Defined benefit retirement plans are relics of a bygone era
Read this article, substituting in TCP 1 for the name of the plan at each instance, and it could be coming soon to a Lab near you. Kudos to Parney for fighting the fight as long as possible, but all should see the foregone conclusion that the program can not continue and must be drastically restructured in order to have any chance at providing for the future.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/low-interest-rates-are-the-final-straw-for-many-company-pensions/2013/05/23/a83bf23a-adbc-11e2-8bf6-e70cb6ae066e_story.html?hpid=z12
Read this article, substituting in TCP 1 for the name of the plan at each instance, and it could be coming soon to a Lab near you. Kudos to Parney for fighting the fight as long as possible, but all should see the foregone conclusion that the program can not continue and must be drastically restructured in order to have any chance at providing for the future.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/low-interest-rates-are-the-final-straw-for-many-company-pensions/2013/05/23/a83bf23a-adbc-11e2-8bf6-e70cb6ae066e_story.html?hpid=z12
Comments
If you want a reason to slit your wrists rather than get up in the morning, this is the place to come.
"Once it froze its pension plan, ILM started to contribute 3 percent of each worker’s salary to a 401(k) plan. It’s something, but nowhere near enough to provide the same level of retirement security that the company’s pension did.
Blackwell said an employee with a $40,000 annual salary who received a 3 percent raise each year, set aside 7 percent of his pay for retirement and received a 3 percent company contribution would wind up with roughly a third less money in his retirement fund after 25 years than he would have with the pension plan.
...ILM retirees who chose to receive the pension on a monthly basis call it the best decision they could have made. “This was the first job that offered me the comfort of a pension,” said Beverly C. Shoemaker, a former secretary who left the company in 2004 after working there 15 years. “I feel blessed to have it. I really do feel for the current employees, because I know how much it means to me.”
David J. Riese, who retired as vice president of claims in 1997 after 16 years at ILM, said he values the security provided by his company pension. Current employees, he added, will not have it as good.
“They have to rely on the profitability of a 401(k) and their ability to manage it,” he said. “To me that is iffy, at best.”
May 28, 2013 at 1:59 PM
Luckily, you won't be the one making that decision.
May 28, 2013 at 1:59 PM
It's only delusional because you are sitting on your asses allowing it. Could you imagine what your wages and benefits would be if the workers would have never gotten together and striked. I feel sorry for all you people. You spend more time fighting for gay rights and abortion and stealing from the rich to give to the worthless parasites than you do watching out for your own future. You get what you allow and I really have no pity on any of you that have allowed yourselves to be placed into a work for life slave labor, die on the job society In the end, when you turn 65 to 70 and are still coming to work putting up with young punks pushiness you're going to regret being pissed on for your entire life only to have nothing in the end.
Performance Art?
Onion-esque satire?
Group Therapy?
A**holes Anonymous?
It really is beyond caricature at this point.
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."
Stephen Crane
You don't actually have to be pro-lab to avoid being mindlessly negative about everything. And work is not actually a slave labor life; you don't even actually have to die on the job. Indeed, an individual brings with him to work many of the qualities that shape his fate in it.
May 29, 2013 at 1:09 PM
Amen, and it goes way beyond work. The qualities you bring to all aspects of your life determine your success or failure. In turn, the successes or failures you experience shape who you are and who you become. To blame someone else for either your failures or the kind of person you are is self-delusional, and self-defeating.
It's likely that LANS/LLNS/Bechtel will decide to ditch their TCP1 pension liabilities in the future by selling off the pensions to an outfit like Prudential. Of course, Pru will then want to make some good money on those pension assets by taking some risky bets so that the "cream" can be skimmed of as profits while the retirees can be saddled with all the risks.
America has become a very corrupt nation. It's been sad to watch our downfall. Good luck surviving in this corporate kleptocracy.
Oh, you mean the true hurts. I feel so soory for all of you that live in the land of OZ. Get real. It's only a matter of time before TCP-1 is sheeet-canned and goes to PBGC. They're broke and need the funds. But don't worry. A 50% cut in what you thought you were going to have won't hurt you a bit.
And when the credit supply gets relaxed, a 1% change in the prime interest rate will cause an instant surplus.
I'm in TCP-1 and very happy about it.
TCP-1 Looks like a good place for the state to find some extra money for road, welfare, unemployement.