WASHINGTON, D.C. – Standing with Teamsters from Ohio and across the country, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today rallied against proposed cuts to the Central States Pension Plan that would impact more than 47,000 Ohioans. Under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act (MPRA), their benefits could be cut by as much as 70 percent. Brown is putting pressure on the U.S. Treasury Department – which oversees implementation of MPRA – to reject the proposed cuts.

“We have a social contract in this country – if you work hard your whole life to support your family and earn a pension, that pension will be there for you in retirement. But right now, for more than 47,000 Ohioans facing crippling cuts to their earned benefits, that contract is at risk,” said Brown. “The Treasury Department must reject these cuts so workers, retirees, and survivors can receive the benefits they earned and were promised.”

Under MPRA – legislation that Brown voted against – multiemployer pension trustees, like Central States, are now able to propose massive cuts to the earned benefits of participants and retirees if the plans are in “critical and declining” status. Pension trustees for plans in “critical and declining” status may submit an application for proposed benefit cuts to the Treasury. After the Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) approve the proposed cuts, participants vote to implement the cuts or block them.

Brown wrote to the Treasury Department in February asking it to protect these benefits and is continuing to work with his colleagues to put pressure on Treasury to reject the cuts. Brown is a cosponsor of the Keep Our Pension Promise Act of 2015 to repeal the benefits suspension provisions of the MPRA.

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