Teamster employed at three Kroger warehouses and two dairies have been removed from the Central States Fund, in an arrangement similar the removal of 44,000 UPS Teamsters in 2007.  

Today, at a press conference held in Washington D.C., Mike Walden, president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions (NUCPP), reminded the assembled press and Congressional staffers, Senators and House Representatives, delegations of Teamsters and Mineworker retirees, of Butch Lewis’s remark, “A promise is a promise is a promise.” It’s that promise that this movement has grown to defend. And it’s happening loud and strong as we reach for the new law that will protect that promised retirement security.

Some 500 Teamster retirees, actives and spouses jammed a union hall in South St. Paul Minnesota in support of the Butch Lewis bill to save pensions in jeopardy.

Teamster pension activists – organized by the National United Committee to Protect Pensions (NUCPP) - are collecting signatures on a petition to build support for legislation that would protect 10 million Americans from pensions from cuts. Sign the petition in support of the Butch Lewis Act. 

The latest quarterly financial report of the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF) shows that the fund has treaded water during 2017, due to the continued run-up in the stock market. But the underlying problems have only worsened.

The Butch Lewis Act to protect earned pensions was introduced at a press conference today, with the entire Democratic caucus in Congress lined up in support. Now the challenge is to continue the grassroots mobilization and lobbying effort to build bipartisan support for pension protection.

The pension protection bill is named in honor of Butch Lewis, who died in December 2015, and was an important leader in the pension protection movement. His widow, Rita Lewis, has carried on the fight and was a featured speaker at the Washington DC press conference.

Central States Pension Fund Director Thomas Nyhan has issued a letter to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) that, if approved, his proposed pension legislation could stabilize the Fund’s finances without benefit cuts to active Teamsters or retirees.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) held a press conference at Local 377 in Youngstown, Ohio to announce he and Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) will introduce a bill that would create an office inside the U.S. Treasury called the Pension Rehabilitation Administration. The bill, if passed, would provide loans to pension funds in critical or declining status to guarantee payments of promised pension benefits. Monies would be raised by U.S. Treasury issuing bonds that would be purchased by private investors. 

Competing pension bills are being put forward that are dividing the pension protection movement. How can we unite retired and active Teamsters to save our pensions and our pension funds?