< The 2015 Pension 40: The Long Climb

10
Sean McGarvey
President /
North American Building Trades Unions
Last year: Not ranked

As president of the North American Building Trades Unions, with 13 unions representing more than 2 million workers in the U.S. and Canada, and chairman of the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans (NCCMP), Sean McGarvey, 53, knows the importance of protecting union workers’ retirement savings. He was instrumental to the passage of the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, which allows severely underfunded Taft-Hartley plans to restructure, even if it means retirees and workers take a hit to their pensions. “We all have wants, wishes and desires to save those plans without any pain,” McGarvey says. “Unfortunately, in the economy we live in and the state of our politics, that just isn’t possible. So the question is, How do we do this?” The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ Central States pension plan quickly filed for restructuring after the bill passed, and McGarvey says he knows of at least four others ready to follow. “Communication is key,” says McGarvey, whose father is among the retirees likely to be affected by benefit changes under the act. For McGarvey the work continues. He’s still hoping to implement a third key element of the legislation before the end of the 2016 session that would offer a new structure for multiemployer plans. McGarvey started working as an apprentice glazer in Philadelphia in 1981, was elected his local’s business representative in 1994, then ascended the union ranks. He’s excited by the Department of Labor’s recent decision to roll back its 2008 guidance on so-called economically targeted investments; he and other labor leaders believe this will help pension plans make financially sound investment decisions while creating jobs for workers. “We feel it’s time industry invested in itself and its members invested in themselves,” he says.

 

 
The 2015 Pension 40

1. Bruce Rauner Illinois 2. John & Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation Market Volatility May Boost Distressed Credit Opportunities Sponsored by Fidelity Investments May 12, 2025 3. Chris Christie New Jersey 4. Randi Weingarten AmericanFederation of Teachers 5. Phyllis Borzi U.S. Department of Labor

6. Kevin de León California 7. Alejandro García Padilla Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico 8. Laurence Fink BlackRock 9. Rahm Emanuel Chicago 10. Sean McGarvey North AmericanBuilding Trades Unions

11. John Kline Minnesota 12. J. Mark Iwry U.S. TreasuryDepartment 13. Damon Silvers AFL-CIO 14. Jeffrey Immelt General Electric Co. 15. Joshua Gotbaum Brookings Institution

16. Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. 17. Mark Mullet Washington 18. Terry O'Sullivan Laborers' International Union of North America 19. Raymond Dalio Bridgewater Associates 20. Ted Wheeler Oregon

21. Thomas Nyhan Central States Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund 22. Karen Ferguson & Karen Friedman Pensions Rights Center 23. Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee forMultiemployer Plans 24. Robert O'Keef Motorola Solutions 25. Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley

26. Kenneth Feinberg The Law Offices of Kenneth R. Feinberg 27. Orrin Hatch Utah 28. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University 29. Ian Lanoff Groom Law Group 30. Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business

31. Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees' Retirement System 32. Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services 33. Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research 34. Denise Nappier Connecticut 35. W. Thomas Reeder Jr. Pension BenefitGuaranty Corp.

36. Hank Kim National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems 37. Paul Singer Elliott Management Corp. 38. Bailey Childers National PublicPension Coalition 39. Amy Kessler Prudential Financial 40. Judy Mares U.S. Labor Department