The Sheet Metal and Air-Conditioning Contractors’ National Association is applauding the suggestions in a report on tackling the funding issues of multi-employer pension plans in the construction industry.

“The Partnership for Multiemployer Retirement Security: A Business and Labor Initiative,” proposes to restructure defined-benefit pensions to reflect today’s economy while avoiding taxpayer bailouts and recognizing the companies that have met their funding obligations.

SMACNA helped develop the proposal.

“The viability of good, responsible construction employers, the majority of them small family-owned businesses, is at stake and this proposal, if adopted quickly, will maintain reliable lifetime retirement benefits for workers and significantly reduce or eliminate the uncontrollable financial risk for SMACNA employers who currently contribute to industry pension plans, many of them with an unstable future," said SMACNA President Howard Stine.

The full plan is available at www.solutionsnotbailouts.com.