Special Financial Assistance Provided to 2 Additional Union Pensions

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation announced the approval of two supplemental assistance packages today.

The first was for the Teamsters Local 641 plan. The Union City, New Jersey-based plan had 3,610 participants and will receive an additional $96.1 million on top of the $516.9 million received in March 2022.

The other plan approved today was the Printers League Graphic Communications International Union (GCIU) Local 119B New York Pension Plan. The East Farmingdale, New York-based plan, for workers in what is now known as the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has 1,213 participants and will receive an additional $96.1 million on top of the $516.9 million received in August 2022.

According to the GCIU Local 119B Plan’s initial application, the plan became insolvent in August 2021. The supplemental application, filed in April 2022, originally requested approximately $85 million. The final figure of $96.1 million in supplemental assistance likely includes interest generated since April, though the GCIU Local 119B Plan did not return a request for comment.

According to the PBGC, the Special Financial Assistance Program has now issued $45.7 billion to struggling pension plans as of today.

The SFA provision of the American Rescue Plan Act allows for PBGC funding for severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans. Funds that receive assistance must monitor the interest resulting from the grant money as separate from other sources of funding. The PBGC requires that at least two-thirds of the money it provides be invested in “high-quality fixed income investments.” The Final Rule on Special Financial Assistance, issued in July 2022, states that the other third can be invested in “return-seeking investments,” such as stocks and stock funds.