[wcbtinman]

"The company paid the premiums..."

Then why is the pension fund minus over 3 BILLION dollars?? By whom and how was this accomplished?

I'm not defending the workers whining about their lost pensions, but somebody is 3 billion richer than the employees. And wasn't it their money?

It sounds to me like the company learned it's accounting practices from the US govt.

[smalltown]

The underfunding is most likely due to a decline in the portfolio value of the pension fund.
Portions of most pension funds are invested in the stock market.
Many, maybe most, major company pension funds are technically underfunded at current market values.

[Alberta's Child]

Then why is the pension fund minus over 3 BILLION dollars??

This is actually a common problem with pension plans in old industrial giants. These pension plans are sometimes underfunded because the average life expectancy has increased so dramatically over the last 50 years. Someone who retires at age 60 could very well spend more years collecting a pension and health care benefits than he did working for the company -- when these pension plans were first put in place, it was fairly uncommon for someone to live more than ten years after he retired.