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Take Action

There are many ways to protest pension injustices and encourage policymakers to make reforms to our nation's retirement income system. Browse this section of our website to learn more about what you can do to encourage policymakers to support policies and proposals that improve the retirement security of America's workers, retirees, and their families.

  1. Contact your elected officials asking them to pass legislation that promotes fair and adequate retirement income policies for workers, retirees, and their families. Make sure to use our tips for writing letters to members of Congress.  Making calls and arranging in-person meetings are two other ways that will help make sure your legislators know what issues are important to you.
  2. Sign up to receive our Pension Action e-newsletter. We'll send you important updates on issues related to pensions and retirement security and keep you informed on how you can take action.
  3. Make your voice heard by using our tips to write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper or magazine.

Act Now (View All)

Include pensions in legislation this year!

It is urgent that any legislation passed this year includes a fix for the multiemployer pension crisis. The longer we wait, the worse the multiemployer crisis gets, and the more workers and retirees there will be who are at risk of losing their pension benefits.

Write to your members of Congress.

Tell your Senators: Include pensions in COVID-19 relief!

Congress is working on another relief package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is urgent that the bill include a fix for the multiemployer pension crisis.

Write to your Senators.

Tell Congress: Vote in support of H.R.397!

The Butch Lewis Act is heading to the House floor for a vote next week. It is urgent that the bill be passed on a bipartisan basis. The longer we wait for decisive action, the worse the multiemployer crisis gets, and the more workers and retirees there will be who are at risk of losing their pension benefits.

Take action to demand that hard-earned pension benefits are protected!

Tell Congress: Support H.R.397

The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act (better known as the Butch Lewis Act) is moving through the House of Representatives and will soon be considered by the Ways & Means Committee, which paves the way to a vote on the House Floor.

Action Alert

Tell Congress: Keep our pension promises!

Every day we wait, the multiemployer crisis gets worse and more and more workers and retirees’ potentially face significant cuts in their pensions. Congress needs to act. Write your members of Congress and urge them to  support the Butch Lewis Act/the Rehabilitation of Multiemployer Plans Act (S. 2145/H.R.

Tell Congress: Keep our pension promises!

Tell Congress: Protect retirees and support the Butch Lewis Act of 2017

Write to your members of Congress and tell them to support S. 2147, the Butch Lewis Act of 2017 introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and H.R. 4444, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act introduced by Representative Richard Neal (D-MA).

Tell Congress: Protect retirees and support the Butch Lewis Act of 2017

Tell Congress: Protect retiree pensions!

For 40 years, one of the foundations of pension law was the principle that once a retiree started receiving benefits, those benefits couldn’t be taken away unless a plan ran out of money. A 2014 law changed that. The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act overturned 40 years of precedent and placed retirement in jeopardy for the 10 million workers covered by multiemployer pension plans.

Tell Congress: Protect retiree pensions!

Tell the Senate: Help workers save for retirement

At the urging of financial institutions and insurance companies, the U.S. Senate is gearing up to vote on two resolutions that would stop new initiatives to help millions of private-sector workers, many of them employees of small business, save for retirement.

 Tell the Senate: Help workers save for retirement
Take Action: Tell Congress: Stop the so-called composite bill

Take Action: Tell Congress: Stop the so-called composite bill

Urge your members of Congress to stop a draft proposal that would send shockwaves through the nation’s multiemployer pension system. A dangerous proposal, called the “composite bill,” could be attached to must-pass year-end legislation, in this year’s lame-duck session of Congress, just as it was with the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA) two years ago.

 Take Action: Tell Congress: Stop the so-called composite bill
Sign the petition! Demand that Congress Protect Retiree Pensions

Sign the petition! Demand that the Treasury Department Protect Retiree Pensions

Join us by calling on the Treasury Department to reject the Central States Pension Fund's application to cut retiree pensions and to work with Congress toward a bi-partisan solution to fix underfunded multiemployer plans, while preserving pension promises to workers, retirees and their families.

 Sign the petition

Grassroots Groups (View All)

Association of BellTel Retirees

Mission: To advocate for the more than 220,000 Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, GTE and VERIZON retirees. The Association also represents active employees regarding retiree issues, such as cash balance plan conversions and recently announced termination of management pension and healthcare benefits.

Lucent Retirees Organization

Mission: To address the interests of the 127,000 individuals covered under the Lucent pension plan by leveraging its members' Lucent stock ownership power, their long-standing and influential relationships not only with Lucent but with Lucent's customers and their influence with lawmakers and regulators.

National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Mission: To protect, preserve, promote, and ensure the financial security, health, and the well being of current and future generations of maturing Americans.

National Association of Retired and Veteran Railway Employees

Mission: To protect and preserve the Railroad Retirement System for retired and current railway workers, their spouses, widows and widowers.

Activist Profiles (View All)

Helen Quirini

Helen Quirini, co-chair of the GE Retirees Justice Fund successfully used a variety of grassroots and shareholder strategies to convince General Electric to provide pensioners a series of cost-of-living adjustments.

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Janice Winston

Janice Winston rallied a group of Verizon employees to convince company executives to reverse their decision to require all employees to switch to a new, less generous pension plan.

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Frank Bryant

Frank Bryant is a founding member of the Central States Pension Improvement Committee and has organized a group of Teamsters to communicate with Congress about their concerns.

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C. William Jones

C. William Jones, who formed the Association of BellTell Retirees to persuade Verizon to provide regular increases in pensions for its retirees, has spearheaded the passage of resolutions at the company's annual shareholder meetings.

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