[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 3, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      MULTIEMPLOYER PENSION SYSTEM

  Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Madam President. This week, we have an 
opportunity to finally deliver for millions of retirees and workers and 
small businesses by saving America's pensions. The multiemployer 
pension system is on the verge of collapse, threatening the livelihoods 
of more than a million Americans and thousands of small businesses from 
New Hampshire to Ohio, across the country. This affects more than 
100,000 workers and retirees in my State alone and millions more around 
the country. These pension plans were in danger before. Now the 
economic emergency we are in has accelerated the crisis even further.
  Multiemployer pension plans receive contributions based on the hours 
worked. As workers have been laid off during the pandemic, their 
employers no longer contribute to the pension plans, while current 
retirees continue receiving their earned benefits, making the plan even 
more likely to fail. And if that happens, it won't just be retirees 
feeling the pain.
  Current workers will be stuck paying into pension funds for benefits 
they will never receive. Small businesses will be left drowning in 
pension liability they can't afford to pay. Small businesses that have 
been in the family for generations could face bankruptcy, and workers 
will lose jobs in businesses which have been forced to close up shop. 
The effect will ripple across the entire economy at a time when we can 
least afford it.
  The Chamber of Commerce has said:

       The multiemployer pension system is an integral part of 
     [our] economy.

  It is not only union businesses that participate in these plans that 
will close their doors. This will devastate small communities across 
the industrial heartland. Small businesses in these communities are 
already hurting because of the virus. That is why we have to get this 
done.
  After a lifetime of hard work and service to our country, these 
workers and retirees have already waited far too long for Congress to 
do the job we should have done. We have been trying to solve this for 
years. Unions, the Chamber of Commerce, small businesses pretty much 
agree we need to get this done.
  The House has done its part. They have passed a solution multiple 
times. Every time it stopped because of Mitch McConnell and the U.S. 
Senate. He has deliberately blocked it. We have continued to try. The 
House does it year after year. People like the Presiding Officer and 
others have fought for this in the Finance Committee, have fought for 
this on the Senate floor, and we simply haven't been able to move it.
  Now that Senator McConnell is out of the way, we can finally keep the 
promise to these workers and their families. They spent years working 
on assembly lines, bagging groceries, driving trucks, working to keep 
our economy going, and money came out of every single one of their 
paychecks to earn these pensions.
  People in this town don't always understand the collective bargaining 
process. People give up dollars at the bargaining table today for the 
promise of a secure retirement with healthcare and a pension. That is 
what collective bargaining is. Union workers sit down with each other 
and their employer, talk about giving up wages. They are willing to 
give up wages today to have a more secure future. What is more American 
than that?
  For years now, they have lived in fear of drastic cuts. One retiree 
from Michigan told us he would lose two-thirds of his income and that 
``at 71 years old, there's no jobs out there that we could get to 
recover what we'd lose.''
  He said:

       Pass the Butch Lewis Act so . . . we can take this weight 
     off of us, and retire with the dignity that we earned for 30, 
     40, 50 years of hard working labor.

  It is always the same story. When Wall Street is in trouble, there is 
a bailout. When corporations need something, the stock market is in 
trouble, the Washington elite drop everything to help. But these 
workers, they are not asking for a bailout; they are not asking for a 
handout; they are just asking for what they earned.
  These workers have been in the fight for years. Their activism has 
gotten us this far. They have traveled all day and all night on buses. 
They have rallied outside in the bitter cold, in the hot DC summer, all 
trying to get people in this town to listen.
  Let's finally deliver for them. Let's give them peace of mind. Let's 
keep this promise. It comes back to the dignity of work. When work has 
dignity, we honor the retirement security people earned. When work has 
dignity, we honor their retirement security that they gave up at the 
bargaining table in collective bargaining.
  I urge my Republican colleagues in this body--colleagues with 
healthcare and retirement plans paid for by taxpayers, including these 
taxpayers that have been paying into their own pension funds for years. 
I urge my Republican colleagues to think about these retired workers 
and think about the small business owners. Companies like Smucker's--
there is a baker in Navarre, OH. Think of the candy company, Spangler, 
in Bryan, OH--companies like that. Think about these retired workers. 
Think about these small business owners and think about the stress they 
are facing.
  I have listened to my colleagues' speeches for years, extolling the 
values of hard work and the virtue of small businesses. This is your 
chance to live up to your own words, to show Americans if you work hard 
all your life, your government will, in fact, be there for you.
  Join us, and let's pass a solution that really indeed does honor the 
dignity of work.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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