Posted on 02/09/2003 4:00:38 PM PST by A Patriot Son
Bethlehem Steel collapse leaves retired workers scrambling for benefits
(AP) Sun, Feb. 09, 2003 BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Some of them went to work in the blast furnaces when they were just 18, then spent half a lifetime handling molten slag and inhaling steel dust in some of the most dangerous jobs on earth.
But for the tens of thousands of Bethlehem Steel workers who stuck it out, retirement brought a rich reward: a hefty pension and a lifetime of almost free health care for themselves and their families.
"It was capitalism's version of socialized medicine," said James Van Vliet, a retired Bethlehem Steel vice president. "And it was an implied contract. It was the company and the workers saying, 'We are going to take care of each other.'"
It may go down in history as a promise unfulfilled.
Bankrupt and only a shadow of its former might, Bethlehem Steel on Friday announced it was seeking bankruptcy court approval to terminate health and life insurance benefits for 95,000 retired workers and their dependents on March 31.
The move, seen as essential to the company's bid to sell its assets to International Steel Group, followed news in December that Bethlehem Steel's pension plan was underfunded by $3.2 billion and would be turned over to a government agency.
Both pieces of bad news were expected. The American steel industry has been in decline for decades, and most of its former giants have been trimming pensions and benefits for retirees for years.
But the one-two punch is still a staggering blow for a generation that had been promised a lifetime of comforts in return for a career spent at one company.
Now, some are facing the prospect of seeing their monthly $6 payments for health insurance jump to between $200 and $300.
"That's a lot to swallow," said Len Christman, 67, who worked 39 years at Bethlehem Steel's sprawling plant in Bethlehem, about 40 miles north of Philadelphia. "It's a very tough position to be in at this stage in life."
Nearly all retirees will continue to enjoy some benefits. Pension payments, which are being taken over by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., are expected to continue at about 90 percent of their former level. For workers over 65, the federal Medicare program will pick up some health care costs.
But Medicare, which covers hospital visits, but doesn't pay for medications, won't come close to covering all the health problems suffered by many retired steel workers.
Joe Pancoe, who worked for Bethlehem Steel for 31 years, said that at 81, he has asthma and a hacking cough, and uses a slew of pills and inhalers to soothe his battered lungs.
"We, the old timers, were part of the industrial revolution. And now, we are part of the medical revolution. We have the emphysemas, we have the cancers. We have everything," he said.
He isn't positive his illnesses were related to his work as a spray painter in the plant's fabrication division, where he said his spit turned red from inhaling fumes, or in the research lab where he regularly handled bags of asbestos.
But as he sees it, the country owes him something either way. His labor built propellors for battleships and girders for skyscrapers and bridges.
"We helped the country, and the people who helped to build the country should get the benefit of it," Pancoe said.
Almost all workers agree Bethlehem Steel is in little position to help. When it filed for bankruptcy in 2001, the company had about 12,000 employees, down from more than 300,000 during World War II. And most factories have been closed, including the one in Bethlehem. The company's board also voted Saturday to sell the company's assets to Cleveland-based International Steel Group, a deal that is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
Bruce Davis, a retired Bethlehem Steel lawyer who now serves as legal counsel for the Retired Employees Benefit Coalition, said several labor groups are negotiating to at least temporarily extend health-care benefits.
The coalition has asked that the company continue health benefits until May 31, rather than March. It also anticipates that it will be able to offer Bethlehem Steel retirees a replacement health insurance package similar to ones offered to retirees at other bankrupt steel companies.
The hardest burden, Davis said, will be borne by retired workers who are under 65, and thereby unable to qualify for Medicare coverage.
"We need to find a way to get them to age 65 without bankrupting their financial portfolio," Davis said. "If we can do that, the pain of seeing this proud company walk away from them, after so many years, will be considerably lessened."
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On the Net:
Bethlehem Steel: http://www.bethsteel.com
The company my husband works for (non-union), provides excellent health insurance (we pay no deductables,co-pays,or premiums on all covered services) as part of his employment benefits, in leu of possibly higher wages. He is also guarenteed health care after retirement equal to the amount of years he worked for his company. So if he works for the company for 40 years and retires at age 60, he will recieve full coverage for 40 more years (me also) until he reaches 100 years of age.
In addition he will recieve a pension, and we have been investing in 401k's and IRA's. As I said this is part of his wage package, so I feel for these folks. I am 100% against nationalized health care (I work in medical billing and know how badly the government screws up on Medicare and Medicaid).
If my husbands company paid him the amount that they pay in premiums for his health insurance and we had to go out and purchase our own I would be ok with that. I would probably set up a medical savings account. But since this is part of his wage package I fail to see how you claim this is a free ride.
BTW... he works in an extremely hot and dirty foundry. He works his a$$ off each and every day. If you would like an application (so you don't have to pay $400.00 a month) I would gladly foward one to you, and you too can get a free ride.
%^&@*& hypocrites make me sick! Where were the voters when their elected officials gutted the sovereignty of the USA. Where were the responsible citizens when the stock market's latest ruse hastened the decline of US manufacturing? Where are the improvished naives now?
They are stuck shopping at Wal-Mart for the cheapest garbage they can afford.
Forest Gump said it best," Stupid is as stupid does!"
No, just trying to keep this to one thread, rather than see the spamming of the board one one topic, like some buchannonites once did (but for some reason, no longer do).
Don't even talk to me about manual labor. You have no idea.
-MonroeDN
So does a lowly manual laborer that you detest have no contractual rights that should be respected?
Every American citizen should have the same contractual rights and all other rights reguardless of his occupation or standing in society.
This isn't par of Great Britain with mere subjects(we changed that remember?), nor India with it's caste system.
Most contracts don't survive the bankruptcy proceedings. The people who signed the contract should have been cognizant of the fact that there was some risk involved. If you sign a contract saying that you'll paint my fence and you die before you deliver, I have no recourse to insist on the enforcement of the contract and that is a risk I take by entering into a contract with you.
In the specific case of bankruptcy proceedings, the presiding judge has carte blanche to do whatever they feel is necessary to make the company viable. The welfare of the employees and customers are the primary consideration, but viability often means voiding many of the contracts that make a company non-functional as a business entity. In this case, the judge clearly decided that the burden of the companies existing retirement contracts prevented the solvent operation of any future incarnation of the company and therefore voided them. But at least some people will still have jobs. In the view of the bankruptcy court, it is better to have something than nothing, and it is their job to make the company look sufficiently palatable that someone will risk taking on the investment and obligations of the post-bankruptcy company.
So what was or wasn't written in the employee contract is immaterial. There is no such thing as a risk-free life and people who blithely prance through life under the assumption that everything will always turn up roses is a fool. It is the folly of always assuming someone will take care of you. Yeah, it sucks, but so does death, taxes, and a truckload of other things.
What are we doing to our own citizens? IT programmers can't find work, H1Bs are flooding in. Manufactureing jobs have been butchered, while literally tens of millions of them have been shipped overseas. Dictation that used to be handled in-house, is now facilitated by some Indian half-way around the world away. Registered Nurses are now being shipped in from overseas. Every one of these moves impacts US citizen's wages.
Low level entry jobs are being gobbled up by foreign nationals. Tens of billions of dollars are being sent out of the country, not pumped back into our own.
We run $500 billion dollar foreign trade deficits and can't understand why our economy has no spark.
We have jump-started an economy for a nation that is six times larger than we are. Our foreign investments are drying up while that nation is being bombarded with them.
We have committed corporate harry carrey.
Corporations have no national loyalty. They're just as happy to deal with China as they Europe, South America or Iran and Iraq. If there's a buck to be made, they're there. If one nation goes south, they pick up stick there and base temporarily in the new hot spot.
We watched as Loral gifted China with missile tech. We learned nothing. We deserve what we get.
You are the only one who even knew their were two threads and still you replied to both.
I thankyou for replying to it nontheless though.
It is important that people debate and understand this importance of this issue and learn to respect and value the importance of honoring contracts and citizens rights, over greed and dishonor.
Wrong
Big steel and the unions have been on the teat since the depression. They should of taken their wack in the eairly 60's, but were kept on political/economic life support. The dream's over, pull the plug. Steel's cheep as dirt, anyone and everyones making it.
would you also say that to the military retirees, and how about the police and the firemen?
Keep your chin up, and stop being so pessimistic.
I cannot in good concience watch whole industries, towns, regions gutted by over regulation and government policies that reward corporations for relocating overseas, without speaking out against it.
The Soviet Union couldn't have done more damage to the US if it had activated it's entire cold war spy network. Our government is hell bent on destroying this nation. They've done a damned good job so far.
Why can't this country be consuming our own steel. Only an idiot would be blind to the blight and decay in most of our urban areas. Why can't our country be building at a pace similar to that of China. Why? GREED and LAZINESS!
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