Does anyone have any of the stike posters the employees were carrying?  I’m interested in one.

Carl I’m not sure how it impacts the retirees today.  Pension changes help box in what companies can expect to pay per year ongoing so it helps keep costs stable.  Some folks also do not trust 401ks as they have to decide how to invest it.  Folks also have to make contibutions which can easily be overlooked to spend it today.

Although not Ideal, that $33000 put in a 401k and the person worked another 10 years and contributed to the 401k he could expect to come out with about the same $100,000 or more, and then factor in his social security and he wouldn’t have to worry much about starving or paying the bills if he didn’t get too wild with his spending. The question is still What about those now on retirement ? how will it effect them ?

I guess the hard part is that your friend never really had a $100k. Just a belief that he would.  A defined-benefit pension builds that belief.  In the past, companies made up the missing part to make the pension whole.  Companies don’t have that money.

The $33,000. was going into the 401k.

For the guys with money in their pensions, coke was counting the money that came out of their pensions as there contribution. Coke was not adding any more to that. In fact, coke was not even giving them all of their money thats in their pensions. My friend was offered $1000. for every year of service. So instead of having $100,000. he was only going to get $33,000.

What is the company offering to give into the 401k to get it started.  Did anyone say?

If I were a 30 year old I would be all for a 401k plan, you can make some serious retirement money in a 401k, I knew one person that walked a way with $1.3 million, unfortunately I didn’t get to join one except for the last ten years before retirement but even in ten years I did better than my retirement plan would pay for the same time. I would be all for a 401k plan but you still have to think of those who will not have enough time left in a 401k to make up for what they are going to lose from their retirement plan as agreed upon in contract after contract. For a plan to get in this bad of shape it seems there was poor planning and investing by the plan’s administrators if it’s bad enough to completely discontinue it. It still leaves up in the air those on retirement now and what cuts they can expect.

Carl, you are on point.  It’s not that the fund managers can’t make money, it’s that they cannot make enough to support the pensioners.  Same issue as social security.  401ks and pensions are invested the same way, in the stock market.  When 401ks don’t make money, neither do pensions.  The difference is that companies by law have to invest to keep pensions at a certain level just like Washington DC has to do with social security.  If the stock market went up 20% a year, this issue would go away.  But since the market is doing nothing and has been for a few years, this issue comes up. That is why pension talk has been in the news that last couple years.  An older generation has an entitlement.  A 30 year old in a 401k feels very different than a 50yr old in a pension.  The senior people in this strike make all the quotes.  The younger folks get it.

If the people running a plan can’t make money for the plan they need to change managers of the plan. As for paying more for anything because of a pension plan, I probably do that every day and so does most people so why should buying a coke be any different. People working for some one or people running their own businesses all try to plan for their retirement and the cost is passed on to the customers. The only alternative I can see is to say no one can have a retirement plan, every one must live on Social Security alone. NO 401ks, no retirement plans or anything that adds to the price of goods or services.