March 8, 2010: Teamsters can take a small step to protect our pensions.

The International Union has started an online petition to build up support for legislation to strengthen multi-employer pension plans.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would strengthen union benefits. Under House Bill 3936, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) would finance the pensions of some retirees whose companies have gone out of business.

In its current form, this legislation, called the Pomeroy Bill, would pay full pensions to these retirees and would have sufficient funding to do that.

The Teamster-backed version of the Pomery bill provides these protections and deserves members’ support.

Click here to sign the Teamster online Petition to Save Jobs and Protect Pensions.

One concern is that the Pomeroy Bill could be amended to undermine full funding for the so-called “orphan” pensions. Right now, the PBGC has a maximum pay out of only $1,080 per month for a retiree with 30 years of credits.

It’s up to our Teamsters Union to make sure that any bill that is passed would guarantee that the PBGC would pay full pensions. The current version of the bill does that.

Teamster members need to do our part to support this legislation. We should also be on guard against changes to the bill that could cast vast numbers of Teamster retirees (and soon-to-be retirees) into second class status.

Click here to read more about the proposed pension legislation.

Click here to sign the Teamster petition.