Fighting for Death Benefits Fairness 04/22/2016

BOSTON – AFSCME Council 93 is lobbying Massachusetts lawmakers to extend payments and benefits to families of public sector employees who are killed on the job. These payments now are available only to public safety and law enforcement workers who die in the line of duty.

Extending line-of-duty death benefits to all public service workers is a simple matter of fairness. Police officers and firefighters face serious risks on the job, but so too do many other public service workers, including public works and highway workers.

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Local 851 member Carlos Taberas was killed while working alone repairing a Bobcat in a City of New Bedford garage in 2011. Carlos had a big family – six kids. But there was no line-of-duty death benefit for them. His $5,000 life insurance policy didn't even cover funeral expenses.

The union is "simply asking the Legislature to recognize that when it comes to losing your life on the job, everyone is equal," Council 93 Legislative Director Jim Durkin argued in testimony before the Legislature. "Everyone has paid the same price."

A patient attacked AFSCME Local 72 member Jason Lew at a mental health facility on Cape Cod in 2012, causing serious injuries. Lew died weeks later, and his death was ruled a homicide. The only benefit his children received came through donations from his union sisters and brothers.

Just last year, Mike McDaniel, a Natick public works employee and member of another union, was killed while making emergency repairs to a water main. Despite 26 years of service, his family didn't receive any death benefits from the state and spent months gathering funds to pay for funeral costs.

State Representative Jay Livingstone (D-Boston) has filed Amendment 689 to the 2017 state budget, which would extend the $150,000 line-of-duty death benefit, currently available only to police officers and firefighters, to all state employees.

Budget Amendment 689 is currently before the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and we need as many supporters as possible to call their State Representative and tell them to co-sponsor and vote for Amendment 689.

Click here for more information on how to get in touch with your State Representative.

"If someone is killed in the line of duty – no matter what they are doing – they're killed in the line of duty," Senator Karen Spilka, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said earlier this year when several line of duty death benefits proposals were being proposed in the legislature.

AFSCME Council 93 supports urgent action to protect the families of public service workers who keep Massachusetts clean, healthy and safe.