It’s summer, and that means family fun for OAPSE members.

Thanks to your OAPSE membership, you and your family have  access to great deals for summer fun!

OAPSE has negotiated special pricing at Ohio’s amusement parks, water parks, zoos and the Columbus science center, and the deals are good through the end of the summer season.

Remember, you have to be a member to take advantage of the discounts. And they are really worth your membership dues. In fact, one member said she saved enough taking her family to Cedar Point to pay her union dues for a year!

To see what is available and how much you can save, click on the MyOAPSE tab at the top of the page. Log in with your member number and last name, and get ready to save and have fun across Ohio!

And check out the video below to see where you can use your OAPSE member discounts!

 

On June 14, OAPSE State Vice President Lois Carson testified against HB151, which would change state law to allow the School Employees Retirement System (SERS) to cut and freeze pension cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) without the consent of the legislature.

Carson appeared before the Ohio House Committee on Aging and Long-term Care. She was accompanied by members of the OAPSE State Executive Board.

She told committee members that OAPSE members who pay into SERS do the important work of taking care of public school children.

“We are bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics, librarians, food service workers, custodians, educational aides and secretaries like me. We provide critical services to school children across Ohio, and we are proud of the work we do. We don’t make a lot of money. In fact, the average annual salary of an OAPSE member is about $24,000. It’s tough to make ends meet on that,” Carson reminded committee members.

“It’s also financially tough for us when we retire because on average, OAPSE retirees bring home less than $1,200 per month. We need every dollar of our pension. And we count on every dollar and every cost of living increase when we make the decision to retire after decades on the job taking care of our school kids,” she said.

In addition, Carson told state legislators:

“To be clear, the opposition of OAPSE to HB242 and similar legislation in the Senate does not ignore the financial situation at SERS. However, we want to point out for the record that our union – going back at least 20 years – has been strongly urging the retirement system to focus its goals on and protect the long-term retirement security of long-term school employees.

In fact, beginning 20 years ago, OAPSE has insisted on stricter requirements for retirement and health care benefits for short-term workers who retire under SERS.

I could give you hundreds of examples of OAPSE retirees who worked for 30, 35 or even 40-plus years and are relying on their pension and their cost of living to pay their bills.

We think these employees – the ones who put in the time and made a career out of their service in the schools – should be protected from these COLA freezes and cuts.

We urged SERS to reward those workers – workers like me who has 30 years as a secretary in Columbus City Schools. We told them as early as 2000, frankly, that it was fiscally irresponsible to guarantee the same level of retirement and health care benefits to career school employees as the system does to those who pass through our schools after retiring somewhere else.

We would make the case that if SERS had acted 17 years ago to focus on long-term employees and not short-timers, we would be in much better financial shape at SERS and our members and retirees would not have to worry about retirement insecurity.

One other point about the SERS financial situation is the declining revenue for schools districts. Fewer school dollars has resulted in far fewer school employees, and consequently, fewer employees paying into the retirement system. That has had an obvious negative impact on the SERS investment funds.

To summarize, Mr. Chairman: OAPSE opposes HB242 because it ultimately asks long-term public school workers and retirees to shoulder the burden of solving a funding problem they did not create. This is asking too much of us. We hope that the leaders at SERS will explore other options.”

For more on OAPSE’s fight to protect pensions, check out the video below.

 

More than 400 OAPSE members and retirees from across Ohio marched on the Statehouse and the School Employees Retirement System (SERS) in opposition to proposed cuts and freezes to cost of living increases for retirees.

Chanting “Keep the Promise. Protect our Pensions!,” the group circled the Ohio Statehouse and paused on the west steps to hear from legislators who oppose SB151 and HB242, bills that would allow the SERS board of trustees to eliminate, reduce and freeze COLAs.

SERS was the next stop for the marchers, who had hoped to deliver signed postcards opposing cuts/freezes to the new retirement board director. He declined to greet the OAPSE group. But that didn’t stop the fired-up marchers from respectfully getting their point across.

“I am retired and living on my own. I need every penny of my retirement check. So I was glad to join in the march to have our voices heard about these cuts. I’m thankful that the union organized this so active and retired members could come together and demand justice,” said Maryanne Howell, a former OAPSE executive board member and Columbus City Schools employee.

She was joined by hundreds of other active and retired OAPSE members at a meeting to detail the proposed changes to retirement benefits. Among those who addressed the crowd was retiree Mark Bailey, who worked for nearly three decades at Kings Local Schools, where workers are represented by Local 27, a union he helped organize.

“I guess I thought I was finished with my union work when I retired. But this battle for our retirement security shows that we are never finished fighting for fairness and for what is right,” Bailey said.

A 33-year bus driver with Bellvue Public Schools, Lynda Mobley also served as OAPSE state vice president. She made it clear that she worked hard in exchange for her paycheck and a secure retirement.

 

“Now, I count on my pension. And I count on my COLA. To try and solve the problems at SERS by targeting me and retirees like me is just plain wrong. We paid our dues. We did everything right. Hands off our pensions,” Mobley told the crowd.

Also addressing the fired-up group were OAPSE State President JoAnn Johntony, who vowed the union will never stop fighting for what is right; State Secretary Sandy Wheeler, who underscored that whether active or retired, all OAPSE members are in the fight for justice together; and State Vice President Lois Carson.

Carson reminded the group that solidarity and unity are the keys to winning any fight – including the one for retirement security.

“No one thought we could win the Senate Bill 5 battle. And we weren’t given good odds to defeat the business community when they tried to take over Columbus City Schools. But we stuck together and beat the odds. We can do it this time, too, because we are united and we will fight for each other,” Carson said.

Her union sister, Scooter Tobin, retired June 1, 2017, and said she fears for her economic future because she does not know how her retirement check will be impacted by the proposed legislation or what the SERS board eventually decides to do with COLAs.

“I hope I can pay my bills. I want to enjoy this time after all those years of getting up at 4 a.m. to be at the bus garage in time to take my kids safely to school. I hope I can,” Tobin said.

Stories of retirees like Scooter, Mark and Lynda motivate the OAPSE Executive Board, leadership and staff every day, according to Director Joe Rugola.

“Sisters and brothers, the bottom line is that we simply can’t accept this. And we won’t accept this as the only option to fix the problems that SERS is in because they wouldn’t listen and they didn’t listen to what we have been trying to tell them since the 1990s,” Rugola said.

He vowed to keep up the pressure on the legislature and on the SERS board and administration to develop other options than solving their funding problems on the backs of hard-working school employees who make about $24,000 annually on average and retire on less than $1,200 per month.

For more on the June 7 rally, check out the video below.

In a huge demonstration of giving back to the community they work in and love, members of OAPSE local unions 137, 443 and 306 at Lima City Schools provided totes full of food to 1,650 elementary students in the district. The May 17 event at Unity Elementary School in Lima was made possible through the OAPSE Making a Difference, Inc. charitable foundation (OMAD), which is funded by donations from OAPSE members, locals, districts and staff and the generous donation by Champion Foodservice of greatly reduced food.

In addition, the local members provided healthy snacks to all middle school and high school students in the district. These Lima school employees are school secretaries, paraprofessionals, librarians, food service workers, bus drivers, network specialists, custodians and maintenance workers who touch the lives of these students every day.

Click on the video below to see more about our day in Lima!

“We were able to give all of our students in Lima nutritious food and a reminder that we really care about them and want them to be at their best so they can do well in school,” said Sandy Wheeler, state secretary and president of the foundation.

The students in Lima are from some of the most economically disadvantaged households in Ohio. They were the focus of the fourth OMAD project undertaken by OAPSE since 2014. Past projects include providing food and totes to 2,000 elementary students in Columbus City Schools; providing food and totes and establishing a permanent food bank at Fairland Local Schools; donating 1,500 totes filled with food to students at East Cleveland City Schools and donating Subway gift cards to high school students there.

“We work with these students every day, and we know that some of them miss meals at home. In fact, for some of them, the only meals they get are at school. OAPSE Making a Difference has been a great opportunity for us to give back where it is needed most,” Wheeler said.

Members of the local unions stuffed the totes as a team and then delivered them to students at Union Elementary. They were joined by Superintendent Jill Ackerman and Unity Principal Tricia Winkler.

To see news coverage of the OMAD event, click on the video link below.