From the Chicago Tribune yesterday:
Hundreds of retired steelworkers from the former Republic Technologies Inter-
national are being notified their pensions will be cut, in some cases by as much as 75 percent, to less than $300 a month, due to new calculations by the federal agency that guarantees employer-paid pensions.
Some of the 3,300 retirees affected by the revisions are being told they must pay back tens of thousands of dollars in pension overpayments since Republic Technologies declared bankruptcy in June 2002.
"I had a retiree in my office today; he put in 29 years" at the former LTV plant in South Chicago, Millsap said. "His pension went from $1,500 to $370, and they're going to deduct $37 per month because he has to pay back $25,000. He's diabetic and can't work."
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown(D-Ohio), in a letter this week to Senate colleagues, called on congress to change the rules.
He cited an Ohio constituent, Richard Wyers, who was notified he owes $53,415.60. Wyers anticipated a monthly benefit of about $2,400 when he was working at the mill, but that was slashed to $1088.27 when the PBGC assumed the plan.
"Now he is being told that he will get $325.19 minus a recoupment deduction of 10 percent, yielding $292.67 before taxes," Brown wrote.
So a guy works all his life in a steel mill and thinks if he can tough it out, retirement will be sweet. In a union environment, retirement benefits are negotiated. In order to get the $2,400 per month benefit, something else was traded away - salary, insurance, vacation - something. Then through no fault of their own, retirees find themselves with a mere pittance and they have to give back some of the money they already received because of a 2004 court decision. This is just wrong with a capitol W. Of all the money this country pisses away world wide, you would think we could at least take care of the men and women who worked hard and bargained in good faith to have a decent retirement here at home. Doin' a heckuva job there, Brownie.
2 comments:
That's friggin' crazy. A guy works all his life expecting to have some sort of return for a few years of retirement............ and they dock 'em for back payments.
Jeebus H. Kryst on a Crutch.
Rope. Tree. Lawyer/Politician. Some assembly required.
That's the whole point of a bureaucracy - no one guy to hold responsible for destroying your golden years.
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