the cost of

04:21 - living adjustment

04:22 - by using interest

04:23 - that was earned on the rainy day fund that was your idea before.

04:28 - The.

04:30 - Current budget took it into consideration

04:32 - and so what ultimately that's what you wanted to do

04:35 - so what did he happen.

04:38 - What did happen was it was just added to the budget so there's there's no extra

04:42 - money being taken out of the employers

04:46 - and budget line items so it was.

04:50 - Added right into the budget which makes it.

04:53 - Much better and

04:55 - it also hopefully leaves us available to use the rainy day interests idea on

05:01 - a bigger cola in the future for everyone.

05:05 - So

05:05 - Chris and give us an idea of how big a difference the new callers

05:09 - will make for this retired class of employees

05:12 - i mean that must have been great news when they heard about it.

05:16 - Yes it is it's a it's a huge difference and

05:20 - an extra three hundred dollars a month that would

05:22 - be kind of like the minimum that they would get.

05:25 - Based on calculations

05:27 - you know the average annual pension for many of

05:29 - these folks is around twenty thousand dollars

05:33 - so if you put in a fifteen percent inc crease on that

05:37 - and you'll end up making

05:39 - about two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars extra a month which would be

05:43 - a huge improvement to try and help buy groceries

05:46 - and hopefully these people won't have to choose

05:48 - between buying medication or buying food anymore.

05:51 - Now Christian you lobbied government and you got what you want

05:55 - so tell us how'd you do it.

05:59 - Meeting with a lot of representatives and

06:02 - we also invited our representatives to meet

06:04 - with our chapters which was great because they

06:08 - are interested in being there and our chapters

06:10 - were able to get together and talk to them about

06:13 - some of the pain they're feeling with this inflation lately

06:16 - and just how long it's been without

06:18 - do any kind of cost of living increase for them

06:22 - i know that i talked to Patti Kim directly and

06:24 - she was very moved when she met with a chapter

06:26 - two to talk with them and and hear their concerns so

06:31 - the chapter members reaching out to the representatives

06:34 - was a huge amount of the effort

06:36 - i met with a few individually

06:38 - and wrote it off op ed piece

06:40 - and so that's also helpful but

06:43 - the real winners with the chapter members that have reached out

06:46 - and Kristen i am interested in pursuing that lawmakers and your membership

06:51 - meeting

06:51 - just how many meetings.

06:53 - Happened and

06:54 - how informal where they tried to give me

06:57 - a feel for what it was like to be in the room during these meetings that obviously

07:01 - you say made

07:02 - a big impression on lawmakers.

07:06 - Yeah so we have twenty seven chapters across the state

07:09 - and they have several meetings a year

07:12 - and each time they have a meeting they get together and they talk about.

07:16 - Issues that they're facing they talk about.

07:20 - Fundraisers and things like that that they can do to help the community

07:24 - they're a huge part of the community eighty

07:26 - and they're a great community for each other

07:28 - and so these meetings are really great and to then invite a representative to and

07:33 - representative can get them informed on

07:36 - on topics that impact them and then they're also able to communicate that to

07:41 - the representative or senators so that they can get.

07:45 - Feedback from members it

07:47 - was

07:47 - very informal but it's a nice chance for them to get a chance to talk together

07:51 - and with this victory

07:53 - under your belt what is next on your radar for your membership.

07:59 - Definitely pushing for a cost of living increase for all of the

08:03 - members

08:04 - and not just

08:06 - the ones that retired or

08:08 - are

08:08 - previous to two thousand and one

08:10 - and

08:11 - Oliver efforts have been around trying to

08:13 - get a cola for everyone over the past years.

08:17 - This was nice to be able to

08:19 - get a subset that needed it the most

08:22 - done right away

08:24 - which is fantastic but it

08:25 - will not

08:27 - slow down our efforts to try and get a cost of living increase for everyone they used

08:32 - to have cost of living increases pretty regularly.

08:35 - Before two thousand and one it was about every four years three or four years years

08:39 - there would be a cost of living increase all the

08:41 - way back to you know looking into the eighties and

08:45 - and so we want to try and bring some of that back so that there's a little more

08:50 - and.

08:52 - Attention paid to the cost of living increase for all state employees

08:56 - Christian hand president of the pa assos creation of retired state employees

09:01 - thank you for your time.

09:04 - Thank you for having me.

09:08 - Hmm.