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Labor has its Day with November in mind

Source: West Virginia Metro News

MARMET, W.Va. — Before the Labor Day parade in Marmet began Monday morning, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., stood beside local union members and United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts for a photo.

After the photos were taken, Manchin talked to a handful of people about the importance of protecting the federal health care law as well as pensions for union members.

“We’re all in this together,” he said.

Manchin is in the midst of a challenging reelection campaign; political analysts consider the contest between the senator and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to be a toss-up or leans Democrat, although polling has favored Manchin.

While Morrisey spent much of Monday campaigning in the Eastern Panhandle, Manchin was in Marmet for the parade and Racine in Boone County in the afternoon for the UMWA District 17’s annual picnic.

“I need your help,” Manchin told the crowd. “This is not a West Virginia race; this is a national race. They’re spending millions of dollars from all over the country against me. I understand that. They just don’t care at all. They don’t know who we are, and they’re not going to wait to find out.”

For Roberts and the UMWA, the Senate race in West Virginia is a top priority.

“Joe Manchin has been a champion of our pension legislation, along with (Republican Sen.) Shelley Moore Capito and a handful of others,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Joe Manchin, there would be thousands of West Virginians without health care today.”

Congress approved a resolution in May 2017 that included a permanent solution for funding health care for coal miners, including more than 22,000 coal miners in West Virginia. The chamber did not reach a solution for funding pensions.

Manchin is a member of the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans, who is responsible for finding a solution to fund pensions by the end of the year. Around 1.5 million Americans will be affected if lawmakers fail to act, including 86,000 coal miners..

“It’s slow-rolling, and it’s a shame,” Manchin said of the committee’s work. “Thank God we got health care. Took us three years. This is ridiculous.”

Roberts agreed the efforts have not been moving forward as quickly as it should.

“If there’s a big wave election in early November, I think many people will see the handwriting on the wall and try to come to some kind of compromise to try to protect these pensions for coal miners,” he said.

“Even if it doesn’t happen, I’m very confident the right thing will be done by Congress because of the lobbying we’ll do and the pressure that will be applied from these coalfield areas and across the United States to protect these pension plans.”

The UMWA endorsed Manchin in March, as well as U.S. Rep. David McKinley in the 1st Congressional District race and state Sen. Richard Ojeda, D-Logan, in the 3rd District contest.

“You cannot keep electing people who don’t vote for you. You can’t,” Roberts told the crowd in Racine. “You vote for somebody that’s not for you, you vote for somebody that won’t vote for you, that’s stupidity. I’m sorry. I’m just sorry.”

“You send me a scab, and he’s going to be a scab when he gets there,” he added.

Ojeda, one of the leading figures of this year’s teachers’ strike, said his campaign centers on representing the working class and unions.

“What they’re trying to do is trying to silence the voice of the union, and unions are starting to wake up,” he said. “The teachers’ strike woke up people across America, and they realized we have the power if we stand together, shoulder-to-shoulder, side-by-side.”

Manchin touched on the teachers’ strike, thanking those who participated in the work stoppage.

“The first time in our lives we’ve ever seen school service personnel, educators and teachers and administrators come together with parents and grandparents to say enough is enough,” he said. “That’s what you did, and you started a national movement.”

Teachers in other states, including Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona marched for increasing pay and benefits.

Ojeda said in Racine his Republican colleagues were startled by protests on the state Capitol steps, which non-education unions supported.

“They said, ‘Oh my. What have we done?’” he said.

The West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers endorsed Manchin, as did the West Virginia Education Association and West Virginia School Service Personnel Association.

“We endorse candidates that believe in the same thing that we believe in,” said Christine Campbell, president of AFT-West Virginia.

“Regardless of party, if everybody believes that people should have affordable health care, a living wage and a secure pension, then those are the people we should be electing.”

Manchin said he is a senator who puts the state’s working people first.

“Who’s going to be there for you? Who’s going to fight for you? Who’s going to understand how we were raised? Who understands the hardships we have? Who’s going to speak up against this and income inequality?” the senator asked the crowd.

“The rich can’t even spend what they got. They’re looking for ways to give money away. I’ll tell you how to give it away: Make sure the person who’s working gets an honest wage. Make sure they get benefits.”

Campbell and Roberts said their organizations will have an active role in the election, including informing voters through canvassing efforts.

Morrisey said in February he opposed the work stoppage and would support legal methods to enforce the law to prevent the teachers’ strike from going forward. He also noted in a release at the time support for raises.

“That was from being from Jefferson County. We saw a lot of teachers migrate over into Loudon County (in Virginia) or over into Maryland. I’ve always thought West Virginia teachers should be paid more to be competitive with states we touch,” he said Monday in a telephone interview.

While labor has backed Manchin, Morrisey’s recent support has come from the business sector; the West Virginia Coal Association and the U.S Chamber of Commerce have announced endorsements for Morrisey.

“People know that we have to continue the progress that we’re making with our economy, and President Trump pushed an important tax bill through that Joe said no to,” the attorney general said. “Joe Manchin says no to West Virginia values. He said no to the Trump tax cuts. He said no to the opportunity zones that are going to be able to lift impoverished communities up.”

Manchin said it is Morrisey’s values that aren’t aligned with those of West Virginians.

“Everything Patrick does is about Washington, whether it’s lobbying for the large pharmaceuticals and large distributors who put all these pills in our state … strictly business model,” Manchin said.

Both the West Virginia Coal Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Manchin in past elections.

Manchin has voted in line with Trump’s agenda more than 60 percent of the time according to FiveThirtyEight, with noteworthy votes against efforts to repeal the federal health care law and the tax bill. Manchin said he is willing to work with anyone — including the president — but he does draw a line somewhere.

“He has to understand I work for the people of West Virginia. The only people I vote for 100 percent of the time is West Virginia,” he said. “That’s a 100 percent voting record for West Virginia.”

Written by: Alex Thomas

Southern West Virginia brings in national labor leaders on Labor Day

Source: Beckley Register-Herald

It would seem that a small park along the Big Coal River in Boone County wouldn’t serve as a national Labor Day celebration location, but with the 2018 general election right around the corner, it was just that.

Hundreds of members from District 17 of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) were drawn to John Slack Park in Racine to hear from UMWA International President Cecil Roberts along with political candidates, most notably U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and state Sen. Richard Ojeda, who is seeking the U.S House of Representatives seat for West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District comprised for the most part of the entirety of southern West Virginia.

Under a blistering September sun, the crowd was warmed up by performers singing labor and Appalachian songs before turning over the microphone to union leaders and political candidates.

While the mine union was central to the festivities, the state’s teaching union leadership was also on hand along with Sara Nelson, the International president for the Association of Flight Attendants, which according to its website represents over 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines.

Nelson told the crowd that she decided to make West Virginia her Labor Day stop in part due to the Mountain State’s labor history, quoting the famous Mother Jones, and the more modern history of this year’s teachers’ strike.

Congratulating the women of various union movements, Nelson introduced Roberts, who also took time to call female union members to the stage.

When Roberts began his speech in earnest, passers-by on Coal River Road could have been confused about whether what they were hearing from the fiery Roberts was an argument or an old-fashioned tent revival.

“I got news for the folks on the other side: This land is our land,” Roberts said, trying to fire up the audience after hearing the famous labor and protest song of that name earlier in the program.

A West Virginia native, veteran and coal miner, Roberts took a swipe at those who run large corporations.
“There ain’t never been no millionaire and no billionaire (that has) outworked somebody from a coal mine or anybody that ever worked for a living at all,” Roberts told the crowd.

Harkening back to the state’s labor struggles, most notably the mine wars, and labor’s success in building up unions across the nation, setting a healthy retirement plan for miners in the 1940s, influencing the passage of mining safety laws and the fight for the recognition of black lung, Roberts asked the crowd why God had chosen West Virginians and Appalachia for the task.
“God knows coal miners can handle it,” Roberts told the audience. “He knows we can handle it.”

While shifting from labor to politics, Roberts gave the crowd some blunt advice.

“You vote for somebody that’s not for you, you vote for somebody that won’t vote for you, that’s stupidity,” Roberts said.
After being introduced by Roberts, Manchin spent time discussing miners’ health and pension benefits.

While praising last year’s securing of health care benefits for miners, Manchin told the crowd that his attention has been turned toward securing the pensions of retired miners.

“We’re going to get that done. We’re going to get that done,” Manchin said.

Shifting paths, Manchin praised the efforts of the state’s unions in the successful teachers’ strike.

“The first time in our life we have seen school service personnel, educators, teachers, administrators come together with the parents and grandparents to say, ‘Enough is enough. We’re going to make sure our kids are going to get the proper education and the people that do it every day are going to be taken care of,'” Manchin said.

Sharing his family’s background in the mines, Manchin talked about an uncle, friends and a neighbor who were killed working in mines.

“You take that and tell me people know who we are, where we come from and all the challenges we’ve had in life,” Manchin told the audience.

Emphasizing that the congressional races in West Virginia had national implications, Manchin played to the underdog role of attempting to win the election as a member of the opposite party of a president who had carried the state by over 40 percentage points.

“The political parties don’t have all the answers, whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican, they’re not always right,” Manchin told the crowd. “Pick the person that you believe in; pick the person you trust.”
Manchin then introduced Ojeda, a newcomer to national politics but a candidate who gained momentum after his support of the teachers’ strike.

“You are worthy,” Ojeda said, opening up his speech. “You are worthy. Think about that.”
Extolling the importance of the working man and woman, Ojeda urged anyone not in a union to join and anyone whose career field does not have a union to create one.

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, chances are you are on the menu,” Ojeda said.
Telling the audience of his family’s connection to mining, a grandfather who worked in the mines into his 70s and another grandfather killed in a mine collapse, along with his family’s connection to the UMWA, Ojeda thanked the audience for listening to him.

“It’s a pleasure to come here,” Ojeda said. “It’s always a pleasure to come here and find myself around people that know what it means to struggle, that know what it means to fight and that know what it means when you’re in a fight and you have to stand there with one another. This is a blessing. This endorsement means more to me than anything because this is my family.”

Ojeda told the audience that he has four uncles currently who live off miner’s pension and if elected he would work with Manchin to attempt to save those pensions because it is such a personal issue to him.

“We will get these coal miners’ pensions taken care of or we will rearrange the furniture on the House and Senate floor,” Ojeda said to the cheers of the crowd.

Written by: Matt Combs

UMWA celebrates 80th annual Labor Day rally

Source: Fox 11 News

BOONE COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — The 80th annual UMWA Labor Day celebration kicked off Monday in Boone County with union workers and politicians out in full force for the event.

“Re-elect people who vote for you,” UMWA President, Cecil E. Roberts shouted.

The United Mine Workers of America was a political powerhouse for the 80th UMWA Labor Day rally.

Roberts said the purpose of the rally is to back Senator Joe Manchin (D) and other democratic candidates in the area. He said it’s important to recognize the contributions of working class people throughout the state of West Virginia.

“We’ve been at a long fight here for healthcare which we’ve partially won and the pensions that we’re going to win. These have been some of the best junior members in the whole United States of America,” Roberts said.

With two months before Election Day, miners their families and retirees want their voices heard.

“It’s important for our way of life I think to keep our voices in the mix,” retired union worker Lonnie Payne told Eyewitness News.

With the big fight this year to preserve union workers pensions.

“If we’re held back and they do stuff to us, to unions, to retired people, to veterans somebody’s got to stand up for us and that’s what i’m here to support and i think we need keep it going and keep it going strong,”

A tradition that will continue for years to come as many celebrate the success of organized labor in the United States.

“This land is your land and more importantly this land is our land and we have to protect it and we have to continue to exercise our rights in our democratic society.”

Written by: RAVEN BROWN

Labor Day rally in Mannington emphasizes importance of unions, American workers

Source: Fairmont News

MANNINGTON – United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, both attended the Labor Day rally held Sunday at Hough Park in Mannington.

The annual event draws hundreds of union members and supporters and also serves as a political rallying point during major election years.

Roberts recognized “all workers” and credited the unions for giving people 40-hour work weeks, overtime pay and health care benefits.

In a prepared statement on the union’s website he said, “Labor Day is a special day to celebrate our union and the difference it has made in our lives. But it can’t be the only day we stand up for our union — and for members of the UMWA, it never is.

“In the last six years more than 100,000 UMWA members, our families and friends have gathered in St. Louis, Charleston, Washington, D.C., Columbus, Ohio, and elsewhere as we fought to secure the lifetime health care and pensions our members have earned and deserve.

“We won half that battle with the preservation of retiree health care benefits for 22,600 people in 2017. Now we need to complete our victory and preserve pension benefits for 86,000 retirees across America,” Roberts said.

As usual, Roberts provided a spark for the crowd on hand, leading chants and calling on union members, their families and other supporters to hold elected officials accountable.

Manchin also drew plenty of enthusiastic response as Roberts calls the 8-year senator the most loyal union supporter in the Halls of Congress.

Manchin, a native of Marion County and former governor, said unions have been important to West Virginians for many years, helping to improve the quality of life.

He said the U.S. is built on the backs of the working men and women, and he will always support their efforts.

Coal mine to reopen near Mount Carmel, employ 30

Source: The Daily Item

MOUNT CARMEL — A coal mine will reopen near Mount Carmel, bringing up to 30 high-paying jobs to the area.

Blaschak Coal Corporation, of Mahanoy City, Schuylkill County, will receive a $1 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to “re-engineer, reopen and redevelop a large reserve of Mammoth” anthracite coal in the mine, according to Gov. Tom Wolf’s office.

The projected 25 to 30 new United Mine Workers of America employees will make wages that are more than double the median household income of the region, Wolf’s office said. The mine, touted by Wolf as “the largest new mining operation in the region,” is expected to be productive for more than 20 years, after which the land will be reclaimed.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Mount Carmel Mayor Philip “Bing” Cimino. “I have friends that work in coal mines, there are local mining operations going on around here.

“This is a big boost. It seems like Mount Carmel is on a good upswing lately, and this is just another added bonus.”

Cimino said Blaschak has a current mine that is about three to four miles from the borough.

Attempts to reach Blaschak officials were unsuccessful Wednesday evening.

“The coal mining industry is what we were founded on,” Cimino said. “Bringing the mines back is a great sign.”

“I will continue to partner with industry and our local communities to ensure that the commonwealth reaps the greatest possible benefit from our resources, so that our communities, our industries, and our workforce can thrive and Pennsylvania will remain competitive in the manufacturing economy,” Wolf said.

Written by: Eric Pehowic

Roberts Elected to Sixth Term Leading UMWA

Source: WV MetroNews

TRIANGLE, Va. — The United Mine Workers of America elected International President Cecil Roberts to a sixth term, the union announced Wednesday.

“I am extremely humbled by this great honor the membership has bestowed upon me, and I stand ready to continue to live up to the tremendous responsibilities that come with this office,” Roberts said in a statement.

According to Roberts, the biggest challenges union members face is securing pensions, job security and on-site protection.

“Wiping out American coal jobs won’t stop other countries from using coal to generate power. America must take the lead in developing technologies that will allow for the continued production of electricity with coal while reducing and eventually eliminating carbon emissions,” he said.

International Secretary-Treasurer Levi Allen was elected to his first full term.

Allen, a Moundsville native, began serving as international secretary-treasurer in July 2017. He is the youngest secretary-treasurer in UMWA’s history at 37 years old.

Gary Trout will be international district vice president for District 12, which includes southern West Virginia, southern Ohio, eastern Kentucky and Virginia. Rick Altman will serve as international district vice president for District 31, which includes northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio.

By  in News

Lawmakers urge pensions panel to prioritize miners

Source: E&E News

Coal state lawmakers and their allies urged Congress’ special pensions panel to focus on the workers facing the most immediate deadline for losing benefits: union coal miners.

Congressional Coal Caucus Chairman David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and 24 other House members urged leaders of the Joint Select Committee on the Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans to prioritize 100,000 United Mine Workers of America retirees and their beneficiaries.

“Most of them have occupational diseases or injuries, or are the widows of those who died from those diseases,” said the letter to joint committee co- Chairmen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

The 16-member special panel — split evenly between Republicans and Democrats and House and Senate members — is tasked with broader pension reform, including the massive Teamsters Central States plan, but the first fund expected to reach insolvency is the UMWA’s 1974 Pension Plan and Trust in 2022.

“While that seems far off, in reality it is not,” states the letter, signed by 15 Republicans and 10 Democrats. “Any further shocks to the coal industry or investment markets will hasten that insolvency. There really is no more time to wait to solve this problem for retired miners and widows.”

A series of bankruptcies during the recent coal industry downturn allowed many major coal companies to shed vast amounts of pension obligations. That has left only one major employer, Murray Energy Corp., and a handful of smaller employers paying into the UMWA fund.

That is unlikely to change with coal still struggling to compete against natural gas in the modern energy landscape. “Increasing employer contributions to the levels needed to make the Fund secure would be impossible,” the letter states.

Despite an average UMWA fund payment of $582 per month, the UMWA fund threatens to bankrupt the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the already imperiled federal entity designed to prop up pensions. According to the letter, the joint committee is largely finished with fact-finding and beginning to work on how to fix the “looming crisis”

If at least five Democrats and five Republicans can agree on legislation, House and Senate leaders have guaranteed an expedited floor vote without amendments. The committee will dissolve no later than Dec. 31.

Click here to read a copy of the  Congressional letter concerning UMWA retiree’s pension that was sent to joint committee co- Chairmen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

Written by: Dylan Brown

Thousands gather at Statehouse for rally to save pensions

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

The passion from the crowd of thousands who traveled from all over the country was palpable as union workers descended on the Statehouse Thursday to call on their elected representatives — both in Columbus and Washington — to save their dwindling pension funds.

The massive crowd gathered for a rally ahead of a Friday hearing at the Statehouse. The hearing will include both Ohio U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican, who will take part in a joint congressional committee tasked with solving the looming pension crisis that has put at risk the pensions of about 1.3 million retirees and active workers.

But before the elected leaders take to the drawing board in hopes of crafting a bipartisan solution, those at risk of losing their livelihood and retirement made it a point to have their voices heard and blow off a little steam in the process.

Those in attendance said their elected officeholders have pushed this problem off for too long. Retirees spent years paying into multi-employer pension funds, with the expectation of having that money when they finish working. With the Wall Street collapse and subsequent recession, those plans are now struggling and in need of support.

Without new legislation, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — the federal entity that insures pensions — could go under.

Speakers representing dozens of labor unions took the stage to draw attention to the crisis.

“This is the people’s building,” said Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, pointing to the Statehouse in front of him. “We have had to assemble here to remind everyone of that.”

Repeated chants of “Fix it!” rang through the crowd as speakers urged them on. Retired union workers and those planning for retirement called on Congress to pass legislation that would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into struggling pension funds.

“This is not a bailout,” said Mike Walden, president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions. “Why aren’t we viewed as a taxpayer like everyone else?”

Brown proposed the Butch Lewis Act that many in attendance supported, but it failed to get bipartisan support. That bill would have created a low-interest, 30-year federal loan to troubled pension plans, with no cuts to retirees’ benefits.

Dave Field, a lifelong Republican who supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 and donated to his campaign, said he stopped supporting the president following the tax plan that Republicans passed in December because it gave tax cuts to corporations, but forgot about pensions earned by people such as him and others in attendance.

Field traveled from North Carolina to attend the rally. He said he is doing his part by showing up as a sign of solidarity. After working for almost 40 years, Field has seen his monthly pension check cut by more than half, losing nearly $700 a month. He is worried that if things don’t get better, he’ll be forced to sell his house.

“People work for 40 years to earn a pension and now it’s being taken away,” he said. “The companies that caused it had bailouts. The government fined those companies, kept the fine money and left us hanging.”

Numerous pension plans, including the massive Central States Pension Fund for Teamsters, the United Mine Workers Pension Plan, the Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Plan and hundreds of other plans are on the brink of failure.

More than 300 multi-employer plans across the nation are in danger of failing.

The hearing at the Statehouse will be the fifth on the pension crisis, but the first outside of Washington, D.C. Ohio was chosen because it is among the states with the most pensions at risk, with nearly 60,000 workers in the Central States fund that is in severely declining status.

By the end of July, the committee will finish the hearings and move on to finding a solution — one that needs bipartisan support.

A solution must be approved by five out of eight members of each party on the committee, then pass both the House and the Senate by an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed to be added.

odaugherty@dispatch.com

 

 

Big crowd expected Thursday for Statehouse rally before pension hearing

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

WASHINGTON — Denny Pickens spent more than 43 years working in coal mines in anticipation of the prize at the finish line: the pension he’d spent four decades working for.

Now, with that pension in danger, the 66–year–old from Wheeling, West Virginia, will head to Columbus on Thursday with a singular message: Let me keep that pension.

“These pensions are what keep us going and all we worked for,” he said. “We have to have these. This money isn’t fun money. This is money that pays our bills.”

That same urgency will drive other retirees to Columbus for a rally Thursday that may draw thousands. On Friday, there will be a field hearing of a bipartisan joint congressional committee tasked with solving a pension crisis that has put at risk the pensions of about 1.5 million retirees and active workers.

The committee, made up of four Republican senators, four Democratic senators, four Republican House members and four Democratic House members, chose Columbus in part because of how deeply the state is connected to the crisis — 66,000 pensioners in at–risk plans are in Ohio — and partly because its co-chairman, Sen. Sherrod Brown, is from Ohio. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, is also a member of the committee. The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Statehouse.

The hearing is coming at a critical point in the committee’s work. By the end of the month, the committee will conclude the fact-finding part of its investigation and move on to finding a solution.

That solution, due in November, must be virtually bulletproof: It has to be approved by five out of eight members of each party on the committee and then pass both the House and the Senate by an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed.

The stakes are high, and if a solution isn’t found, so is the potential for catastrophe.

“There is no easy solution,” said Brown, a Democrat who fought for creation of the committee. “If there were an easy solution, Congress would’ve done it a long time ago.”

But failure, he said, would mean businesses on the hook to pay pensions could be at risk, retirees could lose money and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — the federal entity that insures pensions — could go under.

At issue are about 150 to 200 of the 1,400 multi-employer pension funds in the nation, created by companies that pooled their resources to provide their employees with retirement funds. For years, most of the plans ran at a surplus, but the recession, combined with corporate bankruptcies and a rash of baby-boom retirements, has taken a toll on the solvency of the pension plans.

Those who watch the issue worry that if those 150 to 200 plans go under, the others could fall like dominoes — creating the potential for a catastrophe that could impact a vast swath of the economy.

“The only thing we know is that nobody knows for sure” what will happen if the plans fail, said Aliya Wong, executive director of retirement policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“This isn’t just a retiree problem,” Wong said. “It’s a business problem, and it’s a jobs problem.”

She and others see few solutions that don’t involve some sort of loan program that would help offset the potential for catastrophe. But Republicans have been resistant — part of the reason the committee was set up was because a bill Brown introduced — the Butch Lewis Act, named after a Cincinnati–area retiree who died fighting for his pension — stalled in the Senate. That bill would have created a low-interest, 30-year federal loan to troubled pension plans, with no cuts to retiree benefits.

Portman, meanwhile, admits there’s a “fault line” between Republicans and Democrats on the issue, with Republicans opposing a loan program and Democrats saying the solution should be a loan program.

“My role has been from the start that we have to take the two points of view and reconcile them,” he said.

He said any solution that does not involve what he calls “shared responsibility” will likely “not stand the test of time.”

The very structure of the committee, with an equal number of representatives from both parties, “is very challenging,” Portman said, and the timing — the solution is to be presented around Election Day — does not help. “But that’s what we have to work with,” he said.

He is not the only one worried. Mike Walden, president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions, said he sees the current process “as being deadlocked.”

Walden, one of six scheduled to testify at Friday’s hearing, said the only solution likely to pass would be one with “shared responsibility” — a solution that would involve pensioners giving up some of their pensions and employers as well as taxpayers also kicking in.

“Nobody is going to be 100 percent happy on this,” he said.

Written by: jwehrman@dispatch.com