On December 23rd, the President signed into law HR 7327, the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008. The House passed the legislation by voice vote, and the Senate by unanimous consent. The bill provides much needed short-term relief for multi-employer defined benefit plans that have been hit hard by this year's stock market decline. If the bill did not pass, many defined benefit plans would be required to meet funding levels that were enacted in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. The plans would have been further crippled, and more layoffs in various industries with multi-employer plans would have resulted, as companies tried to meet funding targets.

   The bill includes some key provisions that the Teamsters supported. For plan years starting between October 1st, 2008 and October 1st, 2009, multi-employer plans will be able to freeze their current funding certification for one year based on the previous year's level. Also, the current funding improvement or rehabilitation period for multi-employer plans that have improvement and rehabilitation plans in place in 2008 and 2009 will be extended for three years.