Democrats spotlight more than 1 million pension savings under a 2021 law

WASHINGTON (AP) — With the general election looming, Democrats are keen to remind union voters in Pennsylvania that pensions for many workers have been preserved as part of a coronavirus pandemic-era relief package that keeps on giving.

As of Friday, the White House said, more than 1 million union workers and retirees will have their pensions saved by the Butch Lewis Act, which became law in the spring of 2021.

The law, passed as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, will permanently stop cuts to the retirement benefits of 2 million workers and retirees across the country.

It is named after a retired truck driver and Teamsters union leader who spent the last years of his life fighting to prevent massive cuts to the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. It created a special financial assistance program that allows struggling multiemployer pension plans to apply for help from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that protects the retirement income of workers in defined benefit pension plans.

The Butch Lewis Act is designed to permanently stop the bankruptcy of about 200 multiemployer pension plans for 30 years. Many workers were facing cuts in their benefits of up to 50%, which would have caused huge economic damage to more than 2 million retired and retired Americans.

Biden administration officials, including senior adviser Gene Sperling, and a group of union workers with the International Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union planned to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with Sen. Bob Casey on Friday to spotlight the law.

Casey, a Democrat, is seeking re-election against Republican Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race. And the Biden administration is paying particular attention to swing state Pennsylvania as the president seeks re-election, hoping to get union workers to the polls.

“Whether it’s Social Security, Medicare, or pensions, workers who earn a dignified retirement through decades of hard work and sacrifice should never see their benefits cut because of broken promises or policies that favor the nation’s wealthy of working families,” said Biden. statement.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump picked up some workers in his 2016 victory and this year is looking to exploit a divide between union leaders who have supported Democratic candidates and rank-and-file members who could be swayed to vote Republican. .

Rita Lewis, Butch Lewis’ widow, told The Associated Press that before the act passed, union retirees she knew “were talking about selling their house and moving in with their kids.”

Lewis, who lives in West Chester, Ohio, and receives reinstated income from her late husband’s pension, said she plans to vote for Biden in November because he kept his promise to workers.

“President Biden and the Democrats kept their word when they said they would restore our pensions,” she said.

In 2016, she led a protest outside the Capitol calling for passage of the Butch Lewis Act, saying, “A promise is a promise is a promise.”

Many multiemployer pension plans faced funding shortfalls during and after the Great Recession, when the plans were left with far more retirees than active workers. Bankruptcies and company withdrawals from plans, as well as investment losses in 2001 and again in 2008 with the stock market collapse, greatly reduced the amount of money in plans, according to the nonprofit Center for Pension Rights.

Despite the restoration of some workers’ pensions, there are still workers whose pension benefits were cut during the Great Recession who have not seen their benefits restored.

For example, about 20,000 workers at Delphi Corp., a subsidiary of General Motors Corp., have spent the past 15 years fighting to get back what they lost after General Motors filed for bankruptcy in 2009. The company said it would not receive pension obligations for salaried workers of the Delphi unit, as opposed to its union workers. After taking the case all the way to the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case, the pensioners were cut off from their last resort.

They are pushing for passage of the Susan Muffley Act, which would restore their benefits similar to the Butch Lewis Act. The White House supports that legislation.