Democrats put a spotlight on more than 1 million pensions saved under a 2021 law

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

Starting Friday, more than 1 million union workers and retirees will be provided with pensions under the Butch Lewis Act, which became law in the spring of 2021, the White House said.

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The law, enacted as part of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, will ultimately halt cuts to retirement benefits for 2 million workers and retirees across the country.

It is named after a retired Ohio 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 prevent the bankruptcy of nearly 200 multi-employer pension plans for 30 years. Many workers were facing cuts in their benefits of up to 50%, which would have caused massive economic damage to more than two million retired Americans.

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

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Casey, a Democrat, is seeking re-election against Republican Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania's race for U.S. Senate. The Biden administration is paying special attention to the swing state of Pennsylvania, where the president is seeking re-election, hoping that union workers will turn out at 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 reduced because of broken promises or policies that favor the wealthy over working families,” Biden said in a speech. “. statement.

Presumptive Republican 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 supported Democratic candidates and rank-and-file members who could be swayed by voting GOP.

Rita Lewis, Butch Lewis' widow, told the Associated Press that before the law was passed, union retirees she knew were “talking about having to sell their homes and live with their kids.”

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

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

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

Many multi-employer pension plans faced funding shortfalls during and after the Great Recession, when plans were left with more retirees than active workers. Corporate bankruptcies and withdrawals from plans, as well as investment losses in 2001 and again in 2008 with the stock market crash, led to a significant decline in the amount of money in plans, according to the nonprofit Pension Rights Center.

Although some workers' pensions have been restored, there are still workers whose retirement benefits were reduced during the Great Recession and have yet to see their benefits.

For example, an estimated 20,000 workers at Delphi, a subsidiary of General Motors, have spent the past 15 years struggling to regain what they lost after GM went bankrupt in 2009. The company said it would not take on pensions Obligations of salaried workers in the Delphi module, unlike unionized workers. After the case was taken to the US Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case, the retirees were denied their last legal remedy.

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

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