Dear OPEIU Action Team Member:
On Friday night, the House of Representatives voted on a bill to provide relief to endangered multiemployer pensions, as part of President Bidens $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The bill provides relief for plans in which many OPEIU members participate, including the OPEIU Western States Plan, the Local 153 Plan and a number of others, affecting OPEIU members and retirees throughout the United States. The bill goes to the Senate this week.
OPEIU members have been waiting for this type of legislation. We have been working with the AFL-CIO Retirement Committee for nearly two years to win this reform and secure our members' pensions.
As we've mentioned on OPEIU's social media platforms and in our member publication, White Collar, hundreds of thousands of union members across the country found they were participating in pension plans that were stretched after the 2008 recession and were less than ten years from insolvency. Through no fault of our own, hundreds of multiemployer pension plans are teetering on the brink of financial insolvency. Corporate greed and past recessions put our pensions in danger. And now, the economic disaster created by the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed those pension funds to the brink.
Although this bill has now been passed by the House, there is work that needs to be done before the Senate takes up the bill.
From our standpoint, this is one of the first steps toward bringing the country out of the pandemic recession, thus we need your help and urge you to call your senators to express support for this legislation.
Call your senators today and urge them to protect our pensions by passing the COVID-19 relief package. Click here to find contact information for your senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Thank you for your support.
In solidarity,
Richard Lanigan
President