President Biden travels to Philadelphia to announce over 29,000 union workers and retirees covered by a Pennsylvania-based pension plan will have their benefits protected.

Today President Biden will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to announce that the Biden-Harris Administration has protected more than 1.2 million pensions because of the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Butch Lewis Act, according to a new report from the Department of Labor. During the visit, President Biden will announce actions to prevent cuts to the earned pension benefits of 29,000 United Food and Commercial (UFCW) workers and retirees, primarily in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan – which zero Republicans voted for – the Biden-Harris Administration has protected the pensions of over 65,000 Pennsylvanians, 80,000 Michiganders, 78,000 New Yorkers, 73,000 Illinoisans, 63,000 Ohioans, 63,000 Californians, 42,000 Floridians, 38,000 Missourians, 36,000 Texans, and many more to date.

The President’s announcement in Philadelphia comes after the Vice President announced the protection of pension benefits of over 22,500 union workers and retirees under the Detroit Carpenters Pension Fund last month.

Last week, President Biden spoke with Pennsylvania residents Roger Custer, a retired Teamster, and his wife, Marsha. Roger’s earned pension benefits were cut by hundreds of dollars per month in 2019, but because of the American Rescue Plan, Roger’s pension benefits were fully restored and protected for decades to come.

Since they took office, President Biden and Vice President Harris have fought hard to protect union workers and ensure a secure retirement for every American.  The ARP’s Butch Lewis Act pension protections – called the Special Financial Assistance program – will provide security for roughly 2 million workers and retirees, ensuring their pensions remain solvent and will be able to pay the full benefits that these workers have earned over the next several decades. Additionally, for retirees who previously suffered cuts to their earned benefits due to their pension plans becoming insolvent, or to avoid future pension plan insolvency, the Butch Lewis Act restores their benefit level and makes them whole for previous losses.

Today’s announcement will save the workers and retirees covered by the UFCW Tristate Pension Fund from an estimated reduction to their earned benefits of 15% on average beginning within four years. Instead, thanks to ARP, the plan will now pay full benefits to workers and retirees into at least the 2050s.

The President also will highlight new data from the Department of Labor’s report showing the historic progress in delivering pension security for union workers and retirees that finds:

• More than 120,000 retirees who otherwise would have continued to suffer or would have seen new reductions in their earned pension benefits have instead received an average of roughly $13,600 each in earned benefits so far that were protected or restored thanks to President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’s American Rescue Plan. The Butch Lewis Act is restoring benefits levels, making retirees whole for previous benefit cuts, and preventing additional cuts that would have resulted from new plan insolvencies suffered through no fault of their own. That includes thousands of Western Pennsylvania Teamster retirees who saw their benefits cut by up to 30% back in 2019.

• Workers and retirees in plans receiving assistance from the Butch Lewis Act had suffered or faced projected average cuts of 41% to their monthly pension benefits, with many facing cuts to earned benefits as large as 70% or more.

• Union workers and retirees across many industries have had their pension benefits protectedto date, including:
  • Nearly 620,000 workers and retirees in Teamster pension plans,
  • More than 152,000 workers and retirees in UFCW pension plans,
  • More than 103,000 workers and retirees in Bakers and Confectionery worker pensions plans,
  • Over 89,000 workers and retirees in United Steelworker pension plans,
  • Tens of thousands of workers and retirees in Communications Worker of America (55,000), Musicians (49,000), and Carpenters (29,000) pension plans, among many more.

The pension protection legislation included in President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’s American Rescue Plan was named after veteran and retired Teamster Butch Lewis (1951-2015) for his role in fighting to protect union retirees’ pensions from harsh benefit cuts through no fault of their own. Ultimately, the Butch Lewis Act is expected to ensure roughly 2 million workers’ and retirees’ pension plans remain solvent and will be able to pay the full benefits that workers have earned through at least 2051, making its inclusion in the ARP the most significant effort to protect the solvency of the multiemployer pension system in 50 years.

Today’s announcement builds on historic actions President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken to support union workers. While the prior Administration rolled back overtime protections and appointed union busters to the National Labor Relations Board, this Administration has expanded overtime protections for millions of workers, appointed worker advocates to the National Labor Relations Board, and also ensured federal dollars are going to create good jobs with the free and fair choice to join a union and that federal construction projects are built using a project labor agreement. The Biden Administration has also expanded worker protections and safety, made it easier to organize and collectively bargain, provided funding to increase registered apprenticeship programs, and is making sure the Administration’s historic infrastructure investments are built with American-made construction materials and create good jobs. And, the Administration worked to protect and strengthen Social Security and the retirement plans of hardworking Americans, including by taking action to ensure retirement advisors act in the financial interest of retirement savers. The President also signed SECURE 2.0 into law, which encourages more employers to offer retirement plan benefits to their workers and makes it easier for Americans to save for retirement.

Ensuring that union workers and their families enjoy the retirement security they earned through a lifetime of work is just one of the ways that the Biden-Harris Administration has kept its commitment to workers and delivered on being the most pro-union administration in American history.

States with the most workers and retirees who have had pensions protected under the Biden-Harris Administration, through October 2024:

Source: Department of Labor, “Report on Special Financial Assistance”