A Farewell to Retirement Security: What the loss of pensions at Boeing means for U.S. workers

[marmar]

from In These Times:


A Farewell to Retirement Security
What the loss of pensions at Boeing means for U.S. workers.

BY Stephen Franklin


Back in organized labor’s heyday, United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1010, in Hammond, Ind., decided to fight for pensions. It wasn’t a foolish notion. Some American workers had pensions, and new U.S. labor laws and rulings had led the way to bargaining for them.

But there were companies that balked at the idea, and Inland Steel, which employed Local 1010 members, was one of them. So the steelworkers went on strike on Oct. 1, 1949. A month later, the strike was over, the local had a pension plan, and American workers gained a foothold on a ladder that they kept on climbing.

.....(snip).....

For years, many pensions were of the “defined-benefit” variety, where employers set aside funds that were to be paid out to workers upon retirement. Workers put their faith and futures into these pensions, which were seen as an unbreakable promise that a lifetime’s work in even the dirtiest job would guarantee them senior years in comfort.

.....(snip).....

Last week, workers at Boeing became the latest group to say good-bye to these kinds of pensions. The workers’ furor over losing a traditional pension, a promise that had existed at the giant aircraft manufacturer since 1955, was a feature of the drama that played out for weeks and spread across the United States as Boeing dangled the possibility of moving high-paying factory jobs to a more business-friendly, less costly place, and drew bids from 22 states. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16084/boeing_pension_retirement_middle_class/

[El_Johns]

1. K&R

[LibDemAlways]

2. With the cost of everything in the here and now skyrocketing and

companies getting ever cheaper with salaries and benefits, setting aside anything for retirement is
a pipe dream for many. Today there is no job security and no promise of a secure retirement. Sucks to be a 99%er.

[doc03]

3. I was in the USW, we went on strike in 1985 for 100 days to save our

DB pension plan, the company was able to dump it in a bankruptcy settlement and the PBGC took that one over. Then in 1995 we went on strike again for 10 1/2 months to get a new DB pension and won. Just 8 years later the company filled bankruptcy again and the PBGC forced them to freeze that plan. The last 6 years I worked we got a pension through company contributions to a USW plan. I guess my point is we fought like hell but the company finally got what they wanted in the end. So today I get a small pension from the PBGC another one one from my former employer that they will eventually dump on the PBGC (every year the % of funding has dropped) and another from the USW that so far looks pretty secure.

[kelliekat44]

4. If only all the voters in ALL the states would stick together and hold their elected officials

accountable for their support of decent paying jobs and benefits this would be more difficult for companies like Boeing to do. How much profit is enough for these greedy bastards...and the BIG question is where is all the money going that they make? It's going to scumbags who scam consumers, stock holders, and small-time investors...CEO's with obscene salaries and benefits who hide their fortunes in foreign banks. Many with dual citizenship take the money from here and stash it in their other country's banks and investments. Meanwhile, nobody here seems to realize this. If they do they seem not to care and our Congress along with the media works very hard to ensure that it never becomes a major issue.

[kairos12]

5. Another example of state's destructive competition for the race to the bottom

resulting in squeezing workers.

[Thinkingabout]

6. How in the hell does companies find the money to up the salaries of executives by 400%

Is a problem for me. Then we have the idiots on Congress telling us the need to cut Social Security and workers should have saved on minimum wage jobs to carry then through old age.

[Enthusiast]

13. Workers must learn to be more thrifty.

[Oilwellian]

7. No worries! We have new Enterrr... Promise Zones to save the day!

"Uncertain futures have become a fact of life for U.S. workers."

[Octafish]

8. Richest nation in human history and this is how they thank those whose work created it?

Ungrateful ownership class has its priorities messed up.

Anyone remember when Washington wasn't in their employ?

[mountain grammy]

9. The idea that a defined contribution pension yields more than a defined benefit pension is crap

I worked for a large sewer district for 6 years. I was a nasty job with good union wages and benefits. The "District" was a quasi municipality with taxing powers and an appointed Board of Directors.
We had two pensions, a "457" that we paid into and a defined benefit pension that only the district paid into. When I quit in 1996, I received the 457, paid as wages (IRS rules) for $7000 which was basically everything I paid in for 6 years.
In 2012 when I turned 65, I was offered the defined benefit pension of $200/month till I die, or $35,000 cash. That was almost $6000 for every year I worked. I took the cash. No wonder companies hate defined benefit programs, they are a real benefit.

May the corporate fascist bullies choke on their $27 million salary. Their greed has no bounds, their contempt for workers is disgraceful. Everything lost by workers is almost never regained.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. In a sick way this is good

It will take that, and a lot more pain for people to finally use that S option often. Until there is a lot more pain, strikes will not come back, and that is what ultimately we need. Right now we're in limbo.

And I hate to say this by the way.

[Major Nikon]

11. What this is saying is that strikes are irrelevant

Strike and the company will move to a 'right-to-work' state and bust the union. It reduces collective bargaining to the least common denominator and the lowest paid. So now labor not only has to compete with foreign despotic shitholes that pay their workers $3 per day, they also have to compete with despotic red states that believe only CEOs and senior executives deserve contracts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. We were there once

It took strikes all over, constantly.

Am afraid this tme around it will take strikes here and abroad. If labor (world wide) does not grow a spine soon, we are pretty much done. The conditions are being created for a lot of unrest.

I won't likely see it, but my nephews will.

[xchrom]

14. du rec.

[WillyT]

15. K & R !!!