Pension Plan

I was reading an article in the AARP newsletter on the state of pension plans in America. It’s not good news. Most corporations abused the pension system unless they had a binding contract with a union that wouldn’t allow it to happen. In a non-union pension agreement, the corporation won’t actually put the cold, hard cash into a pension account…it simply becomes a bookkeeping charge. A “We owe you” note. The money stays in their vault and not in a safe place. In a union pension system, the money is due and payable every month. It goes into an account that neither the union nor the corporation can touch. Safe. Tell me what’s wrong with a system like that? Corporations hate it because it ties up their cash reserves. Tough.

Example; when I was a union carpenter, my employers put an amount of money, determined by contract, into a pension fund every month. If they didn’t, the trustees of the system (management and labor) would give them 60 days to put their financial affairs in order. If after that time they had not fulfilled their obligations, all labor would be withdrawn, effectively putting them out of business. Most businesses were ethical and did pay what they owed. Now, 40+ years later, I receive that money. My money; it always was. Compare that to what happened at Enron, with a non-union pension agreement and a reliance on the 401(k).

What people always seem to forget about pensions is the fact that they are part of an agreement, a contract, between management and labor. If management didn’t want to pay into a retirement fund, why did they agree to it? Why aren’t agreements binding? Union or non-union, an agreement should have the force of law behind it and no corporation should be allowed to walk away from their obligations.

Now, corporations are getting rid of the pension system altogether. Government will follow. Employees will be asked to make their own decisions as to how to invest their pension monies in a stock market. Guess wrong and the employee is out of luck.

Let me predict that the Twentieth Century will be known as a Century of Enlightenment in regards to organized labor and their successes. Labor is now entering a dark age…