via ohio.com,
by Jim Mackinnon, Beacon Journal,
April 12, 2016,
Thousands of retired Teamsters — including two busloads from the Akron area — will pressure federal lawmakers Thursday at a rally in Washington, D.C., to ward off deep pension cuts expected to start this summer.
“The rally is going to be on the west front lawn of the U.S. Capitol,” said Mike Walden, a retired Teamster from Cuyahoga Falls and head of the Northeast Ohio Committee to Protect Pensions.
Nine buses from Ohio, each carrying about 50 people, will travel to the rally, Walden said. Other Ohio residents will drive or fly down on their own, he said.
The Ohio group will join retirees coming in from all across the U.S., he said.
“What we hope to accomplish is to wake members of Congress up,” Walden said.
The goal is to delay, change or even repeal the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 that allows pension cuts of more than 50 percent — and as high as 69 percent — for many retirees in the financially troubled Central States pension plan that covers hundreds of thousands of Teamsters.