Nearly 300,000 former truckers and their families would suffer significant losses under a proposal that uses a controversial new law to cut once sacrosanct pension benefits, The Washington Post reported yesterday. The Central States Pension Fund, which administers retirement benefits for some former and current Teamster truckers, said that the reductions are the only way to save the plan from insolvency. Under the proposal, pensions for Central States’ 407,000 participants would be cut by an average of nearly 23 percent — but the pain would be distributed unevenly and some participants would not be subject to reductions. Older retirees would generally receive smaller cuts, while those who worked for defunct companies that did not keep pace with their pension funding obligations would face steeper reductions. The proposed cuts were detailed in a plan submitted to the Treasury Department late last month. The Treasury has 225 days to evaluate the plan.
