Thousands rally to save pensions at Ohio Statehouse

The passion from the crowd of thousands who traveled from all over the country was palpable as union workers descended on the Statehouse Thursday to call on their elected representatives — both in Columbus and Washington — to save their dwindling pension funds.

The massive crowd gathered for a rally ahead of a Friday hearing at the Statehouse. The hearing includes both Ohio U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, who will take part in a bipartisan joint congressional committee tasked with solving the looming pension crisis that has put at risk the pensions of about 1.3 million retirees and active workers.

But before the elected leaders take to the drawing board in hopes of crafting a bipartisan solution to protect pensions, those at risk of losing their livelihood and retirement made it a point to have their voices heard and blow off a little steam in the process.

Those in attendance said their elected officeholders have pushed this problem off for too long. Retirees spent years paying into multi-employer pension funds with the hope of having that money when they finish working. With the Wall Street collapse and subsequent recession, those funds are now struggling and in need of support.

Without new legislation, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — the federal entity that insures pensions — could go under.

Speakers representing dozens of labor unions took the stage to draw attention to the crisis that impacts active workers and retirees.

“This is the people’s building,” said Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, pointing to the Statehouse in front of him. “We have had to assemble here to remind everyone of that.”

Repeated chants of “Fix it!” rang through the crowd as speakers urged them on. Retired union workers and those planning for retirement called on Congress to pass legislation that would pump hundreds of millions into struggling pension funds they say they are entitled to.

“This is not a bailout,” said Mike Walden, President of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions. “Why aren’t we viewed as a taxpayer like everyone else?”

Brown proposed the Butch Lewis Act, which many in attendance supported, but it failed to get bipartisan support. That bill would have created a low-interest, 30-year federal loan to troubled pension plans, with no cuts to retiree benefits.

Dave Field, a lifelong Republican who voted for now-President Donald Trump in 2016 and donated to his campaign, said he stopped supporting the president following the passage of the tax plan Republicans passed in December because it gave tax cuts to corporations but forgot about pensions earned by people like him and others in attendance.

Field came in from North Carolina to attend the rally. He says he is doing his part by showing up as a sign of solidarity. After working for almost 40 years, Field has seen his monthly pension check cut by more than half, losing nearly $700 a month. He is worried that if things don’t get better, he would be forced to sell his house.

“People work for forty years to earn a pension and now its being taken away,” he said. “The companies that caused it had bailouts. The government fined those companies, kept the fine money and left us hanging.”

Numerous pension plans, including the massive Central States Teamsters Pension Plan, the United Mine Workers Pension Plan, the Ironworkers Local 17 Pension Plan and many others are currently on the brink of failure.

More than 300 multi-employer plans across the nation are in danger of failing.

The hearing at the Statehouse will be the fifth on the pension crisis, but the first outside of Washington, D.C. Ohio was chosen because it is among the states with the most pensions at risk, with nearly 60,000 workers in the Central States fund, which is in severely declining status.

By the end of July, the committee will finish the hearings and move on to finding a solution, one that needs bipartisan support.

A solution must be approved by five out of eight members of each party on the committee and then pass both the House and the Senate by an up-or-down vote, with no amendments allowed to be added.

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CREDIT: OWEN DAUGHERTY