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The Machinists Union is fighting to save troubled multiemployer pension plans while fully protecting the earned and vested benefits of current and future retirees. While the IAM pension plan is financially sound, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) estimates that over 100 multiemployer pension plans, covering more than 1 million participants, are in “critical and declining status” and will become insolvent within the next 20 years.
The best solution to accomplish this goal is to pass the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act of 2019 (H.R. 397), better known as the Butch Lewis Act.
Here’s how you can take action:
1) Use our online form to tell your Representative to co-sponsor the Butch Lewis Act
2) Call your Representative at (202) 224-3121 to urge them to co-sponsor the Butch Lewis Act
Read the IAM’s letter to Congress supporting pension reform.
The Butch Lewis Act, introduced by Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-MA), would offer federally subsidized loans to multiemployer plans in danger of becoming insolvent. It would also maintain the health of well-funded multiemployer plans and adequately fund the PBGC, without making any cuts to the earned benefits of current or future retirees. Plans would invest the money from these loans and use the investment earnings to pay retiree benefits and improve the plan’s financial health.
“In the wake of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, a brutal scheme to steal the pension promises made to retirees, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act provides a much-needed correction and remedy,” said Machinists Union International President Robert Martinez Jr. “This legislation will work to lift troubled multiemployer plans out of their financial hole while maintaining the financial integrity of the PBGC. Most importantly, the Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act provides a pathway to accomplishing these venerable goals without stealing from retirees, workers, and their families.”
