Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article today about the funding levels of union pension funds. The article points out the the unions depend on growth in membership to keep funding their pension plans so that the members who have paid in over the years will get paid the pensions they were promised.
The article points out the according to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, pension plans whose funding levels are below 80 per cent are considered endangered, and plans whose funding levels are below 65 per cent are considered in critical condition. The article states:
"The SEIU National Industry pension fund is right at the 65% mark. The Newspaper Guild's plan is at 62.8%, which is interesting in that newspapers seem uninterested in reporting on the problem. Sheet Metal Workers National is only funded to 38%."
Without increases in union membership, these pension funds are in serious trouble. Currently, the majority of growth in union membership has been in government employees. It is interesting that at a time when the private sector was losing jobs rapidly, the number of government jobs has been rapidly increasing.
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