I spent 35 years with my German owned company, was guaranteed a pension and health care following my retirement in 2007.
A month ago I received a notice that ThyssenKrupp was filing bankruptsy on behalf of their holding, the Budd Company (my ex employer). TK sold off all the physical assetts of The Budd Company to MartinRea back in 2006 but maintained the pension and healthcare obligations for all it's existing and future pensioners.
NOW they want to divest themselves of that financial obligation by taking their case to the Bankruptsy Court..........
That's just wrong and serves no purpose but to fuel the hatred that middle class America feels towards corporate America...........
As a side note, I'm not union, never was. TK's pension obligation is higher for the non-union employees and management personnel than it is for the UAW retirees........We're ALL about to get screwed!
We’re ALL about to get screwed!
The problem is that if we here in Michigan don’t, taxpayers nationwide will and that will throw the floodgates open. Detroit’s financial troubles are minimal compared to the mountain of debt in places like Chicago and LA.
Not only will the feds bail out cities nationwide, the democrats will get credit for each and every one.
There are lots of other real options but nobody wants to talk about them.
BTW I agree about the retirees. The fault for this mess falls at the feet of union leadership and politicians.
My neighbor was a salaried Chrysler employee and he lost his pension as well.
I’m almost certain that YOU are ok, because there is Fed insurance for this, unless you were, as they say, “highly compensated”. Of course, 20 years from now that will be the equivalent of making more than 20K today.
What hurts about the Detroit situation, is that the vast majority of these people were NOT retired early, didn’t double-dip or spike their pension with a “ceremonial” job the last year or two of their employment/pre-retirement. Most of them are working schlubs. And, people seem to forget, if I’m not mistaken, many (police/fire) DON’T get social security. That, also, was stolen by the Dems.
So some politician promises a pension , and when they cannot perform, I need to pitch in to make the politician not a liar?
What’s needed now is for pensions for government employees to be abolished for all new hires. New employees should get 401Ks like the rest of us.
These are public sector unions. Tax payer dollars funding the union pensions.