I was reading that article about congress and allowing pension decrease

[nobodysboy]

It's funny how our legislators never talk about lowering any of their perks. they say pgca can't handle any more pension collapses but they continue to fund all these city funds going under because of super high pension payouts. our local, state and federal employees seem to be off limits to cuts. why is that?

 

[Crystal]

It's funny how our legislators never talk about lowering any of their perks. they say pgca can't handle any more pension collapses but they continue to fund all these city funds going under because of super high pension payouts. our local, state and federal employees seem to be off limits to cuts. why is that?

Unlike public employee pensions our pensions funds are private. Public employees contribute to their pensions. The reasons they are underfunded is because for years the politicians deferred making contributions to those funds. The politicians, not the public employees, are solely responsible for the underfunding mess.

 

[nobodysboy]

Unlike public employee pensions our pensions funds are private. Public employees contribute to their pensions. The reasons they are underfunded is because for years the politicians deferred making contributions to those funds. The politicians, not the public employees, are solely responsible for the underfunding mess.

I agree they may contribute some of their monies towards their pension plan but as is with the teamster pension fund poor investments and the stock market have caused the collapse of their fund. They may contribute 2,3,4,5,6 % which in turn will be matched by the city and then figure interest and of course these investment companies such as let's say prudential to make it easy are supposed to keep it flourishing. Ok now...the western conference has run at 95% funded over the past 10 years where these cities and states have been at like 85%. Which makes the fund distressed. Same with the teamster's. distressed funds require attention. we all take the hit. Many of these retired city workers have been given "FAT CAT" pensions that these kitties cannot hold up to. Police chiefs. Fire chiefs. all with 6 figure pensions. of course same thing goes on with our teamster executives. I'm wondering how many city, state and federal workers collect pensions? how many retired teamster's? will have to do some homework.

Crystal that was a great post though.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

It's funny how our legislators never talk about lowering any of their perks. they say pgca can't handle any more pension collapses but they continue to fund all these city funds going under because of super high pension payouts. our local, state and federal employees seem to be off limits to cuts. why is that?

I don't know about everywhere but here in the great state of Pennsylvania there is something in our state's constitution about state workers' pensions being sacred and we would have to change our constitution to reduce what has already been accrued. Here the employer antes in 4% of their pay and the employee chips in 4% then it accrues a 4% interest rate, none of which is too awful bad or unsustainable. Those workers need to be around for quite a while to receive a whole lot but 20+ years starts to amount to a nice piece of change.

As for our legislators, their benefits need a hair cut and you are right that we aren't hearing a peep about their perks, what they cost us and how they are going to be cut. These are some ingredients that result in civil wars.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

Public employees contribute to their pensions.

I know that it's indirectly but we have contributed to our pension funds as well. If we knew then what we know now I'd bet that we'd have taken all that extra money in our paychecks.

 

[Crystal]

I know that it's indirectly but we have contributed to our pension funds as well. If we knew then what we know now I'd bet that we'd have taken all that extra money in our paychecks.

Well.........My situation was just the opposite. Back in the early 70s Local 701 took an extra 35 cents an hour out their pay and put it into the pension. We laughed at them for working below scale. I remember shooting my mouth off and saying no way. I wanted that money in my check and besides I didn't plan on retiring as a truck driver. I wasn't in Local 701 but if I had been I'd have bitched about the cut. Little did I know back then.

That fund was so fat that they were retiring with an adjustable benefit of 25 and out with no age penalty. I knew a driver who retired at 43. Those 701 retirees who stayed until full retirement age are now collecting between $8,000 and $12,000 a month based on years of service. So even with the pension cuts coming I wish they would have taken more out of my check and put it into the funds.

 

[Deleted member 5115]

Those 701 retirees who stayed until full retirement age are now collecting between $8,000 and $12,000 a month based on years of service. So even with the pension cuts coming I wish they would have taken more out of my check and put it into the funds.

701, North Joisey? There are some rare circumstances out there but something makes me feel like the added money to CSPF would have been squandered as the rest of it was.

 

[nobodysboy]

Well.........My situation was just the opposite. Back in the early 70s Local 701 took an extra 35 cents an hour out their pay and put it into the pension. We laughed at them for working below scale. I remember shooting my mouth off and saying no way. I wanted that money in my check and besides I didn't plan on retiring as a truck driver. I wasn't in Local 701 but if I had been I'd have bitched about the cut. Little did I know back then.

That fund was so fat that they were retiring with an adjustable benefit of 25 and out with no age penalty. I knew a driver who retired at 43. Those 701 retirees who stayed until full retirement age are now collecting between $8,000 and $12,000 a month based on years of service. So even with the pension cuts coming I wish they would have taken more out of my check and put it into the funds.

you are talking about the mirror image of when I started as a teamster in the 70's. All these senior guys saying put that raise into the pension and I was wanting the whole banana towards my paycheck. The western conference so far has been very strong financially. When I left my company after 30 years in the pension fund they were paying 3.46 per hour up to 2076 hours. Through the 90's they paid on every hour worked and I was a workhorse. Minimum 2600 hours every year. I do know if I worked til age 65 my pension would have been worth around 63,000 per year. I left at 53. I'm sorry to see central states going into meltdown. My mother in California still gets my dads spousal pension of which some of it does come from central states. I talked with her today but didn't talk about that. I will wait for her to tell me then we can talk.

 

[Crystal]

701, North Joisey? There are some rare circumstances out there but something makes me feel like the added money to CSPF would have been squandered as the rest of it was.

ABFer, I only brought it up because of your "if we only knew then" comment. 701's pension fund was so fat even after it's lawyer stole $3 million from it. He faked his own drowning and they finally found him living like a king in the Maldives Islands........... Local 701 is in Central Jersey. They are the guys who worked so hard in the organizing victory of FedEx in S. Brunswick