Issue Position: State employees--the backbone of state government

Issue Position

I strongly support the right of state employees to belong to a union and their collective bargaining rights.

I believe that the state must provide fair pay and benefits, including health care and adequate funding of state retirement systems for its employees in order to recruit and retain a talented workforce that can properly serve the residents of our state.

Additionally, I support restoration of annual cost-of-living adjustments for PERS I and TRS I retirees. Expecting a retiree to live on the same income year after year with no adjustment for inflation makes no sense. It unfair to ask a public retiree to live on the same income he/she received upon retirement in 1990, 1995, 2000, etc.

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