NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 5, 2018 | PAGE 9
UNION DEMOCRACY
RETIREMENT
Bakers Local 114 elections
Bakery, Confectionery, To-
bacco Workers and Grain
Millers Local 114 held officer
elections and announced the
results Dec 12. Elected were:
President: Andrew Stern
(Bimbo/Oroweat)
Vice President: Tami Mathews
(Kroger Clackamas Bakery)
Recording Secretary: Alejandro
Ahumada (Local 114)
Secretary Treasurer: Terry Lansing
(Local 114)
Business Agent: Darren Hamann
(Local 114)
Trustees: Mario Aldaco (Franz Portland),
Laurie Errend (Albertson’s), Bill Vaughn
(Kroger Clackamas Bakery)
Executive Board Members:
Steve Dade (Franz Springfield)
Noe Salcido (Franz Springfield)
David Gettman (Bimbo/ Oroweat)
Denise Wisely (QFC)
Sylvia Stredwick (Albertson’s)
Zack Murphy (Safeway Clackamas Bakery)
Gene Beaudoin (Local 114)
Louise Moncada (Bimbo/Oroweat)
Delegates:
Gene Beaudoin (Local 114)
Alejandro Ahumada (Local 114)
Tami Mathews (Kroger Clackamas Bakery)
Zach Murphy (Safeway Clackamas Bakery)
All positions are for three-
year terms that run 2018 to
2021. Candidates were unop-
posed for all positions except
delegate, which had eight
nominees for four positions.
Local 114 represents about
1,150 workers at the Franz,
Kroger, Safeway and Bimbo/
Oroweat wholesale bakeries as
well as cake decorators and
bakery department workers in
unionized grocery stores.
Congress looks at failing multi-employer pensions
One solution, favored by many
Democrats, is to have the
Treasury step in to help
A committee of the U.S. House
of Representatives has begun
looking at a looming crisis of
failing union-sponsored multi-
employer pension plans. Multi-
employer pensions are pensions
created through collective bar-
gaining agreements between
employers and a union. They’re
common in construction, where
they provide a retirement bene-
fit for workers who may have
multiple employers over a ca-
reer.
There are about 1,400 multi-
employer pension plans in all,
with about 10 million union
workers and retirees enrolled.
Most are doing fine financially,
but a significant minority are se-
riously underfunded and are
projected to run out of money
within the next 20 years.
When they do, they’re ex-
pected to exhaust the assets of
the government program that’s
supposed to insure them. The
Pension Benefit Guaranty Cor-
poration (PBGC) maintains a
separate program for multiem-
ployer pension plans: Plans pay
premiums to the PBGC, and the
PBGC pays benefits if the plans
become insolvent.
The program’s premiums and
benefit levels are low. Premi-
ums were just $9 a year per par-
ticipant til 2012, and are now
$28 a year. As for benefit levels,
the maximum guaranteed bene-
fit for a retiree with 30 years of
service is $12,870 annually.
That guarantee hasn’t increased
since 2001 and isn’t indexed for
inflation.
The financial condition of the
PBGC’s multiemployer pro-
gram is dire, and without action
will be worse, PBGC director
Thomas Reeder told the Sub-
committee on Health, Employ-
ment, Labor and Pensions of the
House Committee on Education
and the Workforce at a Nov. 29
hearing. As of Sept. 30, the pro-
gram had assets of $2.3 billion
and projected liabilities of $67.3
billion. That’s because more
than 100 multiemployer plans
are expected to fail, in addition
to the 72 that already have.
If the PBGC’s multiemployer
program runs out of money, the
OPEN FORUM
New Seasons union-busters
The very hiring of Cruz & Asso-
ciates by New Seasons shows
that regardless of all their rheto-
ric, they want to not give any
concessions to their workers,
and the company bottom line is
all that really matters. I’m not in
Portland often, but usually go to
New Seasons when I’m visiting.
If they succeed in preventing a
union, I’ll never go in there
again.
Bayard Pidgeon
SEIU Local 503
Klamath Falls
Young Machinists raise funds
to bring Xmas to foster kids
I am a caseworker in the teen
unit at Gresham DHS. Every
year at Christmas time, we
stress, worry and often pay for
$10 gift cards out of our own
pockets just so these kids have
something to open at the hardest
time of the year for them. They
are away from their families,
friends and loved ones and most
often – it’s not their fault at all.
Last year many of those teens
did not get gifts. Many of these
teens have no one. They are
wards of the state. As we scram-
ble to try and find adequate
placements for them, we also
scramble to try and find gifts for
them. Christmas and birthdays
are extra hard times for these
kids. They feel alone, isolated
and unwanted.
This year is different, thanks
to this amazing group of angels,
the Young Machinists. I have
seen big smiles and big ‘thank
you’s from my kids as I race to
deliver the wonderful gifts they
have been given. Not only have
you given them trees, and some-
thing to put under those trees …
you have given them hope. And
hope is something these kids
need more than ever.
Thank you, thank you, from
the Teen Unit. We have cried
tears of joy over this.
Debra Clayton
SEIU Local 503
Portland
Daimler Trucks withdraws
from Machinists pension
I want to congratulate the union
reps who worked with Daimler
to get this new plan into opera-
tion. It looks like it will be good
result will be catastrophic,
Reeder said: The only money
available for benefit payments
would be the ongoing incoming
multiemployer premiums, and
currently those amount to less
than $300 million a year.
The Nov. 29 hearing didn’t
discuss solutions, but some
Democratic members of Con-
gress have one: a proposal for
the U.S. Treasury to issue bonds
to fund 30-year loans to the pen-
sion plans to enable them to
make investments and pay ben-
efits as scheduled. If the invest-
ments do sufficiently well, the
loans could be repaid. It’s
known as the Butch Lewis Act,
named after a former Teamsters
Local 100 president who fought
to save Teamster pensions until
his death in December 2015. In
the Senate, the bill, S 2147, is
sponsored by Sen. Sherrod
Brown (D-Ohio) and has 13
Democratic co-sponsors. Its
House version, HR 4444, is
sponsored by Congressman
Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and has
106 co-sponsors, including Ore-
gon representatives Suzanne
Bonamici, Earl Blumenauer and
Peter DeFazio.
for those who have not retired
yet, and seems to help the exist-
ing pension plan that we (current
retirees) are relying upon for our
livelihood. My only concern is
what the new projections are for
solvency with our pension plan.
I personally would like my pen-
sion (cut drastically since 2009)
to remain intact, without the
need for reducing my or any re-
tirees’ benefits in future years. I
retired in 2013 at a much, much
lower amount than what I could
have retired at in 2009, had I re-
tired on my 55th birthday that
year. I missed the cutoff by two
months. I really do not need any
more takeaways in my financial
life. I worked at the Freightliner
plant since 1978, and retired in
October 2013.
David Barton
Machinists Lodge 1005
Vancouver
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