Those too, are about to go the way of other American Dreams -- a guarantee of a Good Job, at a Good Wage -- if only you're willing to work hard enough.
About to evaporate like simple but foundational Dream, that our kids will have it better -- in terms of opportunities -- than we did making our way in the world.
Now the Dream of a guaranteed Pension is about to sacrificed on the alter of economic expediency -- their not ours -- if our Congressional corporatists get their "just slip it into the omnibus spending bill" way ...
Congress could soon allow pension plans to cut benefits for current retirees
by Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post; AP -- December 3, 2014
[...]
Congress could soon allow the benefits of current retirees to be cut as part of an agreement to address the fiscal distress confronting some of the nation’s 1,400 multi-employer pension plans.
Several unions and pension advocates opposing the move, which would be unprecedented, say that permitting financially strapped plans to cut retiree benefits would violate the central promise of traditional pensions: that they would provide a defined benefit for life.
“This proposal would devastate retirees and their surviving spouses,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit group. “The proposal would also torpedo basic protections of the federal private pension law . . . that states that once benefits are earned they can’t be cut back.”
[...]
Such is the world we now live in --
a promise to workers is only as good as the Congress that honors it.
You can never be too careful about those 'Boom and Bust' times -- that might never happen.
But you can pursue the policies of "Their Gains -- Our Pains" ... if you're an unaccountable member of Congress ...
The lame-duck Congress plots to undermine retiree pensions
by Michael Hiltzik, latimes.com -- December 5, 2014
[...]
Thanks to changes in the workplace, the 2008 crash, and the long recession, many -- but by no means most -- of these plans [multiemployer pension plans] are underfunded and in danger of going bust sometime in the next decade or two. In those cases, the pensions will become the responsibility of the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.
That's a concern for two reasons: First, the PBGC, which also takes over single-employer plans that run out of money, is already in serious financial trouble. Second, although the PBGC guarantees single-employer pension benefits up to about $59,318 a year (as a straight-life annuity for someone retiring this year at 65), the ceiling is much lower for multiemployer plans -- for a worker with 30 years of pension credits, the maximum PBGC guarantee is $12,870. (The guarantees are adjusted each year for inflation.) That would be a huge cut for many workers with long years on the job.
To keep many of these plans solvent, the committee [House Education and the Workforce Committee] is considering a proposal to allow plan trustees to cut retirees' pensions now, many years in advance of any looming insolvency. The benefit cut could be no lower than 110% of the PBGC guarantee, or about $14,150 for that 30-year worker this year.
[...]
Is that what they a call an "pre-emptive" strike against insidious "socialism"? Well, I feel "secure" now --
uhmm not.
Or is it just "good business" for corporations and small business, and decimated unions? I wonder how their hard working employees feel about this "retro-active" cut in "future benefits" -- assuming that they have even been told about the new austerity plan in the works -- targeted at them:
Federal insurance fund for millions of pensions is deteriorating, report says
by Michael A. Fletcher, washingtonpost.com -- November 17, 2014
[...]
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said in its annual report that the projected deficit in its multiemployer insurance program rose more than five-fold over the past year, in part because several large pension plans are on course to become insolvent over the next decade.
[...] the program faces a greater than 50 percent chance of collapsing within the next eight years, the PBGC said. It added that the chance of insolvency would be 90 percent by 2025.
The workers affected are enrolled in multiemployer plans, in which groups of businesses join with unions to provide pension coverage for workers. The plans are concentrated in certain industries, including construction, mining, supermarkets and trucking. The plans’ finances have suffered over the past decade in large part because of stock market plunges and a decline in employment and union membership, leaving the plans with a growing share of retirees to current workers.
[...]
What good is trading 30 years of your life for a guaranteed benefit --
that is not really guaranteed?
At least with a retiree's Gold Watch, you can hock the collectible or melt it down, for fast cash.
But last I heard they don't even hand those out any more ... Such is the nature of the greed-based world we now live in.
Say hello, to the New Austerity! One question: Why is it always the Workers who pay?