NPPC Highlight
“Pension-like” Annuities: The Same Old Threat Takes a New Shape
This week, the Alliance for Prosperity and Retirement Security (APRS), funded in part by BlackRock, amplified a Brookings report entitled Strategies to Restore Lifetime Income to Retirement Plans. The research indicates that while guaranteed lifetime income from pensions, Social Security, and private annuities accounted for over half of total income for retired Americans in the early 2000s, the share shrunk to just 43 percent by 2022. Their research essentially charts the elimination of DB pensions and its cascading impact across age brackets.
APRS makes a passing reference to the transition from defined benefit pensions that ushered in this shift. Left out was any acknowledgment of the deliberate attacks against DB pensions launched by corporations and wealthy Americans. NPPC was established to combat these anti-worker threats. Brookings helped drive the agenda against defined-benefit pensions, guiding policymakers with research.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who himself manages over $15 trillion in assets, now wants to further erode Americans’ guaranteed lifetime income by advocating for Social Security privatization and a transition from traditional Social Security to an Australia-style scheme that provides retirees only a defined-contribution savings account.
Brookings’ research, now being helpfully disseminated by a BlackRock-affiliated organization, shows that the destruction of DB pensions–a shift they helped create–has diminished Americans’ retirement security. However, instead of working to restore actual pensions, they are teeing up a new annuity approach, just as Fidelity, Vanguard, and BlackRock add annuities to 401(k) plans and market the products as “pension-like” income.
“Pension-like” annuities represent a major new threat to public pensions and retired Americans, and a fresh marketing approach for those who profit from Americans’ retirement savings. Weakening Social Security and attempting to replace DB pensions with “pension-like” annuities are the latest chapters in the ongoing fight to undermine the genuine defined-benefit pensions earned by America’s public servants.
NIRS Releases New Podcast Episode with Alaska Majority Leader Chuck Kopp
This week, the National Institute on Retirement Security released the third episode of the Retirement in America podcast. In this episode, NIRS Executive Director Dan Doonan has an in-depth conversation with Alaska Majority Leader Representative Chuck Kopp, a retired police chief and the author of legislation to restore a defined benefit pension for public employees in the state.
Kopp discussed how Alaska became the only state in the nation to eliminate traditional defined benefit (DB) pensions and how that decision contributed to severe shortages of teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other essential public workers.
According to NIRS, “Nearly two decades ago, Alaska closed its traditional pension plans to newly hired public employees, becoming the only state in the nation without traditional pensions for teachers and most public employees hired since 2006. Since then, the state has struggled to recruit and retain public workers as many prospective employees choose jobs in states that continue to offer pension benefits. The workforce challenge has become particularly acute in education, public safety, and other essential government services.”
Click here to watch or listen.
State News
Governor Whitmer Vetoes Vital Michigan Corrections Officers Pension Bill
Last week, we reported that legislation to improve retirement benefits for Michigan corrections officers was finally presented to Governor Gretchen Whitmer after a year and a half of legal wrangling. Shockingly, Whitmer vetoed the bills. Michigan Public Radio termed the vetoes a “surprise”, while another outlet noted she clearly never wanted the bills to begin with.
NPPC has closely followed the saga since lawmakers approved the legislation at the end of the 2023–2024 legislative session, ending on December 31st, 2024. An NPPC grant to our Michigan coalition helped secure passage of the bills. Despite passing both chambers, the measures were never sent to Governor Whitmer before her party lost control of the House. When Republicans took over in January 2025, House Speaker Matt Hall declined to send them, setting off a prolonged court battle.
The Michigan AFL-CIO, UAW, and the Michigan Education Association issued the following joint statement on Governor Whitmer’s veto of the stalled bills:
“Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s veto of these nine bills, following a long legal battle waged by leaders in her own party, betrays democratic values and abandons the very people who have supported her in office. This veto is an insult to every hard-working Michigander fighting for economic justice. We condemn her betrayal of Michigan workers, and call on political leaders who value our state’s working families to do the same.”
According to CityPulse, “For reasons never properly explained, then-House Clerk Rich Brown said his staff couldn’t properly prepare all the bills by the time Hall was to be elected speaker on Jan. 8, 2025.” Of note, the legislature passed well over 100 bills in the December 2024 session. But only these nine were held back.
CityPulse talked to an exasperated Michigan Education Association official who expressed “shock and betrayal” and noted Whitmer’s “longstanding relationship between her administration and organized labor.”
Among the measures Whitmer vetoed were bills that would have moved eligible state corrections officers into the Michigan State Police Retirement System and established a hybrid pension plan combining a defined benefit with a defined contribution component. The legislation is intended to help address the severe recruitment and retention challenges facing Michigan’s correctional facilities.
According to Michigan Public Radio, “the veto of the corrections officer pension program, in particular, drew bipartisan condemnation.” Republican Senator Ed McBroom, an author of the corrections retirement bills, told MPRS that Whitmer’s veto follows a pattern of her administration failing to acknowledge the state prisons’ staffing crisis.
Just this week, understaffed correctional facilities experienced assaults on corrections officers, resulting in days-long lockdowns. Michigan Public Radio reports that some prisons have staffing vacancy rates well over 30%. Just this week, three housing units at St. Louis Correctional Facility canceled all prisoner activities due to understaffing. This is the second time in two weeks that prison-wide activities have been canceled due to an officer shortage, following their shutdown on July 8th.
The Michigan Corrections Organization (SEIU) President, Byron Osborn, issued a statement saying they are evaluating their next move. They plan to push “either the same bills reintroduced after her sorry ass [Whitmer] is gone in a few months or to pursue alternative bills. Osborn went on to say, “MCO thanks the legislators that introduced and passed these bills for us; we will need their continued support when we hopefully get a new governor that gives a shit.”
Philadelphia Utility Workers Strike and Win Pension
After walking off the job and picketing in 100-degree heat, PECO utility workers based in Philadelphia secured the restoration of defined-benefit pensions for hundreds of its newest union members.
The brief job action came as workers face rising utility bills, ongoing severe weather-related threats to the grid, growing corporate profits, and rank-and-file workers being asked to continually settle for less and less.
The union walked out at midnight on July 4, Independence Day in the nation’s first capital, where 1,500 IBEW Local 614 members took part; by late July 6, according to Labor Notes and MSN, they had reached a tentative agreement.
Be sure to check back next Friday for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement! For now, sign up for NPPC News Clips to receive daily pension news from across the country directly to your inbox.
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