What happens to the pension benefits that are paid on behalf of non-union workers who work under a CWA?
It’s true that under a PLA a worker does not have to become a member of a union to obtain health and pension benefits. The Associated Builders and Contractors have made a lot of noise about pension benefits being paid to non-union workers under a CWA, and those workers will never see those benefits. But, you have to ask yourself this: what pension benefits do open-shop contractors pay their employees? Not surprisingly, only 21% of workers in the open-shop sector of the U.S. construction market were receiving retirement benefits (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement). And even for those workers, the vesting schedules are most likely similar to union pension plans (i.e. 5 years). So, for those non-union workers that do receive pension benefits by an open-shop contractor, they will have the same issue of not being able to receive those benefits once a particular job has been completed. Multi-employer pension plans in the union sect
