From: John Bozinny
Date: 01/05/15 00:36:08
Subject: DALRC pension info
Mark,
I have been
associated with the NRLN for over a year now. I am the communications person
for the WA and OR chapters. I have included a brief emailed by the NRLN to all
members. The NRLN is actively working the Hill for retiree's regarding not only
pension but Social Security and Medical/RX issues. You may want to consider
putting up a NRLN link on your site. See brief below.
Congress’ Vote to Cut Pensions Is Outrageous
Despite the opposition from some unions and retiree advocate
groups, including the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN), Congress has
passed a $1.1 trillion dollar omnibus spending bill that includes giving
trustees of multi-employer pension plans the ability to cut pensions earned by
1.5 million workers and retirees up to 50 percent.
These are about 1,400 pooled pension plans -- called multi-employer plans -- of mostly union workers across a bunch of companies, where it looks like the plans won’t be able to cover full benefits in coming decades. A retiree with a pension of $24,000 per year and 25 years of service could see his or her annual pension benefit cut in half, according a statement in a news report by our friends at the Pension Rights Center. The Pension Benefit Corporation (PBGC) has said it's about $42.4 billion short of the money it would need to pay out on these pensions for multi-employer plans if they failed.
Further, Congress did not stipulate that this change applied to multi-employer plans only. It enacted the law in a way that it changed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to permit the change to some underfunded multi-employer plans but did not add “only”. Therefore, Congress did not preclude that underfunded single-employer plans couldn’t be de-risked by allowing plan sponsors to cut pension benefits in the future! This was either an inexcusable oversight or a purposeful omission of protection of single-employer pension plan retiree participants.
I urge you to send the NRLN’s sample letter to your members of Congress to express your outrage on giving trustees of multi-employer pension plans the ability to cut the pensions workers and retirees have earned while at the same time exposing all single-employer plan participants to the same risk. This goes against the protections in ERISA that have protected workers’ and retirees’ pensions for the past 40 years.
I want to thank the NRLN Grassroots Advocates who responded to last Tuesday’s Action Alert and emailed nearly 5,000 of the NRLN’s sample letters to member of Congress requesting that negotiations to cut multi-employer pension benefits be stopped. I hope even more NRLN Grassroots Advocates will email the NRLN’s new sample letter.
We need you to help us help you by responding each time you get an Action Alert.
Bill Kadereit, President
National Retiree Legislative Network
Here are the easy steps to follow on this Action Alert:
These are about 1,400 pooled pension plans -- called multi-employer plans -- of mostly union workers across a bunch of companies, where it looks like the plans won’t be able to cover full benefits in coming decades. A retiree with a pension of $24,000 per year and 25 years of service could see his or her annual pension benefit cut in half, according a statement in a news report by our friends at the Pension Rights Center. The Pension Benefit Corporation (PBGC) has said it's about $42.4 billion short of the money it would need to pay out on these pensions for multi-employer plans if they failed.
Further, Congress did not stipulate that this change applied to multi-employer plans only. It enacted the law in a way that it changed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to permit the change to some underfunded multi-employer plans but did not add “only”. Therefore, Congress did not preclude that underfunded single-employer plans couldn’t be de-risked by allowing plan sponsors to cut pension benefits in the future! This was either an inexcusable oversight or a purposeful omission of protection of single-employer pension plan retiree participants.
I urge you to send the NRLN’s sample letter to your members of Congress to express your outrage on giving trustees of multi-employer pension plans the ability to cut the pensions workers and retirees have earned while at the same time exposing all single-employer plan participants to the same risk. This goes against the protections in ERISA that have protected workers’ and retirees’ pensions for the past 40 years.
I want to thank the NRLN Grassroots Advocates who responded to last Tuesday’s Action Alert and emailed nearly 5,000 of the NRLN’s sample letters to member of Congress requesting that negotiations to cut multi-employer pension benefits be stopped. I hope even more NRLN Grassroots Advocates will email the NRLN’s new sample letter.
We need you to help us help you by responding each time you get an Action Alert.
Bill Kadereit, President
National Retiree Legislative Network
Here are the easy steps to follow on this Action Alert:
1.
Click here to access the NRLN’s
sample letters.. The NRLN Action Network system will present the letters to be
emailed to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators. If you have a problem
with this link, go to www.nrln.org and click on the “Take
Action Now!” near the top of the NRLN website home page.
2.
When you have accessed the NRLN sample letters, to the left of the
letters are windows to type in your contact information required by members of
Congress so they know they are receiving an email from a constituent. If you
have sent previous NRLN emails to your members of Congress your contact
information may be automatically displayed.
3.
Personalize the letters by editing in your own comments.
4.
Click on the "Preview" button and the letters addressed
to your Representative and two Senators from you will appear. Check to make
sure the letters to your members of Congress appear correct and then click
"Send".
Here
are other features of our Congress web service that are useful:
1.
After you have emailed your letter to your members of Congress,
you will have the option to select a number of publications from a news media
list to send a message to the editor. With regard to the present Action
Alert, the composed message has been provided.
2.
You have the option, if you have a Facebook page, to click on a
Facebook icon to post a link to the NRLN's Action Alert on your Facebook
page. After you click on the Facebook icon the link to the Action Alert
will appear and the option to "Write Something". You may want
to type in something like Email
the NRLN's sample letter to your members of Congress. Click the
"Share" icon to post your comment and the Action Alert link.
3.
You also have the option, if you have a Facebook account, to post
the NRLN’s message on your Representative’s or Senator’s Facebook page.
Most members of Congress have a Facebook page. Click on the attachment to this
email for the steps to follow to post on your legislator’s Facebook page.
4.
Also, after emailing your letter there is an option to post to
your Twitter account if you have one. Scroll down the NRLN webpage to
"Send a Tweet" and click on the "Submit" buttons to send
the short message to each of your members of Congress.
5.
Scroll down further on the NRLN webpage to "Tell a
Friend" and you will have the option to quickly email a message to your
friends to ask them to access the NRLN Action Alert. Simply type or paste
in their email addresses into a window.
6.
Further down the webpage is "Share on your Web Site"
that is only for the use of Webmasters.
John Bozinny
Communications
NRLN WA/OR State Chapters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In any moment of decision, the best thing
you can do is the right thing, the next best
thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing
you can do is nothing....Theodore Roosevelt
The NRLN Web Site or http://nrln.org/
WA Chapter Info BLOG site or http://nrlnwachapter.blogspot.com/
Communications
NRLN WA/OR State Chapters
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In any moment of decision, the best thing
you can do is the right thing, the next best
thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing
you can do is nothing....Theodore Roosevelt
The NRLN Web Site or http://nrln.org/
WA Chapter Info BLOG site or http://nrlnwachapter.blogspot.com/
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