September 28, 2010: Hoffa promised to strengthen our pensions.

Now his promises have turned into excuses.

One of the very best things about having a Teamster contract is a pension you can count on. A pension with 25-and-out or 30-and-out, at decent benefits.

Teamsters of all political persuasions have consistently supported adequate pension funding, even foregoing good wage increases. Under Teamster President Ron Carey we won superior pensions that were the envy of workers in other industries.

Hoffa has had no plan to protect pensions. Just promises … and then later, excuses.

He cut a secret deal with UPS to pull out of the Central States Pension Fund and undermine it.

YRC Teamsters have agreed to forego any pension contributions, an unprecedented concession, in the face of no union plan.

In return, they don’t even get the truth from the IBT Freight Division. Tyson Johnson repeatedly claimed that each concession would be the last.

Right now the PR department is working on the right excuse for him to give members.

After UPS left the fund, other companies want to leave. The International Union needs to draw a line in the sand, and support local unions to defend Teamster pensions, because individual locals should not be left to fight alone. Hoffa has not made this battle a priority.

The Hoffa administration is supporting a bill in the U.S. Congress that will help all multi-employer funds. This is a start, but where is the plan to get it enacted?

Ask yourself this: has the Hoffa administration ever asked you to join in a campaign, or to march on Washington, to defend pensions?