Senate Approves John Ring for Seat on National Labor Relations Board
Employment-law attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius becomes the third Republican on the five-member panel
Teamsters pension cuts to take effect despite 2-1 opposing vote
Most of 34,000-plus eligible don't return ballots
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced that active and retired Teamsters across upstate New York had voted against big pension reductions by a more than 2-1 ratio.
But since most of the 34,000-plus eligible Teamsters didn’t vote — and under federal law, an unreturned ballot counts as a “yes” vote — the cuts are approved, and will take effect Oct. 1.
For most retired Teamsters, this will mean a 29 percent reduction in their pension checks. The oldest retirees and those receiving disability pensions will not see any reductions. Teamsters who are still working will see a 19 percent reduction in the pension benefits promised to them when they do retire.
The New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund identified 35,173 participants and beneficiaries who were eligible to vote, and ballots were delivered to 34,636 of these individuals. (The other 537 could not be located.)
The voting period opened Aug. 16 and closed Sept. 6.
Of the ballots returned, there were 9,788 against the pension cuts and 4,081 in favor; the other 20,767 ballots that had been sent out were not returned and so became “yes” votes.
The Teamsters leadership has blamed a shrinking unionized workforce and pension law changes for their pension fund’s problems, and said reducing the amount of money paid is crucial to keeping it solvent.
Washington, D.C., attorney John Ring, counsel for the pension fund, said Wednesday that shifting demographics remain a problem but the Teamsters’ projections — accepted by the Treasury Department — show that the fund will remain solvent for at least 30 years under the cuts to be made starting Oct. 1.
He said it’s a common problem for this type of pension.
“The New York state plan is not the only multiemployer plan that’s in trouble,” he said, adding that some are in such bad shape that they won’t even be allowed to take steps to save themselves under the federal Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.
Teamsters Local 707 in New York City went insolvent after it was denied cutbacks under MPRA, for example. Pensions for more than 4,000 retirees were slashed more than 50 percent when the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Corp. took over payments.
Ring said there are not many good long-term solutions to the pension fund’s problem, which is simple: More money being paid out than put in.
The pension fund is growing through investment in various vehicles, but that also is not enough to offset payouts, Ring said. Aside from the disastrous years of 2001 and 2008, the pension fund has performed well and averaged an 8.5 percent annual return, he added.
Tom Baum of Rotterdam, a retired UPS worker and former officer of Teamsters Local 294 in Albany, served as the retiree representativeduring the MPRA process. He became the focal point for criticism for a lot of union members looking at big changes to their income if not their standard of living.
On Wednesday, he repeated his criticism of MPRA, under which a non-vote is counted as a “yes” vote.
He had predicted a lot of “no” votes but nonetheless had expected a “yes” outcome due to the “rigged” rules.
But he’s glad it’s over.
But he’s glad it’s over.
“Do I like it? No. I’m just hoping that down the road there’s a better solution than the 29 percent,” Baum said.
“The numbers tell it like it is. It’s a very sad scenario. There’s a lot of people that are going to be in trouble because of it.”
Baum’s only immediate suggestion is for pensioners to consider changing their tax withholding.
“I encourage them to change their federal income tax benefit,” he said. “I did it myself.”
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John Ring testified last month before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on his nomination of to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board. PHOTO: RON SACHS/ZUMA PRESS
The Senate approved John Ring for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, again giving Republicans the majority on the body that oversees union-employer disputes.
Mr. Ring, an employment-law attorney with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, becomes the third Republican on the five-member panel. Nominated by Republican President Donald Trump in January, he was approved in a 50-48 vote along party lines.
Republicans briefly held the majority on the board last year for the first time in nearly a decade, after Mr. Trump’s first two appointments were approved by the Senate. In mid-December, however, the panel was again split evenly between Democrats and Republicans when former chairman Philip Miscimarra departed at the end of his term.
Mr. Ring, based in Washington, D.C., has primarily represented employers, including chemical maker Olin Corp. , transportation firm YRC Worldwide Inc.,hotel giant Marriott International Inc. and online retailer and tech firm Amazon.com , according to his financial disclosure. He also listed the New York State Teamsters Benefit Funds as a client.
Republicans have made Mr. Ring’s nomination a priority, moving to confirm him just months after he was nominated. In comparison, Republican Patrick Pizzella, whose confirmation the Senate also is expected to vote on this week, was nominated by Mr. Trump for deputy labor secretary in June 2017.
Mr. Ring’s appointment “is an important next step to continue cleaning years of regulatory rust off of the American economy,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Wednesday.
Democrats contend Mr. Ring is too tied to corporate interests.
“Mr. Ring’s long list of clients is a huge red flag: either he’ll ignore the ethics rules when they’re inconvenient,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said this week, “or he’ll likely have to recuse himself from important cases.”
At a March 1 hearing, Mr. Ring told Ms. Warren that he understands he must recuse himself from any matter where his former law firm represents a party. He later provided the senator a list of potential conflicts.
“I take this issue very seriously,” he said at the hearing.
It has been common for Republican appointees to have ties to businesses and for Democratic appointees to be linked with labor unions. For example, board member Mark Gaston Pearce, a Democrat, is a former partner at a Buffalo law firm that mostly represents unions.
Democrats also raised concerns about the speed of Mr. Ring’s confirmation, and said the White House should also have tapped a Democrat to replace Mr. Pearce, whose term expires in August.
The board is an independent government agency whose members are appointed by the president. Traditionally, the panel is divided between the two parties. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Republicans for the board.
With Mr. Ring in place, Republicans can move forward with their agenda, which includes rewriting union-election rules to undo a 2014 regulation that allowed for a shorter period to cast ballots, which business groups said favored of unions.
The board could now also reconsider the issue of joint employment, or when a worker is legally considered an employee of more than one company.
Last year, the board determined that a worker is only an employee of the business that has direct control over that worker. The ruling could have made it more difficult for contractors and workers at franchised businesses to form unions and collectively bargain with big corporations.
That 2017 ruling, however, was vacated after the board’s ethics officer determined Republican board member William Emanuel should have recused himself from participating in a case that had implications for a client of his former law firm.
Still, since Republicans are now in place to control the board for several years, it is unlikely they would issue a ruling recognizing a franchise employee as having bargaining rights with a parent company, even if conflicts prevent members from directly overturning the Obama-era ruling.
Mr. Ring and Mr. Emanuel join Chairman Marvin Kaplan, a former lawyer for House Republicans, as the board’s GOP members. Lauren McFerran, a former lawyer for Senate Democrats, is the other Democrat.
Write to Eric Morath at eric.morath@wsj.com
