South courtyard auditorium
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
2:24 p.m. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for being here. And I apologize for my back when I talk to you. My mother would give me hell for that. But, Ken, thank you for the introduction and for representing your brothers and sisters in organized labor and – who always, always get the job done.
While you — while you can’t — while you can’t be here today, I want to thank Schumer — Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi, Senators Brown, Patty Murray and Ron Wyden for their leadership on this matter.
And I want to thank all the members who are here:
Richie, it’s good to see you mate – and who runs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and has seen this legislation and – to the end and still seen it.
And, Tammy Baldwin, he’s slightly prejudiced about your position and — this state you represent.
Tina Smith, Rep Bobby Scott, Marcy Kaptur – a great friend, and Frank Mrvan: Thank you all for being here.
And special thanks to Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Teamster General President Sean O’Brien and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler for believing what I believe: that the middle class built America and the unions built the middle class.
We all know that the middle class has been hit pretty hard in recent years. Unions were attacked. We had an economy – an economy that didn’t feel like it was working enough – that was working enough for working people.
A pandemic made things a lot worse, and then I signed the American Rescue Plan to provide economic assistance to people who needed it most and to keep tens of thousands of police officers and firefighters, teachers and first responders working as a state Revenue collapsed in all 50 states during the pandemic.
And through America’s bailout, we laid the foundations for an economy that was built from the bottom up, the middle out. I’m — the press is sick of hearing me say this, but, you know, when the poor can get a ladder up and the middle class can prosper, the rich do very well. Everyone benefits. A trickle doesn’t usually get to the bottom.
One of the ways we’ve done that is by passing the Butch Lewis Act, which strengthened pension plans for millions of union members and represents the most significant investment in pension security for union members and retirees in the past 50 years.
This summer I went to Cleveland to announce how we’re going to do this – get this started and get it done.
Over $80 billion to keep multiple employers’ pension plans for unionized workers and retirees solvent for decades to come.
And today my administration is announcing that $36 billion of that money will be used for cuts planned over the next few years — to avoid drastic cuts in workers’ hard-earned pension benefits. That will not happen. The cuts will not happen. (Applause.)
And here’s what it means. For years, union workers have been driving trucks from factories to stores, bagging groceries, building the buildings and bridges and the roads they use – which we use every day, and much more.
I just want to stop for a second and say, you know, imagine you’re not a unionist, you have a good job, you’re retiring — close to retirement, and you’re finding out that your pension plan is going to be cut by 60 percent . Imagine what that does. Imagine what that does to you.
They are truck drivers, warehouse workers, iron workers, bricklayers, carpenters, labourers, plumbers, musicians, food workers and so many other people.
Many companies are unwilling or unable to maintain their own pension plans, and in some industries workers may be employed by multiple different employers over time.
In cooperation with the unions that represent their employees, companies in the same industry often join forces to form intercompany pension plans. These plans serve 11 million workers and retirees across the country.
And with every paycheck they earn, their employers put money into their retirement plans. Like so many Americans, they work hard today to secure their retirement tomorrow.
But over the years, due to changing economic trends and ongoing attacks on unions, 200-200+ of these multi-employer plans have faced potential bankruptcy. That meant 2 to 3 million workers, through no fault of their own – they kept their end of the bargain – faced painful cuts in the benefits they could count on in retirement.
Think about it: for 30, 40, 50 years, you work hard every day to provide for your family. you are doing everything right They track every dollar of that paycheck for groceries, for mortgages. You need every penny of it. And even though you know that when it’s time to retire, the pension you deserve will be there — that certainty.
But then imagine losing half or more of that pension through no fault of your own. you did your part You have deposited. Imagine what it does financially for your peace of mind, what it does for your dignity. your dignity. Because you counted on no one to count on retirement. It’s about dignity.
You’ve heard me say it before, my dad always said it: There’s a lot more to a job than a paycheck; it’s about your dignity. It’s about being able to look your child in the eye and say, “Everything – everything will be fine, honey.” Just dignity.
And then you find out it wasn’t going to happen. You wouldn’t get that pension.
So we put the Butch Lewis Act into the American Rescue Plan – named after an Army veteran and true advocate of unionism – to protect the pensions you all worked so damn hard to secure, the pensions you sacrificed to secure.
And today my administration is announcing the largest single appropriation of funds from the Butch Lewis Act: $36 billion to cover — (Applause) — to cover over 1,000 employers, 350,000 union workers and retirees.
These unionized workers and retirees could face cuts in their benefits of up to 60 percent over the next few years if we didn’t act. That means some people would lose $10,000 every year of their retirement. That’s how much they would lose every year of their retirement – the money they made.
Instead, thanks to today’s announcement, tens of thousands of union retirees and workers in states like Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri can go to bed tonight knowing that the pension they’ve worked so damn hard to earn will be there for them will when you need it.
So I want to thank everyone at Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation who works so hard to make this program work, including the director who is here today. Thank you Gordon for being here. I really appreciate your work and your presence here.
That’s important — (Applause) — that’s important for workers. But every time I say, “This is important for workers,” I think to myself, This is important for their spouses, this is important for their children, this is important for their mothers and fathers they care for. It is important. It is important. It’s important for their families. It’s important to the country.
And let me close with that. I’ve worked to restore the backbone of this country: the middle class, the unions. And for the past two years, we’ve done just that. Americans work. The economy is growing. And incomes are rising faster than inflation.
And earlier this year I was in Phoenix to announce a $40 billion investment in two semiconductor fabs, with thousands of union workers helping to build those fabs. And our plan is to build a bottom-up and middle economy, and it’s working. It works.
As I said, my father always said: A paycheck is a lot more than – you know, it’s about your dignity. It’s about your place in the community. It’s about – it’s about everything you’ve worked for.
You know, the fact of the matter is that we’re in a situation where it’s a question of defining retirement – a dignified retirement in a home and community where you’ve worked and lived and don’t need to leave.
So thank you today for – thanks to today’s announcement, hundreds of thousands of Americans can feel that sense of dignity again, knowing that they have taken care of their families in the future and that it is safe.
So god bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you thank you thank you. (Applause.)
2:32 p.m. EST
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