Albany

An estimated 16,000 retired Teamsters across upstate New York will be hit with 29 percent pension cuts on Oct. 1 as the union representing truckers and others in the shipping industry grapples with declining membership and a growing number of retirees.

Another 21,000 active, or currently employed Teamsters will see their pensions drop 18 percent below what they previously counted on for retirement.

The cuts are for members of Teamsters Local 294, also known as the Upstate Teamsters. Many of the members work for UPS, a major freight and delivery service.

The pensions are known as multi-employer plans, which are union-administered programs for workers such as truck drivers who may work for a variety of employers during their careers.

Notably, most of the members who voted on the cuts opposed them. Of the 35,173 ballots mailed out, 9,788 voted “no” while 4,081 voted “yes.’’ But under federal rules governing such votes, ballots that aren’t returned are counted as “yes” votes and 20,767 did not come back.

“They never participated,” said Tom Baum, the volunteer retiree representative to the local’s pension board.

The size of pensions that union members collect vary widely, depending on how long they worked and where. Those who had lengthy careers with companies like UPS have healthy pensions and a few, 452, collect about $5,000-per-month, said Baum.

But some 5,000 pensioners also get less than $500 per month, Baum said. That likely reflects part-time work, those with short careers or, in many cases, pensioners who worked and retired many years ago.

Pensioners who are 80 or older will be spared the cuts as will those with disability pensions. And there is a sliding scale for those between ages 75 and 79.

While low voter turnout may seem notable on such an important matter, many retirees believed the outcome was predetermined.

That’s because the federal Dept. of Treasury can force reductions if they feel the pension plan faces a long-term threat to its solvency.

By approving the vote, those at the Treasury Department have already signaled that they agree the pension plan is in trouble.

The mechanism for the cuts was allowed by legislation that Congress passed as part of a 2014 federal budget vote under the Obama Administration.

Federal lawmakers have since proposed shoring up the finances of multi-employer pensions by closing high-dollar tax loopholes available to wealthy investors.

But the legislation hasn’t moved forward.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU