YOUNGSTOWN, OH – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined leadership and union workers at Schwebel’s Bakery to discuss the impact pension relief he helped secure in the American Rescue Plan is already having on the company and its workers.
 
“We’re here to celebrate one of the biggest victories for Ohio workers and Ohio businesses since I’ve been in the Senate – and it’s all because of you,” said Brown. “After years of work by workers and retirees and small business owners in Ohio and around the country, we finally saved the pensions of union workers earned over a lifetime of work in the American Rescue Plan, with no cuts. And it’s not only the workers and retirees this helped – it’s homegrown, family businesses like this one. For more than a century, Schwebel’s has served this community. And now, with this pensions fix, they are free to grow and to keep employing Ohioans.”
 
For years, Brown led efforts to save Ohioans’ pensions, touring the state to stand with Ohio retirees, workers and their families, and co-chairing a Congressional Committee on the pension crisis in 2018. Those efforts led to Brown’s Butch Lewis Act being included in the American Rescue Plan, which will save the pensions of more than 100,000 Ohioans.
 
Brown met with union workers and leaders from Schwebel’s to discuss pension relief he helped secure for Ohio workers, retirees, and small businesses in the American Rescue Plan. 
 
“Schwebel Baking Company really appreciates Senator Brown’s work on the Butch Lewis  Act that provides pension relief for Companies and Union employees. Getting this bill through means that Schwebel employees will be able to continue to work with the security that their pensions will be there for them when they retire,” said James Behmer, Vice President of Sales for Schwebel Baking Company. “I can’t stress enough how important this was for companies and union members across the nation and right here in the Mahoning Valley.”
 
“I would like to thank Senator Sherrod Brown for all of his hard work and dedication to help get the American Rescue Plan signed into law. Through the years we worked hard and paid for our pension contributions and we were promised our pensions when we retired,” said Ralph “Sam” Cook, officer and member of Teamsters Local 377 in Youngstown for 46 years. “President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law, which included the Butch Lewis Act. Now the promise that was made to millions of retirees has been kept.”
 
“Senator Sherrod Brown has always been for the working class,” said John Howley, Baker & Shop Steward of BCTGM Local 19. “His actions have always spoken louder than his words and his vigilance on this issue will be the foundation on which victory for millions of pensions will be saved. Our union has worked with Schwebel’s and other companies to keep hard-working individuals’ pensions sustainable.”
 
The Butch Lewis Act, named in memory of Butch Lewis, the former retired head of Teamsters Local 100 in southwest Ohio, secured retirement benefits for workers and retirees in endangered pension plans for 30 years—with no cuts to benefits.
 
Brown’s Butch-Lewis Act will:
  •  Keep multiemployer pension plans solvent and well-funded for 30 years—with no cuts to earned benefits of participants and beneficiaries; 
  • Restore full benefits for retirees in plans that previously had to take cuts and increase the maximum Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) insurance amount; and 
  • Require each plan that receives assistance file regular status reports with the PBGC and Congressional Committees, to prevent recurrence and protect retirees’ benefits.  
 

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