For Immediate Release September 27, 2005
WASHINGTON—Stand Up For Steel (SUFS) announced today that it opposes pension legislation coming out of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. Senate leaders have indicated the bill may go to floor debate as soon as tomorrow or Friday.
SUFS called on Senator Bill Frist and Senator Harry Reid to slow down the process and ensure that millions of pensions aren’t affected by misguided legislation that would impact both companies and their workers.
In a letter to the Senate leaders, SUFS made clear that any bill that threatens workers’ pension coverage, or the ability of companies to sponsor defined pension plans, should be flatly rejected.
The legislation coming from the Finance and HELP Committees poses the following threats to defined benefit pension plans:
¨ Prevents certain pension plans from improving benefits;
¨ Forces still other plans to “freeze” all accruals being earned by workers;
¨ Imposes a retroactive termination date on all plans terminating in bankruptcy;
¨ Uses a firm’s credit rating to determine pension funding liabilities;
¨ Adopts a “yield curve” approach to interest rate assumptions;
¨ Delays the guarantee of shutdown pensions, a crucial kind of pension protection for the hardest-hit workers.
Click Here for a copy of the letter to senate leaders.
Stand Up For Steel is a coalition of United Steelworkers and America’s leading integrated steel companies.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gary Hubbard - 202-778-4384
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STAND UP FOR STEEL
