© 2024 Pension Rights Center. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 2.5 Generic License.
By Karen Friedman
If candidates are smart, saving pensions should be part of their every conversation with voters. Specifically, there should be a dialogue in both parties about how to solve the multiemployer crisis. Time is running out on many of these severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans and policymakers can’t dilly dally any longer. It’s time to find a comprehensive solution to save pension plans, protect workers and retirees and ensure that the pension insurance program can back-up pension plans for years to come.
That’s why we thought it was fitting that Joe Biden threw his hat in the ring for the race at Teamsters Local 249, whose members may be facing 30% cuts in their pensions, according to this article in The Intercept. Unless there is a solution soon, the members of the Western Pennsylvania Teamsters and Employers Pension Fund will join thousands of other retirees and workers in having their pensions slashed, and seeing their retirement security disappear overnight.
Retirees should ask politicians the same questions: Are you committed to saving multiemployer pension plans? If so, will you support solutions that protect plans and protect retirees’ benefits? Can we count on you?
If you are in a multiemployer pension plan and have had your pension cut, or your plan has applied to the Treasury Department to begin cutting benefits, consider submitting your story to our Story Bank. Or email us at egilbert@pensionrights.org, or call us at (202) 296-3776.
Fixing multiemployer plans is one of the PRC’s top priorities. Republicans and Democrats alike should also make this a top issue.
Read our fact sheet: Resources for Multiemployer Reform
