December 22, 2005. One of the issues raised by the late December 2005 strike by Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) was the future of pension or retirement plans for American workers. A debate has also ensued about the validity of the claims by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) that pension costs are a significant cause of its projected budget gaps in 2008 and beyond, and about the pros and cons, from a policy perspective, of the MTA’s efforts to cut back on employee pension benefits. FPI’s James Parrott writes one of a pair of point-counterpoint op eds on these questions in the New York Daily News.