Multi Employer Pensions are Ponzi schemes. As long as you are one of the people who have lots of other contributing you have no issue.
Once the amount of contributors begins to soften and there are more collecting from the fund vs. contributing to the fund, the Ponzi Scheme dies. Just ask Bernie Madoff investors. It was great when lots of new folks were buying into it....
The teamsters sat and watched their pensions dry up. They never having a good offer to make others to join in their union. They have not organized a major LTL carrier in the Deregulated Era. They only watched the teamster carriers die off one at a time with no new teamsters to replace the displaced workers.
Any fool could have predicted this disaster, yet they did nothing...
This is not the taxpayers issue. I will get hurt by the pension going insolvent but if the Feds start bailing out pensions the Chicago Teachers will line up for their Billions of $$$$. As will other failing pensions. It will go on forever.
You can only blame the failure on the teamsters.. Good news is union boss's still collect multiple pensions....
Although I am a staunch believer in the idea of Unionism and collective bargaining,.......there are some things you state that I have to agree with......
Mr. Hoffa’s “power grab” ....in my opinion,.....where he had outside help in getting Ron Carey not only removed as Teamster leader,.....but “gagged” by court order.....was the start of a slow, steady decline......
We had a chance with Ron Carey, to reverse some of the effects of deregulation........With Hoffa,.....there was no effort to fight what the big banks and large corporations wanted.....
In fact,......with his disastrous organizing results,......his political infighting, his dismissive attitude about core(freight) industries.....
......his incredible decision to allow UPS to walk out of the CSPF,......his initial support for pension cuts across the board,.....and, when the rank-and-file protested in the strongest terms.......he “reversed” his position, and now offers a tepid support for pension legislation........like he’s sleepwalking.......
The years he had Fric and Frac.......Sweeton and Johnson.........decimate and tear up the NMFA........his fathers’ life’s work......seemed, to me,.....the actions of a man trying to destroy a legacy.......
And then there’s the car hauling contract,......the other national contract.........What a comedy of errors until carhaulers stubbornly resisted the Union .......”leaders”.......increasingly desperate pleas and threats to.......accept a cut-rate contract.....
And the UPS contract......where Mr. Hoffa changed the IBT Constitution,......to allow the Executive board to accept any contract offered by the employer.....REGARDLESS OF THE VOTE.........if they thought it was in the “best interests”......of the rank-and-file......
Where would our Union be today........Where would our PENSIONS be today.........if we had strong....MEMBER ORIENTED leadership for the last 20 years,.........
.........instead of the corporate suck-ups and Wall Street toadies that seem to infest the Marble Palace down in Washington?
You can ......”say”.......you’re For The Working Man...........
........but it is your resultant ACTIONS........that are the PROOF...as to whether you are,........or just lying through that dishonest smile while jamming it up our collective backsides......
I will always believe in the.......Potential......of the Teamsters.....
And pray that someday soon, the rank-and-file get the proper representation they deserve.........