Fork in Road for Truckers Fund; PBGC Splits Plan

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has split the Chicago Truck Drivers, Helpers and Warehouse Workers Union (Independent) Pension Fund into plans for employees of bankrupt and nonbankrupt companies, agency spokesman Marc Hopkins confirmed.

The PBGC will provide about $4 million annually to the bankrupt companies’ multiemployer plan; the plan for the nonbankrupt companies will not receive any PBGC funding.

Neither the size of the original plan nor the sizes of the new plans were immediately available.

The decision aims to extend solvency of the original plan and preserve full benefits for roughly 3,700 workers and retirees of nonbankrupt trucking firms. About 1,500 current and former workers are in the bankrupt companies’ plan.

“The PBGC approved the move because without partition, the Chicago plan may have become insolvent in 2013, and federal benefit limits would have applied to all its retirees,” the PBGC stated in a news release. “Partition of the plan may delay insolvency to 2019 or later.”

Fifty-two employers in the original plan filed for bankruptcy protection or withdrew from the plan between 1982 and 2004. The plan currently has 57 contributing employers.

Filed by Timothy Inklebarger of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.