Today's Blog: Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie My husband and I and a couple hundred friends watched in Green Bay as ...(more) Search Archives

Blogs

Time for the Guv to morph into Chris Christie (6/28/2011)

Time for Gov. Walker to talk more about the cake (3/4/2011)

Today, reality hits home (3/1/2011)

FoxPolitics News going on hiatus (1/28/2011)

Brown County Executive candidate forum Feb. 8 (1/28/2011)

Education done right (1/27/2011)

To Obama, the ‘We’ is Government (1/27/2011)

(more)

Companies eager to conserve cash are trimming their contributions to their workers’ 401(k) retirement plans, putting a new strain on America’s tattered safety net at the very moment when many workers are watching their accounts plummet along with the stock market.

When the FedEx Corporation slimmed down its pension plan last year, it softened the blow by offering workers enriched 401(k) contributions to make up for the pension benefits some would lose. But last week, with Americans sending fewer parcels and FedEx’s revenue growth at a standstill, the company said it would suspend all of its contributions for at least a year.

....Coming weeks and months will challenge union employees in particular and government workers in general even more.

The state is facing a $5.4 billion deficit. It cost the Wausau School District $1 million this year just to keep employee health benefits at the same level as the previous year, and the district expects to start the next budget process a couple of million dollars in the red.

....To keep raises and benefits at the levels employees have come to enjoy, [Weston Administrator] Zuleger said he would have to cut jobs. So would every other municipality and school district.

Alternatively, government employees can do the same thing that the people paying their salaries are doing: Suck it up.

We're not getting pay raises -- certainly not those to which we've become accustomed. We're not getting cost-of-living adjustments. Most of us are paying more toward our health insurance, and maybe seeing our deductibles and co-pays go up.

If government employees don't take a step into the world of those who pay their salaries, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot -- and sending that approval rating even lower.

Post a Reply

Print this Article

Email Article to a Friend