DETROIT — Surrounded by the hardworking men and women of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su announced that the Biden administration had approved over $635 million in special financial assistance to the Detroit Carpenters Pension Trust Fund. The funding a part of the American Rescue Plan, prevents devastating retirement cuts to over 22,500 current and future carpenter families.
The American Rescue Plan, passed in March of 2021 was made possible by Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote to ensure passage in the U.S. Senate.
“This investment will go directly to pension checks, and it will go directly to our local barber and restaurant and automobile manufacturers and and rents and and all those things,” said Tom Lutz, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights in an interview with the Detroit News. “This is going to people that were taxed on every dollar that they earned. And these are dollars that will go back into communities that get spent — over and over and over in their communities,” Lutz added.
The funds were made available with the inclusion of the Butch Lewis Act in the American Rescue Plan and was sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. According to a release from the Office of Senator Brown, the 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 insurance amount
- Require each plan that receives assistance file regular status reports with the PBGC and Congressional Committees, to prevent recurrence and protect retirees’ benefits
For affected retirees, federal dollars being used to save pensions for seniors marks a stark contrast to the decades long bailouts of banks, large corporations and Wall Street. During the event, Acting Labor Secretary Su was joined by members of the Michigan Congressional delegation. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell noted, “The last four years, this administration has been fighting for you.”
In a video played by the Carpenters, a retiree notes that, “your pension is not given to you, it is earned.” The video went on to point out that the financial crisis of 2008 was a major cause of the retirement crisis. That crisis, caused by Wall Street banks, included swift bailouts to the very banks who caused the crisis. However, two Presidents, Obama and Trump, did not take care of retirees affected by the crisis. Until now, with this announcement from the Biden/Harris administration.
