UPS Full-Time Pension Plan only 60% Funded [1]
May 5, 2011: The new UPS-IBT Pension Plan, which covers UPS full-timers in 25 states, was only 60.7% funded as of 2010, according to its Annual Funding Notice and its Annual Report.
The fund is underfunded by about $1 billion, and deemed "at-risk" under government reporting standards. The accompanying letter to members, signed by IBT Package Division director Ken Hall, reports that all is well. Presumably because UPS management expects to have the money to make the fund whole in the future.
The fund was created in 2008, after Hoffa and Hall let management pull 48,198 full-timers out of the Teamster pension, and put them in this corporate plan. All full-timers in the Southeast, Southwest and Central areas are in this fund.
On paper, the fund is jointly managed by the corporate execs and International union officials. In reality, UPS management runs the fund.
This multi-billion dollar fund does not even list an administrator: it simply reports the UPS corporate address as its administrator. While it paid out $45.8 million in benefits in 2009, it paid $10.5 million in overhead, an extremely inefficient ratio. Presumably UPS management bagged that $10 million for administration, writing a check to itself.
The fund did, after nearly three years, establish a website for participants, where Teamsters can use their password to check their pension credits. That's helpful. But as for information about the fund, this outfit is about as transparent as the CIA.
Federal law does require some information to be provided to participants, and posted at the U.S. Department of Labor website. However, the latest document available is for 2009.
Lower Pensions Than Other UPS Teamsters
Teamsters are locked into a benefit level by the contract, a level that is substantially below what UPS Teamsters get in other areas of the country: the west, the northeast, and Indiana and Illinois.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) researched this UPS pension comparison [2] and published it last year. This is helpful, because our as the next contract approaches, our goal will be to bring all UPS Teamsters up to the highest level.
Full Annual Report Available
You can access the federally-required Annual Funding Notice [3] or the Full Annual Report (2009) [4].
Here's a fact gleaned from the annual report: half of all long-term (30-year) UPS Teamsters retire by age 57. 80% retire by age 62. It is simply too hard to work for UPS until age 65. That's why our pension plans are so critically important.