They want to lower the amount of money the railroads put in, increase benefits and reduce the retirement age.
The tight labor market has also forced many companies to increase benefits and wages, so students can find higher paying jobs off campus.
Health insurance companies, which receive a large increase in federal payments under the new Medicare law, said Tuesday that they would use the extra money to increase benefits and reduce premiums and co-payments for the elderly.
To address a crisis in Medicare, Congress recently provided more money to health maintenance organizations in the hope that they would return to the federal program, increase benefits and reduce premiums for Medicare beneficiaries.
Fresh austerity measures, on top of wage and pensions cuts, tax increases, benefit and job losses will also have to be inflicted on a society that has become increasingly outraged by the belt-tightening.
In fact, Senator Elizabeth Warren – a potential Democratic presidential contender for 2016 – has proposed increasing benefits, and that makes a lot more sense.
There is also a shopping list of spending commitments, including increasing benefits and tax thresholds in line with inflation, instead of sticking to George Osborne's 1% cap.
The options were to attempt to limit social inequalities by increasing benefits and banning the fees, or to reduce benefits, retain the healthcare fees, and move more towards a two-tier health care system with the further privatisation of healthcare.
Mackey led a brief players' strike during training camp in 1970 that led to a contract providing increased benefits and pensions for players.
