The public is invited to a town hall meeting Wednesday, June 19 at 5:30 p.m. sponsored by the King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO to discuss what needs to be done to understand the lessons from the Enron debacle and to achieve true retirement security for working families. The meeting will be in Hall 1 of the Seattle Labor Temple, 2800 First Ave.

Enron, the infamous Texas energy trading company that collapsed stripping thousands of workers of their 401K retirement, has been transformed into the latest verb in the lexicon of unfair corporate actions. To be “Enron-ed” now means to have been robbed of retirement savings through corporate shenanigans and mismanagement.

Under the slogan of “No More Business as Usual,” the meeting will focus on how workers can protect their retirement security.  Former Screen Actors Guild President Ed Asner will join former Enron employees, along with local workers and union leaders, in the town hall meeting

“Enron’s collapse is a wakeup call about just how vulnerable working families are when they must rely on private accounts for retirement security,” said King County Labor Council Executive Secretary Steve Williamson.  “The Enron scandal is not the story of one rogue company, but of a system which puts corporations first and workers last.”

The town hall meeting will inform workers about steps they can take to protect their retirement, including Social Security, and public pensions.  Efforts to privatize Social Security will be discussed and the effort by the State Council of Fire Fighters to gain a voice in the police and fire pension plan through Initiative 790 will be explained.

For more information, contact Karen Keiser at the Washington State Labor Council, (206) 281-8901; or Adair Dammann at the King County Labor Council, (206) 441-8510.

All union members and activists are reminded that petitions -- including those only partially filled with signatures -- for the Washington State Labor Council-endorsed Initiative 790, the pension reform measure for police and fire fighters, should be mailed in no later than Monday, June 24. The 198,000 valid signatures necessary to qualify I-790 for the ballot must be submitted by July 5 and the campaign would like to have them in hand the last week of June.

Today, Washington is one of only four states where local police and fire fighters lack any representation on their own pension board. Instead, the statewide Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Retirement System 2 (LEOFF 2) is run by a committee made up entirely of legislators, even though local police and fire fighters contribute half the cost of their pensions.

Initiative 790 would change that. It would guarantee our public safety workers representation on a new governing board, giving them a voice in their own retirement without cost to taxpayers. It creates a new Board of Trustees, appointed by the Governor and legislative leaders, to manage the LEOFF 2 police and fire fighter retirement system. The new board would consist of three police representatives, three fire fighter representatives, three local government representatives and two legislators.

I-790 also contains strong safeguards to protect the public and tax dollars: Trustee decisions must be made in public and reported to the Governor, Legislature and State Actuary, subject to judicial review and strict accounting and actuarial standards; day-to-day management will remain with the Department of Retirement Systems; all contributions are capped; and future benefit increases can be rejected by the Legislature.

If I-790 qualifies for the ballot, there is every reason to believe it will pass -- easily.  

Results of a recent statewide opinion poll of likely November 2002 voters reveal overwhelming support for legislation guaranteeing police and fire fighters a voice in protecting their own pension plan. Major findings of the survey include:

— 93 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of police officers, exceeded only by fire fighters with a 98-percent favorable rating.

— 86 percent believe it’s wrong that police and fire fighters have no say in running their pension plan, though they pay half of total costs.

— 79 percent are persuaded in favor of giving public safety workers a voice in running their own pensions without increased costs to taxpayers.

— 74 percent would vote to approve an initiative giving fire fighters and police majority control over their pension funds to safeguard their retirement benefits; only 17 would vote to reject such an initiative while 9 percent are undecided.

“With the collapse of Enron, we certainly see the need for such a voice in our pension system," said Kelly L. Fox, president of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters. "Fire fighters and police officers shouldn’t have to report for duty worrying about the status of our pension fund. We want a voice so we can safeguard what’s ours. I’m glad that voters strongly agree it’s the right thing to do.”

For more information about I-790 or to find out how you can volunteer to collect signatures, visit www.i-790.org.