Funny how mad everyone gets when somebody disagrees. The way I see it, everyone can get pissed as much as they want. Fact is, the older ones and retirees are getting pissed that the actual worker isn't getting on board to fund this broke pension that'll be insolvent for the ones working now. So it's pretty selfish for you say f-em and strike. Might as well say " f-you fellow teamster and new hires, I don't want you to have any retirement "
The ideal situation would be for someone to own up that they "engineered" these funds to go broke. A Smoking Gun, as it were......Prior to 2004 , most all defined-benefit Multi-Employer funds were very solvent,....and that includes the CSPF,....(in spite of some of their ...disastrous...choices in the past...)..
Government rules,.....which they refused to amend at that time,......didn't allow for defined-benefit plans to save for the proverbial "rainy day". According to rules STILL currently in place,....if a fund exceeds 100% funding,...the employer no longer has any obligation to the fund. This rule kept funds from saving any money,....they HAD to give it out as some sort of "benefit",...or risk allowing the employers to walk away from funding the pension. Our fund here in W. Pa. had to go to a 13th yearly check for retirees just to keep the funding below 99.9%..
Now, here it is 14 years,....and one Great Recession,....later,.....and most defined-benefit funds are crippled and in danger of insolvency,.....mainly due to government rules that kept them from exceeding 100% funding,...and thereby laying in funds for future collapses.
The "culprits" are identified..........Now Congress has to accept responsibility for these archaic rules,.....and Wall Street has to accept complicity for lobbying for those rules.
For us working people? The people in our Ruling Class couldn't give a hoot if you're forced to buy dog food to eat...... Wall Street would love it if all defined-benefit funds went away.........Your employer would love it, too..... If it were negotiated that ABF must give a 50% match to employee contributions to a 401(k),....that match would come directly out of whatever money they had allotted to go to the pension funds. That would cost them much less than it does now,.......de-fund, and eventually bankrupt all defined-benefit funds,...thereby alleviating ABF of any responsibility,......and,..once and for all,...force us to fund our own retirements,...individually, and subject to the vagaries of the stock market.
As an example,.....just think if you were going to "retire" on your 401(k) this week.........Kind of a..."problem"....eh?
That's why defined-benefit funds were established. They can insulate an individual participant from up and down market volatility. You retire when YOU want,....not when the market "lets" you.
Let's not throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Demographically,.....ALL defined-benefit funds will eventually stabilize, when there is more younger employees paying in,......instead of the artificial glut of much older, top-heavy seniority boards that are working their way through the pension fund system. Once stabilized,.....these funds are,......without a doubt,.....the best vehicle for retirement. You need an example? Congress retires THEIR members on a defined-benefit plan,....INSTEAD of a 401(k)-style plan.......
What's Good For The Goose........
We're going to have to keep funding individual 401(k)'s out of our own pocket,.......and ABF,.....and ALL OTHER employers are going to have to step up and financially support the defined-benefit plans.........The IBT,....in their Infinite Wisdom ( heavy sarcasm...).....CAN NOT allow ANY participant in Multi-Employer funds to "discount" their payments. That should be sacrosanct.......Underfunding long-term defined-benefit funds would wreck Teamster retirements for a generation. Our pension plans USED to be our greatest recruitment tool,.....They will EVENTUALLY get back to being solvent,........IF,....we don't aid and abet the employers and Wall Street in wrecking our own pensions......
My Opinion.....
