thetruthaboutefca.com | The Truth About The Employee Free Choice Act & Card Check » Pensions

Some Truth Comes To Union Pensions

Admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:00:45 +0000

There’s a strong argument that one of the primary motivations for union officials to push the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act because it would usher in enough new dues-paying employees to prop up failing union pension funds (which are one of the main selling points for the unions’ service).

Therefore it is good news that there are some great new websites popping up to help union members figure out whether their retirement will consist of caviar or cat food. As we’ve noted before, it’s extremely tough to get that information and it (unfortunately) appears to be headed in exactly the wrong direction on union disclosure, so outside efforts are critical.

In that vein, check out websites focusing on SEIU and UFCW. And check out more here.

Investor Worries Over Card Check Money Pit

Admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:21:01 +0000

Is “card check” just a boogeyman the “big scary” businesses want everyone to worry about? Not by a long shot. The latest evidence comes from a man (who happens to have the pretty cool last name of Ferrari) who tells the Wall Street Journal that the looming threat of the Employee Free Choice Act, among other things, keeps him spooked about the prospects of his retirement future:

Despite the business being on more stable footing, Ferrari says he isn’t convinced that his business or investors at large are out of the woods. “Here we are well over a year after this huge once-in-a-one-hundred-year event and we still don’t know what the rules are,” he says. “What is my tax rate going to be for me and my business? Will card check legislation go through? Will cap and trade regulations affect utilities prices?” he asks. Because of this uncertainty, Ferrari has decided to push off closing up shop. “At the start of retirement, I want to have full peace of mind,” he says.

Wow. That says a lot.

It also begs one big question: what would card check do to the assets in already-troubled union pension funds? While EFCA would help get new members to add dollars, the assets those dollars would buy would face a shaky future.

For more on pension problems, visit our page dedicated to the subject.

Ad Asks AFL-CIO’s Trumka About Union Pensions

Admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:51:03 +0000

The Free Enterprise Alliance is running a new billboard in Pittsburgh, where top AFL-CIO leaders are meeting this week. The simple question relates to underfunded union pensions and asks new federation president Richard Trumka: “What’s Your Plan?”

Click here to see the entire billboard graphic.

Also, check out our new page explaining the link between failing union pensions and the desperate drive to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

We’ll Take “Not Union Bosses” For $100, Alex

Admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:49:52 +0000

That’s the answer to Diana Furchtgott-Roth’s question, “Who

Card Check: Follow The Money

Admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:48:00 +0000

You might not know it (but probably have an inkling) that the Teamsters have some pensions that are so bad there are companies willing to pay billions of dollars just to get out of the plans and then still pay their obligations to retired employees. Talk about a ringing non-endorsement.

Anywho, it’s worth remembering when you read that the Teamsters are trying to use the Employee Free Choice Act to temporarily fix their broken plans at the expense of workers’ rights, private ballots, and a healthy free enterprise system.

Union Member Warns Employee Free Choice Act Would Be A Big Mistake

Admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:58:24 +0000

We have received a message from a longtime union member — a carpenter with the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters for more than two decades — who says the Employee Free Choice Act “would be a big mistake.” The writer, whose name we have withheld, writes:

Currently there are about 43,000 members in the CRC, down from a high of 48,000 two years ago. Thats a drop of about 5,000 members in two years. Those 5,000 members who have dropped out were contributing to the pension fund, now at about $7.50 an hour. The bulk of the members who drop out are not vested in the union, and their money disappears in the pension fund. If the union is able to freely sign on new members, without providing stable employment, they will be able to increase the amount of cash flow going into the pension fund, the new member will stick around for a year or two and realize there is no steady work and move on. This also hurts the members who have been around for along time, because they also can not find steady work. Its like the purpose of the union is to keep letting herds of new members in while the majority of the existing members struggle to find work. The CRC just got a $3.50 an hour raise, a union carpenter lucky enough to have a job now earns $40.77 an hour[1 $ an hour increase], 2$ going in to the pension[now7.50$ an hour], and .67 in to health insurance[ now at $9.50 an hour]. The members did not vote on this raise, just like the members do not vote on any decisions in the union. The CRC currently has $100,660,342 in assets, while the bulk of the members who are jobless, struggling to put food on their tables are not reaping any of the benefits of belonging to a union. If one checks the dol[department of labor web page] one can view how the union is squandering away millions of dollars on the self serving union leaders. goto: http//erds.dol-esa.gov/query/getOrgQry.do use file # 001-949. Some numbers of interest from the web page; $198,000 apprentice graduation party, another $130,000 for office catering.

The CRC spends millions of dollars promoting national and local elections, encouraging members to vote. But then when they have their own election with in the union the rules change. Members are deliberately not informed about the elections. The union officials use undemocratic tactics to stay in power. All one has to do is view the records, almost all of their elections are won by acclimation [members do not participate]. [redacted to remove personally identifiable information] The union has become part of the problem, they could create more jobs if they were not charging so much money, supply and demand, but the union charges more money so more members will have to drop out and new members can be brought on board. EFCA will be a disaster for the future of the CRC, it will enable the union to get richer, while the union gets weaker.

Truly troubling stuff.

Will The Employee Free Choice Act Force Workers Into Failing Pensions?

Admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:16:29 +0000

One of the stated goals of the unfortunately misnamed Employee Free Choice Act is to improve the wages and retirement security of working Americans by “helping” more of them to get into unions without having the chance to vote in a private ballot election.

The Alliance for Worker Freedom today has warned that the “next taxpayer bailout” is “aimed at failing union pension funds” and more specifically:

Average union pension has resources to cover only 62% of what is owned to participants
Less than one in every 160 workers is covered by a union pension with the required assets
In a Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation Rescue, pensioners only get $12k/year

Link Between Failing Union Pensions and Card Check

Admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:01:05 +0000

The ever-expanding Washington Examiner — the publication that recently announced it has added intellectual heavyweights to its staff and the well-known Weekly Standard to its portfolio — continues to do great work on the link between failing union pension funds and the need for union officials to pass the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

In an editorial this morning, the Examiner argues:

Private firms could be required to save underfunded union pension plans even if doing so reduces profits and jeopardizes the retirement savings of non-union workers. That’s the consequence of a binding arbitration provision in a proposal now before Congress. The provision is included in the horribly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) and may actually be the primary driving force behind the measure, which is described by labor bosses as their top legislative priority for 2009. Card Check abolishes secret balloting voting for employees in workplace representation elections, and mandates that federal arbitrators impose settlements when a company fails to reach an agreement with a newly recognized union within 120 days.

Card Check would not bar federal arbitrators from forcing companies into union-negotiated multi-employer pension plans, many of which are severely underfunded and staggering under steadily increasing rising liabilities. Pensions for nearly half of the nation’s 20 largest unions are classified as either “endangered” or in “critical” condition due to underfunding, according to federal actuarial reports. Pensions with less than 80 percent of the assets needed to cover present and projected liabilities are considered “endangered,” while those below 65 percent are classified as “critical” under the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The average union pension has resources to cover only 62 percent of what is owed to participants, according to the government-backed Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC). Less than one in 160 workers is presently covered by a properly funded union pension plan. Failed pension plans are bailed out by the PBGC.

But opposition to abolishing the secret ballot in the workplace is growing steadily, forcing Card Check backers to seek a legislative compromise with opponents. But if the compromise includes the mandatory arbitration provision, unions, particularly those with sickly pension plans, will be tempted to resist settling with a company, knowing that federal arbitrators will likely impose a settlement that is more to their liking, according to Ted Phlegar, senior counsel to the Workforce Freedom Initiative. “Unions are pushing this bill because they need members and they need the contributions as many of these funds are underwater. This is one way to save them,” Phlegar said. “In fact, this may have been the goal all along.” In other words, a Card Check compromise that includes mandatory arbitration would give unions that inadequately funded their pension plans a backdoor way to get a bailout, paid for either by the company or the tax payers.

UPDATE: Diana Furchtgott-Roth has this:

On June 22 a court hearing is scheduled to decide whether the Minneapolis Star Tribune, now in bankruptcy, will be allowed to withdraw from the underfunded Central States Teamsters pension plan, which provides pensions to 190 of its full- and part-time drivers. For the sake of the workers, the Star Tribune should be allowed to withdraw.

GM’s Crash Should Be Warning Sign Against Employee Free Choice Act

Admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:55:57 +0000

Saul Anuzis in the Detroit Free Press offers a history lesson and a look forward:

The reason that the great American tradition of making cars in my home state has now gone belly up is due in large part to the irrational and unreasonable demands made by UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger, former UAW chief Frank Garrison, and the union leaders that came before them. And the rest of it lies with the management of the Big 3 who made promises they knew they couldn

Dollars Everywhere, But Not One To Spare

Admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:31:10 +0000

Union officials have thrown money around like it’s going out of style — and indeed it may be, as three stories circulating the news point out:

The Wall Street Journal notes that the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union are both facing much bigger liabilities than in recent years, thanks to their lavish political spending
A critical new examination finds almost half of the nation’s largest unions have pensions funds that are at “endangered” funding levels, according to a report from the Washington Examiner (which, of course, includes a quote from ABC’s in-house expert, Brett McMahon)
Newt Gingrich’s article “Once, we would have called it a scandal” … well, frankly, it has so much info that we aren’t going to do it an injustice by recapping — just click thee there immediately.