2024 Election Guide
Where engaged citizens across the country come together
to share ideas and build stronger communities
CLEVELAND, OH – U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced that his Butch Lewis Act will save the pensions of the more than 1,460 members of Cleveland Building Material Drivers Local 436. Their pension plan will receive $95.2 million in pension restoration funding from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). This funding is a direct result of the passage of the Butch Lewis Act as a part of the American Rescue Plan which Brown helped write and pass.
“Today, we are putting money back in the pockets of hard-working Ohioans and are keeping our promise to the Building Material Drivers Local 436, by restoring the retirement security they’ve earned,” said Brown. “After years of advocacy by workers, retirees, and small business owners, we saved the pensions that union workers in Cleveland earned over a lifetime, with no cuts. This pension fix will help local workers and the businesses that employ them to grow and continue providing living wages and dignified work for Ohioans.”
The U.S. Department of Labor, through the PBGC, will fund financially troubled multiemployer pension plans through a Special Financial Assistance (SFA). Under the SFA program, cash payments will be made to plans to ensure they can continue paying retirees’ the benefits they’ve earned. Without the pension restoration funding, Building Material Drivers Local 436 plan was projected to run out of money in 2026 - meaning participants’ benefits would have been cut by as much as 35 percent.
Brown fought for this fix for years, touring the state to stand with Ohio retirees, workers and their families, and co-chairing a Congressional Committee on the pension crisis in 2018. Those efforts led to Brown’s Butch Lewis Act being included in the American Rescue Plan, which saved the pensions of more than 100,000 Ohioans. Brown named the legislation in memory of Butch Lewis, the former retired head of Teamsters Local 100 in southwest Ohio. Lewis’ widow, Rita Lewis, joined Brown on the call for the announcement.
About 10 million Americans participate in multiemployer pension plans and about 1.5 million of them are in plans that are quickly running out of money. Many of these troubled plans cover workers who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 public health crisis, such as trucking, food processing and grocery store workers. Even before the pandemic, workers, businesses, and retirees faced a crisis and were in dire need of help.
The Butch Lewis Act secured retirement benefits for workers and retirees in endangered pension plans for 30 years—with no cuts to earned benefits.
Brown’s Butch Lewis Act, which became law as part of the American Rescue Plan, 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