........AND BOUGHT AND PAID FOR WITH UNION MEMBERS FUNDS IN NCCMP $25,000 MEMBERSHIP FEES
"UNION RETIREES FEAR DRAMATIC PENSION CUTS UNDER NEW FEDERAL LAW"
"UNION RETIREES FEAR DRAMATIC PENSION CUTS UNDER NEW FEDERAL LAW"
WHY WOULD CONGRESS
READ A LETTER ON THE FLOOR STATING "PLEASES SCREW OUR NATIONS RETIREES"
FROM SOMEONE LIKE DIRTY DOUG WHO ENRICHED HIMSELF WHILE LETTING UBC
UNION FUNDS LOSE MILLIONS WITH GLOBAL CROSSING AND THE ULLICO FRAUD...
WHY WOULD CONGRESS READ A LETTER ON THE FLOOR STATING
"PLEASES SCREW OUR NATIONS RETIREES" FROM SOMEONE LIKE DIRTY DOUG WHO
ENRICHED HIMSELF DIVERTING MILLIONS OF PENSION FUND DOLLARS INTO RON TUTORS PB CAPITAL
WHY WOULD CONGRESS READ A LETTER ON THE FLOOR STATING
"PLEASES SCREW OUR NATIONS RETIREES" FROM SOMEONE LIKE DIRTY DOUG WHO
ENRICHED HIMSELF DIVERTING BILLIONS OF UBC FUND DOLLARS INTO ULLICO.THE UBC FUNDED ULLICO. THAT GREAT UNION FUND BACKED COMPANY KNOWN FOR STOCK FRAUD BY ITS LEADERS AND FOR LOSING THEIR ENTIRE ULLICO CAUSALITY DIVISION WHICH WAS SEIZED AND SHUT DOWN BY THE DELAWARE INSURANCE COMMISSIONERS OFFICE
UNION RETIREES FEAR DRAMATIC PENSION CUTS UNDER NEW FEDERAL LAW
Jim Mackinnon
February 15, 2015
Akron Beacon Journal
Akron Beacon Journal
Karen
Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the nonprofit
Pension Rights Center in Washington, is highly critical of the new law
while acknowledging that pension reforms are needed. “We are not saying
don’t fix multiemployer [plans],” Friedman said. But an act that allows
plans to cut retiree pensions is “such a departure from current law,”
she said. “It’s just such a buzz saw on retiree pensions.
Consolidated Freight retiree Bill Hendershot, 73, of Canal Fulton, 76,
of Akron, discuss the recent change in legislation that result in
possible pension cuts at a Retired Teamsters Fellowship Club meeting on
Feb. 4, in Akron., Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal,
Bill Hendershot and his wife
live on his union pension and Social Security. Hendershot, a retired
Consolidated Freightways long-distance truck driver, gets around now in a
12-year-old Toyota Corolla. The couple still pay a mortgage on their
home in Canal Fulton.
And he’s among a huge group of union retirees nationwide who could see their monthly private pension payments cut as much as 60 percent under a national reform measure signed into law in December by President Barack Obama.
And he’s among a huge group of union retirees nationwide who could see their monthly private pension payments cut as much as 60 percent under a national reform measure signed into law in December by President Barack Obama.
“I could lose two-thirds of my
pension,” Hendershot said. “You ask, how could I live? You talk about
drastic reductions. … We don’t live big now.”
The new law, the Multiemployer
Pension Reform Act of 2014, was a bipartisan effort backed by some
unions. It is intended to save severely underfunded, private-sector,
multiemployer pensions in which different companies pay money into one
pension fund. For numerous reasons, including bankrupt employers and
increasing numbers of retirees, multiemployer funds make up a large
percentage of the nation’s least financially stable pensions.
The act also is aimed at
reducing the strain on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., or PBGC, the
privately funded federal backstop for pension funds. But under the new
law, keeping the financially troubled multiemployer funds solvent so
they at least continue to pay out some money could mean dramatically
lower benefit checks for a million or more retirees across the nation,
experts say. That has Hendershot, who retired in 2002 when Consolidated
Freightways went out of business, and others worried about their own
well-being. Hendershot’s Teamsters pension plan is among the most
sickly. He and others suspect a lot of people don’t know about the new
law and will be blindsided if their pensions are cut.
Under the law, retirees ages
80 and older would not get their benefits cut. Retirees 75 and older
could get smaller cuts. Retirees younger than 75 could get their
pensions reduced by the maximum amount, subject to a vote by active and
retired workers. Cuts also need plan trustee approval.
“It’s a struggle to get by as it is,” said Joe Mardula, 62, an
Akron resident and another former Consolidated Freightways worker. He
said someone like him who gets a $3,000-a-month pension could see it cut
to as low as $1,200. “My [ex-wife] and I would have to split that,
too,” Mardula said. “How are you going to live on that between two
people?”
‘Buzz saw’ on pensions
Karen Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the
nonprofit Pension Rights Center in Washington, is highly critical of
the new law while acknowledging that pension reforms are needed. “We are
not saying don’t fix multiemployer [plans],” Friedman said. But an act
that allows plans to cut retiree pensions is “such a departure from
current law,” she said. “It’s just such a buzz saw on retiree pensions.”
As many as 150 pension plans
nationally may be impacted by the new act, Friedman said. The U.S.
Department of Labor keeps a list of “critical status” multiemployer
pension plans. The Pension Rights Center created a Multiemployer Retiree
Cutback Calculator for its website, www.pensionrights.org, that allows people to get an idea of how much their pension could be cut under the law.
As many as “1.5 million people are affected by the new law, and a
small percent know it has been passed,” Friedman said. The Pension
Rights Center is committed to appealing the cutback provisions of the
bill, she said. “We’re committed to organizing retirees around the
country,” she said. She noted that union workers gave up wages so
companies would put money into pension plans.
“There is a question about
whether there is a social contract anymore,” Friedman said. “You are
cutting something that was inviolable. Can anyone trust anything? … The
highest principle is to keep promises to people.”
Yearlong fight
Mike Walden, a retired Roadway
union worker who lives in Cuyahoga Falls, heads the Northeast Ohio
Committee to Protect Pensions. The group, made up of retired Teamsters
in the Akron area, organized to oppose the passage of the Multiemployer
Pension Reform Act as it worked its way through Congress.
“We’d been fighting this for a year,” he said. Now members are
working to get at least part of the act repealed, Walden said. He has
been traveling around the nation to speak to Teamster retirees about the
act. When he speaks to groups, Walden said he tells them, “It’s about
your pension, your lifestyle, your future.”
Walden said one goal is to
have a rally in Washington later this year. The ultimate aim is to
either have the act repealed followed by new hearings to draft revised
legislation, or to get part of the act repealed that cuts retiree
pensions, Walden said. There are other solutions out there that can
shore up failing pension plans before taking away retiree money, he
said. “All of this is falling on the shoulders of retirees,” he said.
“We just want a fair shake.”
Walden said it could take a
year to figure out the complexities of the legislation and longer than
that before plans try to cut retiree benefits. He expects there will be
significant challenges to the law. Many workers affected Thomas
Morneweck, executive secretary-treasurer of the Tri-County Labor Council
in Akron, noted that the law affects more than Teamsters. Machinists,
electricians and others face possible cuts in their multiemployer plans
as do the Teamsters, he said. “Allowing cuts to pensions would be
unprecedented,” he said. “We get the big picture” on the financial state
of pensions, Morneweck said. “The cut is what’s devastating to people
living on a fixed income. … You don’t want to start down that road. It’s
a slippery slope. The cuts keep coming. There’s no stopping them.”
Bill Foshee, 73, says he’s
tried to keep busy in the 15 years since he retired from Consolidated
Freightways. The Teamster retiree volunteers and also works part time
while drawing a union pension. “The whole concept is, we worked hard for
this,” he said of the pension. Foshee said he is among the union
retirees keeping a close eye on multiemployer pension reform. “We really
want people around here to know we’re watching it,” he said.
“I’m at a point now where
everything has leveled off and I want to keep it that way, my bills and
stuff. … If they don’t cut us too much, I’ll be all right.” Tony Popio,
81, a retired Teamster who lives in Barberton, said he disagreed with
the new law. “We’re pawns to make money for somebody else,” he said.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
Union Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law
http://www.ohio.com/business/union-retirees-fear-dramatic-pension-cuts-under-new-federal-law-1.567186
Portside Date:
February 17, 2015
Date of Source:
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Akron Beacon Journal
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Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law - See more
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Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law - See more
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Union Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law
Karen
Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the nonprofit
Pension Rights Center in Washington, is highly critical of the new law
while acknowledging that pension reforms are needed. “We are not saying
don’t fix multiemployer [plans],” Friedman said. But an act that allows
plans to cut retiree pensions is “such a departure from current law,”
she said. “It’s just such a buzz saw on retiree pensions.”
February 15, 2015
Union Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law
Karen
Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the nonprofit
Pension Rights Center in Washington, is highly critical of the new law
while acknowledging that pension reforms are needed. “We are not saying
don’t fix multiemployer [plans],” Friedman said. But an act that allows
plans to cut retiree pensions is “such a departure from current law,”
she said. “It’s just such a buzz saw on retiree pensions.”
February 15, 2015
Union Retirees Fear Dramatic Pension Cuts Under New Federal Law
Karen
Friedman, executive vice president and policy director at the nonprofit
Pension Rights Center in Washington, is highly critical of the new law
while acknowledging that pension reforms are needed. “We are not saying
don’t fix multiemployer [plans],” Friedman said. But an act that allows
plans to cut retiree pensions is “such a departure from current law,”
she said. “It’s just such a buzz saw on retiree pensions.”
February 15, 2015
4 comments:
(HEY DOUG) how much do we have to pay this time for your re-election campaign???????
Rats in the brotherhood . (Get em out now!!!!)
Brotherhood pffft... All politics.
All yes men willing to do what ever it takes to keep there jobs.... Even if its wrong!!!!
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