2015 PFRS Trustee Election
VOTE
F
MICHAOR
E
KANIUKL
What PFRS means and why Kaniuk is letter-perfect
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
The most important letters to all PBA members right now are P-F-R-S.
But with an election underway to elect a trustee for the PFRS Board,
do you know why it’s important to vote and why it’s best to vote for NJ
State PBA-endorsed candidate Mike Kaniuk?
When it comes to all matters PFRS, it’s best to spell it out.
“Members rely on their pensions for the rest of their lives,” explains
Pete Andreyev, the PBA Pension and Benefits Coordinator who works
with PFRS-related information every day. “You work 25 years or more to
get something from this pension system, and it’s yours until the day you
die.”
The PFRS qualifies credible salary and pensionable salary for members. It provides for ordinary or accidental disability pay. It can award
honorary service time. In addition to providing benefits for members
who have to retire due to illness or injury, the PFRS also provides a safety
net for your family.
All of that is why Director of Government Affairs Rob Nixon leads such
a vehement effort to lobby elected officials in Trenton about PFRS. “The
PBA passionately and persistently protects PFRS from abuses and political attacks that could place those benefits at critical risk,” Nixon
reminds.
Certainly this is enough reason to stop right now and vote for Mike
Kaniuk to be the next PFRS Board Trustee.
And here’s another:
“If you don’t consider this important, fold up your tent and go home,”
charges NJ State PBA President Pat Colligan. “If you don’t vote in this election, how can you care about the elections for state legislators? It impacts
the rest of your life. Finding your ballot and casting your vote is easier
than logging on to your computer. And it literally takes the same amount
of time.”
So now that you know why you need to vote, why should you vote for
Mike Kaniuk, the State Delegate/President for Middlesex County Corrections Local 152? His qualifications representing rank-and-file members and working with supervisors has given Kaniuk the experience to
bring the information from PFRS Board meetings back to the PBA Board
of Delegates that will allow the organization to make informed decisions
about issues that affect everybody’s life.
But reading between the lines of P-F-R-S reveals why Kaniuk sitting
on the board is a plus for all members.
“We have too many other people making decisions about our
pension, so we need a guy from our organization who understands the
perspective of the uniformed officer,” Andreyev reasons. “We need
somebody like Mike to stand watch for us.”
Or as Nixon surmises: “A strong PFRS Board can prevent political
interference from creeping into the decision-making, and keeping the
Trustee seats in PBA hands ensures that pension benefits won’t be
impacted by a hiccup caused by a change in who is sitting on the Board.”
And if that’s not enough to make you stop and vote for Kaniuk right
now, here’s another:
“There are few people in our lives who can truly look in the mirror and
say they took care of their co-workers. Mike is one of them,” says President Colligan. “Mike will never go down without a fight, and if he is delivering a message, it will be loud and clear. That’s what the PFRS Board
needs right now.” d
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JUNE 2015
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