Today President Biden announced that he will put $36 billion into “a union pension plan to prevent drastic benefit cuts for pensioners.” This comes only a week after “he signed a railroad labor deal opposed by several union organizations.”
The announcement marks the largest federal award for retiree pensions in history and is funded by Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, according to the White House. The $36 billion will go to the Central States Pension Fund, which is for mostly Teamster union members.
The $36 billion amounts to about half of the available federal funds for pension relief under the American Rescue Plan. The pension fund, which covers 350,000 members, was at risk of cuts as high as 60%, but the White House said the fund will now be stable until at least 2051.
“Thanks to today’s announcement, tens of thousands of union retirees and workers in states like Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri can go to bed tonight knowing their pension they worked so damn hard for is going to be there when they need it,” Biden said. He spoke at the White House with Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
The White House says the decision was made because there is a December 10 “deadline for awarding pension relief.”
“We are highlighting it because it is the largest award of the Special Financial Assistance program,” a White House official told Fox News Digital.
Biden has said he is the most “pro-union president in history.” So maybe he is trying to prove that with this announcement. But some are saying the timing is perfect for him if he officially announces his re-election for 2024. “Labor unions donated $27.5 million to Biden’s campaign in 2020.”
“We cannot claim that the president’s decision this morning was directly influenced by our push in Congress last week, those fellow Teamsters worked incredibly hard for years to obtain this victory,” Ballew told Fox News Digital. “But if the public browbeating we put on the miserly railroads last week in Congress helped with the Teamster pension gain this morning, then that is good. That is a win in our book.”
