Thousands of Teamster retirees from across the country joined together at the U.S. Capitol Thursday to protest the proposed cuts to their pensions by the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund or CSPF. The retirees received pledges of support from more than a dozen members of Congress in their fight to protect their hard-earned pension benefits. According to the Ohio's two U.S. Senators, the cuts will devastate the lives of thousands of retirees who worked for years to earn pensions that could be cut as much as 60 percent. Lawmakers turned out to support the retirees' fight against the cuts.
Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH said, "I organized the letter with a couple senators and 37 senators signed it saying to the department of treasury reject these cuts let's come back to the table let's figure out working with Republicans what we're going do here to make sure these pensions, these people receiving pensions, are made as whole possible."
Senator Rob Portman R-OH said, "If you've got a pentagon cut by as much a 70% and you've paid into it your whole life and depending on it, that's a real blow. We are working hard on this issue we've got legislation called the Pension accountability act. Today I did speak to the Teamsters from all over the country who came and we encouraged them to talk to their members of Congress so we can get more cosponsors on the legislation and we can get this passed."
In February, a bipartisan collection of 90 House members signed onto a letter sent to the Treasury asking it to reject Central States' application. And 25 senators, both Republicans and Democrats, did the same in a separate letter.
