But union officials say that the field technicians and call center workers generally earn $60,000 to $77,000 before overtime and that benefits come to well under $50,000 a year.

Any truth to this? 50K for benies???

Depending on what part of the country you are in 60-77k (before taxes I assume) is not bad but could be better. In the metro NYC area for instance you would be hard pressed to support a family of two on that. But what I don't understand is what they are giving you for "under 50K" in the way of benefits? I get my health insurance through my wife's company. The Oxford policy covers both of us for everything including drugs for around 8K a year that the company pays fully. Even a family policy isn't that much more. I assume they contribute to your 401(K) also but geeze...

Don't think I'm picking on you, my biggest beef is with municipal unions that have police and fire and other muni workers wages at around 100k with retirement after 20 years at around 80% of that plus your overtime for the last two years. So if you started at age twenty at age 40 you can retire, collect a huge pension for the rest of your life (often more than what you were paid while you were working) while you start a new career. When times were good nobody cared but we can't afford that kind of excess now.

-Hal

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