I am jumping up and down mad at what our mamby pamby courts has decided to allow United Airlines to do. A person who has worked for a long time for United and has accreud sufficient time to be able to retire and draw a pension,now, has his life destroyed. To make them a better candidate for bankruptcy our courts have said .....ok lets let them out of this guarenteed debt (the pension plan) so that it will be easier to bail them out of financial trouble. I do agree that there are financial steps that could be taken such as reducing the salarys of their top executives, perhaps reducing the number of flights to certain cities so that the planes are not flying nearly empty, or maybe even reducing the number of seats on the actual aircraft so that someone could actually sit there without feeling crammed in like a freakin sardine.Perhaps people would consider flying to more locations,and perhaps bussines would pick up. Instead they chose to make the cuts in areas that don`t really affect them ......like in other peoples lives. This folks have worked all of their lives and have counted on their pension being irrevokable,which it should be. After all this pension was a benefit that was duly negotiated by both sides and agreed on by both sides. As such it should be untouchable by anyone. It should be sacrosanct.
I used to be in favor of unions and was actually a high ranking officer in my local union. The union became a political action wing and stopped being concerned with the well being of the employees it represented. In my opinion if United Airlines is allowed to disrupt the lives of its former employess, every working person,every union person, anyone who has dealings with third parties managing their futures should go on strike untill every person in this country who has had pensions revoked,benefits altered, and other guarenteed benefits removed should go on strike untill it is resolved. It is time the working class of America ...the very people who elevated our country to its high standards today, has their benefits restored to them. At least that is the way I see it here on Arrathorns Alley.
~ Factoid # 6~
The rocks on the moon are between 3.6 and 4 million years old.
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4 comments:
None of the big airlines can afford their pensions anymore. This is why they're shedding them to the PBGC (a federal agency that insures pensions).
The ratio of active to inactive workers in existing defined benefit pension plans has fallen to roughly 1-to-1, down from more than 3.5-to-1 in 1980, according to the PBGC. This retirement math is starker than that faced by the Social Security system. The PBGC now pays the pensions of more than 1 million retirees.
The problem is that the maximum yearly amount paid to pension recipients by the PBGC is $45,614 for a 65 year-old. So, those who are paid more, or retire early, would be paid less.
This is bogus, BUT you can't depend on companies being there forever. You are far better off investing in your OWN retirement plan than a pension plan from a company. Companies go out of business all the time -- and their pensions go with them.
In the long run, this probably was the best business solution. It United goes out of business, then the plans go to the PBGC anyway. This is United unloading $3B in debt in order to stay in business. There is no way there's that much headroom in lowering executive salaries....
I agree that there is not that much headroom .....But I think that there is a more important issue at hand.....trust it was fiscally irresponsible for them to negotiate a cantract contining those benefts knowing full well that all they had to do was beg off it and the gov. would bail them out.
Retirement pensions and medical benefits of retirees are a major financial burden (?) for a lot of the big companies. Prices have increased while the invested monies have not grown at the rate expected.
I do agree, though, that these monies should be protected and not just dismissed to help a company out a financial bind!
Arathorn said:
trust it was fiscally irresponsible for them to negotiate a cantract contining those benefts knowing full well that all they had to do was beg off it and the gov. would bail them out.
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No, they have insurance on the pensions, as does every other pension plan. It is either go out of business, and the plans then go to the insurer, or send the plans to the insurer and stay in business and keep all of their employees employed.
Pensions are going away because they are bad for businesses.
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