USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

Representing  employees at Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Strattec Security Corp. in Milwaukee, WI

Membership Meeting 

Sunday July 25th, 2010

USW Local 2-232 Office

8500 W. Capital Dr.  LL 101  Milwaukee 

9:30a.m.

Election for Trustee at Large 

will take place during this meeting.

  Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.

Social Security Healthy

A new government report shows that Social Security and Medicare are healthier than ever. This is a boost to working families’ campaign against President George W. Bush’s plans to privatize the country’s most important family protection programs. The Social Security trustees’ annual report, released March 26, calculates that the Social Security Trust Fund is solvent until 2041. This is three years longer than estimated last year.

"This year’s report presents a very different picture than the gloom-and-doom scenarios privatization proponents have used to justify their calls for drastically restructuring the program," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

After meeting behind closed doors, in December Bush’s hand-picked Social Security privatization commission recommended three proposals that would turn the program’s life time guaranteed benefits into a Wall Street gamble, requiring cutting benefits, raising the retirement age or both — all while not improving the solvency of the trust fund.

The Medicare Trust Fund is solvent until 2016, says the trustees’ report. This is one year longer than estimated last year. Bush and his congressional allies have squandered funds that could have been used to bolster Medicare on a tax cut for the wealthy, while working families have been campaigning for a comprehensive drug benefit for the elderly.

"To truly address the needs of workers, Congress and the president should take privatization off the table and get down to the real business of strengthening Social Security for future generations," Sweeney said. "In the wake of Enron’s collapse, huge losses in the stock market over the last two years and the lingering employment crisis, workers need a guaranteed benefit they can count on in retirement more than ever before."

From Work in Progress published by AFL-CIO