Posted by Lou on June 12, 2010
This Thursday, June 18, our general membership meeting will be held in the 3rd floor cafeteria of 235 Promenade St. There is no major news on the agenda as of right now. If you have something you would like to discuss, feel free to contact us.
Following up on something Ken DeLorenzo and I have mentioned, the Council is working on creating a Next Wave committee to cater to the interests of younger members. To that end, I have created a Facebook page for the Council 94 Next Wave group. You can also stay connected with the Council via the Council 94 Facebook page. If you would like more information about AFSCME’s Next Wave movement, see the AFSCME Next Wave website.
If you are interested in being part of the Next Wave movement, please contact me for more information. Whether you are interested or not, if you under 35 years old, and a member of Local 2881, please fill out this survey and return it to me. I’d consider it a personal favor, and probably even buy you a beer for your trouble!
Posted by Lou on April 9, 2010
This month’s general membership meeting will be held on Thursday, April 15 in the third floor cafeteria at 235 Promenade Street. Council 94 Executive Director, Ken DeLorenzo, will be attending to answer any questions you may have regarding the pension lawsuit and proposed reforms. As usual, the meeting starts at 4:20pm. Hope to see you there.
Posted by Lou on November 10, 2009
This month’s general membership meeting is going to be held on Thursday, November 19 at 4:15pm. The meeting will be in the 3rd floor cafeteria of the Foundry building (235 Promenade St., Providence). There will be an update regarding the pension reform lawsuit, among other business. Please make every effort to attend.
Posted by Lou on September 2, 2009
Last Thursday, Local 2881 hosted an open house regarding the pension changes outlined in the most recent budget. Although the attendance was disappointing, sister Paula Therrien (with input from non-member Leo Hellested) had the following information to pass along to all.
Paula said:
I felt I learned a lot at yesterday afternoon’s meeting with Frank Caprio, State Treasurer, and Frank Karpinski, Executive Director of the Employees Retirement System. I thought I’d pass along a few things. There were some people from our office that also went that may want to add to, correct or comment on this email. Please do…. and copy us all.
1. If you are a Schedule A person now, you will still be able to accrue credits to 80% after Sept 30th, though it will be at the Schedule B rates.
2. The Consumer Price Index has been 2.8 or 2.9 % for some years now….this may be some comfort to those whose COLA will be the lower of 3% or the CPI.
3. Your age of eligibility to retire will be set as of this Sept 30th. The formula uses eligibility dates that will not be in force after Sept 30th (that is, 28 years at any age or 10 years and 60 years of age for Schedule A and 29 years at 59 or 10 years and 65 for Schedule B)
4. You do not have to buy the furlough days back to use them as time accrued toward retirement. But you do have to buy them back if you want to keep your earnings the same as if there had not been furlough days and this is important if you will be using this year in your top 3 or top 5 years for pension calculation purposes. (If you are thinking that 12 days can’t make much difference over a 3 or 5 year average….do the math….you’ll be surprised how valuable those days will be to you….every year of your life after retirement). You will be charged the 8.75% rate to buy those days back, not the 20+ % actuarial cost rate that will be in effect for buying back other service credits after Sept 30. And if you buy the time back within a year you are charged no interest. So, for instance, I plan to buy the 12 days back next summer sometime after the last furlough day and before the anniversary of the first furlough day this year (Sept 4th is the governor’s first planned day, I think).
5. The retirement fund has $6.5 billion in it. The state is 10 years into a 30 year plan to fully fund it (it is now 55-57% funded). So the state has to make extra payments to do that. The state pays about 20% of our salaries to the retirement fund and needs to do so for 20 more years.
They gave the contact phone number for questions as 457-3900
And Leo responded:
To clarify my understanding – Any buy back time requested after June 13th, 2009 (ie: the date the law was signed & already passed), must be purchased at full actuarial value (except the furlough days Paula was referring to – they appear to be in a separate category). That value is huge – much more than the 8.75% you contribute, and probably in the 18 to 20% range OF YOUR CURRENT SALARY. It’s based on your current age/salary, and will vary.
The benefit of purchasing that time before Sept 30th, is to get credit for it before that deadline, which will be used to calculate how much more you have to work (ie – it changes your years under schedule A, versus how much more under B). If it get’s to an eligible age (i.e. 28 years and/or 10 years & 60), it’s worth it, but the cost is high. Otherwise you have to do the math, and decide. They do have re-payment plans as well, but at about 8 to 9 % interest.
Hope this info helps – leo
The flyer that was distributed at the meeting can be viewed here: Pension Change Examples.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us, or the phone number given at the meeting: 457-3900.
Posted by Lou on August 20, 2009
Brothers and Sisters, Local 2881 is hosting an open house on the recent pension changes. General Treasurer Frank Caprio and Executive Director of the pension system Frank Karpinski will be attending to discuss the changes and answer questions. The meeting will be held Thursday, August 27 at 4:15pm in the 3rd floor cafeteria at 235 Promenade St. in Providence.
Please make every effort to attend, and feel free to spread the word.
View the announcement flyer
