PAGE 8 | October 5, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Portland bricklayers union
featured in the New York Times
Portland-based Bricklayers Lo-
cal 1 got some well-deserved
press last month. An article
about the opioid addiction epi-
demic in the Sunday, Sept. 23,
2018 edition of the New York
Times said many employers are
looking the other way as worker
spiral downward. But not Local
1 business manager Matt
Eleazer. Eleazer has intervened
to help several members strug-
gling with addiction, including
one featured in the story.
“We go through the process
together,” said Eleazer, who
works closely with a union-
sponsored membership assis-
tance program. “They’ll call me
every single day.… If some-
body has a problem like that,
it’s a family problem,” Eleazer
told the Labor Press. “And
we’re their family.”
Workers Overdose, and Em-
ployers Struggle to Respond
Read the article online at
https://nyti.ms/2OL9lKm
Authorized and paid by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, Portland, Oregon
RETIREMENT
Despite lopsided ‘no’ vote, Western States OPEIU
cuts retiree benefits to halt slide to insolvency
As of Oct. 1, pension benefits
will be cut as much as 30 percent
for retired members of Office
and Professional Employees In-
ternational Union (OPEIU) who
worked in the Western United
States — even though the pro-
posal to make the cuts was re-
jected by a majority of partici-
pants who voted on the question.
Cutting pension benefits for
current and future retirees is a
new option for trustees at union-
sponsored multi-employer pen-
sions that are severely under-
funded and running out of
money. Under the 2014 Multi-
employer Pension Reform Act
(MPRA), trustees can cut cur-
rent and future benefits if the
cuts can stop the slide to insol-
vency and still leave benefits at
least 10 percent above what re-
tirees would have gotten in case
of default from the Pension Ben-
efit Guaranty Fund, the feder-
ally-sponsored pension insurer.
The benefits can’t be cut for
those over 80, and are propor-
tionally less for those 75 to 80.
Under MPRA, cuts proposals
go before pension plan partici-
pants for a vote, but can only be
stopped if a majority of the total
participants vote to reject them
— NOT just a majority of those
voting.
MORE INFO ABOUT THE CUTS
wspensionrecovery.com
At the Western States OPEIU
Pension Fund, ballots were
mailed to all 7,232 participants
on Aug. 20 and were due back
Sept. 7. A total of 2,326 partici-
pants voted against the cuts,
while 920 voted in favor of the
cuts. That meant the cuts were
opposed by 72 percent of those
voting, but only 32 percent of
the total participants. Because
the 3,986 participants who didn’t
return ballots were counted as de
facto “yes” votes, the cuts were
approved. Opponents would
have needed another 1,300 “no”
votes to reach a majority.
The Western States fund pro-
vides retirement benefits to cur-
rent and former members of
nine western union locals of Of-
fice and Professional Employees
International Union (OPEIU)—
mostly clerical staff at labor
unions and defunct or no-longer-
unionized trucking companies.
Without the cuts, the fund was
forecast to run out of money al-
together in 2036.
Nationwide, five other pen-
sions have held votes on benefit
cuts under these rules so far, and
the cuts have gone through de-
spite majority opposition of
those voting in four of those five.
So far, Alaska Ironworkers Pen-
sion Plan is the one exception:
Its proposed benefit cut of 26.5
percent was supported by 55
percent of those casting ballots.
As many as 100 union-spon-
sored multi-employer pension
plans are headed for insolvency,
but only 23 have so applied for
permission to save themselves
by making cuts. Of those, seven
cuts have been approved, 10 are
under review, two were with-
drawn, and four were rejected by
the U.S. Treasury Department.
PENSION CUT VOTES SO FAR
Ironworkers Local 16 Pension
Voting against: 352 | Voting for: 144
Ballots not returned: 542
Alaska Ironworkers Pension Plan
Voting against: 142 | Voting for: 175
Ballots not returned: 507
Machinists Motor City Pension
Voting against: 371 | Voting for: 126
Ballots not returned: 714
NY Teamsters Conference Pension
Voting against: 9,788 | Voting for: 4,081
Ballots not returned: 20,767
United Furniture Workers Pension
Voting against: 1,928 | Voting for: 1,041
Ballots not returned: 6,304