Members of Congress left Capitol Hill and held a special meeting in Columbus on the national pension crisis. Pension plans for more than a million union workers and retirees are in danger of collapse if something isn鈥檛 done soon. More than 60,000 Ohio workers could be impacted.
Union members from around the country traveled to Columbus, making their plea to Congress. They represent a range of sectors and professions from coal miners and teamsters to candy makers.
The union members say they spent their lives working towards earning their pension, but those funds are drying up.
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown says it was important to connect union workers with lawmakers.
鈥淭his whole industrial Midwest has been hit because of Wall Street malfeasance and other economic factors that have caused these pensions to almost collapse and we have an obligation to fix this,鈥� says Brown.
Brown鈥檚 proposal would offer low-interest, 30-year loans. But opponents call that a taxpayer-funded bailout.
