Tag: Central States Teamsters

BIDEN PROMISES NEARLY $36 BILLION FOR NATIONAL PENSION BAILOUTS

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/biden-promises-nearly-36-billion-for-national-pension-bailouts/

Excerpt:

The Biden administration promised nearly $36 billion to stabilize pension plans for Teamsters nationwide after forecasts predicted the system’s default by 2026. Union members would have seen their retirement benefits slashed by 60% if the system defaulted.

President Joe Biden announced Dec. 8 the federal government will use nearly $36 billion to stabilize failing Teamsters union pension plans nationwide, preventing severe benefits cuts for more than 350,000 union workers.

….

Illinois is home to more than 20 Teamster’s chapters and the nation’s worst pension debt, estimated at nearly $140 billion by state authorities in 2022. Private investor services projected that debt as high as $313 billion, using more realistic assumptions on returns.

In September these state pension funds had just 47 cents for every dollar in promised pension benefits.

Springfield lawmakers cannot routinely rely on federal authorities to bail out overly generous and underfunded state and local pensions. Illinois public servants deserve to receive the retirements they’ve been promised in full – not the 40% that would remain after default.

Author(s): Patrick Andriesen

Publication Date: 12 Dec 2022

Publication Site: Illinois Policy Institute

Biden announces $36 billion in federal aid for struggling Central States Teamsters plan

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.pionline.com/pension-funds/president-joe-biden-announces-36-billion-federal-aid-struggling-central-states

Excerpt:

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has approved $36 billion in federal assistance to shore up a massive union multiemployer pension plan facing steep cuts.

Teamsters Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Fund, Chicago, will receive the funds under the Special Financial Assistance Program. The program, created by the American Rescue Plan Act that Democrats passed in March 2021, was designed to shore up struggling multiemployer pension plans through 2051. The PBGC estimates the total cost of the program will range from $74 billion to $91 billion.

The Central States Pension Fund covers more than 350,000 union workers and retirees who were facing estimated benefit reductions of roughly 60% in the next few years, according to a White House news release.

The pension plan had a funding ratio of 18% with $57.2 billion in projected benefit obligations as of Jan. 1, 2021, according to the plan’s most recent Form 5500 filing. As of Dec. 31, the plan had $10.1 billion in assets, the filing showed.

The PBGC approved the first SFA application in December 2021 and since then has awarded funds to 36 other struggling multiemployer plans. But Thursday’s announcement is by far the largest. As of Dec. 1, the PBGC had approved just over $8.9 billion in SFA funds to cover roughly 193,000 workers, retirees and beneficiaries.

Author(s): Brian Croce

Publication Date: 8 Dec 2022

Publication Site: P&I Online

5500 – Central States – 2021

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2022/10/20/5500-central-states-2021/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

With the 5500 filing season done it is time to tentatively get back to some blogging – starting with the plan that was likely to bring the PBGC (and the entire private pension system) down before the SFA bailout and now will be another cog in the hyperinflation wheelbarrow.

We had some 5500 history in an earlier blog through 2016. This is where the plan was last year based on their 5500 filing for 2021:

Plan Name: Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Plan

EIN/PN: 36-6044243/001

Total participants @ 12/31/21: 357,056 including:

  • Retirees: 189,449
  • Separated but entitled to benefits: 117,511
  • Still working: 50,096

Asset Value (Market) @ 1/1/21: 10,409,440,502

Value of liabilities using RPA rate (2.43%) @ 1/1/21: $58,623,837,073 including:

  • Retirees: $34,084,275,398
  • Separated but entitled to benefits: $15,801,905,005
  • Still working: $8,736,875,945

Funded ratio: 17.76%

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 20 Oct 2022

Publication Site: burypensions

Central States Fall

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2022/05/09/central-states-fall/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

All 1,298 pages of the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund bailout application is on the SFA website but, for me, it is these two pages that tell the tale of the fall of this and many other union pension plans.

…..

Funded ratio: 21.91%

Unfunded Liabilities as of 1/1/20: $43,878,930,013

Asset Value (Market) as of 12/31/20: $10,409,490,502

Contributions 2020 (MB): $662,009,633

Contributions 2020 (H): $406,600,320

Payouts 2020: $2,842,184,040

Expenses 2019: $53,552,2071

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 9 May 2022

Publication Site: burypensions

Breaking News: Central States Filed

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2022/04/29/breaking-news-central-states-filed/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

The first 34 plans that filed requested a total $8.4 billion in bailout money from the PBGC Special Financial Assistance program for troubled multiemployer plans. No press release but the PBGC weekend update showed one new plan – the Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Plan with 364,908 participants which is asking for $35 billion dollars.

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 29 Apr 2022

Publication Site: burypensions

5500 – Central States – 2020

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://burypensions.wordpress.com/2021/10/15/5500-central-states-2020/

Graphic:

Excerpt:

We had some 5500 history in an earlier blog through 2016. This is where the plan was last year based on their 5500 filing for 2020:

Plan Name: Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Plan

EIN/PN: 36-6044243/001

Total participants @ 12/31/20: 364,908 including:

Retirees: 191,550

Separated but entitled to benefits: 121,667

Still working: 51,691

….

Funded ratio: 21.91%

Author(s): John Bury

Publication Date: 15 Oct 2021

Publication Site: Burypensions

Democrats saved union pensions after Hoffa’s long campaign

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/democrats-saved-union-pensions-after-hoffa-s-long-campaign-n1261125

Excerpt:

This account of the Teamsters’ drive to save retirement plans for millions of pensioners is drawn from interviews with several of the union’s officials, congressional sources and the public record. It begins with one Hoffa, the late Teamsters chief James R. Hoffa, and the Central States pension fund he started. And it ends with a yearslong campaign by his son, James P. Hoffa, to work the levers of influence in Washington to salvage the retirement money of union members.

Every Republican voted against the Covid-19 relief measure, and many of them specifically targeted the pension legislation for derision because they said it was an expensive gift from Democratic leaders to labor allies that would be funded by taxpayers.

“Americans know this bill will benefit states and unions that have been poorly mismanaged,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., said on the House floor.

Author(s): Jonathan Allen

Publication Date: 16 March 2021

Publication Site: NBC News

COVID relief bill could save distressed union pensions

Mary Pat Campbell
COVID relief bill could save distressed union pensions

Excerpt:

Congress is working on a lengthy bill for further COVID relief. One small portion of it is modeled on the union-backed Butch Lewis Act, which passed the U.S. House in 2019 but not the U.S. Senate. Butch Lewis would provide loans cash grants to union-sponsored multiemployer pension plans that are otherwise headed toward insolvency.

About one in 10 multi-employer pension plans are in that situation thanks to stock market losses and declining numbers of active employees in the plans, and the wellbeing of up to 1.3 million union members and spouses is at stake. Butch Lewis would shore up declining pensions and restore benefits that were cut by some pensions in an effort to forestall insolvency.

If Congress does nothing, the Central States Teamster Pension is expected to run out of money in 2025. That would lead the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) itself to become insolvent. PBGC is a government insurance agency that guarantees pension benefits.

Publication Date: 17 February 2021

Publication Site: nwLaborPress