Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Teacher's Unions Selling its Members Down the River
Unions' Advice Is Failing Teachers - Los Angeles Times: "Mendez's money was languishing in a fixed-rate annuity, an investment ill-suited to someone in her early 20s. Worse, she would have to pay a steep penalty to bail out.
Public-school teachers across the country are in similar predicaments. And many have their unions to thank for it.
Some of the nation's largest teachers unions have joined forces with investment companies to steer their members into retirement plans with high expenses that eat away at returns.
In what might seem an unlikely partnership, the unions endorse investment providers, even specific products, and the companies reciprocate with financial support. They sponsor union conferences, advertise in union publications or make direct payments to union treasuries.
The investment firms more than recoup their money through sales of annuities and other high-fee products to teachers for their 403(b) plans personal retirement accounts similar to 401(k)s."
The very group that is supposed to protect teachers is...my stomach hurts just thinking about it. Anyone involved in perpetrating this on these unsuspecting teachers should be thrown out of the Union and shunned. The problem might be that it is the entire leadership. Regardless of who it is, I hope that the membership makes the necessary changes.
Public-school teachers across the country are in similar predicaments. And many have their unions to thank for it.
Some of the nation's largest teachers unions have joined forces with investment companies to steer their members into retirement plans with high expenses that eat away at returns.
In what might seem an unlikely partnership, the unions endorse investment providers, even specific products, and the companies reciprocate with financial support. They sponsor union conferences, advertise in union publications or make direct payments to union treasuries.
The investment firms more than recoup their money through sales of annuities and other high-fee products to teachers for their 403(b) plans personal retirement accounts similar to 401(k)s."
The very group that is supposed to protect teachers is...my stomach hurts just thinking about it. Anyone involved in perpetrating this on these unsuspecting teachers should be thrown out of the Union and shunned. The problem might be that it is the entire leadership. Regardless of who it is, I hope that the membership makes the necessary changes.
