THIS OLD POST FROM FREIGHTMASTER SAYS IT ALL
WE SHOULD COPY IT AND SEND IT
Here's the floor statement all Senators should read today...
It’s very important that we raise questions that your Senator can bring to the Senate floor.
Here are things that Senators need to know:
While the multiemployer issue has been discussed in Congress in the past, and a report called “Solutions not Bailouts” has been circulated, Senate staff never saw this legislation which is 161 pages and has very detailed provisions until a few days ago. This bill would significantly undercut existing federal private pension law provisions and deserves a full debate in Congress, with proper hearings and avenues for input and discussion. What is most troubling is that the retirees, whose benefits could be cut as much as 30%-60%, have been totally excluded from this discussion. And the organizations that have opposed this bill have also been cut out of discussions.
There has been enormous misinformation about the bill. We were told that all the union support it and this is clearly not true. There are numerous organizations that have come out swinging against the bill including These include AARP, the Pension Rights Center, the Machinists Union, the Teamsters, the Boilmakers and the Steelworkers, TDU and others.
On the House floor, the bill’s proponents said erroneously that this would give retirees a voice. In fact, it does no such thing. The so-called voting process that the bill includes is flawed from the beginning. First, it is run by the very same trustees who are empowered to cut the retirees’ benefits. So the trustees, who want to cut the benefits, are in charge of providing the information and developing the ballots and controlling who votes and how. That’s like having only one party – the Democrats or the Republicans – oversee national elections.. Such a conflict would not be permitted. Secondly, a majority of all the workers must have their ballots counted or the vote does not count (imagine imposing this requirement on federal elections, there would be few members of Congress elected!) And, finally, even if the retirees and workers votes are counted and they vote against the cuts – this vote can be overturned by the Treasury Department if this agency, in consultation with the DOL and PBGC, believes that the pension plan poses a systemic risk to the PBGC. Talk about an undemocratic rigged process.
Most importantly, retirees today are provided the most protections under the federal private pension law – and this bill will undercut these protections. What ERISA says is that retirees and workers’ benefits cannot be cut back once earned. This is to protect people against arbitrary decisions made by trustees and employers – which used to happen before the law was passed. But now Congress is sweeping these protections under the rug.
Where under current law, even when multiemployer plans face difficulties, retirees are paid first and continuously until the day the plan runs of out money. Only then, when the PBGC steps in to assist the plan, are retirees cut down to a basic guarantee level. But this bill cuts retirees’ benefits today to protect against future plan insolvency that may not occur until one or two decades into the future, when the retirees are no longer alive.
We must protect our most valuable populations –not balance the books of multiemployer plans on their backs.
Thanks for your help!
Freightmaster1,
Dec 12, 2014
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Freightmaster1,
Dec 12, 2014
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