Retired truckers lobby to save their pensions

They came from as far as Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota in a convoy of Oldsmobiles, Jaguars and pickup trucks.

Outfitted in Teamsters regalia and patches on motorcycle vests, the current and retired union truckers in their 50s, 60s and 70s call themselves the "Committee to Protect Pensions." Numbering in the thousands on a national scale, they all have a stake in the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund, the nation's second largest multiemployer pension fund.

Their goal on this chilly Saturday afternoon at the American Legion Post 500 on Georgetown Road was to start a chapter in Indianapolis and gain future members. The long-term goal of the grassroots group of current and former truckers is to devise a way to protect their fund from what is slowly happening to union pensions all over the country.

One by one, recently, union pension funds have slashed benefits to retirees who saved their entire lives for retirement. The idea is to prevent the severely underfunded pensions from going into insolvency.

In New York in February, Local 707  saw their benefits slashed by more than 60 percent after the union drained its pension fund amid failing contributing businesses, the 2008 stock market crash and the inability to maintain existing benefit levels.

In December, the treasury department said the Ironworkers Local 17 Pension Fund in Cleveland could cut retiree pensions deeply in order to keep the fund solvent, with $86.9 million in assets and $221.8 million in liabilities as of April 30, 2015.

That gave the green light for the Ironworkers Local 17 fund to reduce pensions by nearly 50 percent for some workers.

The Local 17 fund serves iron workers. Separately, the much larger Central States fund, which serves Teamsters exclusively, is attempting to reduce benefits for retired truckers.

These actions are exactly what the Committee to Protect Pension is trying to avoid. The Central States fund has assets of $17.8 billion with a liability for promised benefits of $35 billion. It could be insolvent by 2026.

"The bottom line is how do we avoid insolvency," said Ron Brown, an Angola resident who drove 2½ hours to attend the meeting of about 100 people. Last year, the retiree was presented with the possibility of a 60 percent cut in monthly benefits.

However, a great deal of grassroots activism and political lobbying from people like Brown stopped Central States from experiencing cuts last year.

Brown's situation is a common one for the more than 22,457 Hoosiers and 410,000 other retirees and active Teamsters nationwide who received letters in September 2015, detailing the percentages of how much they would lose.

At the Indianapolis meeting, some said they would lose as much as 70 percent of their pension benefits. They feared the loss of their homes and that they could even end up homeless.

What led to the cuts

The Teamsters' $16.1 billion pension fund applied to Congress in 2014 for authorization to cut pension benefits through the Kline-Miller Multi-employer Pension Reform Act. The pension fund claims, then and now, that if cuts are not made in the immediate future, the fund will go insolvent in 10 years.

In order for the reductions to take place, Central States trustees had to show the Treasury Department that the proposed reductions will keep the plan from running out of money.

Kenneth Feinberg, a federal mediator with the treasury department, attended town halls throughout the country with current Central States members and retirees who gave Feinberg an earful over what they stood to lose with the cuts.

Senior citizens who feared being unable to afford medication or feed their grandchildren even held a rally on Capitol Hill in April.

Feinberg then decided in May, after reviewing the 8,000-page Central States application, not to reduce benefits.

Future of the movement

Mike Walden, an Akron, Ohio retiree and pension activist told the crowd in Indianapolis that he was in the midst of negotiating with fund trustees to figure out a way to prevent any potential cuts in the future.

"We are a force to be reckoned with," he said, adding that the rallies and protests that took place last year helped the retirees become a respected pseudo-lobby with their local politicians.

"They don't make decisions about our pensions without us at the table," he said, to the sound of applause.

Sherman Liimatainen, interim vice president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions, recalled his time as a Teamster and the union's ability to fight for "democratic governance."

"By working together," he said, the group could receive what they earned through sacrifice over the decades.

John Wilkinson, a retiree from Michigan, organized the event and told IndyStar that mobilization is the first step to taking control of a bad situation.

"We have a chance if we keep organizing and making our voices heard," he said.

Other pensioners were skeptical about what could be done to avoid cuts, including Brown.

"What is the answer — adding more members?" Brown said. "Who in hell would want to put their retirement money in a fund that is losing so much money?"

Call IndyStar reporter Fatima Hussein at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @fatimathefatima.