Posts tagged Pension
Potential UPS strike approaches as company negotiates with union
May 29, 2023 // Tensions are rising as the potential for delivery truck drivers going on strike inches closer. UPS has until Aug. 1 to make a deal with the driver's union before they walk.
A Mandate for Labor Error: Big Labor Radicalizes
May 25, 2023 // s for claims by some conservatives that embracing unions will drive electoral success, these notions arise from populist factions’ overinterpretation of the 2016 election results and under-interpretation of elections since then. Many note that in his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump’s efforts in the upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were aided by his moderate stances on economic issues relative to the positions of prior Republican candidates like Mitt Romney. And this is generally true—but not on labor-relations issues.
AFT PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN QUALIFIED FOR PUBLIC PENSION FOR YEARS SPENT OUT OF THE CLASSROOM ON UNION LEAVE
May 17, 2023 // AFT president Randi Weingarten’s teaching experience is very limited. While she describes having worked as a New York City public school teacher for six years, she only worked as a regularly appointed full-time teacher for three years, after having spent three years as a per diem substitute. Documents recently obtained by the Freedom Foundation show that Weingarten has been on union leave from her teaching position for the past quarter century. Additional documents show that the Teacher Retirement System of the City of New York has credited Weingarten with nearly 11-and-a-half years of service credit for time spent out of the classroom on full-time union leave as an officer for the United Federation of Teachers.
Public Employee: My union did not represent my interests
May 2, 2023 // “A lot of parole officers are dissatisfied with being a member of PEF,” he said. PEF has not fought to gain access to typical law enforcement benefits for its parole officers. For example, parole officers in PEF do not have the same retirement plan as correction officers or other law enforcement officers, typically called a “twenty-and-out” or “twenty-five-and-out.” Meaning, a law enforcement officer can retire with a full government pension after working twenty or twenty-five years of public service and these plans do not have an age restriction. Meanwhile, parole officers’ retirement plans under PEF require more years of public service and have age restrictions. For example, parole officers either have to work thirty years and retire at age 55 (Tier 4) or work thirty years and retire at age 63 (Tier 6) in order to receive a full retirement pension.
YOUNG WORKERS INCREASINGLY — AND RIGHTFULLY — WARY OF UNIONS
April 28, 2023 // Unions, on the other hand, are notorious for their seniority-based systems, in which benefits and promotions are often based on years of service rather than merit. This can limit opportunities for ambitious young workers who want to excel in their careers based on their own talent and hard work rather than being bound by rigid union rules that prioritize age over performance. Moreover, unions can be a costly undertaking for young workers. Union dues can be expensive, and the burden falls more heavily on those making less. For young workers already struggling with student loans and other financial responsibilities, union dues can further strain their budgets. At the same time, young workers may never have the chance to fully benefit from the services provided by unions, such as pension plans, since they are less likely to stay with a single employer for their entire career.
NEA Keeps Trying to Punish Las Vegas Union for Seceding, and Keeps Failing
April 4, 2023 // CCEA’s staffers belonged to the Employees’ Retirement Plan of the National Education Association, as do most NEA affiliate staffers. When CCEA disaffiliated, it had to also withdraw from NEA’s pension system. The national union then levied a charge for CCEA’s portion of the system’s unfunded liabilities. All of this is normal and proper operating procedure. Where NEA went rogue was in computing that charge. Without getting too far into the weeds, the plan’s actuaries must compute the discount rate — that is, as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called it “the rate at which the plan’s assets will grow ‘by the miracle of compound interest’.” The higher the discount rate computed, the less the unfunded liability, and vice versa. The NEA staff pension actuaries computed a discount rate of 5%, and sent CCEA a bill for $3,246,349. The local union thought this excessive and, as required by law, brought the dispute to arbitration.
Biden’s first veto backs pension investments in ESG
March 22, 2023 // The House is set to vote Thursday on overriding the veto, which requires a two-thirds vote, or support from 290 members. That outcome is unlikely after the resolution of disapproval first passed the House 216-204 last month. The Labor Department regulation was finalized last year and sought to strike a compromise between financial services companies that wanted clear rules and plan sponsors that did not want to be required to consider environmental, social and governance factors. It reversed a Trump administration policy that made changes to how a 1974 law, known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, is implemented.
Concessions workers at United Center strike ahead of Big Ten Tournament
March 7, 2023 // Compass-Levy responded to the one-day strike, saying in part that it has introduced a new pension plan, wage increases and a new health care plan.
Biden Shoveled $36 Billion In Taxpayer Funds To Bail Out Teamsters For Mismanaged Pensions
March 5, 2023 // Lost in all of this has been one spectacular giveaway: $100,000 per beneficiary of the Central States Pension Fund (CSPF). The fund provides pension benefits to nearly 360,000 private-sector workers and retirees, mostly Teamsters Union members. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, called the deal out in December, noting it was “the largest private pension bailout in American history” that benefited only “a tiny minority of workers.” He suggested it resulted from the insanity of “allowing those who mismanaged pensions to determine whether their funds qualify for taxpayer assistance with no safeguards.” The $36 billion comes almost two years after the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. That “rescue” was the Biden administration’s Covid spending bonanza. Biden signed it into law in the spring of 2021, when the economy was already well into recovery. The housing market was booming. The stock market was on a steady upward climb. It was obvious that the “rescue” would cause inflation. It was obvious Democrats were taking advantage of an opportunity to give away public largesse. And did they ever. Lest we doubt the ongoing influence of the Teamsters in American politics, the recent $36 billion giveaway says it all. It says to the union bosses, who make up half of the CSPF board: “You can watch the pension fund’s health decline for decades. You can make unrealistic promises to employees. You can keep the plan below 75 percent funded. You can depend on a pyramid concept where imaginary new members keep coming in to pay for retired members. None of that matters now. The politicians you own will bail you out with the public’s money. In fact, you can take such largesse that union workers in other multi-employer plans get left with only crumbs. Write yourself a check. And, as a bonus, we won’t ask you to change anything.”