Largest Nurses Strike in US History - Replacement Nurses Arrive - Your opinion

[girlvet]

12,000 nurses in minneapolis are going to vote on whether to strike next wednesday. This would be the largest nurse strike in US history. It looks like we WILL vote to strike. The employer is trying to take back 30 years of gains nurses have made here for safe patient care. They are trying to cut our pension by 30 percent, change our health insurance among other things. We need your support with this. This is going on across the country and nurses have to stand up for each other! If you think this won't come to your hospital, you are wrong. Support your fellow nurses.

For more info go to http://www.mnnurses.org/

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Funny thing is, I'll bet there are hundreds of nurses in our country who would gladly take the jobs of the nurses in MN as we speak. By the way, interesting story in the news today about union pensions ruining the economy of multiple states. Guess that's what happens when you need a Nanny State to handle your retirement for you instead of saving for yourself.

Defined benefit pensions should be the standard for all American workers. See:

And governments are concerned about delivering on the promises that they have made to their citizens and to their employees as tax revenues shrink amid a weakening economy. In this environment, some have proposed replacing traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions with 401(k)-type defined contribution (DC) retirement savings plans in an effort to save money.

But decision-makers would be wise to look before they leap. To deliver the same level of retirement benefits, a DB plan can do the job at almost half the cost of a DC plan. Hence, DB plans should remain an integral part of retirement income security in an increasingly uncertain world because they offer employers and employees the best bang for the buck.

http://www.nirsonline.org/storage/nirs/documents/Bang%20for%20the%20Buck%20Report.pdf

As usual the data shows that libertarian claims don't stand up to scrutiny.

(FWIW the unions are actively working with the states to solve pension problems through increasing contributions, modifying multipliers, and changing retirement ages....) Small d organizations work to improve the conditions for workers through a democratic process....

[POTR]

And for the record, I support the strike.

[NickB]

Funny how small d organizations work to improve the conditions for workers....

I improve my own working conditions instead of crying to some big brother to do it for me. It's that whole personal responsibility thing I've got going here.

Funny how I have retirement savings and never contributed a dime to any union. Guess I'm just more responsible.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

I improve my own working conditions instead of crying to some big brother to do it for me. It's that whole personal responsibility thing I've got going here.

Funny how I have retirement savings and never contributed a dime to any union. Guess I'm just more responsible.

Your retirement savings would be worth 30% more if you had a defined benefit plan. If you average 6%/year ROR your mutual fund company will take between 1-2% of this for "administrative" costs. That is 15-30% of the gains that you received. Defined Benefit pensions operate on much narrower margins of costs. That translates into more money to support worker retirement benefits in the future.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

I am a future state of MN retiree. My pension contributions increased along with the new hires over the last couple years of my employment there. If you take the time to look up the pension fix passed by the MN Legislature everyone is sharing in the pain. Post retirement increases are frozen above a given rate as a means of bringing the funds back into balance. Reduced interest is paid on those (who unwisely) apply for refunds. Return averaging occurs over more years, vesting periods increase. Multipliers were changed for the correctional plan but not the General plan.

The DB pension is still a very good deal for workers. (Add in that Deferred compensation operates with expense ratios of under 1% and employees are still doing well. The Retirement Board has declared at least 3 fee holidays that I know of in the last few years for employees. I have never seen a 401 k/Roth IRA do that.

Employees through their unions were given input on developing the fixes and the resulting pain of fixing the plan was a shared responsibility rather than dumped completely on the back of employees.

The MNA DB plan can and should be fixed by a partnership between beneficiaries and the hospitals just like the state plans. DB plans save hospitals and beneficiaries money in the long run.

Pension fixes were designed by the retirement board with union, legislative and management input and not unilaterally imposed.

[POTR]

Eh, my 401K took a dip of approx 2% and recovered in 1Q, due to my own restructuring, back when most of the passive investors sat around and watched their managed funds loose 30-50%.

I'll take care of my own, thank you. Allowing fund managers to ride your nest egg into the ground is almost as ignorant as allowing yourself no control over it by turning it over completely to randomly selected union bosses who make decisions based on favors and their own personal 'good ol' boy/girl' politics.

My dad was a 5 decade union member, and I have been a member of unions myself. I've done better without supporting the support structure.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

As I said the DB pension provides a better average retirement income stream than the 401 k system. (I specifically discussed how MN implemented fixes to its DB plans for state workers as a model to work on concerns that MNA pension system may have. Pensions are a portion of the compensation plan for these nurses.) Despite the comments about "union bosses" the pension plans are under a trusteeship system that protects th beneficiaries.

The 401 k system is broken and does not provide for adequate retirement income for beneficiaries.

Its better public policy to have DB pensions. For those who do not we need to have a GRA system. See: Guaranteed Retirement Accounts: Toward retirement income security | Agenda for Shared Prosperity .

The MNA pension contribution issue is important because it is part of the compensation plan.

[NickB]

Your retirement savings would be worth 30% more if you had a defined benefit plan. If you average 6%/year ROR your mutual fund company will take between 1-2% of this for "administrative" costs. That is 15-30% of the gains that you received. Defined Benefit pensions operate on much narrower margins of costs. That translates into more money to support worker retirement benefits in the future.

You may be right, but Unions that are fighting for people's pensions to remain high are running state economies into the ground. By the way, I'm on the Dave Ramsey plan.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Merged threads.

[OC_An Khe]

Defined benefit pensions are only worth more to the employee IF they stay with a single employer for the majority of their career and that majority of time spent with the employer is at the end of the career. It is how they work. That said if your employer currently provides a DB pension it is worth fighting to keep as the security it potentially offers is very advantageous to the long term employee. Ideally you negotiate for both types of retirement programs from your employer as the DC retirement programs also have their advantages.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

THe MNA pension plan is actually portable across hospital systems. IOW nurses/employers are contributing to an independent pension plan. An RN working at one system for 5 years doesn't lose pension credits by moving to another covered position within another hospital system.

[DonWallace]

The message from Minnesota is really simple... the hospitals need to provide support for the RN's to provide SAFE patient care. The only way that we can do this is by supporting eachother and standing up for our profession. The nurses that cross the picket lines are compromising this for us!!!! If no one would come to help out the hospitals (you are really not helping the patients) then they would be forced to settle. There were so many non contract RN's running around here the day of the one day strike that are never visible otherwise and made it work, so we know they can do it. Just a friendly request to not sign on with the contract hosptials it benefits you, me, and all of our patients!!!! Please!!!!!