The government-union conspiracy to raid US workers’ pensions
This month the Teamsters Central States pension fund, one of the largest retirement funds in the United States, unveiled the details of its plan to slash pension benefits for over 400,000 current and retired truck drivers, parcel carriers and other employees. Workers received letters informing them that pension benefits for which they had worked for decades, and which had been guaranteed by law, had simply gone up in smoke.
While the pension cuts amount to an average of 23 percent of workers’ benefits, for many it will mean a reduction of 50 percent, reducing tens or even hundreds of thousands to poverty and destitution in their old age.
The move is the result of a conspiracy by the Obama administration, Wall Street, major corporations and the trade unions to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from multi-employer pension funds.
In December 2014 Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, with essentially no public discussion, setting up a mechanism for slashing the pension benefits of 1 million employees in “underfunded” multi-employer pension funds. This year, the White House appointed longtime Wall Street fixer Kenneth Feinberg to oversee the benefit cuts, giving him the unilateral authority to impose cuts even if beneficiaries vote them down.
Read more: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/10/pers-o10.html
Cross-posted in Omaha Steve's Labor Group.
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It does mention in the article the effect on the UAW pensions. State pensions would not fall under the act that was signed by the president, but many of the state pensions are drastically underfunded also. The pension system for state employees is reasonably sound but the teacher's retirement system is poorly funded.
That's sort of why I always had a "live and let live" philosophy in life and to enjoy the moment because for the masses there is no such thing as financial security.
