Pension woes may keep many on job longer (Teamsters)

http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/06/26/1095770/pension-woes-may-keep-many-on.html

Underfunded Teamsters plan typifies multiple-employer arrangements
By David Robinson`
News Business Reporter
Updated: June 27, 2010, 12:41 pm

Joe Yuhnke, who has spent 23 years working on the loading dock at trucking company YRC Worldwide, was looking forward to retiring in about seven years.

Now, the Pendleton resident’s retirement dreams are crumbling.

The Teamsters pension fund that controls the retirement benefits for Yuhnke and thousands of other Western New York workers is in deep financial trouble, with just a fraction of the money it needs to pay the pensions promised to its participants.

So deep is the financial hole that the fund now is being forced by federal rules to make major changes in the pension benefits that will be available to workers who retire next year and beyond.

Those workers, including Yuhnke, will face a triple-whammy of reduced benefits, later retirement dates and increased contributions to the pension fund by their employers or from their own pockets.

“It’s a young man’s job,” said Yuhnke, 44. “If they say I have to work until I’m 65 on the loading dock, I’ll be a crippled old man. I won’t be able to enjoy my retirement.”

FULL story at link.