Brown Meets with Spangler Union Employees to Celebrate Pension Fix That Will Help with Production Line Expansion

Press Release

Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined leaders from the Spangler Candy Company, Teamsters Local 20 and Spangler employees, who are represented by Teamsters Local 20, to discuss pension relief he helped secure in the American Rescue Plan. For years, Brown led efforts to secure these pensions for Ohioans, touring the state to stand with Ohio retirees and workers, and co-chairing a Congressional Committee on the pension crisis in 2018. Those efforts led to Brown's Butch Lewis Act being included in the American Rescue Plan.
"After years of work by workers and retirees and small business owners in Ohio and around the country, in the American Rescue Plan we finally saved the pensions Spangler's workers earned over a lifetime of work, with no cuts," said Brown. "Now, because Spangler never gave up the fight and because we finally got this fix done, the company is expanding and bringing 40 new jobs to Bryan next year. That's what happens when we invest in Ohio."

The Butch Lewis Act, named in memory of Butch Lewis, the former retired head of Teamsters Local 100 in southwest Ohio, secured retirement benefits for workers and retirees in endangered pension plans for 30 years--with no cuts to benefits. Brown worked for years alongside Rita Lewis, Butch's widow, who continued her late husband's fight for the retirement security these workers earned over a lifetime of hard work.

The multiemployer pension fix saved Spangler $200,000 per employee, and allowed the company to expand its operations, adding production of Bit-O-Honey to the Bryan facility. The expansion is a direct result of the pension fix and will create 40 new union jobs.

Brown was joined by Spangler Candy Chairman and CEO Kirk Vashaw; Spangler Candy President Bill Martin; Spangler Candy Vice President Niki Mosier; Teamsters Local 20 President Mark Schmiehausen; Retired Teamsters Local 20 Spangler Chief Union Steward Roberta Dell; and Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade.

"Resolution of this pension issue is allowing Spangler to modernize a 300,000 square foot factory just six blocks from Bryan's downtown square. We will be installing new energy efficient lighting, roofing, and HVAC systems as well as new flooring and bathrooms. This will be an economic asset for our community for generations to come. We are already beginning to hire for the 40 new jobs the Bit-O-Honey operation will initially require," said Spangler Chairman and CEO Kirk Vashaw.

Brown's Butch-Lewis Act helped to:

Keep multiemployer pension plans solvent and well-funded for thirty years--with no cuts to earned benefits of participants and beneficiaries;
Restore full benefits for retirees in plans that previously had to take cuts and increase the maximum Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) insurance amount; and
Require each plan that receives assistance file regular status reports with the PBGC and Congressional Committees, in order to prevent recurrence and to protect retirees' benefits.

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