PRC In the News
01/31/17|The Plain Dealer

Can President Trump help ironworkers about to lose part of pensions? Retiree family makes an unlikely plea

Congress didn’t help Cleveland’s retired ironworkers, who are about to lose part of their pensions. The Treasury Department didn’t either, although it said it did all it could. Can President Donald Trump help?

PRC In the News
01/30/17|Times Union

Retirees of former Schenectady hospital face pension loss

Owens is among more than 1,100 employees of the Schenectady hospital, closed nine years ago, to receive a letter in October warning their pension monies could be depleted within the next decade. He and his wife derive two-thirds of their income from the pension.

Speeches & Statements
01/30/17

Speech by Karen Friedman at a meeting of the Wisconsin Committee to Protect Pensions (January 28, 2017)

Hello!  I’m so happy to be here speaking to all of you. Karen Ferguson, the Center’s director, and, Joellen Leavelle, the Center’s communications and outreach director, both wanted me to say a big hello to you too! Because, like me, they love you guys! When Bob Amsden picked me up at the airport yesterday, he […]

PRC In the News
01/30/17|Pension & Benefits Daily

Feds Break Silence, Back Hospitals in Church Pension Battle

Five federal agencies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that religiously affiliated hospitals can run pension plans exempt from federal law, a move that’s been challenged in dozens of class actions by hospital employees around the country.

PRC In the News
01/30/17|Pension & Benefits Daily

Cleveland-Area Iron Workers Approve Pension Cuts

Members of Iron Workers Local 17 in Cleveland have approved cuts to their pension benefits in an effort to keep their pension plan from going insolvent, and it’s the fund’s retirees who are going to take the hardest hit.

PRC In the News
01/27/17|Pensions & Investments

Iron Workers pension benefit reductions to start in February

Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund, Cleveland, will implement a benefit reduction plan Feb. 1, following approval by plan participants by a ratio of 2-to-1, the pension fund announced Friday.

PRC In the News
01/27/17|The Plain Dealer

Iron Workers pension cuts approved; retirees to get smaller checks

In a vote pitting current workers against retirees, the retirees in the Iron Workers Local 17 union in Cleveland lost. Starting next week, their pension payments will shrink, some by half or more.

PRC In the News
01/27/17|The Washington Post

In unprecedented move, pension plan cuts benefits promised to retirees

A pension fund in Cleveland became the first plan to approve benefit cuts for current retirees — before the plan has run out of money. The move, some critics say, could open the door for other troubled pension plans to follow suit.

PRC In the News
01/27/17|PlanSponsor

First Mutltiemployer Plan to Make Benefit Cuts Under MPRA

Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund announced that its retirees will be the first in the country to face pension benefit cuts as a result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA), which allows ongoing plans that are severely underfunded to take action to cut retiree pension benefits.

Press Release
01/27/17

Cleveland Iron Workers vote to approve pension cuts: Iron Workers Local 17 becomes first plan to cut retiree pensions

WASHINGTON – Today, Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund announced that its retirees will be the first in the country to face devastating pension benefit cuts as a result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which allows ongoing plans that are severely underfunded to take the unprecedented action of cutting retiree pension […]

PRC In the News
01/17/17|The Daily Gazette

Hospital pension fund in trouble: Retirees wonder who will pay, after ‘church plan’ fails

The pension plan covering workers at the former St. Clare’s Hospital has notified more than 1,100 participants that, based on current projections, it will run out of money to pay their retirement benefits in about another decade.

PRC In the News
01/17/17|The Columbus Dispatch

Will change in Washington bring help to ailing multi-employer pension funds?

Last year, a group of retirees collecting pension benefits from the financially struggling Central States Pension Fund were able to block big cuts in their monthly check that the fund said it needed to keep it afloat.