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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2019)
PAGE 2 | January 18, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of 47 cents an issue per member — $11.28 a year are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 To restore their pension, Plasterers reduce benefits By Don McIntosh Ten years after system-wide bank fraud led to a market meltdown, the 2008 financial crisis is still claiming new victims. On Dec. 31, the Plasterers Local 82 Pen- sion Plan finalized plans to cut benefits 22 to 31 percent for its roughly 250 current and future re- tirees — in order to prevent the pension plan itself from running out of money altogether in 2034. “It was terrible to have to make that decision,” said Kent Sickles, who is the business manager of Portland-based Local 82 and a trustee on the plan. “A pension is a promise you make.” But the alternative was even worse, Sickles said. At meetings attended by active and retired members and their spouses and children, Sickles laid out what would happen if the pension plan ran out of money: The federal pension insurer known as the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corpo- ration (PBGC) would step in, but would pay just a small fraction of the promised benefits … and that’s if the PBGC itself remains solvent. Currently the PBGC it- self is projected to run out of funds by about 2024. To put that into real numbers, a retired plas- terer currently getting a $2,619 a month pension will get $1,807 a Within the Operative Plasterers and Cement Masons International Asso- ciation (OPCMIA), plasterers are mas- ters of a variety of specialized trades. They install fireproofing in high- rises. They restore ornamental mold- ings in historic buildings. They apply interior finishes like Venetian plaster and plaster veneer, and stucco and other types of exterior cladding. It’s a good living: At Local 82, wages are $35.79 an hour, and combine with health, vacation, and retirement benefits for a total package of $52.37 an hour. But it’s also physi- cally demanding work. After years of pressing their trowels against the wall, members are ready for a well- deserved retirement. That’s where the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Plan comes in. At a time when traditional pensions are becoming increasingly rare, Local 82’s pension — even with the newly approved cuts — remains a considerable benefit. month after the cut; but without the cut, he would have gotten just $965 a month from the PBGC 15 years from now. The financial troubles of the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Plan didn’t stem from anything the plan’s union and employer trustees did wrong. As recently as 2008, the plan was considered 100 percent funded. [To be 100 percent funded means a trust has all the assets it needs to be able to pay promised benefits in the fu- ture.] In fact, the plan’s invest- ments had been doing so well that it was considered “over-funded” in the late 1990s. When pension plan liabilities are more than 100 percent funded, federal pension rules require them to increase the promised benefits, like subsidized early retirement. That’s what the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Plan did. Then the 2008 crash came, and wiped out a third of the value of the plan’s assets. The plans’s funded percentage fell from 100 percent in 2008 to 68 percent in 2009. And that’s not all: The fi- nancial collapse also set off a re- cession, stopping construction projects cold. Plasterers were thrown out of work, and that meant their employers weren’t contributing as much to the pen- sion plan just when the plan Turn to Page 3 THIS NEWSPAPER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICA’S LABOR MOVEMENT … AND BY OUR ADVERTISERS. 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