Teamsters' Pension Trustees Call For Government Bailout, Warn Of Running Out Of Money

The Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund, one of the largest and most critically-underfunded pension plans in the nation, sent a letter to plan participants last week warning that their pensions will be reduced to “vitually nothing” unless the federal government steps in.
The letter (in full below) followed the rejection by the U.S. Department of the Treasury of the pension’s rescue plan application under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA).

Under the proposed rescue plan, tens of thousands of Teamster retirees would have had their pensions slashed by up to 60%.
However, after months of considering the rescue plan, the Treasury department rejected it, leaving plan trustees to state that only unless the federal government funds the plan directly or provides funds to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp–which is also underfunded–the Teamsters’ plan will run out of money in less than ten years, leaving retirees with “virtually nothing.”

Central States Pension Fund remains in critical and declining status, and is projected to run out of money in less than ten years. In a letter to Congressional leaders, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew reinforced the fact that Treasury’s denial in no way resolves the serious threat to our participants’ pension benefits. The fact that the federal government’s multiemployer pension insurance program, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), is also running out of money means our participants may see their pension benefits ultimately reduced to virtually nothing when the Fund runs out of money. At this time, only government funding, either directly to our Pension Fund or through the PBGC, will prevent Central States participants from losing their benefits entirely. [Emphasis added.]

Teamsters' CSPF Letter to Participants 05-20-16 by WorkPlaceReport.com