About 273,000 union workers and retirees are about to learn the fate of their pensions.
The struggling Central States Pension Fund is in such bad shape that it's seeking government approval to cut benefits -- and the ruling is expected to come this week.
It would be the first time the government green-lights pension cuts under a new law giving the Treasury Department authority to approve, or reject, cuts proposed by a multi-employer, private fund as a way to head off insolvency, while others cuts deals with corporations at the expense of their members.
Previously, failing pension funds could reduce future benefits for current workers, but they couldn't touch those already being paid to current retirees -- until now.
The Central States Pension Fund covers workers and retirees from more than 1,500 companies across a range of industries, but most of its retirees were truck drivers.