December 17, 200817 yr Active Members I agree. It is tragic. Perversely, I think one of the benefits I have is that no employer of mine has ever made such promises to me. I've had to plan on counting on myself, and have built a fair nest egg as a result. At least you had the advantage of knowing up front that you were on your own. Being blind-sided on an inviolable commitment when one is too old to scramble for any recovery is a cruel life lesson. That is why at the least they deserve some preferred stock option that allows them to participate in the recovery should the company ever recover. As I mentioned elsewhere, this will change US Labor Relations forever, some for the good some not so much. Management/Labor agreements will never mean anything again beyond the here and now. If unions do survive they had better change the game to 'get it now, not later' with five year vesting at most -- a week's benefit earned is a week's benefit banked. Wise for nonunion shops too.
December 18, 200817 yr At least you had the advantage of knowing up front that you were on your own. Being blind-sided on an inviolable commitment when one is too old to scramble for any recovery is a cruel life lesson. That is why at the least they deserve some preferred stock option that allows them to participate in the recovery should the company ever recover. I agree. It is cruel and I hope they get some relief. Part of the problem is that the way these things get funded involves a ton of guesswork. You can't know until the piper comes calling if you've under or over funded the obligation. It's one of the reasons why companies should have been so leery to make these kind of commitments.
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