Michigan Republicans running state government are about to try again to cut retiree medical care and pensions for public employees.

Mark Docherty is President of the Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union. He says Michigan Republicans aren't looking for ways to fund the pension promises made to public employees, they're just looking to slash the benefits.

[Mark Docherty]: "I want them to come with a thoughtful solution on how we can maintain them. We want to see pre-funding.

We want to see these benefits be maintained. I don't want to see them just cut. And far too often that's the answer we're seein', is just cut the benefits."

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder claims there's a $14 billion unfunded "liability" for pensions and retiree health care benefits.

Michigan has no state pension system for public employees. It's all done locally. But state Republicans still want to cut the retirement benefit of public workers throughout the state.

Docherty says fire fighters retiree typically in their fifties and have a host of injuries and health issues that need to be covered for years before Medicare kicks in.

"Our retiree health care benefit is important because we tend to retire sooner. We retire in our early fifties typically , mid-fifties. We have a ten to fifteen year gap before we get on Medicare. So we leave the fire service usually with chronic injuries... We have a 62 percent rate of cancer. We have PTSD issues.

That's a very important issue for us to make sure we maintain this benefit."