For Immediate Release

December 1, 2010

Contact:   Joe Jurczak, 202-974-8307, Michelle
Evermore, 202-288-8561, or Charles Idelson,
415-559-8991

Nurses Blast `Final' Debt Panel Report, Call on Congress, White House to Stand Up and Protect Retirement Security

The revised, final report by the president's National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility is an "unwarranted,
outrageous attack on the health, safety, and retirement
security of millions of nurses and tens of millions of
other working people and should be immediately rejected
by the Obama administration and Congress," said the
nation's largest union and professional association of
registered nurses today.

"It is time for the White House and Congress to stand
up and send a clear message to the American people that
they will not agree to further erode our retirement
security and standard of living while continuing to
promote further tax breaks and concessions to Wall
Street and the most wealthy among us," said Karen
Higgins, RN, co-president of the-160,000-member
National Nurses United.

Among its most egregious proposals, the report calls
for raising the retirement age to 69 and the age for
early retirement to 64, which especially targets
workers with the most physically demanding jobs,
including nurses who suffer more back injuries, for
example, than any other employment group. NNU also
opposes the proposal to cut benefits of up to 36
percent of younger workers, reducing the annual cost-
of-living adjustment, and the decision to put far more
of the burden of deficit reduction on working people
than those on the top.

 "Most long-term RNs worked for years with substandard
 pensions, and many now face new demands by employers
 to sharply erode their retirement plans. Therefore,
 cuts in Social Security would hit nurses especially
 hard. Raising the retirement age to 69 would force
 nurses, like other working people with physically
 demanding, stressful employment to delay retirement,
 at risk to themselves and their patients," Higgins
 said.

Cook County RN Dorothy Ahmad, a Chicago resident,
criticized Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a commission
member, who said that raising the retirement age to 69
would be "acceptable to me."

"How would he like his nurse to be 69, rolling into his
hospital room in a wheelchair or scooter with his
medication, trying to take care of him? At 69 years
old, a nurse should be able to retire in dignity with
security for herself and her family, not be forced to
still be working at risk to her patients and herself.
Chicago nurses are disappointed with Sen. Durbin's
response," Ahmad said.

Higgins, who works in critical care, said she "cannot
even fathom nurses at 69 still being required to work.
You need to have the highest mental and physical
alertness to be able to provide safe care. The idea
that nurses would be able to do that at 69 is dangerous
to patients, but forcing us to be in a position that we
would have to is disgraceful."

Retired California RN Elizabeth Pataki of Sacramento
said protecting Social Security is vital for the many
RNs who have been forced to "retire early with back
injuries and a long work history that involved great
stresses on their backs and joints. Most nurses cannot
work to the usual age of retirement."

Too many RNs, said Pataki, "have seen their pensions
lessened and their savings lessened, and don't have a
comfortable margin to retire on. So Social Security is
critical. To require them to work longer is
unacceptable and will further handicap a nurse for the
rest of her life."

Women are also particularly threatened by the proposal,
said Higgins. "More women are living below the poverty
level and must depend on Social Security. They are
frequently paid less than men and are also likely to
move in and out of the workforce as they raise families
and therefore the benefits they receive are less."

"We see elderly people coming in who are just trying
desperately to hold on, to provide for themselves and
sometimes others. They are trying to pay their rent,
put food on the table, and pay for their medications.
It is often the medications that they give up, running
the risk of being declared `noncompliant.' Many are
helpless, having nowhere to turn."

"I think it is disgusting that we should even consider
cutting back on Social Security benefits or reducing
Medicare provision."

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate