UPDATED December 16, 2014: Get answers on the pension cut deal and what it means for you. The ink is still drying on the pension cut deal that was attached in the dead of night to Congress's spending bill. Some questions can be answered now. We will update with new information as it becomes available. Does this bill mandate pension cuts? No. This bill permits “deeply troubled” pension plans, those which could become insolvent over...

December 12, 2014: Thomas Nyhan testified in Congress and lobbied hard – with our pension money and staff – to get the pension-cut bill passed. Now, he got his wish: a 163-page bill sneaked through Congress, tacked onto the budget.  We propose some small measure of equality of sacrifice, which is a basic principle of the labor movement.   The executives of the Central States Pension and Welfare Funds should take a 30% cut, to...

Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times December 11, 2014 View the original piece At last the actual language has been released of the backroom, last-minute congressional deal allowing benefits of millions of retired workers to be shredded. It's even worse than its critics anticipated. We've tracked this inexcusably hasty, secretive maneuvering during the last week, reporting that it allows extreme, potentially premature cuts in benefits for retirees who are members of multi-employer pension plans. Such plans...