Eleven pension plans seek to cut retiree benefits because the plans are underfunded. If all eleven cut requests are approved, about 27,000 active workers and retirees could see a dip in their pension benefits by as much as 50%. The pending requests are from: Ironworkers Local 16 Pension Fund Ironworkers Local 805 Pension & Retirement Plan; Local 807…

Ten thousand union workers and retirees assembled on the grounds of the Ohio State Capitol today to protest potential cuts to the underfunded pensions of some 1.5 million people. They hoped to tell how cuts to their multiemployer pension plan benefits would devastate their lives and make it difficult to pay for their homes and medical costs. Members of…

Faced with insolvency or major benefit cuts, retirees and employee-members of the Alaska Ironworkers Pension Plan chose benefit cuts. Well, at least 175 of the 824 eligible voters did and that’s enough to effectuate the cuts. Majority of votes submitted wins, and since 507 people did not vote, the 175 who voted in favor of…

Cafeteria workers (who are not Facebook employees) at Facebook’s Menlo Park, California headquarters just ratified their first collective bargaining agreement. In a strange U-turn from current trends, the workers replaced their 401(k) plan with the union’s defined benefit pension plan. Defined benefit pension plans, once the crux of generous union benefit packages, have been decreasing…

Stevens Engineers & Constructors, Inc. doesn’t owe withdrawal liability to the Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund because the work identified by the union did not fall with the jurisdiction of their previous collective bargaining agreement. The decision is a blow for the distressed Iron Workers pension fund, which is severely underfunded with a deficit…

Federal lawmakers are trying to come up with a way to protect the pensions of more than one million union workers. Several options have been offered, none have been accepted. The latest offer comes from union crony Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown and Massachusetts Representative Richard Neal. Their bills came the same day the Pension Benefit…