WASHINGTON-U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan was planned to be joined by constituent Sherman Liimatainen, Vice President & Treasurer of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions, for President Donald Trump's first address before a Joint Session of Congress. Liimatainen played a lead role in persuading U.S. Treasury to reject a plan that would have gutted the pensions of 400,000 working Americans, a news release from Nolan's office said.
Liimatainen also was planned to join Nolan for the official establishment of the new Pension Protection for Working Americans Caucus in Congress, created by Nolan, which will serve as a hub in Congress for Members of Congress dedicated to issues of pension protection and educating colleagues on the subject.
"Make no mistake, there are powerful forces trying to do away with people's pensions, and we will continue to fight them on every front," Nolan said. "The fact is, members of the Teamsters contributed every nickel and penny they had contracted for, but as many as 13,000 companies did NOT make their owed payment into the Central States Pension Fund-and had those companies fulfilled their obligations, those pension funds would be fine. It is simply preposterous to suggest that the working men and women who honored their contracts should be the ones to suffer for this corporate irresponsibility and be punished with the severe reduction of their pensions."
Nolan continued: "There are hundreds of pension funds around the country that are in similar situations because of the failure of companies and local governments to pay in the money for which they had contracted. We cannot permit laws that allow for this reckless irresponsibility to exist. I'm pleased to have Sherman here with me to remind President Trump how important this issue is for working Americans in Minnesota and across the Nation."
"Because of Congressman Nolan's unrelenting leadership, 401,000 Teamsters Pension Fund participants are still receiving the full pensions they worked for," Sherman Liimatainen said. "We look forward to continuing our work with Congressman Nolan and his newly formed caucus to work on behalf of all retirees and active members of multiemployer pension plans."
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Liimatainen lives in Cloquet and, as a retired Teamster, has helped lead the fight in Minnesota and across the country to protect drastic pension cuts from going forward for hundreds of thousands of retirees, the release said.
