For decades, millions of Americans paid into Social Security with their wages but couldn’t collect the benefits when they retired.
That’s because of laws passed in the 1970s and 1980s which reduced the benefits of individuals who also received a public pensions from their jobs as firefighters, teachers, bus drivers, corrections officers or government workers.
Public service workers nationwide organized petitions, letter-writing campaigns, called representatives in Congress and visited Washington for face-to face meetings with their representatives…