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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