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THINK ABOUT IT
Second in a
series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors
WHAT’S IN A NUMBER?
What is the United
Engineers Party’s fascination with numbers? We keep hearing about
how much diesel fuel is used at the training site. Well, what in
the world is this supposed to tell us? Perhaps they should be
figuring out how much would be used if the thousands of members who
can’t make it way over to the site were able to use the site’s
machines to improve their skills.
Then they tell us about
the number of miles put on their business agents’ cars? Is it
supposed to impress us that many of their agents drive around all
day, every day, trying to find something to do other than to lie to
and intimidate our members? I must admit, though, that at this
point I’m a little confused, since every time I’ve been at the
offices at Countryside, half of the parking lot is filled with Crown
Vics. I can’t quite figure that one out.
Then there are the
ever-changing numbers related to the pension fund. Let me simplify
this for you. Despite the record amount of contributions that have
been made, there is less money coming in than is going out, and
investments are not making up the difference. Result – underfunding
due to poor investment choices. Period.
Don’t let them try to
tell you that it’s the government’s fault for changing everything.
These governmental changes were made to give a more updated,
realistic view of a fund’s performance.
I would like to join
their little game and give you something to think about. Here are
some numbers you definitely won’t hear from the UEP. You or I can
invest money in a bank and receive a guaranteed rate of return of 5%
on the investment (5-year CD for amounts over $10,000). A 5%
investment return on 3 billion dollars is 150 million dollars a
year; but “professionals” that we paid to invest our money
lost money. Who the hell is watching out for our pensions?
One of their slyest
little numbers games is the number of permits they have issued and
the number of cards they have sold in the last 6 months or so;
thousands to be exact. I’m sure that these numbers really excite
those thousands of members who were then, and are still, waiting to
be called back to work. (I’ll cover this issue in more depth in a
future newsletter).
Well, at least we know
someone on Dugan’s team knows how to count. The fact is, however,
that we can’t count on them to figure out, much less fix, the things
that really matter.
THINK
ABOUT IT.
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