Biden announces bailout of trucker, warehouse worker pension plans

December 9, 2022

Land Line Staff

|

President Joe Biden awarded a $36 billion pension fund bailout under the 2021 American Rescue Plan to shore up benefits for union truck drivers and warehouse workers.

Over the past few years many multiple-employer pension plans have struggled with current and retired union truck drivers and warehouse workers seeing their benefits slashed by more than half.

Biden made the announcement Thursday, Dec. 8, at an event at the White House while flanked by leaders of Congress and union officials.

“We all know, in recent years, the middle class has been hit pretty hard. Unions have been under attack. We’ve had an economy – an economy that didn’t feel like it worked enough – worked enough for working people,” Biden said.

He went on to explain that the $36 billion pension fund bailout was part of the American Rescue Plan. In that plan was the inclusion of the Butch Lewis Act.

The Butch Lewis Act shored up the pension plans for millions of union workers and represents the “most significant investment in pension security for union workers and retirees in the past 50 years.”

Many businesses won’t or are unable to run their own pension plans. Additionally, in some industries, workers can be employed by several different employers.

Those businesses, working with the unions that represent their employees, form multiple-employer pension plans. The Biden administration says those plans cover approximately 11 million workers and retirees around the country.

Union employees and retirees have seen their retirement benefits cut by as much as 60% in recent years.

“Think about that: For 30, 40, 50 years, you work hard every single day to provide for your family. You do everything right. You track every dollar of that paycheck for groceries, for mortgages. You need every penny of it. And while knowing that when it’s time to retire though, the pension you earned is going to be there – that security,” Biden said.

“But then imagine losing half of that pension or more through no fault of your own. You did your part. You paid in. Imagine what it does financially to your peace of mind, what it does to your dignity. Your dignity. Because you counted on not having to rely on anybody to retire. It’s about dignity.”

This past summer, Biden went to Cleveland to announce that more than $80 billion would be awarded in pension fund bailouts to keep multiple-employer pension plans for union workers and retirees solvent for “decades to come.”

“And today, my administration is announcing that $36 billion of that money was going to – going to prevent the drastic cuts to workers’ hard-earned pension benefits – cuts that had been scheduled to occur within the next few years. That’s not going to happen. The cuts are not going to occur,” Biden said during the event.

The $36 billion pension bailout award covers more than 1,000 employers and 350,000 employees and retirees, according to the White House.

“Thanks to today’s announcement, tens of thousands of union retirees and workers in states like Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri can go to bed tonight knowing their pension they worked so damn hard for is going to be there for them when they need it,” Biden said. LL