Unions want to be heard in fight to protect pensions

well as other lawmakers.

But while the number of attendees is expected to be impressive, what’s really important is the issue at hand. The future of more than a million retirees and workers, many of whom worked decades and contributed to their pensions under the understanding they would be supported in their golden years. That is now being called into question, and it’s not right.

America is facing a retirement crisis. Unions like the Teamsters, UMW and BCTGM have known this for years. But Congress has been slower to act. That changed this February, when it formed the House-Senate Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans. It was tasked with finding a solution to the nation’s looming pension problem and will hear from the public firsthand tomorrow.

The retirement security of as many as 1.5 million active and retired workers could be at risk if pension legislation is not passed soon. The committee, which is composed of eight senators and eight members of the House evenly divided by party, is working toward reporting a bill to solve the pension crisis.

As of now, the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund is facing an unfunded liability of $17.2 billion, the largest of all multiemployer plan shortfalls. Other threatened multiemployer plans face a total shortfall of $19.2 billion.

In all, there are more than 300 multiemployer plans across the nation that are in danger of failing. That’s why unions are joining together to stress to the joint pension committee the importance of coming up with a solution as soon as possible. The congressional pension panel, which is co-chaired by Sen. Brown and includes Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio as a key member, needs to find a vehicle that will deliver for these hardworking Americans who are paying, or have paid, into the pension pool and have played by the rules all their lives.

One measure that has the support of Teamsters and other unions is the Butch Lewis Act of 2017 (H.R. 4444/S. 2147), which was introduced in Congress late last year by Sen. Brown and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and already has received bipartisan support.

The measure would boost financially troubled multiemployer pensions so they don’t fail. It would create a new agency under the U.S. Treasury Department that would sell bonds in the open market to large investors such as financial firms.

The agency, the Pension Rehabilitation Administration (PRA), would then lend money from the sale of the bonds to the financially troubled pension plans. Plans that are deemed “critical and declining,” as well as recently insolvent but non-terminated plans and those that have suspended benefits, would be eligible to apply for the program. Pension plans borrowing from PRA would be required to set aside the loan proceeds in separate, safe investments such as annuities or bonds that match the pension payments for retirees.

One thing is for sure — what we have now is not working. Both the Teamsters and UMW are looking at pension plans going bust in the next decade. Having benefits cut by two-thirds or more will lead to retirees losing their homes and not being able to pay for essential medicines. That is not living with dignity and is unconscionable for those who spent decades toiling away to support their families.

These workers aren’t asking for a handout; they just want what is rightfully theirs. It’s time for the joint committee to find a legislative solution that will make them whole. They’ve waited long enough.