With several weeks behind the signing of Act 5 of 2017, some leaders of public employee labor unions are reflecting on their role in the process and what they did differently from other pension-reform attempts that eventually led to the enactment of this legislation.
At the beginning of June, the Senate-advanced Senate Bill 1—a pension reform plan that overhauled the current pension system that was used in the commonwealth—was created after six or seven drafts from ongoing negotiations.
The bi-partisan legislation was created through agreement from all four legislative caucuses as well as Gov. Tom Wolf and his administration.