Finally, all the lobbying, the serving on committees and the sheer determination paid off.

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Passage of a new pension policy during the session was a fitting reward for Council 2’s constant involvement and persistent pressure on the Joint Committee on Pension Policy.

The new policy is embodied in Senate Bill 6530, which was approved unanimously in both houses during the 2000 session and later was signed by Gov. Gary Locke.

“It is a very significant change and it does establish the idea that 30 years is a career in public service as opposed to having to work until you are 65,” explains Pat Thompson, Director of Legislation/Political Action for Council 2. Thompson served as chair of the Public Employees Pension Coalition.

He says the law lowers the actuarial penalty that was imposed by the previous system.

“Under the old system if you retired before age 65 you would receive a reduction of 8 percent in your benefit for each year prior to retirement age. If you got out at 60, that was a 40 percent reduction.”

The new law lowers the penalty from 8 percent to 3 percent if you have 30 years of service. That means the penalty is reduced to 15 percent for retiring at age 60.

“The new approach is more realistic,” Thompson says. “Now you are taking only a 15 percent reduction and that is worth thinking about. With the 40 percent penalty, you would not even consider it.”

The law stipulates that in order to retire earlier than age 65 the employee must have worked in public service for at least 30 years.

“Like most pension improvements, we won’t see the benefit of this immediately,” Thompson adds. “But many who are now in their 30s and 40s will recognize this as a major benefit when they are 60.”

Probably the biggest success will be seen in the Plan 3 option, says Thompson. “It is a progressive change in the system that will take effect beginning September 2002.” People will have the option of going into Plan 3, which offers a defined contribution plan.

Long-term and career employees are most likely better off in Plan 2, which is a guaranteed defined benefit plan. Plan 3 is geared toward short-term employees and is more portable.

“However, it also has stock-market risks associated with it,” he adds. “We have been fighting Plan 3 for eight years because the legislature wanted to make it mandatory for new hires and optional for current employees.

“Our bottom line was that Plan 2 had to have improvements and Plan 3 had to be voluntary.

“We achieved that and so those were big victories.”

Thompson says that Council 2 refused to yield throughout the years of negotiation. “We hung tough,” he says. “Other employee organizations caved, but we and the other AFL-CIO unions did not.

“The result was that we won in the end. It proves that perseverance and being true to your principles pays off.”

The passage of Senate Bill 5152 regarding deputy prosecutors during the 2000 session of the State Legislature was a major victory for collective bargaining.

The battle began six years ago when the Supreme Court stripped deputy prosecutors of their collective bargaining rights in a 5-4 decision.

“We were concerned about the decision, not only for the deputy prosecutors we represent, but also because it left the door open for other elected officials to follow suit,” explains Thompson.

“If the prosecutors got away with it, it would make others think, why can’t I do it, too.”

Council 2 worked on a bipartisan effort to correct the situation.

“We were up against a legislature that didn’t like the words, collective bargaining,” Thompson says.

He complimented the legislators on their near unanimous support of the measure as only three votes were lodged against it in the entire process.