In December of 2014 Congress did an unbelievable disservice to the American people by passing the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA). MPRA allows underfunded pensions to slash the benefits for active and already retired members.

The Central States Pension Fund, to which 9,000 active and retired members of Teamsters Local 89 belong, is by far the largest of the endangered plans. It was also the first to utilize MPRA to submit a 10,106-page benefit reduction plan to the Treasury Department. In the Fall of 2015 thousands of Local 89 members began receiving letters from the Central States Pension Fund Rescue Plan (cspensionrescue.com) notifying them of reductions in their retirement benefits of up to a staggering 60%. To slash the benefits of an active member is horrible, but doing so to retirees is absolutely unthinkable. To tell someone who is on a fixed income that their monthly pension will go from $3,000 to $1,400 is equivocal to telling them that the rest of their lives are ruined.

In response to these outrageous cuts, Teamsters Local 89 began investigating all possible avenues to reverse MPRA and restore the Central States Pension Fund to solvency. To that end, President Zuckerman met with the Pension Rights Center (PRC), a Washington D.C. based non-profit that is devoted to fighting against any attacks on the pension checks that men and women worked for and depend on. The PRC is intent on getting deeply involved in this fight, and seeks to bring national media attention to the plight of these retirees, as well as the importance of saving these pension funds from collapse.

The PRC seeks to correct issues created by MPRA through the passage of the Keep Our Pension Promises Act (KOPPA).  KOPPA is designed to help save the struggling pension plans MPRA was meant to address.

Teamsters Local 89 strongly supports the passage of KOPPA, which would help to ensure our members’ pensions against the benefit reductions proposed by Central States. As a show of our dedication to this cause, Teamsters Local 89 has pledged $25,000 dollars to the PRC in order to aide them in their efforts. This equates to approximately $2.75 per Central States Pension Fund member that Local 89 represents.

It is our strong opinion that all Teamsters Local Unions should pledge financial assistance to help the PRC in this fight. Imagine what the PRC could do if every affected Local Union pledged just $0.50 to $1.00 per Central States Pension Fund participant they represent. In fact, all other unions with underfunded multiemployer pension funds should devote themselves to this cause, as the outcome of the Central States Pension Fund Rescue Plan will directly affect how cuts are applied to other similar funds in the future. 

To further gather support for the PRC, President Zuckerman has sent a letter to General President Hoffa urging the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to pledge funds to the PRC in support of this endeavor.