Social Security. Defined benefit pensions. Increasingly, secure and dignified retirement is the difference between union and non-union employment.
The Butch-Lewis Act would lend money to pension plans to give them a chance to recover.
Top Democrats propose to cut public employee compensation and divert those resources to fund employer obligations to the pension system, but a coalition of public employee unions plans to fight the cuts in the Capitol and in the courts if need be.
The 2008 financial crisis is still claiming new victims.
The Joint Select Committee on Solvency of Multiemployer Pension Plans was supposed to vote on a solution to the looming crisis in union-sponsored pensions by the end of November.
As of Oct. 1, pension benefits were cut as much as 30 percent for retired members of Office and Professional Employees International Union in the Western United States.
Without a cut of up to 30 percent of benefits, the pension fund is headed for collapse in 18 years.
Without a 30% pension cut, the fund will be insolvent in 18 years.
Over a million union members are in pension funds that are headed for insolvency. Here’s how Congress created the crisis.
Members of the panel are supposed to craft a plan by November 30.
One solution, favored by many Democrats, is to have the Treasury step in to help.
