Local 848 Hosts Social Security Celebration

Local 848's retiree club hosted other retirees and union activists from all over North Texas on August 11. The occasion was the 70th anniversary of Social Security, which was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson prepared a special video tape for the occasion. Another video tape, with movie star Olympia Dukakis, was also played.

Main speakers were Bob Lydia of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Bob Alexander of the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP). The two organizations have been labor's main allies in this important fight.

The Alliance for Retired Americans, which includes all UAW retirees, says that the president's privatization proposal continues to lack public support despite months of campaigning.

President Bush again called on Congress to overhaul Social Security this fall, insisting that private accounts must be a part of any legislation. Private accounts, by themselves, do nothing to address Social Security's solvency and would require huge middle-class benefit cuts and massive borrowing.

"Social Security will never be strengthened if the president keeps insisting on privatization proposals that would destroy the guaranteed benefits Americans earned and deserve," said Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance and former Financial Secretary of the UAW.

Although the president suggests he will keep pushing private accounts until his last day in office, House GOP leaders have signaled they may act in September on a bill (H.R. 3304) that would raid Social Security's surplus to fund private accounts. The Senate Finance Committee remains deadlocked over how to restore solvency to Social Security.

Terri Hecht of the United Food and Commercial Workers posed with Rudy Anderson of Jobs with Justice after our meeting