%1

House Democrats will bring a $64.4 billion measure that would provide financial lifelines to union pension plans to the floor next week, <em>Roll Call</em> reported. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the bill’s author, yesterday confirmed the schedule for the legislation, which has gone through the Ways and Means as well as Education and Labor panels. The Congressional Budget Office estimate released last week outlined expected costs over the next decade for the measure, which would provide low-interest, 30-year loans to cash-strapped multiemployer pension plans. That was, however, before the number of plans eligible for assistance was increased through changes in a substitute amendment. About 130 pension plans covering more than 1 million workers are projected to become insolvent over the next 20 years. Even before then, by 2025, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is expected to run out of funds to fulfill its role of assisting failing and failed union plans to make benefit payments.

A bill to prop up financially ailing multiemployer pension plans advanced in Congress yesterday as an influential House panel approved a proposal that would protect benefits promised to more than a million workers nationally, the Boston Globe reported. The measure, introduced in January by Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), was passed by the Ways and Means Committee on a 25-to-17 vote along party lines. The full House of Representatives is expected to approve it later this month. But with some committee Republicans calling it a “federal bailout,” it remains unclear if the bill will be taken up in the GOP-controlled Senate. The bill would create a new agency within the Treasury Department called the Pension Rehabilitation Administration to issue government bonds that would finance loans to underfunded multiemployer pension plans. More than 120 multiemployer plans covering 1.3 million workers and retirees are underfunded by a total of $48.9 billion, and have told regulators they could slip into insolvency within 20 years, according to a report last year by the pension consulting firm Cheiron Inc. Such plans typically draw contributions from groups of mostly small businesses.

Some Virginia miners for the coal company Blackjewel LLC say their paychecks are bouncing and they remain out of work as the company goes through bankruptcy proceedings, the Associated Press reported. Workers say that they’re unsure if they still have jobs after reportedly being asked to stay home last week. One miner told the Roanoke (Va.) Times they think their pay is almost a month late as facilities remain at a standstill. Blackjewel filed for chapter 11 protection on July 1 and said that it needed about $6 million to pay employees. The company said in a release that it intends to compensate employees for time worked before the filing. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) announced yesterday that he was directing the state’s unemployment commission to waive the standard weeklong waiting period for Blackjewel employees.

A group of Toys “R” Us workers who lost their jobs as the company went bankrupt will get some of the estate’s remaining cash to make up for severance pay that they were denied during the court case, according to representatives for the group, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Keith L. Philips awarded $2 million to the workers, who were promised severance at the outset of the bankruptcy as part of a benefits plan that was later canceled as the restructuring unraveled. The retailer’s bankruptcy is in its final stages, and the focus is on distributing cash that was set aside for administrative claims. Those expenses typically include fees for advisers, lawyers and other parties that assist in winding down a company and they’re given high priority by the court for repayment in full. Former workers led by Ann Marie Reinhart Smith, a 30-year Toys “R” Us employee, filed a class action claim in 2018 to the bankruptcy court to ask that their severance claims get the same priority as administrative claims, seeking a bigger sum than the court ultimately approved.

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) confirmed yesterday that it will seek to permanently shut its oil refinery in the city after a massive fire caused substantial damage to the complex, Reuters reported. “The recent fire at the refinery complex has made it impossible for us to continue operations. We are grateful that the fire resulted in only a few minor injuries,” PES CEO Mark Smith said. “We are committed to an orderly process to safely wind down our operations.” Shutting the refinery, the largest and oldest on the U.S. East Coast, will cost hundreds of jobs and squeeze gasoline supplies in the busiest, most densely populated corridor of the U.S. Smith said that the company will “position the refinery complex for a sale and restart,” though such a process would probably take years and face community opposition. About 100 non-union employees will be laid off immediately, with a “significant” number of the 700 union employees expected to lose their jobs in mid-July.

The new owner of the Reading Eagle plans to retain more than half of Reading Eagle Company's (REC) employees, the Reading Eagle reported. Denver-based MediaNews Group, which is buying the company for $5 million, made offers of employment to 125 employees, and 111 accepted the offers, Reading Eagle company officials said Thursday. As of June 13, REC had 195 employees, officials said. When the company filed for bankruptcy in March it had 236 full-time and 20 part-time employees. The employees who did not receive offers from MNG and those who rejected offers will likely be laid off by REC when the sale is finalized — scheduled for June 30 — unless they voluntarily retire or resign before then, officials said. A Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification, or WARN, notice filed with the state Department of Labor and Industry indicated 81 employees will be laid off, but company officials said that number now is 84. If any other changes occur, a final WARN notice will be filed prior to closing. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection March 20, citing an untenable financial situation and a large amount of debt. MNG, which also does business as Digital First Media, was the lone qualified bidder. A bankruptcy judge on May 22 approved the sale.

From the U.S. to Europe, Australia and Japan, the World Economic Forum warned in a report published yesterday that retirement account balances aren’t increasing fast enough to cover rising life expectancy, Bloomberg News reported. The result could be workers outliving their savings by as much as a decade or more. “The size of the gap is such that it requires action” from policymakers, employers and individuals, said report co-author Han Yik, head of institutional investors at the World Economic Forum. Unless more is done, older people will either need to get by on less or postpone retirement, he said. In the U.S., the forum calculates that 65-year-olds have enough savings to cover just 9.7 years of retirement income. That leaves the average American man with a gap of 8.3 years. Women, who live longer, face a 10.9-year gap. The forum assumed retirees would need enough income to cover 70 percent of their pre-retirement pay, and didn’t include Social Security or other government welfare payments in the total. The retirement savings gap is about 10 years for men in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, the forum says. Longer-living women in those countries face an extra two to three years of financial uncertainty.