Boater wrote:
BAR wrote:
Boater wrote:
BAR wrote:
Boater wrote:
BAR wrote:


The perfect example of why Social Security is going to fail and
why we need to abandon it now. For some people it will be unfair
and it will hurt but that is too bad. Everyone younger than 35
gets no Social Security but, they still fund it.


Corporations with defined pension programs should not be allowed to
"unfund" their pension liabilities.

That's why the unions should be the clearing house for their
members. Provide 100 workers at a rate of $50 per hour to meet a
quota of 500 cars a day. What the union does with the money is
between the union and the workers.

First rule: Get the money up front.


Well, that's similar to what the construction worker unions do. sort of.

The construction unions negotiate a rate with the contractors...the
contractors pay the workers their hourly paycheck rate and deduct and
forward the required taxes to the feds. The deductions for health and
welfare go directly to the jointly administered union-contractor
health and welfare pension and benefit fund offices. Anyone who has
access to any of the funds at the benefit is bonded. Typically, the
trustees retain a reputable trust funder "advisor" who helps the
trustees invest the funds in "safe" investments that pay a return
higher than the anticipated payout for pensions and other benefits.
There are no unfunded liabilities. The employer for whom the union
workers work has no access to the pension funds.

These are defined pensions, not 401k's. The employer may offer a
401k, but it isn't typically administered by the joint trustees.

If the UAW doesn't do it the same way, why not?



Because it follows the more traditional industrial-white collar model,
where pension funds tend to be controlled by the employers.,

The construction union model evolved differently because its union
members tended to work for several different employers in a given year
or over the course of a career. That still is the case. So rather than
the traditional model, the construction unions and the employers whose
employees they represent devised a model that provided *instant
portability* for union members. It also works for the benefit of
traveling members who might work in Minneapolis in the spring, summer
and fall, and then in Florida in the winter. If they work union in
Florida, the pension contributions they earn go to their home local's
pension fund so they get credit for it.

Keep in mind that construction unions negotiate a gross hourly rate and
then decide what part of that rate goes to pension and other benefits.
That money is already the money of the union members.


Is the UAW run be idiots? It sure sounds like it. The UAW "executives"
think they are tough negotiators but in reality they just feed off of
the crumbs that the auto manufacturers toss them.