Entire pension increase diverted to healthcare

[onestoptogo]

I was reading in the in the monthly Teamster newspaper mailed to me that some part time members had voted to take a increase in wages instead of a pension increase. The increase of 50 cents to healthcare and the 50 cents increase to pension on August 1st has turned into a $1.00 increase to healthcare and nothing to pension. No additional raise will be diverted to the part time members. Somehow I just knew this was going to happen. The first year of the contract is probably the only one we will get a raise on the pension.
Has anybody heard the multiplier rate for the Western Conference for 2014 contributions?


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[By The Book]

I was reading in the in the monthly Teamster newspaper mailed to me that some part time members had voted to take a increase in wages instead of a pension increase. The increase of 50 cents to healthcare and the 50 cents increase to pension on August 1st has turned into a $1.00 increase to healthcare and nothing to pension. No additional raise will be diverted to the part time members. Somehow I just knew this was going to happen. The first year of the contract is probably the only one we will get a raise on the pension.
Has anybody heard the multiplier rate for the Western Conference for 2014 contributions?


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$ 1.20

 

[By The Book]

I was reading in the in the monthly Teamster newspaper mailed to me that some part time members had voted to take a increase in wages instead of a pension increase. The increase of 50 cents to healthcare and the 50 cents increase to pension on August 1st has turned into a $1.00 increase to healthcare and nothing to pension. No additional raise will be diverted to the part time members. Somehow I just knew this was going to happen. The first year of the contract is probably the only one we will get a raise on the pension.
Has anybody heard the multiplier rate for the Western Conference for 2014 contributions?


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The monies negotiated are part of the master agreement, which passed the first vote if I remember correctly. How the monies are used is up to the locals. If the healthcare needs a bump it comes from the pension allocations. No turning back until next contract so we all have some time to think about how this impacts us until then. The vote was pretty close on the master so hopefully we the members will be more involved in the process next time.

 

[TimeForChange]

Has anybody heard the multiplier rate for the Western Conference for 2014 contributions?

$ 1.20

The "multiplier", officially known as the accrual rate, is not a dollar figure, like $1.20. It IS a percentage, which continues to be the unreasonably low 1.20%.

In 2010, the WCT Pension Trust trustees decided to make use of a provision in the Pension Relief Act. I'm not sure what provision that was. Something about averaging something over five years, I think it was.

But because the trustees did that, the WCT Pension can not make any benefit improvements for 5 years beginning in 2010. Raising the accrual rate would be deemed a benefit improvement.

When you consider the low accrual rate, and the endless anti-participant rules and provisions that are printed in the 100+ page Annual Summary booklet that we get mailed every few years---basically the WCT Pension sucks.

 

[onestoptogo]

The "multiplier", officially known as the accrual rate, is not a dollar figure, like $1.20. It IS a percentage, which continues to be the unreasonably low 1.20%.

In 2010, the WCT Pension Trust trustees decided to make use of a provision in the Pension Relief Act. I'm not sure what provision that was. Something about averaging something over five years, I think it was.

But because the trustees did that, the WCT Pension can not make any benefit improvements for 5 years beginning in 2010. Raising the accrual rate would be deemed a benefit improvement.

When you consider the low accrual rate, and the endless anti-participant rules and provisions that are printed in the 100+ page Annual Summary booklet that we get mailed every few years---basically the WCT Pension sucks.

I was wondering why the accrual rate has been so low for so long. I looked back on the history and saw years where it had been over 3 percent. What a huge difference it would make if we could get a few years like that. With the $20,000 in contributions times 1.2% equals a $240.00 increase per month. A 3.0% would give us a $600 a month increase.


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