NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 18, 2019 | PAGE 3
...Plasterers
From Page 2
needed funds the most.
“The actuaries called it a per-
fect storm,” says Trudy Horn,
president of the Masonry Indus-
try Trust Administration (MITA).
Based in Portland, MITA admin-
isters benefit funds for the trowel
trades, including Operative Plas-
terers and Cement Masons and
Bricklayers and Allied Crafts.
Trustees took swift action to
slow the bleeding — eliminating
death benefits and subsidized
early retirement benefits, cutting
the benefit accrual rate, and in-
creasing employer contribution
rates. But because of the contin-
ued recession, it wasn’t enough:
The plan’s funding level contin-
ued to decline, reaching 47 per-
cent by 2017. Today, it continues
to earn respectable investment re-
turns on its roughly $20 million
in assets, but must draw down
those assets in order to pay over
$2 million in benefits a year.
In late 2014, Congress passed
the Multiemployer Pension Re-
form Act (MPRA), a law allow-
ing pension trustees to save plans
from insolvency by reducing ben-
efits up to a certain amount. With
actuaries projecting the Plasterers
Local 82 Pension Plan would be
insolvent in 16 years, Plasterers
Local 82 and its 17 contributing
employers in the Associated Wall
and Ceiling Contractors of Ore-
Raymond Thomas
gon and Southwest Washington
decided to pursue that option, and
worked together to craft a solu-
tion members could live with.
They proposed a 22 percent re-
duction for active participants,
and 31 percent for all others, in-
cluding inactive workers and re-
tirees already drawing a pension.
[Except that under MPRA, pen-
sion benefits can’t be cut at all for
those 80 and older, and cuts phase
out for those between 75 and 80.]
Trustees made the cuts deeper for
retirees in part for reasons of eq-
uity: It wouldn’t be fair to expect
current workers to contribute
more to fund more generous ben-
efits than they’ll ever receive.
The U.S. Treasury Department
approved the cuts proposal Nov.
8, and sent ballots to all partici-
pants Nov. 21. The vote was 42
in favor of the cut, and 48 against,
but under MPRA, trustee cut pro-
posals are implemented unless a
majority of participants vote to
reject them. Sickles said a num-
ber of members told him they
were voting yes by not casting
ballots. The cuts now will take ef-
fect Feb. 1.
MITA bookkeeper Kirt
Haneberg called the cuts both
tragic and necessary, but said
there are reasons for optimism.
Construction continues to boom,
and work hours are up, which
benefits the pension plan’s bot-
tom line. And there are signs Lo-
cal 82 is improving its market
share: Its international union has
lately assigned organizers to sup-
port efforts to bring in non-union
workers and contractors.
“I’m hoping it’s a corner that
we’re turning,” Haneberg told the
Labor Press.
Could benefits be restored?
The pension cuts take effect Feb.
1, but if the pension plan’s fi-
nances improve enough in the
coming years — through a com-
bination of exceptional invest-
ment returns and increased work
hours by active members —
trustees would be able to backfill
some of the lost benefits. In fact,
the rules would require them to.
There’s also a possibility that
Congress could act to restore ben-
efits. Last year, Congress created
a special bipartisan committee to
look at solutions for the roughly
1 in 10 union-sponsored multi-
employer plans that are headed
for insolvency. The committee
held hearings in the summer of
2018, but failed in its mandate to
come up a proposed solution by
the end of November. However,
committee members did leak a
draft of the proposal they were
working on. Among the details:
The federal government would
lend money to distressed pension
plans — including ones that had
already made MPRA cuts — to
allow them to invest their way
back to financial health. Propos-
als like that are expected to resur-
face in bills introduced in the new
Congress that began Jan. 3.
UNIONIZATION ] NOV-DEC 2018
The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have decided
whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union-
represented. Thumbs-down means they’ll be on their own. The information comes from the
National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
Union election results
Employer (Location) Union
Yes-No
Rodda Paint (Portland) Painters Local 1094
7-3
^
32-0
^
■ 10 warehouse employees
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare (Portland) Oregon AFSCME
■ 50 crisis counselors, nurse practitioners and others at the 1825 NE Glisan St. location
Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare (Portland) Oregon AFSCME
8-0
^
2-0
^
13-9
^
■ 8 counselors and administrative workers at the 310 NW Flanders St. location
Total Traffic & Weather Network (Tigard) SAG-AFTRA
■ 2 traffic editors/announcers
Burgerville (Portland) Industrial Workers of the World
■ 22 crew members at the company’s 1122 SE Hawthorne location
Providence Portland Medical Center (Portland) SEIU Local 49 374-376 %
■ 838 non-professional support workers, including cooks, housekeepers, and CNAs
Tube-Art Displays (Milwaukie) IBEW Local 48
7-1
^
■ 8 outside servicemen and installers
National AFL-CIO to celebrate MLK Day
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are
confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conun-
drum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late.
This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigor-
ous and positive action.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr
Hundreds of social justice professionals, activists, and community
leaders will meet in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20 for the 2019 AFL-
CIO Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Confer-
ence. There, they will celebrate the legacy and dream of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. and call on all working people to rise up with
courage and conviction in a demand for economic and racial justice.
In Dr. King’s famous 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom speech, he told a divided nation that we need one another
and that we are stronger when we march forward, together. Now,
more than 50 years later in these trying times, his words still ring
true. We are in the midst of great political and social unrest. We
have witnessed devastating rollbacks and attacks on our rights in
recent years. But we have an opportunity to come together, lift up
one another and strategize collectively for the future of our dreams.
James Coon
Steelworkers, IBEW launch union drive at Tesla plant
Cynthia Newton
Melissa Haggerty
Chris Frost
Sydney Montanaro
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BUFFALO, NY (PAI)—Re-
sponding to worker contacts,
United Steelworkers and the In-
ternational Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers (IBEW) have
launched a joint organizing drive
at the Tesla “green jobs” solar
panel plant in Buffalo, New
York.
The campaign, which started
last month, aims to organize ap-
proximately 400 production and
maintenance workers at the
plant, a former Steelworker-rep-
resented Republic Steel factory.
The plant is now part of a state
initiative to bring high-tech fac-
tory jobs to the area.
“The only way we can ensure
we have a voice in the company
and have equal rights across the
board is with a union contract,”
Aaron Nicpon, a member of the
internal organizing committee,
said. “We want to have a voice at
Tesla so we can have a better fu-
ture for ourselves and our fami-
lies.”
Added fellow member Rob
Walsh: “I wanted to work at
Tesla because I wanted a job in
green energy, a job that can
change the world. But I also want
a fair wage for my work.”
“We’re committed to the con-
tinuing success of this facility,
and to making sure that Tesla’s
highly-skilled work force has
good, family-sustaining jobs,”
said Steelworkers District 4 Di-
rector John Shinn.
The Steelworkers and IBEW
are partnering with the “Clean
Air Coalition of Western New
York and the Coalition of Eco-
nomic Justice.