wws
I used to do some benefit work. I know how to fund a defined benefit pension. One of the things that happens is that, each year, the trustee must show sufficient money on hand to fund as a single-premium purchase, an annuity–or some version thereof–in the required amount of the required structure.
Health insurance is trickier, but it’s better to be putting money away as you go; you’ve got some, if not all that’s necessary, but more than zero.
I wonder if any of the union leaders ever asked for an accounting of the pension fund.
Hahahaha.
If you promise an increased pension, you get credit and the labor trouble is over. If you don’t fund it, the cost of the thing is zero. Win for the employer,win for the union negotiator. Who will be retired or dead when the can they kicked down the road stops moving.
So, I wonder if any union leader asked for an accounting and I wonder if any employee asked the union leader to ask.
My guess is the state/county/muni and the union leadership both knew what was going on and were complicit, not to mention complicit in keeping it quiet.