Month: January 2017

Can President Trump help ironworkers about to lose part of pensions? Retiree family makes an unlikely plea
Congress didn’t help Cleveland’s retired ironworkers, who are about to lose part of their pensions. The Treasury Department didn’t either, although it said it did all it could. Can President Donald Trump help?

Retirees of former Schenectady hospital face pension loss
Owens is among more than 1,100 employees of the Schenectady hospital, closed nine years ago, to receive a letter in October warning their pension monies could be depleted within the next decade. He and his wife derive two-thirds of their income from the pension.

Speech by Karen Friedman at a meeting of the Wisconsin Committee to Protect Pensions (January 28, 2017)
Hello! I’m so happy to be here speaking to all of you. Karen Ferguson, the Center’s director, and, Joellen Leavelle, the Center’s communications and outreach director, both wanted me to say a big hello to you too! Because, like me, they love you guys! When Bob Amsden picked me up at the airport yesterday, he […]

Feds Break Silence, Back Hospitals in Church Pension Battle
Five federal agencies have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that religiously affiliated hospitals can run pension plans exempt from federal law, a move that’s been challenged in dozens of class actions by hospital employees around the country.

In unprecedented move, pension plan cuts benefits promised to retirees
A pension fund in Cleveland became the first plan to approve benefit cuts for current retirees — before the plan has run out of money. The move, some critics say, could open the door for other troubled pension plans to follow suit.

First Mutltiemployer Plan to Make Benefit Cuts Under MPRA
Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund announced that its retirees will be the first in the country to face pension benefit cuts as a result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA), which allows ongoing plans that are severely underfunded to take action to cut retiree pension benefits.

Cleveland Iron Workers vote to approve pension cuts: Iron Workers Local 17 becomes first plan to cut retiree pensions
WASHINGTON – Today, Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17 Pension Fund announced that its retirees will be the first in the country to face devastating pension benefit cuts as a result of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which allows ongoing plans that are severely underfunded to take the unprecedented action of cutting retiree pension […]

Hospital pension fund in trouble: Retirees wonder who will pay, after ‘church plan’ fails
The pension plan covering workers at the former St. Clare’s Hospital has notified more than 1,100 participants that, based on current projections, it will run out of money to pay their retirement benefits in about another decade.