PBGC Announces Nearly $287 Million Will Be Given To Teamsters & UFCW Underfunded Pensions
Two more underfunded union pension plans will receive taxpayer funds.
By Peter List, Editor | April 12, 2024
In yet another Friday afternoon news dump, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced on Friday that it would be giving approximately $286.5 million more of taxpayer funds to two separate underfunded pension plans.
In the first announcement, the PBGC announced today that it has approved the application submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 152 Retail Meat Pension Plan (UFCW Local 152 Plan).
“Special financial assistance for financially troubled multiemployer plans is financed by general taxpayer monies,” the PBGC stated.
The UFCW Local 152 Plan, based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, covers 10,252 participants, and will receive approximately $279.3 million in special financial assistance, including interest to the expected date of payment to the plan, the PBGC announced.
In the second announcement, another Teamsters underfunded pension plan will receive approximately $7.5 million to the Teamsters Union Local No. 73 Pension Plan (Local 73 Plan), based in Valley View, Ohio.
That plan, according to the PBGC, covers 529 participants in the transportation industry.
“For decades, many Americans have worked toward the promise of a well-earned retirement after a lifetime of hard work,” said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie A. Su. “Thanks to President Biden’s historic investment in America’s workers and retirees, these workers will get the full benefits they have earned, allowing them to retire with the dignity they deserve.”
To date, the PBGC has approved about $53.9 billion in SFA to plans that cover about 786,000 workers, retirees, and beneficiaries, according to the PBGC statements.
The union pension bailouts were part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, which provided $90 billion in taxpayer money to be given to failing union pensions.
Go here for prior posts about the PBGC’s pension bailouts.