AGC Combats Multiemployer Pension Relief Misinformation

• Ashley Slovinski
• June 8, 2010

AGC of America signed a letter with over 30 business groups to express concern about misinformation circulating regarding multiemployer defined benefit plan relief proposals before Congress.  Recent press stories have referred to the Preserve Benefits and Jobs Act being debated in the House, and the Create Jobs and Save Benefit Act being debated in the Senate, as a “union bailout” and to multiemployer plans as “union plans.”  The letter states that contributions to multiemployer plans are funded entirely by employers and not unions.

 The majority of defined benefit plans have been negatively impacted by the recent financial crisis, and the median investment loss by multiemployer plans has exceeded 20 percent.

 Meanwhile,  construction unemployment remains above 20 percent, according to the most recent report from AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson. Construction employment declined in May as 35,000 workers lost jobs, offsetting most of the increases the industry experienced in March and April.