The New York Times today has a feature report on the fight to stop pension cuts in the Teamster Upstate New York Pension Fund, led by brother Mark Greene, a UPS Teamster in Local 294.

Fast action by pension committees and our allies has beat-back a pension cut bill in Congress.

Over the past three years, Teamsters and their families built a grassroots campaign for pension justice. We organized in large numbers, we showed the country that Teamsters were facing an unfair deal, and we beat back proposed cuts to the Central States Pension Fund.

John Kline, the Minnesota congressman that snuck through the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MEPRA) as part of the omnibus spending bill in 2014, is at it again. MEPRA allowed Central States and other Funds in “critical status” to propose drastic cuts to earned benefits. 

The Central States Pension Fund ended the second quarter on June 30, 2016, with $15.6 billion in assets, down $500 million since the start of the year, according to the Financial and Analytical Report obtained and reviewed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU).

UPS Teamsters in the Southwest thought they saved their health benefits by voting no. But they got stuck with an inferior health plan—and pension cuts too.

The fight to preserve Teamsters’ hard-earned pensions won a big victory when Treasury rejected the Central States proposed cuts. But the real fight to save pensions lies ahead.

The New York State Teamster Pension Fund has just threatened 30,000 Teamsters and retirees with huge pension cuts, according to the newly-appointed “Retiree Representative,” Tom Baum. 

Until ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) was passed in 1974 and signed by President Ford, workers’ pensions were unprotected. How was ERISA won, and what can we learn for today from this history?

Teamster pension activists from the Twin Cities met recently with Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN). They reported having a very fruitful discussion.