September 19, 2008: The Central States Pension Fund lost $3.1 billion during the first six months of this year, which is half as much as the $6.1 billion that the fund received in December from UPS as a pay-out to leave the fund.

The fund lost $2.1 billion on its investments in the first half of 2008, or eight percent of its assets. At the same time, the fund suffered a $287 million loss of income, compared to the first half of last year, because UPS is no longer contributing to the fund.

The investment losses during the first half of 2008 came as stocks dropped dramatically. Central States fared worse than most other pension funds due to its aggressive investment strategy: their Quarterly Report provides a comparison to the average of other large funds.

No More UPS Contributions

When the Hoffa administration gave UPS management a huge concession in the form of the pensions of 44,000 full-time UPSers, they told Teamsters that the deal would work out well for the Central States Fund, because of the $6 billion received from UPS.

Six months later, that claim does not hold up, especially since CSPF has lost $600 million per year in contribution income that UPS would have had to pay in. And that income figure would grow each year, as employer contributions go up as required by the contract.

Relying More on Investments

Prior to the deal to allow UPS to exit the fund, Central States relied on employer contributions for about 50 percent of its income, and investment returns for about 50 percent. Now, Central States must count on investment returns for some 70 percent of its income, with employer contributions contributing about 30 percent. This makes Central States more dependent on investment returns than most other pension funds.

Central States’ assets stood at $23.7 billion as of June 30, so there is still plenty of money to sustain benefits and recover, as long as the union leadership is committed to make it happen.

You can obtain a copy of the Quarterly Report of the Independent Special Counsel, and the Quarterly Financial and Analytical Information at www.tdu.org.

TDU members won an order in federal court that requires the Central States Fund to provide us with this information. Previously, they kept it secret from members.

September 12, 2008: The leaders of Teamsters Local 200 said Thursday that they have made no decision yet on whether to take Waste Management Inc.’s “last, best and final offer” to union membership for a vote.

Speaking out in detail for the first time since the strike of union trash haulers began Aug. 26, union leaders said they learned only late in the negotiating process of Waste Management’s proposal to drop the Central States Pension Fund in favor of a 401(k) plan. Under Central States, the employees have a defined-benefit pension.

Click here to read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

September 5, 2008: Teamster pensions are under attack. But members are coming together to protect their retirement.

These are tough times for many Teamster pension funds—and the members who rely on them for a secure retirement:

• Last month, TDU uncovered that the Central States Pension Fund lost over $3 billion in assets in the first six months of 2008. That’s half the payout UPS made to leave the fund last December.
• Teamster plans are struggling to deal with the new funding requirements of the Pension Protection Act—and in some areas cutting benefits.
• A study of major Teamster pension plans by TDU revealed a growing “Pension Divide”—with the new UPS Pension Plan paying the worst benefits in the country.

The Pension Divide will grow wider over the life of the new master contracts. By the end of the new UPS agreement contract in 2013, tens of thousands of Teamsters in the Western Region will retire with a $5,000 pension, with less than 30 years service. So will UPS Teamsters in Washington, D.C. In some other areas UPS Teamsters will retire with $4,000 for 30-and-out.

The new UPS plan will pay just $3,000 for 30 years service. No other plan for UPS Teamsters is worse. Read TDU’s study on the Pension Divide.

The Attack on Our Pensions

These problems aren’t isolated. Corporate America is going after multi-employer pension plans—and Teamster employers like UPS are leading the way.

Multi-employer pension plans give members a strong reason to care about the union.

Corporate America is hoping to make our unions weaker by weakening Teamster pension plans.

What Members Are Doing

Across the country, Teamsters are uniting to protect our benefits.

In Milwaukee, Waste Management is trying to pull out of Central States. WM management sent in their union-busting “green team” to try to break a strike. But Local 200 Teamsters are standing together on the picket line to protect their benefits.

In Baltimore, over 500 members have signed a petition for a Pension Bill of Rights to protect their right to know what’s going on with their pension—and to have a say when changes are needed.

In New York, Local 804 members were blindsided when their pensions were cut. Last year, members came together, voted down their tentative agreement with UPS by three-to-one, restored their pension benefits, and saved 25-and-out benefits for new employees.

These Teamsters show that we can resist Corporate America’s attack on our pensions when we stand together and are united.

What You Can Do

Defending our pensions is a job for our whole union—and you can help.

Get the facts on your plan. TDU and the Pension Rights Center won language in the Pension Protection Act that gives you new rights to get plan documents and actuary reports from your pension plan.

Contact TDU to see if members have already obtained the documents for your plan, or to get a sample letter you can send to your fund.

Keep other members informed. It’s harder for management to play games with our retirement when members are watching. You can help keep members informed by distributing TDU’s newspaper Convoy or by holding a pension information meeting in your area.

Click here to order a bundle of Convoy. Contact TDU for advice on setting up a pension meeting in your area.

Come to the TDU Convention. The TDU Convention brings together Teamster members from across the country to look at the hard questions facing our union.

This year we’ll have a special workshop on The Future of Teamster Pensions with attorney Ann Curry Thompson and Teamster members who are uniting to protect their benefits.

Click here to register for the TDU Convention.

September 2, 2008: Over 200 Teamster strikers in Milwaukee are solid in their commitment to protect their pensions and standard of living, as Waste Management tries to attack both.

Critical strike issues are wages and pensions. The strikers are paid on an incentive plan which leads to very different incomes, and with too much management discretion. Their average wage is far below what Waste Management Teamsters make in nearby Chicago.

A prime management demand is to pull out of the Teamster Central States Pension Fund. Waste Management has some 13 divisions in other states where Teamsters are in Central States, so the battle could have much wider implications.

Over the weekend, Local 200 Secretary-Treasurer Tom Millonzi issued a statement that he has offered the company a UPS-type withdrawal from Central States. This has led to some confusion, because on Saturday, Joint Council 39 President Fred Gegare told the strikers that there is “no way in hell” he would recommend any contract that includes a pull-out from Central States.

The move comes less than a year after UPS left the Central States Plan with the blessing and endorsement of the International Union.

The contract expired April 30. Teamsters have patiently worked without a contract all summer, giving management plenty of time to make a reasonable offer. Waste Management is the largest waste company in the USA and highly profitable.

Management has brought in scabs from across the country, and refers to the scab force as “the green team.” They are paying them vastly more than they pay Teamster labor.

Facing this giant corporation, the International Union may need to consider a Teamster escalation in the form of an extension of picket lines. The Milwaukee strikers are Teamsters on the front lines who deserve all our support.

Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

August 29, 2008: Last October, Local 355 President Denis Taylor told Baltimore UPSers he was “taking care” of their pension problems.

Four months later, Taylor announced he was cutting pension accruals to zero.

Here’s what Taylor had to say when he was selling the UPS contract back in October: “Under this agreement, we have gotten the company to make record pension, health and welfare contributions. We are taking care of the problems sooner rather than later, which is what our members wanted us to do.”

Taylor’s comments were part of the International Union’s sales job to approve the new UPS contract. Click here to read Taylor’s comments in the IBT’s UPS Contract Update.

“Did Taylor know cuts are coming back in October? Or did he not know the situation our fund was in?” asks Gary Payne, a Local 355 feeder driver. “Either way, I can’t trust him to manage my pension anymore.”

Payne and other Local 355 Teamsters are getting organized to run for local union office this fall.

In New York Local 804, UPS Teamsters voted to reject the UPS contract. They won improvements that restored their pension benefits. “I want to know why Taylor didn’t hold out until our pension issues were fixed.” Payne says.

“In the end, he was just a rubber stamp for Hoffa’s contract. He didn’t take care of our pension problems.”

What do you think? Click here to send a question or comment to Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

* Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters. UPS Contract Update. Oct. 18, 2007.

August 29, 2008: Some 240 Teamsters went on strike on August 26 against Waste Management in the Milwaukee area.

They’ve made their presence felt at Harley Week—the 105th anniversary of Harley Davidson.

A prime management demand is to leave the Central States Pension Fund and move workers into a company plan instead. Waste Management has some 13 divisions in other states where Teamsters are in Central States, so the battle could have much wider implications.

One member told us, “We gave up wage increases to get that money put into the pension. Why should we give it away now?”

The move comes less than a year after UPS left the Central States Plan with the blessing and endorsement of the International Union.

The strikers are holding solid and picketing every site, including the landfills.

There have been no negotiations this week, but on Friday the company and the union announced they intend to resume talks. The contract expired on April 1.

Management has brought in scabs from across the country, and refers to the scab force as “the green team.” They are paying them vastly more than they pay Teamster labor.

Facing this giant corporation, the International Union may need to consider a Teamster escalation in the form of an extension of picket lines.

Read more about the strike in the Milwaukee Business Journal.

August 26, 2008: Some corporate executives are paying for their lavish benefits with money from their employees' pension funds.

According to a new article from the Pension Rights Center, this “pension laundering” could hurt the retirement of millions of Americans.

Teamsters who are in multi-employer pension plans don’t have to worry about this pension scam.

But members who are in their employer’s pension fund should pay notice. And all taxpayers could end up footing the bill to bail out company pensions after executives have raided them.

Read the article from the Pension Rights Center.

August 21, 2008: The Central States Pension Fund lost $3.1 billion in assets during the first six months of this year—half the $6.1 billion UPS paid to leave the fund in December.

In the first half of 2008, the fund lost $2.2 billion on their investments, or eight percent of their assets. At the same time, they suffered a $287 million loss of income, compared to the first half of last year, because UPS is no longer contributing to the fund.

The investment losses during the first half of 2008 came as stocks dropped dramatically. Central States fared worse than most other pension funds due to their aggressive investment strategy: their Quarterly Report provides a comparison to the average of other large funds.

When the Hoffa administration gave UPS management the pensions of 44,000 full-time UPSers, they told Teamster members that the deal would work out well for the Central States Fund, because of the $6.1 billion received.

Just six months later that claim is not standing up to the test of time.

Central States has lost $600 million per year in contribution income that UPS would have had to pay in. And that income figure would grow rapidly each year, with the higher employer contributions bargained in the last contract.

Central States assets stood at $23.7 billion as of June 30, so there is still plenty of money to sustain benefits.

You can download a copy of the Quarterly Report of the Independent Special Counsel, and the Quarterly Financial and Analytical Information.

TDU members won an order in federal court that requires the Central States Fund to provide us with this information. Previously, the fund kept this information secret from members.

Have a question? Click here to send a question to Teamsters for a Democratic Union, or call (313) 842-2600.

You can support TDU’s work to safeguard our pensions by joining TDU. Click here to join today.

August 19, 2008: The new UPS Pension Fund covering 44,000 Teamsters in the Central States not only offers the lowest benefits. It also has no reciprocal agreements with Teamster pension plans around the country.

That means that UPSers in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest who have substantial years worked under other pension plans will face stiff pension reductions when they retire.

Most (though not all) Teamster pension funds have reciprocal agreements. For example: a Teamster who worked 15 years for UPS in California and then 15 years at UPS or another Teamster employer in Ohio can retire with a 30 and out pension. That’s because the Western Conference Pension Fund and Central States Pension Fund have a reciprocal agreement.

But the new UPS Pension Plan has no such agreements. That may not be a problem right now because no one has substantial time in the new UPS Pension Fund yet. But going forward, Teamsters who accumulate less than a full pension in the UPS Plan will suffer big pension reductions, even if they have 25, 30 or even 35 years of time served in the Teamsters.

Didn’t our negotiators see this coming? It’s a problem that needs to be fixed before working Teamsters suffer irreparable pension losses.

August 5, 2008: Months after New York UPSers approved new bylaws for their local, members are still having trouble getting straight information about their benefits.

This spring, UPS Teamsters in New York Local 804 voted by over 90 percent to require the Local 804 Executive Board to provide members with information about their pension and health funds.

In July, the Local 804 Pension Fund finally responded to members’ requests for pension documents—and turned over some information, including reports from various investment managers.

But the fund continues to violate federal law by refusing to turn over the most important documents that members requested—including the Actuarial Valuation Report and other actuarial reports, despite a specific request for this information from members’ legal counsel.

Members are legally entitled to these documents. Every other major Teamster fund has provided this information to members within 30 days or less—sometimes without charge.

In contrast, the Local 804 Pension Fund not only refused to turn over documents, it even charged members for documents it refused to provide. Local 804 shop steward Tim Sylvester was billed more than $125 for pension documents—but more than 25 percent of these documents were missing!

Sylvester and other leaders of Local 804 Members United are following up with the fund through their legal counsel, attorney Ann Curry Thompson.

Concern Over Health Benefits

Local 804 members are also still looking for straight answers about the Local 804 Health Fund and the future of members’ health benefits and retiree healthcare.

An investigation by Local 804 Members United revealed that the Health Fund lost $18 million over four years—according to the fund’s own financial reports.

Their investigation also revealed that Local 804 officials voted to reduce UPS’s contributions to the Health Fund and divert the money to the Pension Fund—a move that accelerated the Health Fund’s multi-million dollar losses.

Local 804 officials have responded by telling members that the Fund did not “lose” $18 million; it just “spent” $18 million more than it took in! Accountants call that losing money—and so do the fund’s own financial reports.

Local 804 members deserve more than word games—especially when their health benefits and retiree healthcare are at stake.

No one has suggested that the fund’s money mysteriously disappeared! Leaflets can be downloaded at www.804membersunited.org that explain how the fund’s losses occurred.

What Local 804 members want to know is whether the money that was negotiated under the new UPS contract will be enough to rebuild the Health Fund’s depleted reserves and maintain current health benefits without cuts, increased co-pays or hikes in the cost of retiree healthcare.

Local 804 and UPS promised members in a signed a memorandum of agreement that 70¢ out of the $1.00 negotiated for benefits in the first year of the contract will go to the pension fund.

That leaves only 30¢ for the Health Fund, not much money to cover protect the benefits of members and retirees and rebuild the fund’s reserves.