The question should be asked, what would happen to these teamsters' pension and health and welfare plans if UPS was not contributing. Presuming they would default and go into the PGCB federal insurance program, which pays 1,000 per month for multi-employee plans. So how in the world if they are successful will they be able to collect the funds to pay for any decent pension benefit, particularly for the members who wll be retiring in the next five years.
Well said. The only way to shore up the fund is organize more members into the Teamsters so that contributions would go up...especially younger workers who would contribute to the system for many years before retirement.
This is the big problem with the GOP pension "reform" (reform for employers, but a good screwing for the working guy). They essentially made it more difficult to create and fund pensions and proivided more incentives for employers to FORCE their workers into individual savings plans. That's why
tens of thousands of Teamsters called their senators and representatives. But THEY didn't listen. The Union leadership can only do so much, the members can make their voices heard, but it is ultimately those who make the laws who are responsible for the results.
As for APWA, all I've seen is a lot of mystery, smoke, mirrors, wills, ifs, promises, but nothing of substance. What's with all the secrecy? As a 501c5, they have to reveal their financials at some point. So why not be up front with the workers you are asking for money? So what if the Teamsters find out how much you (don't) have? What does that change in terms of your goals? Are you afraid that if the pigeons you trying to pluck see how much you really have in the bank -- how much you're paying yourselves and that pricey union busting attorney -- they'll laugh all the way out of your meeting?
And if you think your CS health fund is being depleted now, what will happen if you pull out of CS and have no health care at all?
See, when it comes to pension plans and insurance, it's all about group coverage, the size of the pool. The bigger the pool, the less everyone pays. If you jump out of a big pool and into a smaller one, you will pay more because the overall risk is greater. To me its simple economics. There's power in numbers. The more members I have standing with me, the louder our voice is heard, the stronger we all will be. now then, if we could just get the anti-labor congressmen out of office we'd all be better off.
