American Rescue Plan, Statehouse Maps, American Solar
Thanks to President Biden's American Rescue Plan, Iron Worker Local 17 (Cleveland) members will receive their full pensions. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown joined Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to announce that the roughly 2,000 workers and retirees in the Iron Workers’ Local #17 pension plan will have the retirement benefits they earned restored in full, thanks to Brown’s Butch Lewis Act, which was included in the American Rescue Plan.
“Today we are finally keeping the promise to Ohio Iron Workers, and restoring the retirement security they earned,” said Brown. “After years of advocacy by workers, retirees, and small business owners in Ohio, including Local 17, we finally saved the pensions that union workers earned over a lifetime, with no cuts. For more than a century, Local 17 has helped build northeast Ohio. This pension fix will help Local 17 and the small businesses it works with to grow and to continue providing living wages and dignified work for Ohioans.”
Retirees in Local 17 had their pensions cut by as much as 60% in 2017, and they’ve been living with those cuts since then. Receiving this special assistance means that Local 17 will:
Restore retirees’ full earned benefit in their monthly checks moving forward,
Receive $18 million to make retirees whole for the cuts to their benefits since 2017,
Put their plan on the path to solvency going forward, protecting the benefits of active workers.
“This is a life-changing moment for thousands of active Ironworkers, retirees, and their families. Our union has fought for changes to the multiemployer pension system for decades to ensure Ironworkers in every one of our plans have the same opportunity to retire with dignity. Senator Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur have stood with us every step of the way – they have been champions for working people everywhere, but especially for the members and retirees of Ironworkers Local 17,” said Eric Dean President International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers.
