CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN APPLAUDS ANNOUNCEMENT THAT 1,350 RG STEEL EMPLOYEES’ PENSIONS WILL BE RESTORED

Warren, Ohio – Congressman Tim Ryan applauds today’s announcement that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) has agreed to restore 1,350 RG Steel LLC employees’ pensions who worked at facilities in Warren, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia.

“These hardworking Americans had their pensions and benefits ripped away through no fault of their own. We cannot allow companies to evade their responsibilities. These are our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors, they earned these benefits and paid into their pensions, and I am glad that they are justly being made whole,” said Congressman Tim Ryan.

Under the agreement, PBGC will restore plans covering 1,350 people who worked at Renco’s former subsidiary, RG Steel LLC, which is liquidating in bankruptcy. PBGC took responsibility for the plans, which had a funding gap of about $70 million, in 2012. The participants in the two plans worked at RG Steel facilities in Wheeling, West Virginia and Warren, Ohio.

The agreement resolves litigation that PBGC brought in the U.S. district court in Manhattan. PBGC alleged that Renco attempted to evade financial responsibility for the RG Steel pension plans by concealing the transfer of its ownership interests from RG Steel.

In the settlement, Renco agreed to take the plans back as of June 1, 2016, pay all future benefits promised to the former RG Steel employees, and make back payments for the benefits not guaranteed by PBGC. Renco also agreed to reimburse the agency for $15 million in benefits that it paid to RG Steel retirees since PBGC took over the plans. Additionally, the company will pay about $35 million in shutdown benefits that would have gone unpaid absent the restoration of the pension plans.