Remarks by President Biden on Building a Stronger Economy for Union Workers and Retirees

So, with the American Rescue Plan, we included the Butch Lewis Act — named after an Army veteran and a true champion of union workers — to protect the pensions you all worked so damn hard for, the pensions you sacrificed to secure.

And today, my administration is announcing the single largest approval of funds from the Butch Lewis Act: $36 billion to cover — (applause) — to cover over 1,000 employers, 350,000 union workers and retirees.

These union workers and retirees are facing cuts up to 60 percent of their benefits, starting in the next few years, if we hadn’t acted. That means some folks would stand to lose $10,000 each and every year of their retirement. That’s how much they’d lose each and every year of their retirement — the money they earned.

[OCS: Tell me about our senior citizens who worked their entire life believing Social Security was a pension plan. Tell me about those senior citizens living on a fixed income who thought saving money was the proper thing to do – and watched financial institutions cut their savings interest rates when the government gave them essentially zero-interest funds to invest?]

Instead, 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 for them when they need it.

So I want to thank everyone at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation who work so hard to make this program work, including the director who’s here today. Thanks, Gordon, for being here. I really do appreciate your work and being here. <The Speech>

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Historic Relief to Protect Hard-Earned Pensions of Hundreds of Thousands of Union Workers and Retirees

The American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance program is providing financial relief to struggling multiemployer pension plans and ensuring that millions of families facing benefit cuts will receive the full benefits they earned.

Multiemployer plans are created through agreements between employers and a union, with plans typically involving multiple employers in a single industry or related industries. A typical worker whose multiemployer plan became insolvent would see their expected pension benefits slashed substantially. Before the American Rescue Plan, workers and retirees participating in more than 200 multiemployer pension plans faced the prospect of not receiving the full benefits they earned and need to support them and their families in retirement.

These plans are insured by a federal agency – the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – which provides partial protection of the benefits of approximately 11.2 million workers and retirees in approximately 1,400 private-sector multiemployer, union-connected plans. Prior to the America Rescue Plan, the PBGC’s multiemployer pension insurance program was projected to become insolvent in 2026. Under the Special Financial Assistance program, financially struggling multiemployer pension plans can apply to the PBGC for assistance.

The Central States Pension Fund estimates that it will now be able to pay full benefits to workers and retirees through 2051. Today’s announcement is estimated to benefit thousands of workers and retirees in individual states across the US, including:

• Michigan – 40,000 workers and retirees
• Ohio – 40,000 workers and retirees
• Missouri – 28,000 workers and retirees
• Illinois – 25,000 workers and retirees
• Texas – 22,000 workers and retirees
• Wisconsin – 22,000 workers and retirees
• Indiana – 20,000 workers and retirees
• Minnesota –19,000 workers and retirees
• Florida – 19,000 workers and retirees
• Tennessee – 14,000 workers and retirees

<The Fact Sheet>