Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Tweet[IWS] TDU: Pension Movement and Teamster Rights Victory [26 October 2004]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
From Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU)
Court Rules that Central States Documents Will See the Light of Day
Victory for Pension Movement and Teamster Rights
http://www.tdu.org/Pension/PensionBooksWin/pensionbookswin.html
Round one in the fight to get the truth about the benefit cuts imposed a year ago by the big Teamster Central States Pension Fund goes to working and retired Teamsters. On October 21, federal judge James Moran ordered that the quarterly reports from the funds Special Counsel, including actuarial reports, be opened up to members.
The decision came in response to legal action filed in July by Teamsters Tommy Burke of North Carolina Local 391, Mike Brady of Toledo Local 20, and Brent Lindberg of Minnesota Local 638, who are represented by attorney Paul Alan Levy.
Tommy Burke, a leader of the Central States Pension Improvement Committee (CSPIC), explained the purpose behind the legal action. We want our pension trustees to be accountable to members and retirees. We want to see the truth about the state of our pension fund, and what the trustees have been doing in the past few years. Most of all, we want the financial information that will let us hire an independent expert to review the situation, and report to Teamsters. We hope this decision will let us do that.
The pension movement's goals are to restore pension benefits and retiree health care that have been slashed, and eliminate unfair restrictions that prevent retirees from working to supplement their pension. The Union and Employer Trustees of the $18 billion fund made draconian cuts in members benefits in November 2003.
In response, thousands of Teamsters organized a pension movement, fighting back with petitions, rallies, motions at union meetings, two lawsuits, and built a network of Teamsters united to win justice. The issue is a hot one within the union, and has made Teamster president James Hoffa unpopular in the Central and Southern Regions of the union, which include 40% of the union membership.
Judge Moran, while granting the members motion, did not grant all of it. He ordered that quarterly reports from the funds Special Counsel dating from August 5, 2003, and into the future, be made public. Teamsters may need earlier documents, however, to investigate what the Fund trustees were doing or not doing to safeguard the pension fund and protect pension benefits, and whether they acted to cover up their mistakes. That issue remains to be dealt with.
Judge Moran ordered that the documents be made public in the coming weeks. At this time we do not know if there will be an appeal of his decision by the Union and Employer Trustees of the Fund, who have fought to keep this information from Teamsters and retirees.
It's only round one. But its a great victory for Teamster members who want their Union Trustees and their pension fund to be accountable to the rightful owners working and retired Teamsters.
Judge Moran's decision is found at-
http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/RACER2/index.html
Look for -
Case No. Filing date Doc # Nature of Suite Plaintiffs Defendants Judge
1:78-cv-342 10/21/2004 778 790 - Other Labor Litigation Reich Fitzsimmons Judge Moran
Paul Alan Levy's brief presenting the case for Teamster members is available at <http://www.citizen.org/documents/DisclosureMemo.pdf>
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
From Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU)
Court Rules that Central States Documents Will See the Light of Day
Victory for Pension Movement and Teamster Rights
http://www.tdu.org/Pension/PensionBooksWin/pensionbookswin.html
Round one in the fight to get the truth about the benefit cuts imposed a year ago by the big Teamster Central States Pension Fund goes to working and retired Teamsters. On October 21, federal judge James Moran ordered that the quarterly reports from the funds Special Counsel, including actuarial reports, be opened up to members.
The decision came in response to legal action filed in July by Teamsters Tommy Burke of North Carolina Local 391, Mike Brady of Toledo Local 20, and Brent Lindberg of Minnesota Local 638, who are represented by attorney Paul Alan Levy.
Tommy Burke, a leader of the Central States Pension Improvement Committee (CSPIC), explained the purpose behind the legal action. We want our pension trustees to be accountable to members and retirees. We want to see the truth about the state of our pension fund, and what the trustees have been doing in the past few years. Most of all, we want the financial information that will let us hire an independent expert to review the situation, and report to Teamsters. We hope this decision will let us do that.
The pension movement's goals are to restore pension benefits and retiree health care that have been slashed, and eliminate unfair restrictions that prevent retirees from working to supplement their pension. The Union and Employer Trustees of the $18 billion fund made draconian cuts in members benefits in November 2003.
In response, thousands of Teamsters organized a pension movement, fighting back with petitions, rallies, motions at union meetings, two lawsuits, and built a network of Teamsters united to win justice. The issue is a hot one within the union, and has made Teamster president James Hoffa unpopular in the Central and Southern Regions of the union, which include 40% of the union membership.
Judge Moran, while granting the members motion, did not grant all of it. He ordered that quarterly reports from the funds Special Counsel dating from August 5, 2003, and into the future, be made public. Teamsters may need earlier documents, however, to investigate what the Fund trustees were doing or not doing to safeguard the pension fund and protect pension benefits, and whether they acted to cover up their mistakes. That issue remains to be dealt with.
Judge Moran ordered that the documents be made public in the coming weeks. At this time we do not know if there will be an appeal of his decision by the Union and Employer Trustees of the Fund, who have fought to keep this information from Teamsters and retirees.
It's only round one. But its a great victory for Teamster members who want their Union Trustees and their pension fund to be accountable to the rightful owners working and retired Teamsters.
Judge Moran's decision is found at-
http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/RACER2/index.html
Look for -
Case No. Filing date Doc # Nature of Suite Plaintiffs Defendants Judge
1:78-cv-342 10/21/2004 778 790 - Other Labor Litigation Reich Fitzsimmons Judge Moran
Paul Alan Levy's brief presenting the case for Teamster members is available at <http://www.citizen.org/documents/DisclosureMemo.pdf>
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 5:31 PM
