They couldn't legally do it until the omnibus passed in the wee hours of the night on December 30th 2014. They maybe could have cut the pensions of the members buy how would you get them to vote to decrease their own pension fund? I think if Jesus came down and told the members to cut their own pensions they wouldn't do it.
Yes, but they could have lobbied the government at any time between '98 and now, like they did to get the legislation that took affect in December of 2014.
This wasn't some "
magical development" that just materialized?
It was a calculated effort by both UPS, the Teamsters, as well as some other ailing labor organizations and pension funds.
H and H didn't have their hands tied, they chose to sit on them until the company enlisted their help when it became apparent that the "$6.1 billion band-aid" from 2008 was still going to leave UPS with a significant liability in regards to their contractual guarantee
if/when CS failed.
Solutions Not Bailouts
http://www.nccmp.org/forEmails/SolutionsNotBailouts.pdf