PBGC Divides Pension Plan to Delay Solvency

According to the announcement, the agency’s action, effective July 1, extends the solvency of the Chicago truckers’ plan, and preserves full benefits for about 3,700 workers and retirees of non-bankrupt trucking firms that contribute to the plan. Another 1,500 current and former employees of bankrupt trucking firms will be shifted into a newly created multiemployer plan that will receive about $4 million annually in financial assistance from the PBGC.   

Retirees in the new plan will receive benefits according to the limits set by federal pension law.  

The PBGC said it approved the move because without partition, the plan may have become insolvent in 2013, and federal benefit limits would have applied to all its retirees.  Partition of the plan may delay insolvency to 2019 or later.   

The plan’s administrator applied for partition because the plan was running out of money to pay benefits, resulting from the bankruptcy and withdrawal from the plan of 52 contributing employers from 1982 to 2004.   

The plan was created in February 1955 and currently has 57 contributing employers.