Treasury, PBGC Begin to Wrestle with Multiemployer Pension Plan Reforms

Late last year, Congress took drastic action to rescue the country’s largest union-affiliated pension plans – and the government program that backstops them – from financial ruin.  The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA), signed into law, on December 16, 2014, authorizes multiemployer pension plans (collectively bargained plans to which two or more unrelated employers contribute) to reduce benefits earned in the past if that is the only way to avoid running out of money.  Plans that take this step may also be able to obtain immediate aid from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), which previously subsidized plans could obtain only after they became insolvent.

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