THIS IS THE TRUTH, WAKE UP PEOPLE! No One’s Dawdling This is the Detroit Fire Fighters Association (DFFA) Executive Board’s response to The Detroit News’ April 2, 2014 Editorial Detroit, MI – We’re the Executive Board of the DFFA -- a nearly 900-member Union that has proudly and honorably served Detroit citizens for over 81 years. This responds to your scolding April 2 editorial. You tell City retirees and active City employees with vested pensions, which includes DFFA members, to take the Emergency Manager’s (EM) latest bankruptcy deal before it gets worse. Your editorial is inaccurate and misleading. First, it profoundly understates the pension cuts the City seeks to impose on active fire fighters -- regardless of whether we agree with the City’s Plan of Adjustment or not. Let’s be clear: the City currently seeks total pension cuts of 32% for active, vested fire fighters if we resist the City’s cuts. If we agree, we get a 24% pension cut. (Your editorial only casually mentions the loss of COLA -- an earned and indispensable pension benefit because DFFA members don’t have Social Security.) So, your reference to pension cuts of “just 6 percent” is wrong. Now, Pause for a Moment: a 32% pension cut is nearly one-third of an individual’s vested benefit. And, let’s call these pension cuts, at whatever level, what they really are: a belated City demand for a refund (or “claw-back”) of its fire fighters’ earned pay. After all, our vested pension benefits are merely a deferred payment for the labor we already gave the City. While seeking these appalling pension cuts, the City won’t assure its fire fighters that they’ll have any health insurance in retirement. And, it reserves the unilateral right to reduce, without limits, active fire fighters’ health care during their City employment. You don’t need to be an actuary to understand the inadequacy of these reduced pensions in this hostile context. Second, you claim that the City is frustrated with the pace of “bargaining.” In fact, the City is not bargaining. It’s true that the City has met with the DFFA. But, the City has publicly made clear that it’s not engaged in collective bargaining. Why doesn’t the City bargain? Because it doesn’t have to. It’s got the “whip-hand.” For bankruptcy-related matters, including our current pensions, the City threatens a bankruptcy “cram-down.” Going forward, the City can impose or “cram-down” employment terms under Public Act 436 -- the State statute that whizzed through the State legislature and was signed by Governor Snyder just 51 days after the Michigan citizenry repealed the earlier Emergency Manager Statute. The City has enthusiastically exercised its PA 436 rights. In fact, in its recently-filed POA, the City boasts about its unrestricted “right” to impose terms and conditions upon its current employees. Given this obvious City leverage, it’s hard to believe it’s “frustrated” with the pace of bargaining. Third, your editorial claims that everyone will suffer if the money from the foundations, the DIA and the State goes away. This is false logic. We don’t dismiss this offer -- the so-called “grand bargain”. But, we recognize its real purpose -- that is, to prevent the liquidation of the DIA art -- and that its a shockingly small amount when compared to the total value of the DIA art. Of course, this “gift” comes with suspicious, agenda-driven conditions utterly unrelated to the City’s financial condition. The EM, as the State’s agent, chose this grizzly business of bankruptcy. They warned us about the City’s dire finances and predicted how painful the decisions will be for everyone. So be it. But, they apparently don’t have the stomach for bankruptcy’s “killing floor” when it comes to the DIA. Elevating the City’s art above earned pensions and health care, the EM and the State believe art should be immune from bankruptcy’s ugly bloodletting. So, when it comes to the DIA, the EM and the State want only “bankruptcy-lite.” We appreciate the City’s art collection. Its importance should not be understated. But stated bluntly, art is a luxury. It’s not an essential, like food and health care. No one can quibble with this obvious truth. Disregarding this difference between essentials and luxuries, the City and your editorial now lecture active fire fighters and others on their “moral” duty to sacrifice their hard-earned pensions for the “greater good.” The DFFA members serve Detroit’s citizens. We’ve done so, without hesitation, even while the City cut our wages (over 10%), our health care, and trashed our lawfully-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. The DFFA stands ready to do the right thing in bankruptcy -- both for its members and Detroit citizens. But, at a minimum, let’s get the facts right and let’s properly and fairly share the burden.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 14:48:04 +0000
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