Hundreds protest Central States pension cuts

Hundreds of people facing cuts to their pensions had plenty to say to U.S. Treasury officials during a meeting at the University of Minnesota.

About 15,000 Minnesotans are affected by the Central States Pension Plan which filed an application with the Treasury last year to implement a plan to stay solvent. That could mean deep cuts to some participants.

Del Zweifelhofer, 67, of Eau Claire, Wis., was a Teamsters union member for 32 years before he retired.

"They're going to take 50 percent of my pension. When we retired, we were promised this money until we died," he said. "If we would've known there was a possibility of our pensions being cut, I'd probably work longer. The people who are retired — we can't recoup that money."

The Treasury has until May to approve or deny the pension plan's application.

Similar meetings have been held in Detroit, Indianapolis and Milwaukee, among other cities.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.