Edgar Esquivel on Pensions...

[OT+]

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Edgar Esquivel on Pensions...

[AlJackson1962!]

Brother Esquivel:

I believe, describing The Butch Lewis Act as "a bailout" is first of all inaccurate. The Butch Lewis Act, named after the deceased Teamsters Local 100 President, was won through the hard work and dedication of Butch Lewis and thousands of Teamster retirees and active members and their spouses such as Butch Lewis' wife Rita Lewis. We Teamsters in New England covered by the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund (NETTIPF), as in other Teamster jurisdictions, worked for and earned the Pension Fund benefits we were promised and that had been guaranteed under ERISA.

In the dead of night, in late 2014 Congress passed the Multi-Employer Pension Reform Act (MEPRA), as part of an Omnibus spending bill and without debate. MEPRA gutted the guarantees enshrined in ERISA.
Multi-Employer Pension Funds such as NETTIPF were then, permitted to reduce benefit accrual rates that had been already earned and promised and that ERISA had formerly guaranteed.

When NETTIPF, like many Teamster Pension Funds, went into critical and declining status following decades of deregulation in the trucking industry, and the National Master Freight Agreement that once covered a half a million members was decimated by the rise of non-union carriers, NETTIPF trustees implemented a requirement that Teamster Local Unions must increase the hourly pension fund contributions by a minimum of 8% each year, in order to maintain the benefits earned by the members (hourly contributions determined the benefit rate for each year of service). By example the master construction contracts in Local 251 by 2022, the year I retired, provided an hourly contribution rate of $18.69 per hour paid by each Employer. The $18.69 per hour provided an annual benefit accrual rate of $272.00 for each year of service - the same benefit accrual rate in effect in 2013 when I first transferred into Local 251.

This meant that in addition to winning wage increases and Health and Welfare contribution increases we had to win 8% Pension Fund contribution rate increases each year. By example the 2019-2022 Local 251 master construction agreements required the following:

Article XX (Ready Mix), XIX (Attenuator)Pension Fund: Increase Employer hourly contribution rate as follows:

• Effective 5/1/20: $16.03 per hour (retroactive); Effective 5/1/21: $17.31 per hour (retroactive); Effective 5/1/22: $18.69 per hour

Our benefit accrual rates were frozen, but we still had to sacrifice wage increases, in order to maintain our Pension Fund benefits. And we did this. That's why I believe it's unfair to characterize The Butch Lewis Act as a "bailout". These benefits were and remain benefits we worked for.

The issue of O'Brien's winning improvements under the New England UPS Supplement, while other other Teamster Pension Funds did not win such improvements is a legitimate complaint that O'Brien and the other Supplement committee members should answer to, no argument.

And I agree wholeheartedly that O'Brien has been a bad steward as Co-Chair of the NETTIPF Trustees; just ask the twelve Local 251 members at Crown Linen's Pawtucket, RI shuttered facility that O'Brien shafted out of 16 months of NETTIPF contributions.

[Baker]

Good explanation of the Butch Lewis Act, thanks.