Too Little, Too Late?
Employers and unions locked into failing multiemployer pension
plans received an 11th-hour reprieve in late December
when Congress passed legislation revising laws that had hobbled
these plans for years. Titled the "Multiemployer Pension
Reform Act of 2014," the reforms give multiemployer trustees
and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) new tools to
address plan underfunding, and seek to eliminate reasons employers
abandon these plans prematurely.
But the new law is not without critics, and whether the reforms
will work remains to be seen. Opponents point out that reform has
been built on the backs of thousands of retired or soon-to-retire
employees, who may see their pensions slashed in order to allow
sick plans to survive. Supporters say that the reforms are the only
way to prevent some large plans and PBGC's multiemployer
pension guarantee system from going bankrupt, which could lead to
even sharper pension losses.
