Joe Yuhnke, who has spent 23 years working on the loading dock at trucking company YRC Worldwide, was looking forward to retiring in about seven years.

Now, the Pendleton resident&#8217s retirement dreams are crumbling.

The Teamsters pension fund that controls the retirement benefits for Yuhnke and thousands

of other Western New York workers is in deep financial trouble, with just a fraction of the

money it needs to pay the pensions promised to its participants.

So deep is the financial hole that the fund now is being forced by federal rules to make

major changes in the pension benefits that will be available to workers who retire next year

and beyond.

Those workers, including Yuhnke, will face a triple-whammy of reduced benefits, later

retirement dates and increased contributions to the pension fund by their employers or from

their own pockets.

&#8220It&#8217s a young man&#8217s job,&#8221 said Yuhnke, 44. &#8220If they say I have to

work until I&#8217m 65 on the loading dock, I&#8217ll be a crippled old man. I won&#8217t be

able to enjoy my retirement.&#8221

Yuhnke&#8217s pension is part of the New York State Teamsters Benefit Funds, which operates

the retirement plans for unionized local workers at more than 200 companies, from United

Parcel Service and Erie Logistics to warehouse employees at Tops Markets and drivers for

beverage distributors like Certo Brothers. About 14,000 unionized workers across upstate New

York are covered by the Teamsters pension fund.

The Teamsters fund became critically underfunded last year, with enough assets in its

investment portfolio to cover less than 60 cents of every $1 in pension benefits that it is

obligated to pay.

&#8220You have to make adjustments to the fund to make it solvent,&#8221 said Ronald G.

Lucas, one of the pension fund&#8217s trustees and the president of Teamsters Local 264 in

Cheektowaga.

It&#8217s far from the only pension fund with money troubles. The Empire State Regional

Council of Carpenters&#8217 pension fund suffered losses of nearly $100 million on investments

it made in scams orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff.

Multiple-employer pension plans are common in the trucking, hotel and construction

industries, which have suffered huge job losses and company failures. The plans cover about 10

million workers across the country, or roughly one of every four employees who have a private

pension.

Moody&#8217s Investors Service estimates that multiple-employer pension plans, like the

Teamsters fund, were underfunded by $165 billion last year. A report it issued last September

lists 108 multiple-employer union pension funds that are considered by federal standards to be

endangered or in critical condition.

Multi-employer pension plans troubled

Aging workers and poor market returns leave many pensions underfunded

IndustryFunded status

Construction54 percent

Entertainment/printing72 percent

Food/supermarket58 percent

Hotels/casino63 percent

Transportation53 percent

Other68 percent

Total56 percent

Source:

Moody's Investors Service

Those shortfalls have spurred new legislation in Congress that potentially would provide a

federal bailout. One bill would give troubled plans more time for their investments to rebound

before they are forced to take the steps the Teamsters fund is facing to reduce future benefit

accruals, increase corporate pension subsidies and impose stiff early retirement penalties.

Another bill, sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., would make a federal agency, the Pension

Benefit Guaranty Corp., responsible for the long-term costs of some troubled plans.

Administrators of the Teamsters fund said it has been hit by a series of broadsides that

have severely weakened its finances. An aging work force means that it now has more retirees

drawing benefits than active workers contributing to the fund.

The financial troubles of several big participants in the plan, from the bankruptcy of

supermarket chain Penn Traffic Corp. to YRC, which is in the midst of an 18-month period when

it has suspended its contributions to the pension fund, further exacerbated the weakness. Penn

Traffic and YRC are two of the five biggest contributors to the pension fund.

And the stock market&#8217s plunge in 2008, which led to a nearly 30 percent drop in the

pension fund&#8217s investments, left a gaping hole in the fund&#8217s asset base, which had

dwindled to $1.6 billion at the end of April from $2.3 billion in 2007.

&#8220In 2008, it was devastating,&#8221 said Kenneth R. Stillwell, the funds&#8217

executive administrator.

Although the fund&#8217s portfolio rebounded by almost 24 percent last year, it still is

paying out more than $3 in benefits for every $1 in contributions, leaving a shortfall of

almost $15 million a month that plan administrators must try to make up through returns on

investments.

As a result, the Labor Department, which oversees multiple-employer pension plans like the

Teamsters fund, is forcing it to make a series of mandatory changes in the pensions that it

offers to its participants.

Many of those workers are in physically demanding jobs, driving delivery trucks and doing

warehouse work, which the pension fund traditionally has recognized by allowing participants

to retire with full pensions once they accumulated 30 years in the plan.

Under the revisions taking effect next year, that retirement age could jump as high as 65,

with steep benefit reductions for workers who retire early. Individual employee groups within

the Teamsters fund also will be able to select options that would reduce the normal retirement

age in exchange for a cut in how fast future benefits accumulate and even further increases in

the contributions to the fund from workers and their employers.

One option, for instance, would allow workers to collect full pensions at age 55 in

exchange for a 60 percent cut in how quickly future pension benefits accumulate and

contributions to the plan from companies and their employees that would rise by between 5

percent and 11.5 percent per year.

&#8220It&#8217s very confusing right now,&#8221 said Dan Kurczewski of Buffalo, a USF

Holland worker who has 29 years in the Teamsters fund.

&#8220It&#8217s basically going to force me to work five more years and take a 10 percent

to 20 percent reduction in my pension,&#8221 he said. &#8220I&#8217m not happy about it, but

at least I still have a pension.&#8221

Kevin O&#8217Shea, a Certo Brothers deliveryman, said his retirement plans will hinge on

which of the six available options, with normal retirement ages ranging from 55 to 65, his

co-workers collectively elect to accept.

With 25 years on the job, O&#8217Shea could retire with a full pension at age 55, if his

co-workers vote for that option. But if they vote for an option with a later retirement age,

O&#8217Shea could be forced to give up his dream of working as a delivery man for just five

more years and then finding a new job that is less demanding physically.

&#8220That would really wreak havoc on how I plan my retirement,&#8221 the Youngstown

resident said. &#8220It would be really punitive with how much I would lose.&#8221

Kevin Swan, a worker at Allied Waste in the City of Tonawanda who has 28 years in the plan,

said the changes won&#8217t have a huge effect on him. &#8220I will wind up losing a small

percentage,&#8221 he said.

But Swan sympathizes with younger workers, who now will accrue benefits more slowly.

&#8220The more years you&#8217ve got left, the more you&#8217re going to hurt,&#8221 he said.

&#8220It&#8217s unfortunate, but times are tough. You&#8217ve got to make choices.&#8221