My Pension is Safe - So Far

I am a retired from one of the used to be "Top 3" automakers and we had our monthly retirement get together today and had a person from our regional UAW office speak to us about the outcome of retirement (because of the recent banckruptsy).
 
So far it looks like its safe and they assured us that it would be. I certainly hope so. We will loose our dental and vision benefits but to loose this to keep our pension is OK with me.
We are still on life support but not dead yet.
 
I have been retired about 13 months and since the first of the year have been looking for a part-time office job with no luck. I have sent in numerous resumes, applications and have been on only 2 job interviews. I fax, drop off, mail and email resume daily.  I have signed on with several temp agencies too. Of course its been 40 years since I interviewed for a job and I know thing are tough right now.

Good luck with the pension and job hunt SGA. I hope it all works out well for you.

SassyGritsAL


I am a retired from one of the used to be "Top 3" automakers and we had our monthly retirement get together today and had a person from our regional UAW office speak to us about the outcome of retirement (because of the recent banckruptsy).
 
So far it looks like its safe and they assured us that it would be. I certainly hope so. We will loose our dental and vision benefits but to loose this to keep our pension is OK with me.
We are still on life support but not dead yet.
 
I have been retired about 13 months and since the first of the year have been looking for a part-time office job with no luck. I have sent in numerous resumes, applications and have been on only 2 job interviews. I fax, drop off, mail and email resume daily.  I have signed on with several temp agencies too. Of course its been 40 years since I interviewed for a job and I know thing are tough right now.

Sounds like you might be in better shape than some of those pensioners whose pension plan is a non-Tarp investor in Chrysler.

IMAN - Yeah really.  I've been watching this post to see what was going to come of it.  I predict it's demise soon.  We can get this thread removed immediately, if we start a debate on who is entitled to that money first.  Incidently, I am not a bondholder in the company.  Thank G-D.  But the investment community is watching this unfold.

Let's see Uncle Sam get the private sector to invest in a new and better Chrysler after voiding their senior bondholders' legal rights in this hijacking.  This is all politics.  The unions elected Obama and this is the payback. 

They better hope that a lot of less well healed people buy those new cars because I can assure you nobody who invested in the corporation will ever step foot in their showrooms again.  There are plenty of retirees and people of retirement age who brought bonds and mutual funds with this company included in their portfolios.  You think they are going to forget what the government is doing here?

Incidently, NW and Eastern went kaput.  The government did help out with some of their pensions; 80% I believe.  But there have been other situations where people were not so lucky.  There is no easy answer here, but to just cast aside law for politics is disgraceful IMHO.  You (gov't) want to help?  Find another way.  There's lots of them if you want to look hard enough!

Why not protect our laws in effect for 200 years and still find help for these peoples' benefits elsewhere?  They piss away more money than this on proping up corn farmers for no reason.  But, this is politics!  That's what the entire thing is about...Politics!  This is in response to people sitting in front of their tv sets with a bottle of beer, in shorts with socks,  farting and bitching and moaning that the rich people are being taken care of.  

I got news for these folks, in a capitalistic society (that's what we use to have) the rich get theirs first and then things trickle down..Basic economics 101.  They then expand their businesses and hire those of us who have less than them.  If all works well, we all come out better.  We have been doing it for 200 years!

Oh, if you want to be a rich person, go to school, get a skill that translates into a person in demand and you'll get to that level.  It's called hard work, intelligence, taking huge risks with your own family's money and a little luck.  If you don't want to go that route but still want your's, then hope for a socialistic society so others will take care of you.

Good luck to all you young people who are bright, have gone to school and are willing to work hard to get ahead.  The way this is going, you'll have to find another country to do that in.

I just brought a Honda....

BB, just wanted to say "good post" before this thread is zapped.

I worked constantly for 43 years and am proud of my pension. I, and those who worked constantly for ANY company deserve a pension and deserve a contented and worry-free retirement. My paycheck and any other bonus checks (Christmas, contract negotiation bonus, etc.) was taxed well over 30-40%.

I just bought a Dode.... and love it.

Woops, that is a Dodge (sorry)

Pension assets are held in a legal entity (trust) separate from the operating company.  The operating company makes contributions to the pension trust.  The contributions are supposed to cover the increase in the present actuarial value of future pension payments promised.

If the operating company goes out of existence the employees stop accruing additional pension credits.  If the pension trust is bankrupt the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation takes over its pension liabilities and remaining assets.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation then pays the retirees their accrued pensions, but only up to certain amount.  Most corporations have separate fully-funded pension plans for top executives and attorneys.  So that leaves only highly paid non-executive and non-lawyer employees that lose part of their pension.  That is why the main group affected is airline pilots.

Of course many or most businesses are doing away with these "defined benefit" pension plans altogether (for everyone except high executives).  They are being replaced, if at all, by "defined contribution" plans like 401(k)s (sometimes called “cash balance” plans).  What happened at places like Enron was that the employees' 401(k) accounts were invested mostly in Enron stock, which became worthless.  Lesson: diversify, diversify. 

hello all ,

I  hopefully will be ok unless the City of NY goes in the tank . I'm confident that our Billionaire Mayor will not allow  that to happen .
The retirement date will be July 13th or 20th

Benzee

Benzee good luck with your retirement and enjoy every minute of it as I have.

Sassy -

PLB has explained it correctly.  If you contributed, you will be protected.  When a company puts in for you and you didn't put in anything is when you may have a problem. 

My friend, a pilot with Northwest, got his pension guaranteed by the government up to around 80%.  There are protections that we do have in place.  

My discussion has to do with violating laws in bankruptcy court!

BaahBen, I just wanted you to know that I was the one that flagged your message (wrong one as it turned out-sorry). The reason was your bringing our President into it.  I enjoy your posts so I don't want you to think I'm picking on you but I just think political discussions have no place on a site devoted to Roadfood. Just wanted to clear the air here.
Mike