In the wake of the Indiana State Teachers Fund Insurance Trust failure, it's time to turn our attention to the union/employer management of many multi-employer pension funds; pensions that thousands of union members are depending on for some security when they're no longer able to work (or perish the thought, perhaps even "early" retirement).
Department of Labor regulations require that the trust managers report "endangered" (assets below 80% of liabilities) and "critical" (assets below 65% of liabilities) and the stats are scary at best:
Kevin Mooney, reporting for the washingtonexaminer.com informs us that, according to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, "the average union has resources to cover only 62% of what is owed to participants" and "less than 1 in 160 workers is covered by union pension with required assets".
Perhaps Mr. Mooney's article should be required reading for those members covered by the failing pension plans; he paints a very grim outlook and and it certainly doesn't look like President Obama, Labor Secretary Solis or the Congress are overly concerning with the members who could lose much of their earned retirement.
On a positive note for union members, please Google "Labor Union Pension Bailout". Many of the large unions are already begging for government bailouts and who knows, feeding at the public trough may be the answer. Obama certainly owes a large debt for his election - repayment is expected.
image courtesy of work-for-food.signgenerator.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment