The World of Multiemployer Benefit Funds Podcast

Navigating healthcare coverage can be confusing and frustrating. Every time there's a new regulation, it makes the healthcare system that more complicated. Josh Meyer and Jennifer Schuster from Segal Benz Communications are back for their final installment and share some ways that multiemployer plans customize communication to simplify navigating healthcare coverage for their participants. 

Support the show

Contact:
traci@mu...

Knowing that you have financial planning tools is the first step on the path to financial wellbeing. Jennifer Schuster and Josh Meyer from Segal Benz Communications return to the podcast and share some tips and tools of how they communicate financial wellbeing to their Taft-Hartley clients. Segal Benz aggregates information and financial tools for multiemployer plans and then delivers access to those participants.

Support the show

Co...

An alarming 50% of Americans are under-prepared for retirement, and 40% of personal bankruptcies are caused by excessive bills. Financial wellbeing impacts every area of our lives and is important to our overall quality of life, but what does it take to have financial wellbeing? It takes financial literacy and planning, but you first must know where to start. Traci welcomes Jennifer Schuster and Josh Meyers from Segal Benz Communic...

The type of pension plan you have may play a role in happiness and retirement. According to a 2000 poll conducted by the Center for Retirement Research, retirees with a defined benefit plan were 5.6% happier than retirees with no pension while those with a defined contribution plan were only 4.6% happier. However, retirees with both a defined benefit and a defined contribution were 9% happier than those without a pension. David Blu...

In today’s episode of the ‘The World of Multiemployer Benefit Funds’ (Where experts share their insights and stories on busting myths about the labor movement). Today the host Traci Dority-Shanklin (Managing Partner at Sisu Partners) talks with David Blumenstein (President, and CEO of Segal. Segal provides various consulting services including actuarial health benefits, human resources, investment, fiduciary insurance, communicatio...

White-collar organizing sweeps the Tech and Game Industry! Learn how the Communication Workers of America (CWA) is converting non-traditional industries like college campuses, newspapers, and the Tech and Game Industry into union shops. CWA District 3 organizing coordinator and grassroots activist, Cassie Watters, gives us the skinny on what motivates these white-collar workers to organize and how the CWA supports these digital emp...

White-collar workers are organizing labor unions at Tech & Game, nonprofits, college campuses, and now comic book workers. CWA District 3 organizing coordinator and grassroots activist, Cassie Watters, explains why these workers are turning to the Communications Workers of America to help them organize and how the CWA is supporting them.

Some highlights from CWA Organizing: Tech and Game Workers: 

04:10 – Campus Workers Strike Ba...

Low pay, no opportunity for advancement, and feeling disrespected topped the list of reasons why millions of workers quit their jobs in 2021. With union organizing in Big Tech, Starbucks, and Amazon and labor unions enjoying high popularity with workers across the country, could this be the beginning of a new labor movement? Arelia Valdivia and Francisco Diez from the Center for Popular Democracy are here to share some insight into...

Lockdowns and the coronavirus pandemic laid bare our inept and patchwork unemployment system. Iceland supported its citizens with 30 months of unemployment benefits while US workers barely received six months of benefits. Arelia Valdivia and Francisco Diez are here from the Center for Popular Democracy to explain why our current UI system desperately needs reform and how all workers, both employed and unemployed, can help fix it.

So...

Traditional defined benefit plans provide retirees with a guaranteed lifetime pension. However, workers participating in these DB plans have fallen from 38% to 20% between 1980 and 2008. Steve McCourt, the co-CEO and Managing Principal at Meketa Investment Group, shares some insight into the Great Resignation and the shifting demographics in the workforce.

Some highlights from Defined Benefit Plans and the Case of the Disappearing D...

Two years ago, Steve McCourt, the Managing Partner and co-CEO of Meketa Investment Group shared his thoughts on the pandemic’s impact on pension funds. However, it was too early in the pandemic, so there were too many unknowns. Steve returns with an update on how the market, trustees, pension funds, and technology have all responded to the disruption.

Some highlights from The Pandemic’s Impact on Pension Funds Revisited:

01:36 – In O...

UNICEF reported that 1 in 7 children have been negatively impacted by the pandemic lockdowns. And more than 1.6 billion children have suffered from some loss of education. The co-founders of Virtual Milestones Academy, Megan Cawlfield, a pediatric speech-language pathologist, and Emily Roberts, an occupational therapist, expose the cracks in our disjointed healthcare system and support parents with finding holistic, family-centered...

Host, Traci Dority-Shanklin, recaps her 2021 discussions about pension reform and hybrid retirement solutions for failing multiemployer plans. With the help of several guests from previous podcasts, Traci highlights potential solutions and recounts events that drove these plans to the breaking point. Past guests include AFL-CIO president, Liz Shuler; UFCW Local 21 president, Faye Guenther; Executive Director of NIRS, Dan Doonan; Ex...

Imagine taking office as president of the nation’s largest UFCW local at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Suddenly, healthcare and grocery store workers are declared essential frontline workers, but essential workers should have enough money to buy food, have a roof over their heads, and lead lives that are essential. UFCW Local 21 president, Faye Guenther, talks about how coronavirus upended the playing field and contrac...

The UFCW Local 21 set an ambitious goal of identifying, recruiting, and training 4500 of the next generation of labor leaders over the next two years. How is that effort going? Luckily, Faye Guenther, the president of UFCW Local 21, is here to give an update and share how laughter helped bring her diverse team together.

Some highlights from the 4500: Identifying and Recruiting the Next Generation of Labor Leaders include:

01:17 – Ret...