The CIRS pension plan cuts that management has demanded would affect all CIRS members. But they would not affect all of us equally.

If implemented, management’s proposed cuts (e.g. raising the normal retirement age, eliminating the rule of 85, etc.) would fall hardest on the lowest paid CIRS members, who also happen to be the largest group of employees in the CIRS plan.

According to CIRS data, approximately 4,700 members (out of 8,433 or roughly 56% of the total) have annual salaries below $40,000. Of that number, approximately 3,250 (almost 40% of all CIRS members) have annual salaries below $30,000 per year. 

When management proposes to make radical cuts to the plan, the members who could least afford it would suffer the most. They should not be made to pay the price when better and fairer ways to fund the pension plan can be found.

For a breakdown of CIRS plan participants by salary level and union status, click here.

 

 

 

Workers at cultural institutions across the city are signing our petition to protect the CIRS pension. Once we collect a large number of signatures from CIRS participants, we will present the petition to the heads of the cultural institutions we work for. This is intended to put pressure on management to back away from the proposals they’ve made to reduce pension benefits for union and nonunion workers alike.

If you’d like to read and sign the petition, click here: https://www.coworker.org/p/cirs

Please include your personal email address – not your email address at work – when you sign the petition.

The petition can be signed using any device with internet access, including your smartphone or tablet.

Our voices are stronger together. Let’s sign up as many of our coworkers as we can to show the management team that we’re ready and willing to fight for our right to retire in dignity with a real pension!

Yes, you can!

NYC cultural workers who want to organize to protect their CIRS pension are covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)’s provisions regarding “protected concerted activity.” This section of the law gives union and nonunion workers alike the legal right to engage in a range of workplace activities, including the right to “engage in concerted activity for mutual aid and protection” and wear buttons, t-shirts, hats, and pins.

This one-page fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Labor summarizes these provisions of the NLRA: Employee Rights Poster.