< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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James Hoffa
General President
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
PNR
Like many elected officials, International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president James Hoffa has discovered that pension problems can grow into a serious headache. Teamster pensions are provided by so-called Taft-Hartley, or multiemployer, plans, which extend across many companies and industries. Organizing and funding tend to be closely intertwined: Plans in regions with new workers fare better than in those with aging populations. The Teamsters’ second-largest plan, the long-troubled Central States Pension Fund, may be facing insolvency over the next decade or two. Hoffa, the son of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa and a University of Michigan–trained lawyer who was first elected to run the union in 1998, finds himself in the middle of contending forces. On one side is Randy DeFrehn’s (No. 6) National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, which has pushed for congressional legislation to amend ERISA and allow plans to reduce benefits rather than drain funds dry — pension reform, Taft-Hartley style. But the Teamsters have a vocal left wing, suspicious of Hoffa and his team, and opposed to cutbacks. Hoffa has tried to shore up that flank: After endorsing Barack Obama in the 2008 election, he penned a fierce attack on aspects of health care reform in a 2013 letter, arguing it would “shatter our hard-earned health benefits.” Last year Hoffa rejected the NCCMP plan, despite its support from multiemployer plans like the Western Conference of Teamsters, but has said little since. Time is not on his side, despite his organizing successes since taking the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO (along with the Service Employees International Union, then run by No. 37 Andy Stern) in 2005. Hoffa, 73, is up for reelection in 2016.
The 2014 Pension 40
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Bruce Rauner Illinois | John and Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers | Rahm Emanuel Chicago | David Boies Boies, Schiller & Flexner |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System | John Kline Minnesota | J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department | Gina Raimondo Rhode Island | Phyllis Borzi U.S. Labor Department |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Amy Kessler Prudential Financial | Alejandro García Padilla Puerto Rico | Christopher Klein U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia | Steven Rhodes Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | Kevin de León California |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| David Draine Pew Charitable Trusts | Jordan Marks National Public Pension Coalition | Sam Liccardo California | Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business | Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman Pension Rights Center |
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| Timothy Blake Moody’s Investors Service | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University | Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services | Daniel Loeb Third Point | Judy Mares Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| Andrew Biggs American Enterprise Institute | Andy Stern Columbia University | Kenneth Mehlman KKR & Co. | Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research | A. Melissa Moye U.S. Treasury Department |
