WHEREAS, unbridled excess on Wall Street led to the worst financial crisis in the United States since the Great Depression; and

WHEREAS, this Great Recession has temporarily created losses on investments for almost all types of benefit funds; and

WHEREAS, these funds, their representatives and allies successfully passed legislation in the form of the Pension Relief Act 2010 (PRA); and

WHEREAS, PRA will allow benefit funds an opportunity to offset investment losses and place themselves on more solid footing; and

WHEREAS, some unscrupulous employers and investment firms are using the Great Recession, and its short-term implications for benefit funds, as a convenient excuse to withdraw from these benefit funds; and

WHEREAS, these same employers intend to substitute inferior defined contribution arrangements for negotiated defined benefit plans; and

WHEREAS, the move to these inferior plans will have a devastating impact on Teamster members and their families; and

WHEREAS, the transfer of Teamster members from defined benefit funds to employers’ defined contribution funds will also weaken the defined benefit funds and create substantial withdrawal liabilities; and

WHEREAS, certain employers and private equity firms rely on Teamster benefit funds for a portion of their investment capital; and

WHEREAS, certain private equity firms utilize money from Teamster funds to inflict tremendous damage to those very funds and the tens of thousands of Teamster participants; and

WHEREAS, Teamster members are employed by subsidiaries of several of these private equity firms; and

WHEREAS, the IBT Constitution, Article II, Section 2(b)(1), “Union Fiduciary’s Code of Conduct,” states that Teamster fiduciaries serve the best interests of participants
and beneficiaries;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the trustees of all and every Teamster fund review their investments in these private equity firms and, where appropriate, withdraw all benefit fund monies and investments from these private equity firms until they cease their attempts to remove Teamster members from Teamster benefit funds.

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