Tag Archives: CSPF

Union, UPS

Good News !

header image

 

We are extremely pleased to share the news that the Department of Treasury has rejected the application to cut pension benefits proposed by the Central States Fund. While this is a great victory for retirees, we still have a long fight ahead of us to ensure that retirees’ earned benefits and quality of life are protected. Both the Keep Our Pension Promises Act (KOPPA) and the Pension Accountability Act (PAA) would help secure retiree benefits but they are stalled in Congress. We need you to reach out to your Representative and Senators to ask them to support these bills and help move them through Congress. TAKE ACTION HERE!

  1. 1631/ H.R. 2844, KOPPA,  sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders in the Senate and Representative Marcy Kaptur in the House of Representatives, would restore the anti-cutback rule which, until passage of the 2014 “CRomnibus,” prevented cuts from being made to accrued pension benefits. KOPPA also helps strengthen multiemployer pensions by creating a “Legacy Fund” within the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation to address the issue of underfunded “orphaned” participants.  It does this by closing two tax loopholes that only benefit the wealthiest members of society. It also helps multiemployer pension plans by making pension obligations a higher priority in bankruptcy proceedings.

Other legislation to assist retirees would give plan participants a meaningful voice when plans apply to cut benefits under the current laws. S. 2147/ H.R. 4029, the Pension Accountability Act, sponsored by Senator Portman and Representatives David Joyce and Tim Ryan, would require a majority, binding vote from plan participants before any cuts may be made. Additionally, under the current framework, any unreturned ballots are counted as in favor of benefit cuts, PAA would only count those ballots that were returned adding fairness to a system which currently seems to have a deck stacked against retirees.

While we are overjoyed by the news that Central States’ application to cut the pension benefits has been rejected by the Treasury, we must still fix the funds so that retiree’s earned benefits are secure for many years to come. We urge you to email your Senators and Representative to ask them to help move S. 1631/ H.R. 2844, the Keep Our Pension Promises Act and S. 2147/ H.R. 4029, the Pension Accountability Act forward. TAKE ACTION HERE!

You have received this email through your subscription to the Teamsters Take Action email list.
Action, Corporate Greed, Political

Didn’t see it on the news ???

Retirees Rally at the Capitol, Protesting Pension Cuts

WASHINGTON — Some 400,000 retirees who worked in the trucking, parcel delivery and grocery supply industries face drastic pension cuts on July 1 as a result of a little-noticed measure attached to a huge end-of-year spending bill passed in December 2014.

Many members of Congress say they were not given the time to read the provisions or did not grasp the ramifications at the time, and they now say they would not have voted for the legislation.

The bill allowed trustees of multi-employer retirement plans to slash benefits if a pension fund’s failure was likely to overwhelm the underfundedPension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal government’s main insurance program for pension plans.

The retirees, all beneficiaries of the Central States Pension Fund,

Read the whole article here

15cong-master675

Union, UPS

Retiree’s last trip to Costco

Yesterday I was at Costco buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Necco, the Wonder Dog,
which weighs 191 lbs. (The dog, not the bag.)  I was in the check-out line when a woman behind me asked
if I had a dog.

What did she think I had, an elephant?

So because I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her
that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I
added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in the      hospital  last time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in
an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my
orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a Perfect Diet and that the way
that it works is, to load your jacket pockets with Purina Nuggets
and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food
is nutritionally complete so it works well, and I was going to
try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone
in line was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care, because the dog
food poisoned me. I told her no, I stopped to pee on a fire hydrant
and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.

Costco won’t let me shop there anymore.
Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the
time in the world to think of crazy things to say.

B Calm