While recent votes in San Diego and San Jose may have suggested that California voters are clamoring to claw back unionized workers' pension benefits, a new poll says the grassroots movement may not in fact be a movement at all.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a Field Poll conducted this week found that only 37 percent of registered voters who were surveyed said they felt that California's public workers received pension benefits that were too generous.
In fact, 36 percent said they believed that the benefits were just right, and another 17 percent felt that the benefits were actually not generous enough.
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The pollsters said they were interested in finding out if an actual groundswell had developed in light of the California votes and a similar battle in Wisconsin between a governor set on stripping collective bargaining rights and the public employees of that state.
"I was thinking that maybe this was an issue where attitudes continue to harden … what we're finding in the results of this survey is no, not really," Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, told the Chronicle.
Those polled did demonstrate some support for increasing the retirement age and instituting a salary cap for benefits, but 50 percent also said they completely opposed taking away collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions.
Sixty percent said they support an increase in California's retire-at-age-50 minimum, and 49 percent said they support reducing benefits for future employees. Half also said they supported a hybrid, 401(k) and traditional pension blended system.
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