Briefing Book

White House Conference

American Federation of Teachers 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20001-2079 202-879-4400 Sandra Feldman, President Edward J. McElroy, Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour, Executive Vice President Statement on Social Security Reform Below are the principles adopted by the American Federation of Teachers which will guide our union in working to develop a program to assure the financial stability of the Social Security system for the next 75 years. It is our strongly held belief that the maintenance of the Social Security benefit is essential to protect future beneficiaries as well as assuring future workers that reasonable benefits will be there for them when they retire. For more than 60 years, social Security has been the most successful and broadly supported federal government program providing basic living standards to thousands of our parents and grandparents, and raising many retiree households out of poverty. Further, Social Security is one of the pillars of retirement income for American workers and provides guaranteed retirement, survivorship and disability protection to more than 44 million Americans at all stages of life. Finally, the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund estimates that the Trust Funds will be solvent for the next 30 years, providing time to discuss and examine alternative solutions with deliberation and care. The American Federation of Teachers believes that any proposed remedies should meet the following principles: Consider solutions within the existing Social Security structure that maintain economic security for current and future generations by guaranteeing an inflation-adjusted retirement income that permits older family members to live in dignity and reduces the economic burden on younger family members of caring for their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters. Provide universal insurance protections for dependent and surviving children and spouses of a deceased family wage earner as well as disabled and retired workers. Reject radical solutions, like using Social Security resources to finance private accounts that require significant reductions in guaranteed benefits or increases the retirement age. Maintain a larger share of past earnings for low-income workers, as in the present system, and continue to provide larger benefits to workers who earn higher wages during their careers. Support covered workers who expect to receive Social Security benefits after a career of work and non-covered workers by maintaining their anticipated non-Social Security benefits on which they base their employment decisions. Support President Clinton's proposal to use the federal budget surplus to strengthen the current Social Security system. Support pension coverage for all workers who do not have a pension and provide for adequate benefits and funding for workers with pension coverage. Finally, there is a proposal that is of special concern to our union. That proposal is to mandate Social Security coverage for presently uncovered state and local employees. While this proposal sounds reasonable, it ignores the fact that on average both local governments and workers each contribute 8 percent of their wages to finance local retirement systems. Forcing each to pay an additional 6.2 percent for Social Security could lead to the dismantling of state retirement systems, placing in jeopardy the benefits of current state and local retirees as well as those of future state and local retirees. This proposal should not be considered. AFT looks forward to working on a equitable Social Security reform package. Social Security is one of our greatest achievements as a nation, and it must be preserved. SF:cmw opeiu#2afl-cio