Las Vegas, NV – Tom Buffenbarger made his final address to an IAM Retirees Conference in his capacity as International President. He retires on January 1, 2016.
“Your presence here shows you’re engaged with you union,” he told delegates to the 2015 IAM Retirees Conference. “Next year I will be sitting here as one of you and I look forward to it.”
He spoke of the challenges facing retirees in the United States in 2016. “With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for nearly 65 million Americans will not automatically increase,” he explained. “We have a number of Republican Presidential candidates who want to cut the pensions of people already receiving a pension. There’s something wrong when our governments will bail out the banks but they won’t bail out mom and pop.”
He told delegates that seniors can have a huge impact on the upcoming US election. “Be prepared to do something to secure your future,” he said. “Use your right to vote and use it for the right reasons.”
