Some union retirees are fearing possible deep cuts to their pensions

DETROIT» Marsha Rarick, 66, worked 21 years driving a truck and hauling cars, mostly Jeeps out of Toledo, Ohio.

Rarick, who retired at the end of 2016, is collecting around $2,400 month from a Teamsters pension plan that’s set to run out of money in a few years. She found herself Friday in a packed union hall at Teamsters Local 299 in Detroit fighting for her pension check.

“I’m worried it will be cut altogether,” said Rarick, who lives in Toledo.

“I worked really hard, and now to lose the pension I was working for would be really devastating,” she said.

Plenty of pensions created through collective bargaining agreements between a union and several employers in a given industry are on the verge of crashing. Many of these multiemployer plans cover union workers in construction, retail, mining and transportation.

“I’ve been retired 20 years. Now they want to take it away. What happened to the promise?” asked Robert Glass, 78.

Glass, who drove a truck for Airborne Express at Detroit Metro Airport, said he went to work every day for 38 years, did what he was supposed to do and hoped one day to have a secure retirement. He now collects about $3,500 a month in a pension but worries that check could be cut if the Teamsters’ fund runs out of money.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, is part of the bipartisan, 16-member Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Plans, which has a statutory deadline of Nov. 30 to provide recommendations to address the looming pension crisis.

“Failure is not an option,” Dingell said before a town hall. “You see this room? These are people’s lives.”

Jan Kachur, 75, walked around the room with a cardboard sign saying “Retired Teamster Will Work for Food.”

Kachur, who lives in Deerfield near Dundee, said he’s really not looking for a job. But he is fearful of what cuts might hit his $2,600-a-month pension check if no solution is found. His wife, who is 63, continues to work at a job where she hasn’t built up pension credits for about the past 10 years, so what she collects when she retires will be limited.

Central States faces the largest of all multiemployer plan shortfalls with about $17.2 billion in unfunded liabilities. Central States is expected to be insolvent by 2025.