Rep. Tim Ryan visits Bimbo Bakery

Chris Crook, Zanesville Times Recorder
·1 min read
Representative Tim Ryan, left, greets John Pidcock while meeting with employees at Bimbo Bakery's Eastpointe Industrial Park facility. At right is Mark Lee, of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 57.
Representative Tim Ryan, left, greets John Pidcock while meeting with employees at Bimbo Bakery's Eastpointe Industrial Park facility. At right is Mark Lee, of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Local 57.

ZANESVILLE — Representative Tim Ryan visited Bimbo Bakery's facility in the Eastpointe Industrial Park on Thursday to discuss the Butch Lewis Act. First introduced in 2017, it was later folded into the American Rescue Plan, and signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden.

The act was created to deal with failing multiemployer pension plans. Hundreds of thousands of employees were in danger of losing their pensions, "close to 100,000 in Ohio alone," Ryan said

"It is a crisis, no question," he said. As workers moved away from the defined benefits of pension plans to defined contributions of 401ks, they became more dependent on a strong economy. "The stock market is down so there are a lot of people who are really panicked if they are ready to go into retirement, which means we need to increase our support from the Social Security program for our senior citizens."

Ryan is touring the state talking to workers, he said, to try and "make sure workers have the protections they need, the wages they need, the retirement security they need."

The Democrat represents the 13th Congressional District.

ccrook@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Rep. Tim Ryan visits Bimbo Bakery