Hundreds turn out to protest 401(k) plan
They named the bill the “the “Retirement Security and Freedom Act.” But that’s the last thing this law, if passed, will do.
As hundreds of teachers, firefighters and state employees rallied at the Oklahoma Capitol to protest proposed changes to the retirement system for public workers, Sterling Zearley, the executive director of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, which represents state workers, said they are taking a neutral position on the bills.
“We’re not opposing it,” Zearley said, and went on to note that he is concentrating on getting a pay raise for state workers.
That probably didn’t set too well with Cheryl Tate, a 35-year teaching veteran from Lawton. “We’re upset,” she said. “We want to know why they want to change it.”
The day before the protest, many of the workers visited with their legislators and urged them to stop a Republican-backed plan to shift newly hired state employees from the current traditional defined-benefit pension system to a 401(k)-style defined-contribution retirement plan.
Two bills already have passed through committees in the House and Senate that would shift newly hired state workers into the new retirement system, and Gov. Mary Fallin says she supports the effort. Although the measures don’t apply to teachers or firefighters, opponents of the bills say it’s likely teachers will be targeted next.
“When they come for one of us, they come for all of us,” said Linda Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Education Association. “Who is going to stand up for us if we don’t all stand up for each other?”