Pension-Theft

Thousands Strike Across Puerto Rico Demanding End to PROMESA, Austerity, and Privatization in National Day of Action

| Importance: 9/10

On February 18, 2022, thousands of publicly-employed union workers, retirees, and university students participated in a national strike and march that spread throughout Puerto Rico, with the largest contingent filling streets in San Juan. Demonstrators marched behind a banner declaring ‘People …

Puerto Rican Workers' Union Central Workers' Federation United Auto Workers Electrical Workers' Union Puerto Rico Teachers' Unions +1 more puerto-rico labor-organizing strikes promesa austerity +5 more
Read more →

Great Northern Paper Bankruptcy Leaves 1,000 Maine Workers with Pennies on Dollar of Promised Pensions

| Importance: 7/10

Approximately 1,000 former Great Northern Paper workers in Millinocket and East Millinocket, Maine began receiving bankruptcy settlement checks representing ‘a small fraction’ of the pensions, vacation pay, and severance they spent decades earning at the once-dominant paper mills. …

Brookfield Asset Management Cate Street Capital Great Northern Paper Company corporate-looting pension-theft bankruptcy-abuse workers-rights deindustrialization +2 more
Read more →

McKinsey-Designed Fiscal Plan Mandates Devastating Austerity: Pension Cuts, School Closures, Healthcare Privatization, Furloughs

| Importance: 10/10

The Financial Oversight and Management Board unanimously approved a brutal 10-year fiscal austerity plan (2017-2026) developed with McKinsey’s strategic consulting, imposing severe cuts to pensions, education, and healthcare to prioritize debt repayment to bondholders. The plan’s key …

McKinsey & Company Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Government Rafael Torregrosa mckinsey puerto-rico austerity shock-doctrine pension-theft +5 more
Read more →

ERISA Pension Law Creates Framework for Corporate Benefit Cuts

| Importance: 7/10

President Gerald Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) into law on September 2, 1974, Labor Day, following near-unanimous passage in Congress (85-0 in the Senate, with only two House representatives opposed). The legislation responded to catastrophic pension failures like …

Gerald Ford Jimmy Hoffa labor-rights corporate-profit pension-theft institutional-capture
Read more →