Union members in Minneapolis and St. Paul joined thousands of workers across the country Thursday in demonstrating outside investment offices during a national "Day of Action" to save Social Security.
Workers leafleted at the Charles Schwab Corp. offices in downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. Investment firms such as Schwab and the Wachovia Corp. were targeted because they stand to gain billions of dollars in fees from managing privatized Social Security accounts. Many of the firms are lobbying on behalf of the Bush proposal to create private accounts.
The Social Security trust fund can be easily shored up without threatening the system by creating private accounts, workers said.
"We think Social Security can be fixed by raising the cap on taxable earnings versus privatization," said Shari Wojtowicz, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250. "If everyone paid their fair share, instead of just the working class, there wouldn't be a problem."
Wojtowicz and several other CWA members carried signs reading "Don?t Pick Our Pockets To Line Yours" as they talked to people on the sidewalk in front of the downtown Minneapolis Schwab office.
Dan Hamilton, an AT&T employee and steward for Local 7250, said he fears the Bush plan for diverting Social Security contributions into private accounts would expose working families to too much risk.
"If the stock market drops, and we don't have something, then it's our personal problem," he said of the scheme to create private accounts.
"Everybody here works, everybody here puts into Social Security. We should know it's going to be there when our time comes."
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Dan Hamilton, standing outside the downtown Minneapolis Schwab office, says private accounts are just too risky. Minneapolis Labor Review photo |
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Brian Tyler and Bree Halvorson say young people are concerned about maintaining Social Security so that it will be available to them when they retire. Private accounts threaten that security, they said as they demonstrated in downtown St. Paul. Workday Minnesota photo |
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Members of CWA Local 7250, joined by other unions, carried signs and passed out information outside the Schwab office in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis Labor Review photo |
Reported by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review, with additional information from the national AFL-CIO.
For more information
Visit the national AFL-CIO's special section on Social Security, www.aflcio.org
Union members in Minneapolis and St. Paul joined thousands of workers across the country Thursday in demonstrating outside investment offices during a national “Day of Action” to save Social Security.
Workers leafleted at the Charles Schwab Corp. offices in downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis. Investment firms such as Schwab and the Wachovia Corp. were targeted because they stand to gain billions of dollars in fees from managing privatized Social Security accounts. Many of the firms are lobbying on behalf of the Bush proposal to create private accounts.
The Social Security trust fund can be easily shored up without threatening the system by creating private accounts, workers said.
“We think Social Security can be fixed by raising the cap on taxable earnings versus privatization,” said Shari Wojtowicz, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250. “If everyone paid their fair share, instead of just the working class, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
Wojtowicz and several other CWA members carried signs reading “Don?t Pick Our Pockets To Line Yours” as they talked to people on the sidewalk in front of the downtown Minneapolis Schwab office.
Dan Hamilton, an AT&T employee and steward for Local 7250, said he fears the Bush plan for diverting Social Security contributions into private accounts would expose working families to too much risk.
“If the stock market drops, and we don’t have something, then it’s our personal problem,” he said of the scheme to create private accounts.
“Everybody here works, everybody here puts into Social Security. We should know it’s going to be there when our time comes.”
|
Dan Hamilton, standing outside the downtown Minneapolis Schwab office, says private accounts are just too risky. Minneapolis Labor Review photo |
|
Brian Tyler and Bree Halvorson say young people are concerned about maintaining Social Security so that it will be available to them when they retire. Private accounts threaten that security, they said as they demonstrated in downtown St. Paul. Workday Minnesota photo |
|
Members of CWA Local 7250, joined by other unions, carried signs and passed out information outside the Schwab office in downtown Minneapolis. Minneapolis Labor Review photo |
Reported by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review, with additional information from the national AFL-CIO.
For more information
Visit the national AFL-CIO’s special section on Social Security, www.aflcio.org