Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets

Designing pension plans to cover workers and provide the necessary retirement funds for them is one of the critical issues of the turn of the century. Written by four experts in the field of pension funds, this work examines the possibilities for pension reform based on a detailed understanding of a successful system, the union pension fund of the Operating Engineers. This type of plan is managed by workers and management trustees, covering workers that do not have secure and predictable jobs. The authors demonstrate just how this pension fund can provide a useful blueprint for executives, pension fund managers, industrial relations professionals, and public policy decision makers.

TERESA GHILARDUCCI is an economist and Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of Labor's Capital, The Economics and Politics of Private Pensions. She works on the pension policies of innovative firms and the effect of pension funds on capital markets.

GARTH MANGUM, is Max Mcbraw Professor of Economics and Management at the University of Utah. He is author and coauthor of 30 books and numerous monographs and articles on labor and employment. Mangum previously served the federal government as senior research analyst on labor-related committees during the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations.

JEFFREY S. PETERSEN is a National Institute on Aging Fellow in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He completed his Ph.D. work in economics at the University of Utah in 1994.

PETER PHILIPS is Professor of Economics at the University of Utah. Philip's research focuses on labor relations, health and safety issues in the food processing and construction industries. He coedited, with Mangum, The Three Worlds of Labor Economics, and has published articles in numerous journals including Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Industrial Relations, and Business History Review.